There was something that caught my ear on the 19th of September this past year. Stationed in front of the Radical Stage at Riot Fest, I was awaiting the Rilo Kiley’s return. It had been a busy day, so I arrived to the stage early to get a good spot and take a breath. I knew the band before Rilo Kiley was playing an album in full which is always a treat, so I was excited to see what I would think. When the band walked on stage, they weren’t in coordinated outfits adorned with the eyeliner like many Riot Fest contemporaries were. The voice scratched an itch that had been scratched before. I was immediately drawn in by the front mans story telling, it was like a whirlpool that started spinning me around until I drowned in the world of “Separation Sunday”. This was The Hold Steady, a band that I am a little irritated I hadn’t known about sooner. On the train ride home that night I put on “Separation Sunday”. I found out the familiarity came from band leader Craig Finn’s previous project Lifter Puller, that was on a friends playlist. As the songs kept playing and my Wikipedia search went from blue link to blue link, I fell in love with this band I had not known 12 hours prior. The beauty of festivals right? I had the privilege to talk with Craig Finn about his new solo record “Always Been” which continues his enthralling tales throughout the 11 tracks on the album. Hitting on the challenges of writing in a changing world, the beauty of Newport Folk Fest, and being fans in the bottom of the AL Central barrel, there was little we didn’t discuss in my lovely conversation with Craig Finn.

Logan: Yeah, so it’s nice to be home. I love Iowa, but there’s a little more to do and see here in Chicago. 

Craig: Of course, of course, of course. 

Logan: Yeah. Are you in New York right now? 

Craig: Yeah, I’m in Brooklyn. I’m here. I toured a lot this year, but I’m here for through the holidays and into January. So it feels pretty nice to be home for a bit. 

Logan: That is really nice. Minnesota is kind of where you’re from, right? 

Craig: Yeah from, I don’t have any family there anymore though. So I really only go for the shows now but my family is dispersed. But that’s definitely where I grew up. 

Logan: Does that mean you’re a Twins fan, a Yankees fan, a Mets fan? 

Craig: Always Twins, always Minnesota sports, except hockey, because I grew up a Minnesota North Stars fan, and they’re no longer. So I became a New York Rangers fan in hockey. But Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, and lately big Timberwolves. 

Logan: You guys had a great game with the Vikings. 

Craig: Vikings had a great game last night. Yeah, I like this. I really, you know, I think we have to stick with this quarterback and see what happens. He’s yeah, it’s there’s growing pains, but I think it’s worth it. 

Logan: It’s his first, I’m in the suburbs and he’s from the suburb right next to me, La Grange, Illinois.  

Craig: Oh, I didn’t know that. I guess I didn’t know where he was from. I know he played at Michigan, but that’s crazy. Yeah, he’s, he looks pretty good. I mean, you know, if you look historically, the great quarterbacks have a rough burst here. So I think you got to give it to him. 

Logan: You know, it’s no shade to your Vikings, you’re not a fully fleshed out team yet either. It’s not like you’re one missing piece away. Like everyone’s got the growing pains. 

Craig: Yeah, absolutely. That’s why I don’t think trading for a veteran, you know, seems like, it’s not like we’re a missing piece. We have a terrible offensive line. So whoever we get is going to get… is going to be running for their lives. 

Logan: Are you a big baseball guy? 

Craig: Yeah, Twins. I mean, huge. Baseball is probably my favorite. 

Logan: That was a rough year for us. I didn’t expect, I expected you guys to be good this year. I’m a White Sox fan, so you know, I hate to admit that you guys were looking good, but. 

Craig: I didn’t think we were going to be good. I thought we were going to lose 90 games, and we did. We have ownership problems so until those get resolved, we’ll be pretty, I think we’ll be pretty mediocre to lousy. I don’t know, I don’t think they’ll do anything. They’re holding on to their good players, but I don’t know what that means. I don’t think there’s a plan beyond that. They’re in their third generation of wealth, meaning it’s the grandson of the guy who ran it well. So that never bodes well. 

Logan: No, it doesn’t. Do you think selling the team is the answer? 

Craig: Yeah, I think getting a more robust owner. The Timberwolves got bought by A-Rod and, his partner and someone just outside coming in and interjecting some, they were, they were talking about Ishbia, who I think ended up increasing his ownership in the White Sox. 

Logan: He did yeah. 

Craig: But he was talking about getting out of the White Sox, buying the Twins. That would have been good for us too. 

Logan: Yeah. I think he’s got his hands on the Phoenix Suns too. They bought Kevin Durant for, you know, 300 million or whatever that was for four years. 

Craig: So I think you want someone whose ego is tied into it, you know? 

Logan: Yeah. Do you think that there’s going to be a lockout? I mean, Dodgers win the World Series back-to-back. They give Otani more money than God’s ever seen. Do you think there’s going to be some sort of lockout within the next few years? 

Craig: I think, unfortunately, we’re looking at it. I’m not an expert on that, but that’s everything I’ve been reading makes it feel like it. 

Logan: I’m getting scared. 

Craig: Yeah. it’s not good because it’s just bad for the sport every time. 

Logan: Yeah. You mentioned a busy year, you know, toured a whole bunch. Now, In full honesty, I was unaware of the Hold Steady and yourself up until fairly recently. My buddy had a Lifter Puller song on a playlist, and then I caught you at Riot Fest and I went, this sound, it sounds so familiar, the voice. And I did some research and kind of fell down this rabbit hole and fell in love with you guys. So I’m new to the Craig Finn and the extended universe fandom. And you have put out a great, great record this year, “Always Been”, how was that process for you? 

Craig: Well, it was really a record I’m really proud of so I was really excited for it to go out and it was really well received. You know, now that the sort of top 10, you know, top 25, top 100 lists of the year are coming in, there’s been some nice placements there. It was a record that I made it with Adam Granduciel, who plays in The War on Drugs, and we have been friends a long time. 2009 we met and it was just fun to spend, to have a reason to spend time with him. And, you talk about records, I mean, I’ve made a lot of records in my career now and this one was particularly easy to make. I find that when they’re easy, they sometimes are, they’re oftentimes better just because I just don’t remember any struggle with this record. I remember, you know, driving to the studio and being excited to be there. We met in California, which was fun. And I felt like I had a vision for it the whole time, it was sort of a real, it was a joy to make. And then because Adam brought in a lot of his War on Drugs bandmates to play on it, who most of them I also know, but they have their own band. So touring with that lineup was not really in the cards, but we did do one big show in New York. 

Logan: The Bowery, right? 

Craig: Yeah. And that was a year highlight, you know, just because it was so fun to get everyone together. There were so many moving parts. I think by the end of the stage, by the end of the show, there were 11 people on stage. But it all came together and it came together quickly and it was just a beautiful night and sort of look back that as that as a real highlight of the year in a year with a lot of highlights. 

Logan: You mentioned a lot of people on stage. Do you remember the longest show you ever played? 

Craig: The longest show I ever played. There was a time in The Hold Steady back in “Separation Sunday” touring, when I had this crazy idea that we should play every song we know. And I don’t know, I think it was going through a real populist phase, but I had this idea that was an ill-conceived idea, but that we should play every song and then people could leave whenever they wanted, you know? When you decide you’ve gotten your money’s worth. 

Logan: Yeah, just coming and going. 

Craig: That only lasted a few shows, but I remember one particular in Fargo where we were playing for three plus hours, and I think what I learned is I think people want to be part of the arc, meaning I don’t think people feel good when they have to leave when you’re still playing. And I also think that I hadn’t really considered how much touring we were about to do and what that does to someone’s voice, you know? So I think I was about to learn that playing a reasonable amount is probably a better idea night to night if you’re going to do 100, 200 days of touring in a year. 

Logan: Busier with the whole thing and everything, you’re hitting up Europe in February, I believe. Your music is, I think uniquely talks about the American experience a lot and a lot of different aspects, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly. Do you notice a difference in reception from a European crowd versus an American crowd in your music? 

Craig: Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of twofold. One is that The Hold Steady started going over to Europe in 2007 and we found a really receptive audience, especially in countries like England and Ireland where English is the first language, there’s a probably a decent drop off after those, for obvious reasons. There’s a lot of words in our songs and you know, I think when people have to translate it, it gets a little harder. But even places where English is very strong have been good, like Holland and Scandinavia. But in the UK, we’ve played some of our biggest shows ever. And I think I just meet people in the UK like a rock and roll fan that is really interested in the American experience and kind of almost in some cases feels like they know more about it than I do. I mean, I meet people that are like going on their honeymoon to Mississippi. And I’m like, that’s crazy, you know, but they’re steeped in all this American mythology that they’re very interested in. And, you know, I think that the history of rock’n’roll has kind of been that, you know, with the Beatles looking at Little Richard and then American bands looking at the Beatles and then maybe the English bands looking at the next wave of American bands. And so there is this kind of conversation back and forth that’s been part of rock and roll history. But yeah, I mean, it’s been an important part of my of my career with the band and with the solo work so I’m going over. I actually have three different trips to Europe for 2026, and that’s what I know so far. So yeah, it’s spending quite a bit of time over there. 

Logan: Now with this record, always been kind of, this picture of America almost. And you really hone in on a lot of people’s vulnerabilities and kind of, you know, their darkest moments. I think you mentioned different characters. How do you decide which ones to kind of hone in on? There’s mentions of eating disorders and mental anguish and depression a lot in these songs. Do you have specific things that you’re pulling on, specific things that make you say, I want to write a song about this? 

Craig: I mean, I think that for a long time, in their earlier Hold Steady, I was looking a lot at kind of, I was kind of making these fantastical characters. And at some point as I got older, I got more interested in kind of just people who were trying to do the right thing, but not able to for whatever reason, or not able to keep their head above water. And I think more and more I’m interested in mental health and, and sort of the way that, for lack of a better word, capitalism, but maybe… maybe just sort of modern, modern life or, the way technology’s evolved, kind of can be stacked against a normal person and what their struggles are and how mental health, finances, etc. play into all that. 

Logan: A big theme in a lot of your music is religion and, Catholicism. And I was raised an Irish Catholic and, it’s cool to see music kind of reflect that upbringing in a way. When you bring in religion into your music, do you find yourself putting yourself back in the mindset of a kid who’s, you know, being dragged to church on Sunday morning or a more adult and, you know, cognitive relationship with it? 

Craig: I think it’s the latter. I mean, I certainly was the kid being dragged to church, but, I’ve always been interested, I sort of, even though I consider myself kind of a labs Catholic, I still go to I still go to mass, not every Sunday, but I go because I like the experience. I think there’s a magic and a mysticism in it all that’s still very attractive, especially in a modern world, especially in a scientific world, and especially in a world that values technology so much to kind of consider this, you know, some of the most basic elements of old, very ancient stories and morality in that context. And I think there is this sense of, if you’re raised Catholic, if you’re raised in any church, really a lingering, a lingering sense of that when you get to big moments in your life. 

Logan: Yeah, and I kind of see those big moments obviously the main character in “Always Been”, tries to become a preacher, even though his heart’s not in it or anything like that. When you’re writing these characters, is there any of you in it or is it fully some other character? 

Craig: There’s always, I mean, John Gregory Dunn said the first character in every novel is the author, and I believe that. I mean, I do a podcast called “That’s How I Remember It”, we talk about this a lot in storytelling because I can write a story about a bank robbery, which I’ve never done, you know, we robbed a bank. But if I put, the bank that I’m robbing, the one that’s just down here, I know how to tell the story a little better because I know what the coffee shop that’s next to it and the dry cleaner that’s on the other side and all this, all these details that are for real. And I think when you tell a fictitious story, but put in details from your real life, you can approach more of an honest telling, even if you’re making up a big part of it. So I think that that’s kind of how it works in my own work. 

Logan: You’ve been writing for a long time and there was a line in “Crumbs” that kind of stood out to me where the main character was talking about his niece and how she’s mostly on her phone these days. That wouldn’t have been a line 20 years ago. So is there a different approach you have to take to writing these younger characters nowadays? 

Craig: Yeah I think I think that’s part of what has been interesting to me is having the characters age with me. And obviously in 20 years ago, I wouldn’t probably not have put even phone or not that character in a song because I once have been around that character a daughter, a young teenage daughter that that the parents, that is sort of at a distance from her parents, but now that is something. I don’t have kids of my own, but I certainly see it when I visit my friends. I think that’s part of the changing perspective of being an artist. I mean, I think that at some point, like when you’re growing up, maybe you have your parents mark your height against a wall or a door or something, and see how you grow. I think different projects as an artist, whether it’s a new album, a new book, whatever, show a changing perspective. Even if you aren’t getting taller physically, emotionally, you’re growing and each project kind of reflects a changing perspective. 

Logan: These kind of narrative stories, I think, are a bit of a dying art form. You don’t see too many of these kind of out in the world. What would be any advice you would have to a younger artist who are also trying to weave these stories together? 

Craig: I think that my advice is just persistence and to do it. I think that when I look back on my own career, there were a lot of times that I didn’t think I was making a difference. I mean, for instance, I’ve played shows, I’ve met people, once I had this band, I had that band Lifter Puller and that, I met people once I started The Hold Steady and things started going pretty well. And people were like, oh, yeah, I’ve been a fan of Lifter Puller since I saw you guys in Cleveland. And I’d be like, there were two people at that show and they’re like, yeah I was one of them. And I’m like, you should have said hello. But you can feel like you’re not connecting, and that guy is going on saying I’m a huge fan now and pops back up and you realize you were getting through. I think part of it is just doing it and creating a practice where you are working daily and working on whatever it is, whatever it is you’re doing. 

Logan: When you’re touring, do you find it difficult to write on the road? If you’re touring, is it exclusively touring or are you also jotting stuff down? 

Craig: It’s hard. It’s harder to come up with something organized, but you can still get ideas down. And, nowadays, I think all artists, I used to write notebooks and now I’ve got a lot in phone notes. If you if you get enough notes, I find travel really to be inspiring, but I can’t maybe necessarily put it in a good, you know, during tour and into like a well organized. My ideas aren’t that well organized, but I can get a lot of notes down that I can figure stuff out later. 

Logan: For these characters, for “Always Been”, were these all characters written exactly for this record? Or were there songs that you’d kind of taken from the past? Or was it all, “Always Been”? 

Craig: Almost all of it is “Always Been”. I sort of said that there’s probably eight out of eleven songs that move this one story forward. And then there’s these kind of, what I call bottle episodes. “Shamrock” would be one and “Luke and Leanna” would be one where “Ed Fletcher’s” would be one where they’re kind of in the same world, but they aren’t those exact same people. And I think of it a little bit like the movie “Pulp Fiction”, where there’s different things happening also, you know? 

Logan: Yeah it’s a great, great record. Do you have any top records of the year yourself? 

Craig: You know, I really loved, there’s a couple records. I loved The Fringe, the band Friendship from Philadelphia. They have a record “Caveman Wakes Up” that I loved. I liked the Wednesday record a lot. What’s his name? McMurtry. James McMurtry. His record, “Black Dog”, and I forget what the title is. Those are three that come to mind that I’ve just loved. But I think I loved more than that. It’s always hard when you’re put on the spot, but those are records I really, really, really connected with. 

Logan: Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time with me. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. 

Craig: Thanks for being interested. It’s always great to have new people aboard. So I’m glad you saw us at Riot Fest. What were you there to see? Something else in particular or just there for Riot Fest? 

Logan: I was there for The Pogues personally on that Friday. I was like, I’m not sure if I’ll ever see these guys again. And I was able to interview one of the members of The Pogues too, which was awesome. 

Craig: I met one of them at a catering and actually James. James Walburn, who plays with him, he’s not really an OG Pogue, but he, I know I’m friendly with him, but one of, I can’t remember which guy I met at catering, but it was cool. 

Logan: When you’re at a festival, do you stick around and watch the other bands? 

Craig: Some, yeah. I mean, when I can,  I used to. Like when we first started playing festivals, I would go in hard and I would probably to the detriment. I’d probably try too, I’d probably annoy people in catering and things like that. now I try to leave people alone, but, yeah, I liked seeing the bands. I can’t remember what I saw Weird Al at Riot Fest. I know that. was fun. Camper Van Beethoven started to think, I saw like some cool shit. 

Logan: Well, those two stages that you were at, just great. I think Sparks was right there. 

Craig: Yeah, right. 

Logan:  I cover a lot of festivals for this radio station. And it’s, there’s nothing like that festival. I’m not sure if you can attest to it, you’ve played it a few times, but like there’s such a wide variety. 

Craig: It’s a great one. It’s a really good one. The festival that I would just, I mean it’s a sort of different musically, but New Port Folk Festival in Rhode Island is the number one. I mean, it’s the one I’ll go to as a fan. And the location, the music, the vibe is just like, and I think the cool thing about that one is they’ve just made it into such a cool thing that they sell it out before they announce the artists. So you don’t get like one artist fan, they’ll add a huge artist but their whole fan base won’t take it over because the tickets are already sold, you know? I saw Lana Del Rey there and it was very cool, but it was a different audience than you’d normally see for her because, you know, people didn’t know. So I don’t know, I thought it was great. 

Logan: That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s the top of the list for me. It looks like you played that was that 2024? 

Craig: Yeah, 20 is that right? ‘24. No, I played ‘24. I sat in with The War on Drugs. The Hold Steady played ‘23. 

Logan: Okay, nice. 

Craig: Yeah. I often end up there regardless of whether I’m playing. 

Logan: So it’s not too far away from New York. 

Craig: No, it’s great.

Craig Finn has another busy year in front of him, touring “Always Been” in Europe and a few New York shows this winter, supporting The Mountain Goats this fall, and The Hold Steady playing a few dates in the middle of the two. You can find tickets to Craig Finn’s shows here, and The Hold Steady here.

The post Craig Finn Interview appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Hayley Heyndrickx and Max Garcia Conover, ‘Song for Alicia’

Song for Alicia is a piece dedicated to Alicia Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican activist. While named after her, the song discusses a lot of various injustices done to her, but is ultimately more focused on the capitalist society of the United States of America. Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover started this song asking people to listen to his story if you, “have never believed in this kingdom of commerce we have lived in.” They call on people to listen to how people have been silenced and how the government can be bought out by those with money. They tell part of Alicia’s Story, about how she was arrested and her fight for independence. They sing of how she and other members of the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña) group were abused in jail, and put into prison with “no trial or charge or conviction.” Max sings about various injustices that happen in Puerto Rico caused by American greed, saying to “just be patient while we burn your poets pages.” Beyond the moving lyrics, the song shows great sound with an amazing guitar backing the moving lyrics with amazing background vocals done by Haley. This song sounds beautiful and is written so well with lyrics painting this picture of freedom fighting, it is a very important song from this year.

-Will Clair

Ethel Cain, ‘Nettles’

In the summer, “Nettles” was released as a single to promote Ethel Cain’s new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You and by my 9th listen I could easily declare it had become my favorite song. Six months later, I still feel the same way. This beautiful track offers a glimpse into the narrative of this album, the love story between the Ethel Cain persona and her first love, Willoughby Tucker, as they grapple with the hardship of the religious south in the 1980s from familial trauma, emotional turmoil and the fears that accompany a blossoming relationship. Ethel recounts a terrifying experience she imagined where her boyfriend is hit by shrapnel from a power plant explosion and is told that he has less than 24 hours left to live. The emotions in her voice and the depth of the anecdote almost make you forget this didn’t actually happen, but Ethel’s insecurities and fears keep her stuck in these fictitious scenarios where tragedy eventually reaches the two of them. 

Nettles immerses the listener with folk Americana instruments like the banjo and the fiddle, immersing us in the rural south of the 80s. The song starts out with delicate, rhythmic beats and steadily builds until the sound reaches its climax with the second chorus and ending, accompanied by vocal inflections, soft snares, drums and pedal steel guitar.

Ethel is deeply scarred by her environment, having suffered at the hands of loved ones and peers, “they did to me what I wouldn’t do to anyone.” In response to her trauma, Ethel developed a defensive shell, which can cause her to harm without intention, akin to a nettle. Because of this, she thinks being loved is a terrible burden, “to love me is to suffer me.” But Willoughby loves her. And she is deadly afraid of losing this one person who looks at her with adoration, afraid of not having enough time with him. She is afraid of tragedy, afraid of injuries, afraid of harsh white lights of hospital rooms and whispered prayers begging God for a miracle. As their community continuously pulls them down, Ethel and Willoughby cling to each other in the hopes of finding solace in each other’s arms, dreaming of a new home with gardenias on the tiles, “where it makes no difference who held back from who.” Where they can look into each other’s eyes and just be.

-Clara Carrion

Invariance, ‘Saint’

Consisting of the musical minds behind Black MIDI, Tom Hesh, and Oliva Dean, the supergroup Invariances‘ debut album takes all my favorite elements of the UK’s Windmill and New London Jazz scenes and combines them for an experimental experience at the forefront of contemporary music. Specifically, the track Saint caught my attention, as it takes both music scenes’ eclectic sonic traits to their final conclusion. 

The track combines the deconstructed post-minimalism approach of artists like Colin Stetson and the improvised jazz-rock instrumentation and lyrics of Soft Machine to create an eerie, droning atmosphere tinged with anxiety and swing. The vocalist, Kaidi Akinnibi, repeats the song’s string of lyrics louder and louder over 5 minutes until the track’s crescendo of sax (also performed by Kaidi) overtakes the song’s eerie progression with shouting horns and crashing symbols. While not a club banger, the song and the album Wish You Well, stood out more than any other amongst the chaff and offered an exciting glimpse of the experimental future of England’s music revival.

-Amman Hassan

Empty Parking Lot, ‘pictures of you by the cure’

Chronically online music fans may recognize the popular Instagram shitpost account, @midwest.merky for his emo-centered memes and Spotify playlists. Unfortunately, not enough people are aware of his myriad of musical projects, including the one man band Empty Parking Lot. I got the pleasure of seeing him and his other band, Breathing Techniques, live in Ames at the beginning of 2025. I got to listen to an hour of some of the most vulnerable and beautiful emo music of the last few years, with this track in particular being an incredible standout.

A clear homage to the classic track from The Cure, this also deals with heartbreak and obsession over a failed romance. Delving deep within his own insecurities that likely led to his downfall, “I’d rather stay home tonight, if that’s alright. It’s just that I’m so god damn scared of going outside and being looked at. I hate myself for wanting to stay home all of the time.” Combined with the swelling guitar’s and his painfully tragic vocal performance, you can really feel the emotional resonance that went into this song and that makes Empty Parking Lot such an exciting new voice in the current emo landscape.

-Tarik Krob

RAYE, ‘WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!’

This wasn’t the year I thought we were going to get a jazz revolution. But if I needed a reminder of anything this year, it’s that sometimes surprises can be good! RAYE’s upbeat, swinging, all-caps, instant classic, WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! blew me out of the water in the best way possible this year and introduced me to this artist who’s bringing full orchestra accompaniments back into the mainstream, thank god. As a longtime fan of big band, swing, classic jazz, and funk, I’m delighted to see an artist out there who can play with the classic elements of the genres so masterfully. RAYE slips a groovy baseline underneath layers of big, resonant brass, mixes jazz drums with scat-like backing vocals, and crafts a melody so catchy, I raise my eyebrow at anyone who doesn’t even consider dancing along. There’s so much passion for the craft hidden within this song’s layers. As one YouTube commenter under the music video aptly notes, you can tell this song was made by someone who loves to sing.

And that’s not even touching on on the song’s lyricism, which feels at once ubiquitous and uniquely 2025. Internet discourse has been dominated this year by conversations about boyfriends, husbands, and relationships. From what I’ve been hearing, the consensus is that, for a (straight) woman, having a husband is embarrassing, but also a necessity. You’re not supposed to want one because you’re an independent woman, but you’re supposed to have one because your life would be incomplete without your other half. It makes sense then, that this song doesn’t linger too long on who the husband of the song actually is—what kind of man RAYE wants in her life—but instead focuses mainly on RAYE’s struggles without one. This gives the song a unique angle on the timeless story of looking for love. Not having a man is not a life-or-death situation—it’s just annoying. She’s not lying hopelessly in wait for her prince to save her, he’s testing her patience by taking so long to show up. This makes the song even more universal, in it’s own way. Regardless of who you are, you’ve been annoyed with a man at some point in your life (at least I know I have), and RAYE is able to vocalize this universal frustration in her own unique and snappy way. In my eyes, she’s been able to hit that sweet spot of music-making with a song many can connect to, and all can enjoy.

-Bailey Vergara

Meels, ‘Willow Song’

There is not an up-and-coming artist I am more excited about than Meels, and her track, Willow Song is my favorite song of the year. Accompanied by a charming Muppet-inspired puppeteer music video, Willow Song immediately transports me into 1979—back to a time when country music was good, sorry, but it’s true! Emulating John Denver and Bob Dylan, Meels is an expert storyteller and songwriter.

Here’s my favorite verse in the song, grounded in tried-and-true storytelling with a 21st-century edge, “When you run to the river and you ask for a drink It may not concede in the way that you think. Its surrender is painful and it cuts mighty deep. At least the painkillers around here are cheap.”

On Meels’ Instagram, she posted a self-proclaimed, “Bob Dylan–Joan Baez-esque love story,” song she had written. Had it been released already, it would have been my pick for my favorite song of hers. I can’t wait to see what she does next. She is definitely one to watch.

-Becca Warfield

Jane Remover, ‘Dancing with your eyes closed’

Watching the artistic trajectory of Jane Remover has been an incredibly fulfilling experience- there is no doubt whatsoever about that. The progression from a no-name artist dropping loose singles on Soundcloud in the early days of the hyperpop scene to establishing a name as one of the go-to producers in the genre, becoming so embedded that fans could hardly go a project without hearing something that Jane’s hands had touched. 

This, to the explosion of Teen Week, Frailty, Census Designated, and now in 2025… Jane’s proper mainstream EDM opus thus far, Revengeseekerz. As a longtime fan, I knew it was only a matter of time before Jane’s ear would translate to proper mainstream attention, as things had been trending that way for some time- but perhaps there was no better way of that happening than with the release of one of the singles for Revengeseekerz, titled Dancing with your eyes closed.

There is something unexplainable about much of Jane’s electronic dance compositions, an underlying bit of magic that is presented–a vitality, a heartbeat thumping at the speed of the BPM–a synthetic creche where the spirit resides, and inflates. While Revengeseekerz had its fingers in many pies, I find that once again, it is through dance that Jane Remover is most potent in her craft. 

-Evan Raefield

Sabrina Carpenter, ‘House Tour’

Do you want the house tour? Probably not, but I do. Personally, this song haunted my every second online this year, and I had no issue with that whatsoever. My good buddy, William Clair, will argue with me to hell and back about this take, but Sabrina Carpenter is easily the single best pop girl in the game right now. The alternative nature of this radio station matters naught to me when it comes time for end of year reviews. Last year I wrote about Miss “Jesus was a Carpenter” herself’s album, the Short n’ Sweet Deluxe Edition, but this year I have a more fitting pick than Man’s Best Friend, so Will gets to live without rolling his eyes back in his now bald head.

Enough Will Shade, House Tour meant an absurd amount to me this year. As none of you dearest readers can probably relate, I went through my first experience with formal sorority recruitment this year, and this song stayed in the back of everyone’s mind the entire time. It was the entirety of TikTok and Instagram for girls who just wanted to show everyone their house–especially their sorority house, and ignore the actual innuendo purposes of the song. My friend Kaitie and I even painstakingly made a video with this song for almost 12 hours at our house talking to probably 40-50 girls. We were exhausted and all we wanted to do was feel cute and special again. House Tour is without a doubt my favorite track from Man’s Best Friend. Sabrina’s brand of being this subtly-misandristic, silly girl is so important to me. She has this sort of Miss Piggy/Turner Classic Movies heroine/pin-up doll energy to her that’s absolutely timeless and fresh compared to other stars at the moment. Her lyrics and sound match her aesthetic to a T. Twitter, as always, had a lot to say about Man’s Best Friend, especially when the contentious album cover and track list were dropped early, but it still held up for me and I think the actual content of the album was a lot better than the assumptions people were making purely from the crumbs of ideas that were originally out there. Do I think some criticism was valid? Yes, but I also think a lot of it was unfounded and completely wrong after the album released. On House Tour specifically, the production quality and mixing was just so funky and even after months I haven’t gotten tired of it. Not to mention how catchy and genuinely hilarious some points of the song are. I can’t help but think she might’ve gotten inspiration for the house-body metaphor from Monster House, which I definitely watched far too young. Overall, another great year for Sabrina and I can’t wait to see where she goes next.

-Lee Nienhaus

Deafheaven, ‘Incidental II (feat. Jae Matthews)’

Having to pick a single song of the year always leaves me absolutely wrecked. Incidental II doesn’t even count as a true song, it’s an interlude from the blackgaze legends, Deafheaven off their recent (generally good) album, Lonely People With Power. Have I betrayed my many other darlings of the year by picking this? Though it’s far from being my most highly listened track, this one song stands out to me as the one song that made me feel actually scared. It begins with soft mechanical groans, a crackling synth creeping on top and forming this mysterious gentle fog from which Jae Matthew’s rasping voice emerges. Breaking up the oppressive vocals of George Clarke, she sings this haunting melody enrapturing the listener within every quiet breath and movement of her voice. The groaning instrumentals suddenly drop out underneath us, and we’re left flailing with nothing to hold onto but Jae Matthews and a light guitar accompanying her. We’re lost, alone, but with this sinking nausea that something massive approaches.

It’s one thing for a song to make you dance, to make you feel good. But when a song makes me physically anxious, I pay attention. This is a song where every choice builds this tangible dread, this song could snap and explode at any point, and strains that point of nervous tension until it snaps. Out of the silence and sweet voice, thunder erupts. Oppression does not begin to define the noise that follows. It’s every ounce of sound that Deafheaven can rip out of themselves, as their brutal wave crashes down.

The recording is incredible, each tone is perfectly processed and layered into this sickly mix, but it doesn’t compare to seeing it performed live. I had the chance to see them recently at their show in Davenport, where they used this song as an interlude to separate half of their set. It was the most incredible sound I had truly ever heard, just an absolute oppression condensed into noise. Deafheaven continue to reinvent the possibilities and emotions of metal with this album, unexpectedly found most intensely in this interlude.

-Pauly

The post Best Songs of 2025: KRUI Staff Picks appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Regarded as one of the most influential artists in the contemporary music scene, Björk has an extensive and mesmerizing discography ranging from jazz and experimental to electronic and avant-garde music. She is a major pioneer in her genre-bending productions, and inspired others such as Radiohead, Frank Ocean and Lady Gaga. 

The live album’s opening track “Family Intro” starts us off with bird noises, bubbles, and nature ambience. It’s a shortened version of the original, which used to be heavier and more intense with the soundscape. This new, cut version she performed live seemed lighter, as she highlighted the importance of love throughout the process of healing. It beautifully transitions into “The Gate”, which has interesting synths and flutes chiming in every few lines. This recording of her voice live sounds identical to the studio album, a testament to her wonderful voice. Björk sings about her healing journey after a terrible breakup and how her open wounds transformed into a gate where she now receives love from. It became a place where the “light shines in”.

The next tracks “Utopia” and “Arisen My Senses” demonstrate the common theme of blending nature and technology that is seen throughout her discography, and it’s truly hypnotizing how she represents that with the sounds. They’re lighthearted and spacious but not too interesting. The following “Ovule” is boring when compared to how grandiose her songs often are. The melodies and beats stay roughly the same throughout and it doesn’t have a chorus to break up the verses. “Show Me Forgiveness” is similarly bleak and unimpressive, although her vocals are pretty. Both songs are performed almost identically to their original counterparts. 

“Isobel” is a gorgeous song that maintains a steady, marching beat and displays very evocative imagery. The next track “Blissing me” is a gentle ballad about falling in love with someone by sharing music. Interestingly, the melodies reminded me of the “Minecraft Volume Alpha” soundtrack by C418, being very similar to songs like “Door” and “Wet Hands”. The live version really did it justice. We segue into the “Arpeggio” interlude, where Björk delivers the “It’s an emergency” manifesto, urging us to pay attention to the environment in order to survive as a species. After the inspiring call to action, we move into the grandiose “Body Memory”, which is very vibrant in a live setting. The background vocals are very powerful as we transition beautifully into the second half of the album. 

“Hidden Place”, “Mouth’s Cradle” and “Victimhood” are pretty tracks, but they start to blend together a little, the last one being especially monotonous. The “Cornucopia” live album is fascinating, but from these tracks onward I start feeling the album length a little. It feels too long, and even though the songs are different enough from each other to keep things interesting, I got bored with the last few. “Fossora / Atopos” has a loud and chaotic banging that accompanies the second half, but is overall quite uninteresting, which I can also say about “Features Creatures” and “Courtship”. Their dullness is especially highlighted when contrasted with the beautiful “Pagan Poetry” that comes right after them.

A classic in Björk’s discography, “Pagan Poetry” reflects on the confusion and difficulty of emotional and physical connection with a partner. It’s a shortened version of the original, starting from the repeated line of “I love him” in the outro. The following “Losss” has a stellar electronic soundscape that leads to a tumultuous outro. “Sue Me” is plain boring (sorry) and so is “Tabula Rasa”, although the latter’s title did grab my attention, as I recognized John Locke’s philosophy. The Tabula Rasa refers to the idea that all humans are born with a clean slate and no innate knowledge about the world: we must build that knowledge from scratch. Björk uses this theory to address the new generation and tells us to rebuild the world our way, considering how the previous generations left it to us in such a rough shape. 

“Notget” is a powerful track about a break up, where the drumbeats symbolize the singer’s heartbreaks. And the final song on the album, “Future Forever”, is a hopeful perspective on the future. We hear a choir of child-like voices singing about brighter days ahead, which ends the live album on a high note and an optimistic view of the world and what’s to come. All of these tracks come together to create a performance highlighting environmentalism, female empowerment, hope for the future and humanity, solidarity and the collaboration of nature and technology. Even though Björk can be a challenging artist to get into, “Cornucopia Live Album” is an exceptional project and a must listen for fans of avant-garde music and powerful symbolism.

The post Album Review: An exploration of nature, music, and technology with Björk’s “Cornucopia: Live” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Nuovo Testamento has been releasing music consistently throughout their 6 year run. Their latest EP Trouble, released just this past July. Their most popular project is their 2021 album New Earth with their featured hit, The Searcher. The Searcher is catchy, dynamic, and serves as an echoing love letter to goth club pop of the past century.

Since their debut in 2019, Nuovo Testamento has been the shining star of goth clubs, replicating and revitalizing those time capsule sounds from the 80s and 90s. Members Chelsea Crowley, Giacomo Zatti, and Andrea Mantione place emphasis on their roots in Italian disco and synth pop, stating that they want listeners to “think of all of [their] favorite synth-era throwback hits mixed with a modern pop sensibility and songs that will carve their way into [their] synapses…and stay there.”

In a 2021 interview for POST-PUNK.COM, Zatti answered that the name Nuovo Testamento (translated to New Testament) came from the band’s Italian upbringing, and the deeply ingrained Catholicism within it. He said “We’re fascinated by the infinite misuses and misinterpretations of something considered so fundamental… The conflicts and contradictions in that conversation are so interesting and we were talking about it a lot at the time… we started making this music that was both light and dark… it just stuck,” (Zatti, for POST-PUNK.COM).

Their inspirations hold close to the Catholic imagery often present in the new wave and post-punk gothic projects of the 1980s. This era of U.K. New Wave bands were famously using music as a form of protest and developing a counterculture to their mainstream in the 1980s. Many European new wave groups like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths all worked with art inspired by themes of Christianity, as Nuovo Testamento continues and reimagines their own relations with Catholicism and counterculture, continuing the tradition in the modern age.

If you still find yourself unconvinced, take it from the bandcamp.com users who recommend this band. Username blaxcodexx444 says, “The Searcher gives me Freestyle 80s vibe. I love the vocals and the synth beat are harmonies. I saw this band live, and I fell in love ever since.” User NobleNova says, “Growing up listening to 80’s music, this feels so reminiscent and nostalgic unlike anything else. I feel like I time hopped into a period of time I never got to experience. I seriously can’t get enough of this album.“

Catch Nuovo Testamento this Wednesday November 12th at the James Theater, more information on the show can be found here. Stay up-to-date with upcoming alternative shows in Iowa City from Track Zero with The Englert. With or without me, I hope you enjoy the show.

The post Concert Preview: New Wave Glamour with Nuovo Testamento at the James, Nov. 12 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

All Time Low

These Warped-Tour era icons have been releasing albums consistently since 2006, their newest project “Everyone’s Talking,” released just a couple weeks ago on Oct. 17, diving straight into an immediate tour for the band starting out with When We Were Young Festival. I recently learned their name derives from the song Head On Collision by New Found Glory, so I have a new found trust in their dedication to the craft. Throughout the decades, fans have been loyal to this Baltimore pop-punk boyband for a reason, they’ve been putting out consistently exciting music backed up by their playful humor and personalities, they’ve maintained their popularity and have stood out in the genre for decades. All Time Low has collaborated with artists like Demi Lovato, Blackbear, and Vic Fuentes, while this new album features JoJo and Ruston Kelly. They maintain their hold on the pop-punk scene, and are sure to put on a great show in Waukee. They’ll likely play a good chunk of their newest album this time, with a few select tracks featuring from across their greatest hits.

Mayday Parade

Another pop punk legendary act, Mayday Parade returns with their album Sad in 2025, following a seven year break since their last album. The band formed in Tallahassee in 2005, and celebrates their 20 year anniversary as a band this year with Sad, amazingly with nearly all of their founding members still together. They have upcoming plans to release 2 more parts of the Sad album in the upcoming months, much to look forward to from them. I’m anticipating a pretty even mix of their classic hits and tracks off their newly released album tomorrow evening, drawing into a classic pop punk experience.

The Cab

Best known to me for having a song in Rockband 2, this Las Vegas-based band returned in 2025 with a reuniting following a decade long hiatus. This year, they released their long-awaited EP, Road to Reign: A Prelude. It’s a catchy pop EP, supported by a bit of their grittier punk background seeping through into something that could’ve been featured in a early 2000s romcom movie. It’s a strong, and characteristic follow up after 11 years of a break, they’ve managed to come back still sounding like The Cab that we remember. Expect to relive their biggest hit tracks at the show, with a new song or two in between.

The Paradox

This up-and-coming pop punk band out of Atlanta might be young, but are putting out music that sounds like a skatepark in 2005. Their recent and rapid rise to popularity has them opening for icons like Green Day and Jack White, and recently also performed at When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas. They’ll play at this show with high energy, and bring fun to pop punk at Vibrant Music Hall tomorrow. They have multiple singles out now, and are currently in the works getting together their first EP released.

Tickets for the event are for sale from First Fleet Concerts here.

The post Concert Preview: All Time Low, Mayday Parade, The Cab, & The Paradox at Vibrant Music Hall on Oct. 29 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Ken Pomeroy   

The first of the sold-out shows was a performance by Ken Pomeroy (no, not the basketball player). Pomeroy is a folk artist, who takes inspiration from famous musician John Denver. Pomeroy would explain what would inspire her to create her music. John Denver aside, Pomeroy calls upon her upbringing as a Cherokee living along the American Bible Belt. This drove her to write more American folk/gothic style music. Many people have heard of Pomeory thorugh her featured songs, “Wall of Death” from the movie Twisters, and “Cicadas” featured on the show Reservation Dogs. 

Pomeroy opened her set with a song from her album Cruel Joke. Wrango is written about her “fat adopted dog” who is, in more appropriate terms, a jerk and a biter. I felt pretty seen as someone who also has a fat dog who kind of sucks. Her lyrics alone are enough to make you misty, pair that with her skill on her guitar and it’s truthfully breathtaking. 

In addition to her deeply sentiemental lyrics, Pomeory writes from her own personal life exepreinces. A very good example of this is her song Cicadas. Cicadas touches on the very real experience of just not being in the mood to talk; 

“I met someone I didn’t want to talk to  

She said my Saturn was on fire  

What a liar ” 

Pomeory went on to explain that it was based off a personal experience with not wanting to talk to someone new. Moments like this connected her audience during the show, showing a very transparent and human side to her art. Pomeroy’s set is one that I will never forget, and I hope to see her if she ever tours again.

Stream Curel Joke, you will not regret it.   

Loudon Wainwright III  

“79?! Thats not that old!”  

My first impression of Loudon and his music was Motel Blues from Album 2 from 1972.  My first experience with his music sober. That being said, I was surprised by the borderline stand-up comedy approach that he took.   

Almost every song in the first half of his set was about being old, or, for a change, GETTING old. He had mentioned that his 79th birthday had been within the past few days. This was followed by the delcariation of, “Thats when life REALLY begins.”  

Along with that, Loudon’s set was full of surprises. one second, you’re looking down to write down what he said, the next he’s taking out an iPad. iPad itself took a little time, on account of him forgetting his password. He quickly recovered with a written, DETAILED list of what he wanted his memorial to be like. Loudon had it mapped down to how his former flings would interact. Even including his personal guidelines that they had to meet.

After every sentence the audience was in an uproar of laughter. Loudon stood out against many other acts of the evening due to his use of comedy during his set. Even when discussing hard topics, such as family hardship and political tensions, he did it through the lens of comedy. When it came down to it, everyone was incredibly entertained.

Overall

Iowa City Songwriters Festival did the wonderful task of humanizing artists, and their processes to the public. Seeing songwriters encouraging people to start and showing them how to begin is what makes art happen. I can’t wait to see what The Englert Theatre has to offer again for the festival next year! 

The post Iowa City Songwriters Festival 2025, Saturday in Review appeared first on KRUI Radio.

On Saturday October 4th, Salt Late City’s World’s Worst took the stage at Gabe’s ahead of Lip Critic and White Reaper as a part of The Englert Theater’s Track Zero series. The four piece heavy and moody rock band, comprised of Andy Aronson on guitar and vocals, Jake Phillips on bass and backing vocals, Jackson Wise on guitar, and Zach Mayo on drums, took some time after sound check to chat with me. They discussed their latest record “American Muscle”, how they got started playing music, and The Real Housewives of SLC.

Logan Melia: Let’s get rocking and rolling here. World’s Worst, how we doing guys?  

Andy Aronson: Dude, doing well. Stoked to be in Iowa City.  

Logan: Your first time, right?  

Andy: Yeah, first time playing Iowa at all. Ever, really?  

Logan: Okay, how are the vibes? What are we, what’s the feel?  

Andy: Dude, good. We walked around the little main street down there briefly. Beautiful. There’s a lot of people out. A lot of bananas. People are wearing banana costumes  

Logan: Banana bar crawl today.

Jake Phillips: Yeah, we saw a lot of bananas.  

Logan: We have one about once a month. Different themes, different costumes.  

Jackson Wise: You think the bananas might make an appearance here?  

Logan: I have seen a banana here before. I’ve seen a monkey costume here before. I’ve seen many things. An alien, a blow-up alien that crowd surfed.  

Andrew: Dude… If you get the monkey costume and the banana costume in the same room, that sounds dangerous. That could go south.  

Logan: That’s a good one, that’s a good one. Did you prep that one?  

Jake: No, no, no, no, he’s quick.

Jake: Andy’s a shit talker.  

Andy: Something’s speaking through me right now.  

Jackson: His comedy juices are flowing.  

Jake: He’s really good at shit talking. Is he the funniest one of the group?  

Andy: No, I think that depends on the day. I think morning time, Jake is the one ripping. I probably didn’t talk for the first four hours of the day. So it’s Jake’s free range.  

Jake: Yeah, I’m a morning person for sure. 

Logan: Okay, are we talking like long-form jokes like you’re setting up or just, you know, off-the-bat, you know, monkey banana jokes?  

Jake: Just kind of just tweaking, saying like crazy shit, you know? 
 
Andy: Yeah, just let… Just no buffers. 

Jake: Stream of consciousness.

Logan: Okay, yeah, yeah. Is it a pretty cohesive stream of consciousness amongst the four of you?

Andy: By the end of this tour, we gain a hive mind sort of thing where we can all look at the same object and have the same joke immediately, probably. But we’ll get there. I don’t think quite yet.  

Logan: And that’s a family. Now, the tour’s just started. We’re already at day three right now. Milwaukee, Chicago, Iowa City. With some really cool bands.

Jake: We played a couple shows on the way out here too, just to get to Milwaukee. We played Omaha and Minneapolis.  

Jackson: This is day three? Holy shit.  

Logan: It’s been a hike for you guys from Salt Lake City, correct?  

Andy: Yeah, yeah.  

Logan: The scene out there, how is it? As someone who doesn’t really know too much about it, what’s the vibe?  

Andy: It’s great, I love it. I feel like I was talking to someone on this tour about it, that Salt Lake is such a… It’s a pretty isolated place in a way. It’s like far from every other major city. So like the scene feels very tight-knit, where it’s like everyone kind of knows everyone. It’s hard to tour, so it like builds a really strong community in Salt Lake, which I love. It’s like we have so many friends in it that are like, I don’t know, going on years now of like everyone’s bands, iterations and all that. It’s like the same kind of people that you see every time. It’s really nice.  

Logan: That’s really sick. The West Coast, obviously things are more spread out. You mentioned that. Do you find yourself touring the West Coast a lot more? Yeah.  

Jake: It for sure feels like easier for us too, because we have like a lot of friends in California, and we’re like put out… One of the record labels that put us out is from Oakland. So it’s like we have a lot of support in the Bay Area. So California and the West Coast is just like super easy for us to do that loop.  

Zach Mayo: It’s really accessible compared to getting out to like Kansas City. 

Andy: Yeah, it takes us like a few days to get on the East Coast to do it right. But West Coast we can kind of tap in pretty quick. But we really, I mean this year we’ve done, this will be our second time going through the East Coast. But last year we did the West Coast like three or four times. We did a lot.  

Zach: Yeah, too much maybe.  

Logan: You mentioned the Bay Area. I mean what a scene for music. I mean Jawbreaker. 
I mean just like all these incredibly influential bands. 

Logan: What was on your playlist growing up?  

Andy: Yeah, growing up it’s like I think skateboarding, like skateboarding movies and videos. That is like my early exposure to a lot of music. And I found like Dinosaur Junior, Sonic Youth, like all of those that are like still to this day, bands I listen to pretty constantly 
like I found when I was like 11 watching like an Alien Workshop video or something. So that was like my entry point into like music that felt like mine. Not just like things that maybe my parents were putting on the radio or something.  

Jake: I really liked like pop punk and emo when I was like younger. My like older sister liked like Warped Tour music. And so like the suggested videos on like the family computer YouTube would be like blink-182. And I just bumped that like hella. 

Logan: What about you guys?  

Zach: Oh, um, yeah, it was a lot of the kind of pop punk, like Fall Out Boy and sort of the mainstream alternative music that was on the radio. And then kind of like Jake would like recommended shit on YouTube just from looking at that. Yeah. And then I had a drum teacher that had a pretty good taste in music and would like… He knew some guys in Thursday. And so like he taught me how to play a Thursday song. 

Logan: Like Tucker Rule?  

Zach: Oh no, the Car Crash one. Yeah, which I don’t know if people like that much, that’s the one he taught me.  

Logan: They’re crazy. They opened up for MCR. Was that a MetLife or whatever? I’m from the Chicago area. They played this really small venue out in the suburbs to like 200 people or something like that on a Wednesday night. It was one of the most electric shows I’ve ever been to in my life.  

Andy: That’s awesome.  

Logan: You got anything, you know, out of left field?  

Jackson: Well, yeah, I mean, I grew up just listening to whatever my dad had in his car and then started skating. And my first CD I bought was the first song that played on our local skate park’s website. It was One-Armed Scissor by At The Drive-In. So “Relationship of Command” was my first CD and that kind of started my blueprint with a lot of my life. Something that no fifth graders should listen to.  

Logan: Well, I mean, you wouldn’t be here without it. Maybe, maybe.  

Jackson: But you know, At The Drive-In inspired me to start learning guitar and start taking it seriously. The Mars Volta, I don’t sing in this band, but they inspired me to sing. 

Logan: When did you guys start playing your instruments?  

Andy: Dude, I was kind of late to it. I learned like open chords when I was younger. Just like very, but then I like kind of didn’t really care that much and I just wanted to skateboard. And then kind of started teaching myself how to like get around the guitar when I was like 18. Yeah, I had like a little background, but kind of didn’t really pursue it much. Like through high school, I didn’t play like guitar at all.  

Jake: Yeah, I started playing guitar like pretty young. And then I played in the orchestra like in middle school. Like I played the bass in the orchestra and then stopped playing around freshman year. And I actually kind of, the orchestra made me hate music. So I kind of stopped for like, you know, like, I don’t know, from like 16 to 19. I didn’t really play music. Like when I went to college, like I didn’t bring my guitar or like anything.  

Logan: Really?  

Jake: Yeah.  

Logan: I mean, drums are a little harder to take to college.  

Zach: Yeah, absolutely. I started playing the drums when I was like 13 and then stopped at 17. And then I didn’t bring the drum kit out to Utah. I’m from Ohio. So I didn’t bring that out until I think we got a house like our junior year. And then didn’t play the kit at all until like a year later. And when Andrew and Jake wanted to start playing music, so.  

Logan: How about you? When did you start playing guitar?  

Jackson: I started playing guitar somewhere in elementary school. My brother got the red, I guess it was a Squire Strat. I don’t remember. It was some off-brand red, it was a red Stratocaster. And I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. So I essentially just took it.  

Logan: I peeked through your guys’ blog on the website. There was mention of a Stratocaster that inspired, what was it? “No, I’m Not”. Yeah, that’s. Is that going to make an appearance tonight? Is that a on-tour guitar?  

Andy: That’s been my mainstay for a little while now. I love that guitar. It’s so fun, but yeah. I love a Strat. I love the, I like that if you Google guitar, like a Strat is the first image that shows up. It’s like the most normal guitar.  

Jake: It’s like the guitar emoji. 

Andy: Exactly. It’s like the most normal guitar. It’s awesome. 
 
Logan: Yeah. All right. So new record this year, very exciting stuff. You brought acoustics, shakers, a whole bunch of stuff. When you’re recording, do you ever have any off-the-wall ideas where you’re like, “let’s get a mandolin in the mix”? Or any big things you want to bring in later?  

Andy: I had an idea and Jake executed it, but we used a shotgun for a sound.  

Logan: Nice. That’s awesome.  

Jake: Yeah, there’s a song called “Angus” and it goes like, “bow-bow (shotgun sound)”. It’s me playing the shotgun.   

Logan: Is that going to make an appearance?  

Jackson: I don’t think, yeah, I don’t think we can bring that in.  

Jake: Yeah, I don’t think they’d love that one.  

Andy: Venues don’t like that. That sound checker, like, can we check the shotgun? They don’t know how to do that one.  

Logan: Ask “how many mics do you need”.

Jake: We brought up the idea and the guy, we were recording it with this guy named Rocky in his basement and he was just like, oh yeah, hold on. He grabbed his gun.  

Zach: “Yeah, let me get my 11 gauge”.  

Andy: Yeah, we threw a lot of ideas around. He had like all kinds of like kind of toys and random music gear in his basement.  

Jake: We had this pedal steel, or not pedal steel, lap steel. Nice. And like synthesizers and like.  

Andy: Yeah, a lot of things that like we don’t, like we don’t, we knew going into it, it’s like we’re not going to do any of this live. It’s like we’re just using this to like flesh out an idea here. Yeah, but yeah, that’s kind of the whole idea with the record is like we fleshed out all the ideas as like a live performance and then see what holes we can punch in with like different ideas, different, like a new guitar track that we probably can’t play live or like a new synth pad, like, you know, things like that. Just to kind of flesh it all out.  

Jake: Tambourines and shit like that.  

Andy: Yeah, shakers.  

Jake: There’s a couple, we knew we wanted to like take a couple, like I know it’s pretty normal in the grand scheme of music, but for us, it’s a bit of a little like, like, you know, something different.  

Andy: Experimental. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we’re pretty bare bones, at least in the past when we record, it’s like. Guitars. Guitar track, bass track, drums. Let’s get vocals on it, call it a day. But yeah, we spent a lot more time with it on this record.  

Logan: When you bring in someone like a steel guitar, who plays that? Do you bring someone in to play that or do you guys figure it out yourselves?  

Jake: The guy who produced our record, Rocky, played the steel guitar and he actually knew his way around like the synths and drum machines and like tambourine and shit. He’s just like a crazy dude who has a lot of, a lot of weird music knowledge, you know?  

Andy: Yeah, he, yeah, he played the synths, played like a white noise machine essentially at one point. Like he, he was awesome. It was really fun recording with him. He kind of can know, he knows how to get around just about everything. It’s cool.

Logan: How long did it take you to record this record? What was the, how long did it take you to write, you know, all that stuff?  

Andy: The writing process is like probably slowly over a year, I would say. And then recording, we kind of like, we didn’t do it in the traditional sense of like studio time, quote unquote, where it’s like we all had the time off and we all got there and we like muscled it through. We kind of all just like fit in our like work schedule, like head to Rocky’s for like a couple hours after work, try and get a guitar track down kind of thing. Yeah. So probably took around a month.  

Jake: It did take exactly a month.  

Zach: It was like 40 hours. 

Jake: 40 hours in the studio. But like over, over a month. You know, like Zach played, Zach played the drums in like two days and then it was kind of like went and played the bass. Guitars took a lot longer, you know, just a couple hours here, a couple hours, because it was just like a friend’s basement, not like a real studio.

Logan: Oh, that’s a real studio.  

Andy: Yeah. I mean, it’s a real studio to us. We love it. 

Logan: It gets the job done.  

Andy: Exactly. Yeah, it’s awesome. Feel more comfortable doing it like that than maybe going somewhere where, a studio where it feels like you kind of put your money into the machine and it’s like parking meter. It’s like, all right, the clock’s ticking. Get your drum take down. I don’t know. That feels a little stressful. It was, took a little bit of the stress out of it to just be hanging out with your friend in the basement, you know?  

Logan: Yeah. When you’re on tour, I saw the Bedridden inspired kind of the “Gas Hands” riff. When you’re on tour, do you write a lot? Do you find yourself writing riffs, or is it kind of like you’re too busy?  

Andy: I mean, there’s like been times where, you know, you’re just messing around at sound check and a riff comes to you, but I wouldn’t say we’re ever like setting aside time to write or do anything like that. We, uh, I think just with like the exposure to like, like I mentioned the Bedridden thing in the blog, it’s like playing with that band and seeing them play every night for like three weeks or so. It’s like you start to pick up on those things that the tricks or the magic that makes that band sound that way. And like, whether you like it or not, you’re going to start like absorbing that and maybe it seeps its way into your writing. And like, I feel like that song, I found myself being like, oh, this is kind of like a Bedridden type beat because of that. Maybe like not even intentionally. So just, I had heard so much of it that that’s where it ended up with.  

Jackson: I think it’s like inspirational to just like be in all these new places and like you’re sleep deprived. So you’re kind of like emotional, you know what I mean? Like I’d like you come out of it with like, it’s just inspiring in a way, you know, like staring at the fucking plains, you know, like staring at the woods for like hours and hours, you know, in a car. 

Logan: You mentioned just, you know, like the bands and everything. You mentioned Blink-182. Those guy’s over there, White Reaper, opened up for blink-182 like two years ago. That’s kind of insane.

Zach: That’s awesome.

Jackson: I got to interject. Is this White Reaper on house music?  

Logan: They are on the playlist.  

Jackson: The voice, I was like, that’s got to be White Reaper. They’re playing their music at their show.  

Andy: That’s awesome. That’s how you know he made it, man. Yeah, you’re on a dime. 

Jackson: I was like kind of losing. I was like, there’s no way. 

Logan: I’ve heard everything from Miley Cyrus to like Judas Priest on this thing. So it’s, you know, we got a variety here.  

Andy: Yeah, we played some pool. It was a good playlist when we were playing.  

Logan: Yeah, they hold an extremely competitive pool league here on Monday nights. It’s, I’ve never participated, are you guys pool players?  

Andy: Here and there.  

Jake: Jackson’s all right, but we like to play.  

Andy: Yeah, good way to pass time, you know, playing a lot of bars on tour. You end up like, “oh, we got two hours till soundcheck”.  

Jake: It’s better than looking at your phone, you know, playing pool with the boys.  

Jackson: It’s a good money exchanging for time. Yeah, a dollar could be five minutes, could be like 20.  

Andy: Yeah, absolutely.  

Jake: That’s a good way to think about it.  

Logan: But it’s fun. And as long as you’re having fun, you’re winning.  

Jake: 100%.  

Logan: I won’t keep you guys too much longer. I got one final question for you guys. Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.  

Andy: Oh, yeah. 
 
Logan: That’s an insane show.  

Andy: Yes, absolutely. 

Logan: What are your guys’ takes on Salt Lake City Natives? Once again, saw a touch of it in the blog. What’s the, give me your unfiltered thoughts here.  

Andy: I love it. It’s cool. I honestly don’t think my girlfriend put me onto it. I think I put her onto it, which is funny. I love it. It’s great. I think it’s gotten the nation to maybe lend their eyes to Salt Lake City, Utah in a way that they haven’t before. It’s cool. I started it initially being like, I just want to see what businesses they go to. Like, kind of like, do I eat at the same places as them? 

Logan: Did you notice any local spots?  

Andy: Oh yeah. It’s a small city. There’s plenty of overlap. But they’re a little bit of, they live in a different tax bracket than me. So they’re going to a little bit more expensive places. But yeah, it’s great. I love it. New season just started. I was only able to watch one episode before heading out on this tour. I’m definitely going to binge through some once we get back. But I’m excited to see where things go. Seems like Britney is already stirring the pot, man. Classic Britney. We’ll see how that ends up. But we’ll see.  

Jake: I’ve honestly never seen it. This is mainly like, but my older sister really likes it. And so anytime there’s a blog or something, she’ll comment on it and be like, “oh, blah, blah, blah”. 

Logan: Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you guys. It was an absolute pleasure.  

Andy: Thank you so much. This was fun. 

Jake: Yeah, thank you man. 

Zach: Thanks man. 

Jackson: Logey-bear. 

Logan: I’m looking forward to a great show. It’s been a pleasure.  

Andy: Hell yeah.  

World’s Worst made a statement with their performance, setting an incredibly high bar for the bands that followed. Their first journey to Iowa was impactful and bold. I walked out with an anticipation for the next time I will see them live, and a song dedicated to myself. Tune in now, and see them in a small venue while you can. World’s Worst are a can’t miss as they continue their tour across the East Coast with White Reaper and Lip Critic. Their newest record “American Muscle,” is out now.

The post Interview: World’s Worst on their past, present, and the Real Housewives of SLC appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Altar primarily serves as a tribute to NewDad’s Ireland hometown, Galway, with its gloomy weather and quiet lifestyle. After the 2024 release of their debut studio album Madra resulting in their quick rise to popularity, the band promptly relocated to London to pursue music as a full time gig. NewDad saw an opportunity and knew they had to seize it. In hindsight, the band now regrets this sudden and drastic change in scenery, stating in an interview with NME how they would have enjoyed staying home and focusing on enriching their local rock scene. Altar is a simultaneous homage to Ireland and an expression of homesickness and nostalgia, all over the span of 12 tracks. 

NewDad’s Madra took alternative rock by storm with its explosive sound and unapologetic lyrics. The band was influenced by artists like The Pixies, The Cranberries, and Oasis, which shaped lead singer and rhythm guitarist Julie Dawson’s childhood. Altar is showing a departure from the heavier punk inspiration, instead borrowing elements from shoegaze and dream-pop, with most of the tracks more reminiscent powerful ballads seeping with raw emotion. It’s an interesting direction for the band to take their sound in, and it also bodes well with the themes of melancholy and reflection. 

From the very first track “Other Side”, the lyrics already express these deep emotions that permeate the album, as Julie Dawson sings about a noisy place that is killing her dreams and not letting her go. Accompanying Dawson’s soft melodies are simple synths, reminiscent of a lullaby, that build up to a thrilling beat drop with lead guitarist Sean O’Dowd and drummer Fiachra Parslow joining in. The song masterfully sets the tone for the rest of the record. “Heavyweight” maintains a steadier tempo while Dawson scornfully croons about the music industry, which drove the band away from home and thrust them into that harsh reality very early into their career, dripping with cynicism. 

The next track “Pretty” is a dreamy and melodic serenade that really hones in on Galway as the band’s muse: “His medicine has me hypnotized. You look so nice like a dream, swear on my life”. In the following track “Roobosh”, perhaps the most electric song on the album, Dawson’s booming vocal performance during the chorus is perfectly accompanied by her and O’Dowd’s hypnotizing guitar riffs. Parslow’s drumming is also on point, which, along with the other elements, emphasize the track’s vindictive and vitriolic energy. 

“Misery” offers a darker, meaner atmosphere with distorted, grungy guitars and a loaded instrumental. Dawson’s vocals demonstrate pure, raw emotion from someone who is deeply familiar with misery and the nasty way she makes her way into our lives. “Sinking King of Feeling” and “Puzzle” are both tracks that expand on the homesickness of the album, exploring somber feelings of misplacement, unworthiness, and inadequacy. The ballads, with soft, luscious sounds offer evocative imagery and highlight the melancholy that permeates the record. Sounds start to blend together and perhaps the band tried to become a little too cohesive. However, the instrumentation is consistently easy on the ears, despite the air of monotony. 

“Entertainer” is reminiscent of “Sickly Sweet” from the band’s debut album with the guitar riffs. The beat and instrumentation, as well as Dawson’s wildly entertaining vocals illustrate NewDad’s signature sound. “Everything I Wanted” perfectly encapsulates the album’s main thesis of homesickness. After their experience abroad, NewDad realized they had fallen into the trap of jumping ship too early and yearned for their hometown, which they now know could have harbored their dream. The layered soundscape cushions Dawson’s vocals as she introspectively warbles: “I tell myself that it’s everything I wanted/ Lost myself in this city”. The following two tracks “Mr Cold Embrace” and “Vertigo” are also about Galway which, to the band, evokes nostalgia and regret, with airy guitars and hauntingly beautiful vocals. The album ends on a somber note with “Something’s Broken”, as Dawson sings of feeling terrible sadness and fear and looking for intimacy as a way to cope and forget it all. 

Overall, Altar is a beautifully cohesive journey through Galway, the band’s bittersweet relationship with fame, the harshness of the music industry and everything in between. It’s a wonderful album to enjoy as the seasons transition from summer into autumn, with delicate guitars and catchy melodies that solidify the band as one of the best current alternative rock artists. Now, with their new tour around Europe and their freshly announced festival appearance at Primavera Sound ‘26, I’m excited to see what’s next for NewDad. 

The post NewDad on homesickness, fame and sacrifice in their latest album: Altar appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Iona Zajac : I just realized I’ve been, I’ve been kind of like, trying to navigate New York and then I was like, shit.  

Logan Melia: It’s a beautiful place to navigate, so no judgment on my end.

Iona: Thank you thank you. How are you doing?

Logan: I’m doing well, how about yourself?  

Iona: Yeah, really good, really good. A bit like, a bit spaced out after being on the road for a couple of weeks. And it’s my first time in all of these places, so, kind of like a kid in a sweet shop.  

Logan: Are you liking it so far? Are you liking the U.S. vibes?  

Iona: I am, I am. Like, New York in particular it’s my first time here.  

Logan: And you’re playing two nights there, right? Tonight’s the second night?  

Iona: Exactly. Tonight’s the second night and at Terminal 5. Have you been there?  

Logan: I have been. You guys have been playing some really incredible venues.  

Iona: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the ones in Canada, I have to say, have really stood out for me gig- wise. Our gig in Montreal was like, the highlight of the tour so far.  

Logan: Was that the City Folk Festival you played?

Iona: No, that was Ottawa, which was another highlight. That was amazing. 

Logan: Where did you play int Montreal that you liked so much?

Iona: Montreal, oh, off the top of my head, I can’t remember.

Logan: What made it so special for you?  

Iona: It was the audience, really. The audience were the dream audience to have on a stage, where they were giving you everything for the upbeat numbers and then really enjoying the slower numbers. Just so delighted by the gig and being there, that you stand on stage being so delighted to be there. And very similar, I’d say the most iconic venue that The Pogues have had really special gigs is a venue in Glasgow called The Barrowland Ballroom, otherwise known as “The Barras”. And it’s just really well known for them having the most rowdy, amazing electric gigs. And a few people at the show in Montreal kind of compared that audience to the Glasgow audience. So that was special.  

Logan: My first introduction to The Barrowlands was an old recording of Oasis playing there back in the 2000s. And then I just went down the rabbit hole. I mean, the fans look absolutely electric there.  

Iona: Yeah, it’s always a wild gig. I’ve got friends in an amazing Irish band called The Mary Wallopers.  

Logan: Oh, I love The Mary Wallopers. 

Iona: Yeah, you know them. So they’re big enough now that they could be playing the arena show in Glasgow, but instead they’ve chosen to do five nights in The Barrowlands rather than one night in the arena, just because of the buzz of the venue and the fans. It’s just great.  

Logan: Oh, absolutely. Now, I’m from Chicago, and the Riot Fest crowds that you’ll be playing to on Friday, I’m not trying to set your expectations too high, but I’m a longtime goer of that festival.  

Iona: Are you coming?  

Logan: Oh, I’m absolutely there. I’m front row for you. I’m getting there during Stiff Little Fingers.  

Iona: Class.  

Logan: You guys have been circled on the calendar for months ever since it was announced. But it’s crowd surfing, it’s moshing, and it’s the whole nine. It’s a good vibe.  

Iona: Brilliant. I can’t wait for that.  

Logan: You did a stretch in the UK, you’re doing some dates in the States right now. I mean, you guys have a ton of people on stage. How has the tour been as a whole?  

Iona: I mean, considering how many of us, it’s like the most harmonious and hilarious group of people. Honestly, the gigs have been amazing, but everything surrounding the gigs, like the bus journeys, have been just places of complete kind of hilarity. And we’ve written a lot of songs together on the buses. A lot of songs that are quite silly, like playing a game where you have to make up an album name and then write a track list, and then you choose to write one of the songs. And we’ve played that a couple of times. And we’ve done a lot of games, you know, poetry games, where you write a line and fold over the piece of paper and pass it on, and then you end up with this absolutely bizarre poem from all of our brains. It’s been a real place of just nonsense, but also just really amazing, open, creative people. And there’s obviously the three original members, James, Jem, and Spider, and there’s what they refer to as their children, which is all of us. And it really feels like that. It does feel like one big family. It’s amazing. And we all just feel so lucky to be doing it. It’s such an honor.

Logan: That’s so sweet. I mean, it’s such a cool progression of the legacy. My whole family’s from Ireland, so the Pogues were the soundtrack to growing up and everything. I never thought I’d get an opportunity to see them. And so what does this legacy mean? What is your relationship with the Pogues growing up?  

Iona: I think, similarly, growing up with my parents, listening to them, and knowing of this guy, Shane MacGowan, that was just this absolute legend and mad character. Growing up, we’d be singing the songs at Christmas, but obviously my parents would have been going to see them when they were a bit younger than I am now. So, I really just grew up knowing them as legends that I would probably never get to see. And then suddenly getting asked if I might get up and sing a song with them, I was like, I can’t do that. I don’t have that kind of, I don’t think I had that kind of voice in me. To sing the song, one of my songs I sing is “Poor Paddy Works on the Railway”, and that requires you to be quite raucous. I just didn’t think I had that voice, because the rest of the stuff I sing is pretty mellow and folky, and I’ve absolutely found it thanks to them. The band is not trying to be what it was with Shane MacGowan, nobody’s trying to replace anyone. He has written songs that will last forever, and we’re just so lucky to be carrying on singing them. It’s a real love for him all through the show. Yeah, it really is. 

Logan: Thats so special.

Iona: Yeah, it really is.

Logan: Now Ireland is kind of, the U.K. as a whole, is kind of a hotbed kind of the best new bands between, you mentioned The Mary Wallopers, you have Fontaines, Kneecap, Sam Fender even from more of the British side of it. Is there anything that you have your eye on right now? Any artists from across the pond that us Americans should be keying into?

Iona: Apart from the ones you’ve just mentioned, I don’t know if you’ve come across Lankum. They’re a dark Irish folk band. They’re fantastic, and one of their members is playing guitar with us on this tour. John Francis Flynn is also brilliant from Dublin, and he’s singing a couple of songs with us, so you’ll see. Ireland is just constantly pumping out these amazing musicians at the moment. I’m from Scotland myself, but I’m living in London now. It’s kind of exhausting living in London, because there’s a brilliant gig to go to every day.  

Logan: Not a bad problem to have.  

Iona: Yeah, it’s not a bad problem to have. But yeah, I think this group of musicians is a particularly special group, because there’s so many people that have their own projects that are very exciting at the moment. Lisa O’Neill, who’s singing some of the big numbers with us on this tour, her solo project is absolutely amazing. I’m doing some shows supporting her as soon as I get back.  

Logan: And yourself too, you have your album “Bang” coming out November 21st. You have a few singles out right now, you have a music video for “Dilute”. This is a big year for you, this is exciting.  

Iona: Yeah, it’s all going on. Bringing out my first record has taken a long time and a lot of work, and it feels like a lot has gone into this year, and then suddenly it’s all happening at once. And so it feels great to be putting out my solo music and working on that alongside doing The Pogues stuff, because it’s all so different, but all feeding into each other. And my solo music is so different from this. So I feel like they’re just feeding different avenues, if you like.  

Logan: Yeah, I’ve listened to your stuff and it’s got such a feeling to it. It sets over you when you listen to it. And even going back to your first EP, “Finding Her in the Grass”, you have such a unique sound that has just consistently been yours.  

Iona: Thank you. I’m outside a restaurant just now because I met up with my producer who produced “Bang”. She’s in New York right now. And I think working with her and working with the musicians on the album has been really key to developing the sound. Because I really just started as me in my bedroom with my guitar, with a knowledge of three chords. That’s where the first EP came from. And so it’s really exciting, the prospect that this album is going to… because I’ve done so much solo touring, supporting people. And now with this record, we’re going to be playing with a full band. I can’t wait.  

Logan: Yeah, you got some co-headline dates with Robin Kester and then your album release show on the 27th at The Social. You have so much going on this year. What is the most exciting thing for you?  

Iona: I think, apart from these The Pogues shows, I think the next thing will be the album launch in London. That’ll feel like a big moment because I’ve not really done a headline show under my own name before. And so much has gone into getting this album out in the world. We’re sort of releasing it. And I just hope it’s a big celebration of the music. And the thing I’ve been enjoying this year the most actually, because we recorded the album nearly two years ago now, so the songs have been around for a long time. But this year I’ve really been focusing on the visual and the videos to go alongside the tracks. And that, I think, has really injected the music with a currency of how I am as an artist at this point, versus how I was when I wrote the songs. And I’ve just been so enjoying that creative process and finding amazing people to work with. And so I’m about to make the next music video for the next single, which is called “Murder Mystery”. It’s kind of a play on Scandi Noir, Murder Mystery songs. It’s very surreal. But we’ve got a really exciting plan for the music video for that. So I’m excited to make that when I get home.

Logan: This is so exciting. Now, I won’t keep you too much longer. I’ve got one more question for you. Thank you so much for taking the time with me. So this new album of yours, you mentioned Emily Dickinson as a previous influence for the song “Summer”. Are there any forms of media that you really fall back on that just always hit the inspiration chord for you?   

Iona: I think reading poetry is probably always where I go to. Reading poetry and people watching would be probably my two… If I’m needing material, I’m just obsessed with watching people and writing that focuses on everyday experience and the subtleties of daily living that sometimes we miss because we’re occupied by big things in life. So, like Hannah Sullivan has always been a big inspiration and Alice Oswald. Hannah Sullivan has this poetry collection called “Three Poems”. It’s the best observation of busy life that I’ve read. I’d say that. This record is a big one because it really does detail the last 15 years of my life. Going forward, the stuff will probably be a bit more current. I’m so excited to have it out in the world.

Logan: You can listen to it on November 21st. You can catch Iona with The Pogues this Friday at Riot Fest.  

Iona: So nice to speak to you, Logan. I’ll see you on Friday.  

Iona and The Pogues put on an incredible show, one that brought in a crowd spanning generations to sing, dance, and celebrate Shane and The Pogues’ legacy. With an encore of “The Gentlemen’s Soldier” in the shadow of fireworks, The Pogues set at Riot Fest will live in the memories of their fans for life. Iona’s first LP “Bang” comes out in just under 2 months on November 21st. You find her music here.

The post Interview: Iona Zajac on The Pogues, “Bang”, and the Lash appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Black Angel was a snug fit that early evening, as the small audience crowded themselves haphazardly between the restaurant tables spilling out onto the patio. All three songwriters sat perched with their guitars on the makeshift stage, taking turns between testing their equipment and tucking their beers away. They were placed perfectly in line with the abstract art hanging on the wall behind them, each artist’s silhouette perfectly framed by a colorful painting. Intimate and laid-back, the restaurant became a comforting space as lagers, soft conversations, and nachos gently wound around the music coming from makeshift stage. 

Each of the three took turns playing their own songs. Aaron Longoria started the festival off with their sweet and melodic song “3 Months,” the first song they ever wrote. The next song “Sick Habit” was performed by Sophie Mitchell, who wrote it during her time at the University of Iowa’s writing program. Penny Peach followed with an ode to politicians who don’t suck, dedicated to Oliver Weilein who currently serves on the Iowa City Council. As the three continued to pass songs and conversations between each other, their unique sounds and inspirations became clearer and brighter. Playing off each other, their differences and similarities shone through their songwriting.

Songs told their stories about relationships, spinning out on the highway during a 3am blizzard, exes, the choices and agency that belongs only to ourselves, and lessons about how truly important it is to not live in a basement. Aaron Longoria’s songwriting was very conversational, music that felt like the spoken stories they were inspired by. Sophie Mitchell contrasted with more classic songwriting about love, a clear voice and gentle guitar glancing around the edges between softness and power, then continuing to throw jokes and pull laughter from the whole audience. Penny Peach’s lovely warbling twang held a thick and vibrant tone, with a wholly political and experiential style of writing.

In between songs, they all briefly paused to highlight the recent project Always Here: A Compilation of Sounds from Iowa, arranged by Aaron Longoria. The compilation features songs, sounds, and poetry from trans and nonbinary artists across Iowa, with proceeds benefitting the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund.

This feature was the perfect opening to a new festival, quite different from The Englert’s most popular events on the same scale. Intimate and comforting, it was a beautiful display of our beloved local talents coming together on one stage to just share some music. Each artist brought their own talents, emotions, and writing into the room that evening to spin stories into songs that captured the hearts of everyone in the room. This was the perfect start and introduction to what the Iowa City Songwriters Festival is about, highlighting artists songwriting as a process of collaboration within our local community. They shared how complex the emotions and stories are that feed these songs. They proved how simple it all can be, a few people and guitars coming together to share all our love for music and life.

The post The Perfect Beginning to Iowa City Songwriters Festival: Aaron Longoria, Sophie Mitchell, and Penny Peach appeared first on KRUI Radio.