SOMEONE is the moniker for Dutch/British composer, producer, and visual artist Tessa Rose Jackson. Through her art and music, she tells science-fiction inspired stories combined with stunning, cinematic music videos in collaboration with Hollywood’s rising star director David Spearing. Following its premiere by Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music, SOMEONE shares new single ‘In Your Arms’, the third to be taken from her forthcoming second album Owls. It describes love and joy in a burning world wrapped in the beguiling song writing craft of Feist and the expansive electronics of Air, whilst musically hitting an emotional, synth-fuelled high reminiscent of festival bombshells such as MGMT’s ‘Kids’ and Tame Impala’s ‘Let It Happen’. The accompanying ‘In Your Arms’ visual, created by the LA Film Award winning duo SOMEONE and David Spearing, is a bittersweet sci-fi vignette which evokes the mysticism and atmospheric pull of Chernobyl’s wasteland. It follows two young girls as they emerge from their subterranean bunkers for a day of adventure in what SOMEONE describes as “A post-apocalyptic world, where the air is toxic and terrifying six-legged creatures prowl the land.” As SOMEONE expands “What follows is a day filled with fun and play, because no matter what the world may throw at them, kids will always find a way to just simply… be kids. It’s a celebration of the power of joyfulness and love against all odds”.

Tāmaki Makaurau electro-pop whiz kids Brother Sister have reemerged with a power-packed new video for their anthem ‘Breakdown’, which first surfaced on their 2019 EP SSDD. Gleefully piling up ’80s throwback signifiers to such an extent we suspect they must have access to the very best op shops in the super city, the trio of Taz (formerly of Master Blaster and Club Stupid), Dave and Ben (both of Alex the Kid) extoll the dubious virtues of a stay-at-home life away from workaday stress in their MTV-ready synth-pop banger. Channeling Brother Sister’s love for the sound and visuals of near-forgotten Saturday morning cartoons, director / editor Dave Thomson’s (Imaginary Friends) clip for ‘Breakdown’ walks a pastel-hued line between cute, stylish and intensely over-caffeinated. [via Under The Radar]

Tove Lo is back with a vengeance. She may have made her name as an indie sleaze trailblazer, but with each taste of her forthcoming album, DIRT FEMME (October 14, Pretty Swede Records/mtheory), Tove Lo gives us something new to chew on. The visual for her last single, ‘2 Die 4,’ recalls her early party girl days through a distinct artistic lens. The video, directed by Anna-Lisa Himma, takes the best parts of Y2K to the extreme. In blue, green and pink hues, Tove Lo resurrects the Europop club scene that brought her fame in the early 2010s. ‘2 Die 4’ is all the best bits of the early 2000s club scene, and less of the mess. It is calculated chaos. The visual makes a splash with polished choreography, high-glam looks and lots and lots of wet t-shirts. Tove Lo’s entourage gets wet and wild in a giant pool a la Le Bain, leaving sequins and sweat in their wake. “We wanted to make a pop bitch Y2K experience,” Tove Lo said in a statement about the video. “With all the choreo, the outfits, the wetness. I think we more than delivered.” Tove Lo understood the assignment. Playing up the camp elements of Euro party scenes by cosplaying as a garnish in a giant martini glass, and elevating tropes of the genre by transforming strobes into moody spotlights, ‘2 Die 4’ brings Y2K to 2022. ‘2 Die 4’ doesn’t simply glamorize and replicate the past — as Y2K nostalgia often falls victim to — but creates new icons from timeless relics. Noting the sample of Hot Butter’s 1972 classic ‘Popcorn’ which became a club anthem in the early 2000s with a techno remix, Tove Lo speaks to the legacy of her newest work. “With ‘2 Die 4’ I wanted ‘instantly iconic’ energy. I’ve never sampled anything before, and this feels like the perfect first moment. Lyrically I wanted it to be that ‘pick me up when I’m feeling down’ song. At first, it’s like a warm hug, then you shake it off, let out a scream and start dancing!” This visual did leave us doing all of the above. [via Paper]

London based songwriter Molly Payton has shared new single ‘Do It All The Same’. The songwriter was raised in New Zealand, before making her way to the UK. 2022 has become something of a banner year, with Molly Payton playing a slew of high profile festivals, alongside support slots with Arlo Parks, TomOdell, Oscar Lang, and Wallice. Set to hit the road with Beabadoobee shortly, those dates are Down Under – with Molly returning to New Zealand in the process. Alongside this, she’s set to release new EP Compromise on October 28, with lead single ‘Do It All The Same’ online now. Her first new music in 12 months, ‘Do It All The Same’ is a moment of acceptance, with Molly Payton honing in on what delivers true happiness. A song about moving past difficulties in your life, writing it allowed Molly to locate some light amid the darkness. She comments… “This song came about after I’d had a particularly bad run of things. I was out of money and about to start a tour I couldn’t afford and really doubting my future. When you’re living that way it makes you really appreciate any consistency you can get your hands on, and for me that was my partner. ‘Do It All The Same’ isn’t anything profound or groundbreaking, it’s just me thanking another person for being there for me.” [via Clash]

Hamburg trio Roller Derby have shared shimmering new single ‘Only You’. The three-piece formed back in 2020, a trio of friends with hugely disparate influences. Philine Meyer (vocals, keys), Manuel Romero Soria (guitar) and Max Nielsen (bass) craft dreamily evocative pop music, melding together superb tapestries of sound with dynamic songwriting. Lyrically astute, the way Roller Derby interlock seems to suggest three voices working in tandem, informing their music with a real sense of emotional pull. Freshly signed to independent label Practise Music, Roller Derby’s new single ‘Only You’ glides back into view. A succinct alt-pop song, the somnambulist tapestries of sound come together to craft something potent and direct. Out now, it’s accompanied by a full video. Roller Derby explain: “In the video we have been trying to create an ambiguous atmosphere, where strong feelings for a person lead to something rather surreal and quirky…” [via Clash]

In 2021, Alex Lahey released a couple new songs, ‘On My Way’ and ‘Spike The Punch.’ They were her first singles since 2019 sophomore LP The Best Of Luck Club, but apparently both were interstitial tracks not attached to any larger project. ‘Congratulations,’ Lahey’s new single out today, is billed as the launch of a new chapter. It is not a MGMT or Post Malone cover, but rather an original that finds Lahey telling off an ex: “So happy for your perfect life/ There’s something in my eye/ I’m doin’ just fine without you.” Actually, according to Lahey’s statement, those lines are directed at more than one former partner: “Two of my exes got engaged within an improbably short space of time of one another. What are the odds? I couldn’t not write a song inspired by it.” In a video directed by Jon Danovic described by Lahey as “unhinged,” she makes out with herself: “It felt like the perfect time to execute a long standing concept I had of making out with myself on camera. Now both the song and the video feel like a message about choosing yourself over anyone else.” [via Stereogum]

Doechii and SZA release the much-anticipated video for ‘Persuasive.’ Directed by Sara Lacombe, the club-ready collaboration of Top Dawg Entertainment’s two female powerhouses makes the song and sultry video next-level intoxicating. The song is featured on Doechii’s acclaimed EP she / her / black bitch. The upbeat R&B anthem showcases Doechii’s impressive ability to flex her signature versatile flows into Grammy-winner SZA’s immaculate vibes. “I created ‘Persuasive’ to uplift people and bring communities together, so having SZA jump on the song was a perfect fit because I’ve always connected with others over her music,” says Doechii. “Knowing that SZA is with TDE was what originally got me most excited about being on this label, so now that we have a song together it’s a full-circle moment. She really ATE! This collaboration is everything I always imagined it to be.” [via Broadway World]

Ava Max is making a play to take over the pop stratosphere. The 28-year old star’s 2020 debut album, Heaven & Hell, is officially a platinum certified release and now her follow-up album, Diamonds & Dancefloors, is on deck. The album’s original October release date has been pushed back to next January 27, but that just gives the singer more time to work with in the lead up. Enter ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ her latest single which is out now along with an opulent video. “When I was creating this record, I was going through a really hard time in my life – heartbreak and just a lot of sadness,” Max said in a statement. “I titled it ‘Million Dollar Baby’ to remind myself of my self-worth and wrote the lyrics to show that you can overcome and achieve anything when you put your mind to it. The line ‘She broke out of her chains, turned the fire into rain’ shows the journey this song took me through – from feeling weighed down by sadness to breaking free and feeling like myself again.” [via UPROXX]

The post appeared first on She Makes Music.

Zolita has delivered the sapphic romantic comedy of our dreams, and it comes in the form of a trilogy of music videos. The latest of these videos, ‘I Fcking Love You,’ is out now, and it certifiably rules. “The Trilogy,” as she simply calls it, started with ‘Somebody I Fcked Once,’ a pop-punk infused single set in the halls of high school where cheerleader Zolita fell in love with a bad girl named Gia (played by Tatchi Ringsby, who was originally one of Zolita’s sister’s friends IRL). Next, we saw ‘Single in September,’ where the girls graduated and broke up. Now, it all comes full circle. In the new video, it’s five years later, and Zolita is a big pop star doing her usual photoshoots when she sees a familiar face. One of the photographers is her ex, the one that got away, Gia! After years of will-they-won’t-they, we finally get the satisfying reunion we’ve been dying for. Zolita talked to us about the new song and The Trilogy of videos. “‘Somebody I F*cked Once,’ that was the first video, and I had always wanted to do a high school video that kind of played on the classic rom-com tropes that I grew up with, but make it gay,” she says. “And when I put that up, and that obviously went crazy, it went viral, and everybody was really connecting to it. I realized that I wanted to expand upon the story,” she continues. “Especially because I feel like there’s such a lack of girl-on-girl storylines with happy endings.” So she decided to write and direct her own. “I think it kind of serves two purposes,” she says. “It both presents a familiar narrative structure to people that may not be as accepting, so hopefully can change people’s hearts and minds, but also it’s really healing for queer people to see the classic storylines that they grew up with, but in a queer way.” Zolita says that as soon as she saw the chemistry that she and Ringsby had on screen, she knew she wanted them back for more.“We just had such an insane, natural chemistry together,” she says. “And then obviously the second one even more so because we had been hanging out so much and had been able to build off of the excitement of the first one. They’re just such an incredible collaborator and such an amazing, truly my favorite person that I’ve ever worked with on a video.” The singer says that indulging in a lesbian rom-com, especially one with a happy ending, was one of the best parts about writing these songs and filming the videos. “I feel like right now, especially just in the world, people want things that feel good and that are positive. And I think I just didn’t grow up seeing a lot of happy endings for queer women. You even see with the Killing Eve ending how, just again, playing into the classic trope of ‘kill your gays.’ So I wanted to do the opposite and wanted to give people a sense of hope,” she says. It was also healing for her personally, as she had recently had a falling out with her first love, the person The Trilogy is loosely based on. [via Out]

Following the release of her emotionally charged singles ‘High Water’ and ‘Art of Survival’, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Bishop Briggs shares the powerful music video for ‘Art of Survival’. Co-written by Benji Madden as an ode to her late sister Kate, the track was written from “a place of choosing to keep fighting to live fully”. Regarding the ‘Art of Survival’ visual directed by Tim Mattia, Bishop adds, “I feel so grateful to be sharing the ‘Art of Survival’ music video with all of you. My hope behind this song was to bring this positive energy into my current headspace. Perhaps the more I sing this song and the more I read these lyrics I will find that power within myself to continue living life in a way that my sister would be proud of me. Thank you for being here.”

Australian band Body Type share the latest cut from their forthcoming album, ‘The Charm’, an assertive call to stand one’s ground. Their debut album Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising ushers in a new era for the band, and will be out May 20 on Poison City Records (Camp Cope, Cable Ties). ‘The Charm’ sees the band snatch back the reins for themselves. Vocalist Sophie McComish shares, “This track is about how women are held to higher standards than men in the music biz. It’s harder for us to get away with being a bit shit or making mistakes. Some guy once told us the ‘charm’ was gonna wear off if we didn’t get better at our instruments, that we had to do our 10,000 hours before we were worthy of the hype. This is our response.” The new track, which follows previous singles ‘Sex & Rage’ and ‘Buoyancy’, brings into focus the fearless autonomy and joyful rebellion that Body Type have come to embrace – empowered by their own strength and independence. ‘The Charm’ is all snarl, bite, and facetious wit in the face of condescension. Advice and authority dubbed as “birth control for rock and roll”, Body Type take that unsolicited advice and shove it down the bin. Contraception stands no chance with over-processed guitars and gruff refrains in control, juxtaposed against retro sweetheart-style backing vocals. The video, filmed on Dharawal country, is a cheeky and rambunctious statement directed by long time collaborator Madeleine Purdy. The clip shows the band stuck in the mud, literally and figuratively. They’re fighting through expectations that see them bogged down in the industry. Purdy says the video inspiration comes from a corner of the internet about Car Stuck Girls, where rev-heads like watching women getting stuck in the mud. “The fantasy sticks in the head of the viewer, once the cameras cut the women get out of the mud easily, have a shower, pocket their cash and go about enjoying themselves. I think this video works perfectly for what ‘The Charm’ is about.”

Ama Lou has accompanied the release of her latest track, ‘Same Old Ways’, with a clean set of visuals. Taken from her 2021 EP At Least We Have This, ‘Same Old Ways’ is an upbeat offering from north London’s Ama Lou who flexes her versatility by both singing and rapping over Maestro The Baker’s production. Ama’s creativity is evident in the visuals too – which she also directs – where we see her joining a private school filled with good vibes. [via GRM Daily]

Breakout alt-pop star Madeline The Person has returned with her empowering and honest new single, ‘MEAN!’. The song’s raw, relatable message is reflected in the Tess Lafia-directed video, which showcases the young artist’s inspiring outlook on otherness. ‘MEAN!’ serves as the introduction to Madeline’s much-anticipated upcoming EP, Chapter 3: The Burning. The video finds Madeline dressed as a clown at a party. Outcast by the cool kids, the singer-songwriter ultimately connects with another like-minded soul — also rocking clown makeup. “One single event, or even a couple of words, can literally impact your whole life and crush your self-esteem,” Madeline says of the song and video, which she made “in the hopes of letting others know they’re not alone in the sinking feeling that rushes over you when you hear hurtful words. The cool part about it all is that you will find people that love every part of you.” [via Prelude Press]

Ava Max is back, and teasing the follow up to her debut album, Heaven And Hell. After popping up in late 2021 with the dark and rebellious banger, ‘The Motto,’ a collab with Tiësto, Ava is back out on her own and thinks ‘Maybe You’re The Problem.’ In the lead single for her second album, Ava takes on the old adage that “it’s not you, it’s me,” and turns it on its head. Swapping out her short/long blonde hair for some fiery red locks, Ava finds herself agreeing with a former partner’s ex-girlfriends opinions on this breakup anthem. “Everyone always says ‘it’s not you it’s me’ but sometimes the problem really isn’t me, it’s you!!” Ava said of the song. “’Maybe You’re The Problem’ was so much fun to create. This new music I’ve been working on is the most personal music I have ever made. I can’t wait to share it with you very soon.” In the Joseph Kahn-directed clip, Ava sunbathes in the snow, gets inserted into a video game, and reflects on a relationship she couldn’t be happier to be out of. [via UPROXX]

Teenage Joans have returned with their first release for the year, a belting new single titled ‘Terrible’. Landing this week as the first song to follow the Adelaide duo’s debut EP, Taste Of Me, the track builds on that record’s jaunty punk-pop flair and self-deprecative themes, with more bite in the guitars and a slightly more optimistic spin put on the narrative. In a bridge that starts off gently and builds into a flurry of screams and distorted riffing, the duo chant: “It’s terrible, but it’ll do / I’m terrible but I’m not you.” ‘Terrible’ comes alongside an eye-catching video by Lemonade City, with direction via Tom Parolin and Kamryn Henschke. It starts with Teenage Joans being drawn to a VHS copy of an old horror film, A Terrible Tragedy, which the band themselves appear to star in. They soon find that the tape is cursed, and are chased down their street by a horde of possessed townsfolk. After finding refuge in a house, they’re compelled to venture down into its basement, where satanic clones of singer/guitarist Cahli Blakers and drummer Tahlia Borg use their instruments to brutally murder their innocent counterparts. [via NME]

Damn The Witch Siren has released the lead single ‘Vulture Culture’ from their new album Gold Magic (out July 29 on their own label, Baddest Bitch Records). The song precedes the release of the feature film Poser, produced and directed by Loose Films (the movie is getting a national theatrical release on June 3, distributed by Oscilloscope Labs). Bobbi Kitten and Z Wolf co-star in the film as themselves, and it features several of the band’s songs as well as some original score by Z Wolf. ‘Vulture Culture’ and its accompanying self-directed music video are a searing look at social media and celebrity culture, and how something that should have helped us through the pandemic had the unfortunate side effect of making many of us feel even more isolated. As the wildfires burned and the Capitol was sieged, it was hard not to feel like we’ve all locked ourselves into a virtual prison and thrown away the key.

The post appeared first on She Makes Music.