Beginning with little more than acoustic guitar and Riley’s understated vocal, ‘Year One’ is a beautifully patient slow burn. Gentle percussion gradually enters before the arrangement expands further, with delicate strings bringing a subtle sense of hope to an otherwise reflective folk-pop track. Eventually everything falls away again, leaving Riley’s voice exposed just as it was at the beginning. Knowing she wrote the song while experiencing problems with her vocal cords makes those moments particularly poignant; you’d certainly never guess it from her quietly assured performance.

Riley’s accompanying video brings another side of her artistry into focus, moving between glimpses of everyday life and charming stop-motion animation before the latter takes over. There’s a subtle storybook quality to the whole package, fitting for an artist whose music feels intensely personal while increasingly blurring the boundaries between songwriting, film and visual art.

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“It’s a full circle moment,” Knox shares. “I wrote it after my first trip to London, and my first heartbreak. Coming back, and recording at Abbey Road, it feels like the perfect time for this song to be heard.”

Written for a college project on metaphor in music, ‘Kerosene’ weaves poetic double meanings into its sparse, four-word chorus by balancing simplicity with profound emotional weight. The track explores the shame and longing that often follow a first heartbreak, and the fear of being “too much.”

“The lyrics and picking pattern hold a lot of space so we didn’t want to overcrowd it during production”, Knox says, and adds “there’s something about this one that feels like it’s been waiting for the right moment to be heard.”

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It wasn’t until she started studying at the Royal Academy of Music in Aalborg that she took the step from singer to songwriter, using music to put words to the experiences that shaped her—a process that became a way of processing loss and trauma.

Her new single ‘In My Heart’ was written during a period when Gunnva had just gotten married and graduated. The song stems from the feeling of being stuck in one’s own thoughts, waiting for others to create one’s success, and realising that you have to take the initiative to chase your own dreams. With warm vocals and an organic sound blending acoustic guitar, slide guitar, and strong melodies, she places herself in a modern Nordic folk-pop universe inspired by artists like Lizzy McAlpine and Fleetwood Mac.

The song is produced by Victor Kiowsky Søyland, who’s worked with a lot of well-established Danish artists, and he is currently collaborating with Gunnva on her debut album, expected to be released this fall.

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Speaking on ‘You Would Have Let Me Down’, Miranda says: “‘You Would Have Let Me Down’ is a song about ending a relationship in the early stages before someone can hurt you. Your rationale for doing so is vague. You think you’ve seen some red flags in their behavior, and you feel vulnerable to being hurt by them, you want to protect yourself. But you also wonder if you’re leaving too early, running from imagined problems, because you’ve let someone get close and it scares you. Still, you’ve chosen to leave, and you’re facing the consequences of that. It’s addressed to the person you’re leaving, as an explanation and an apology of sorts.

“I wrote it in May when I was right in the middle of deciding to leave a romantic situation. I hadn’t figured out what I thought or wanted yet, so it came from a confused and vulnerable place. I recorded it shortly after and didn’t rewrite any lyrics with more clarity or perspective, and I think that that has given it a truthful temperance. It was produced by Cian Sweeney. At a peak, there are 23 layers of harmony on the track; I wanted to build a warm, swirling vocal wall. Cian then filled the track with dark, atmospheric layers of piano, acoustic guitar, synth, strings, & percussion, building from a stripped intro to a dramatic peak. We tried to convey the emotional drama of that moment of leaving someone.”

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‘Sister Hymn’ marks a new chapter for Oakland Rain, drawing inspiration from an elegant, Americana earthiness that pays homage to the duo’s maternal grandfather, a devoted fan of American country and folk music. Maren and Charlotte Wallevik, the talented twin sisters behind Oakland Rain, infuse the song with their signature Simon & Garfunkel-like interlace of harmony vocals, showcasing their musical prowess and unique bond.

With ‘Sister Hymn,’ Oakland Rain invites listeners to join them on a journey of empowerment, unity, and celebration. As the world commemorates International Women’s Day, the duo’s message resonates as a beacon of hope and solidarity for audiences worldwide.

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Featuring the record’s previously shared title-track, somebody’s daughter sees néomí expand the stripped-back and acoustic-led aesthetic of her infancy to explore a more varied and multifaceted sound throughout. Regularly adopting a broader and more euphoric direction here, this new LP aims to brighten and illuminate her already powerful and emotive sound to date.

The album is produced by Will Knox, a long-time collaborator with néomí who was also present during the writing and recording of her first two EPs. The album’s themes follow néomí’s journey through adolescence, young adulthood and newly found womanhood. somebody’s daughter presents 11 chapters in néomí’s coming of age story which follows a young woman’s journey through trust, love, and ultimately self-healing through reflection.

Previewed by the new lead offering ‘someone new’, we see the artist in a renewed and revitalised state throughout. Doubling down on that euphoric energy she has been adopting lately, she looks to open-up more than ever before, resulting in a truly welcoming and intimate listen at every turn.

Talking about ‘someone new’, she said, “‘someone new’ is basically a love letter to my therapist. How, at first, I hated the fact I was put in a category which I thought I didn’t belong to. Since those first encounters things have changed. I am grateful I’ve learned so much about myself and life in general. Most importantly I’ve learned how to deal with other people and, in the process of everything, become ‘someone new’ who is taking responsibility for their own actions and owning them. It was a relief to understand it’s never only ‘you’ in the story as a story is, almost always, double sided. I’m sure we all experience something like this in our time on this odd planet. It’s a song about not wanting to open up because to work on yourself requires going through pain which is the hardest thing in life. But I understand now working on improving yourself, no matter how painful it can be to remember the past, is the most important job there is.”

somebodys daughter:

1. somebody’s daughter
2. your girl
3. garden
4. someone new
5. i forgot to tell you
6. 11nov20011006
7. 160316126422792
8. so i let you (15th of june – evening)
9. talk shit
10. low
11. i’m not afraid of dying
12. could’ve been mine
13. all you do is leave (15th of june – night)

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Adding about the new release, she said, “The track ‘somebody’s daughter’ was written in the same week as the single ‘your girl’. As I was still in that same mood (pained and angry by misunderstanding words by others) I was writing more and more while carrying these unknown feelings around. To me ‘somebody’s daughter’ feels quite heavy as the message is really: whatever a person does, don’t forget he or she will still be someone’s kid. Times can get rough, and being mad on one another is healthy, but to forget the humanity behind a face can feel a bit cruel. I felt left out by that time, by people I saw as family. I am not saying that was their fault, or even mine, it was a feeling that I carried inside and wrote about.

“The song developed itself by taking me on its own story. All of a sudden I felt a bit more rage and anger for all the daughters (even boy, girl or non) that were mistreated on behaviour they were judged about. It is a sort of “cry for help” like hey I am juggling through life too. Just like you and you and you, don’t forget I am still somebody’s daughter. Why are we alive if you can’t make mistakes, and what did I do by loving them all that time and getting just a simple rejection in return. Somehow in that state I was in, it didn’t feel fair. As if they forgot I am still somebody’s daughter.”

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On the track, Rosie shares: “’Heartbeat’ was born at the guitar, harking back to some of my longer-term muses: Joni, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, Joan Armatrading. The neo-soul temperament of the drums and bass creates the generational link for me, the ‘modern-day’ Joni Mitchell vibes I’m going for and inclusion of some of my other R&B/soul influences like Lewis Taylor, John Mayer, Emily King, Jamie Woon.”

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Adopting a more euphoric dream-pop-inspired aesthetic this time around, ‘your girl’ sees her step away from the acoustic-led direction she has been building these last few years. As she prepares for the release of her long-awaited debut album in 2024, we are seeing the first snippets of where she plans to take her distinctive sound next.

Adding about ‘your girl’, she said, “‘your girl’ has more meaning than just a simple ‘this is what the song is about’. For the first time I’ve started to write music not from a place of sadness, but a place of anger. It has a lot to do with my personal growth as a human being and therefore as an artist.

“‘your girl’ is about people (whether known personally to you or not) painting a picture ‘you’ using their own words, their stories, their interpretation of who they think you are today, or you should be tomorrow or how you were in the past. It is about realising that you are no longer playing yourself in your own ‘movie’ but instead find yourself trying to fulfil how others see you in their own ‘movie’. You lose yourself to another ‘you’ and become another character because of that. I noticed I was playing up to a character of how others around me saw me and had to work very hard to find myself again.

“Of course, would it be a néomí song without a bit of love? Haha. I was hurt by a loved one, and watched as that person hurt someone they love and visa versa.

“So there you go: I’ve got another love song for you. Again, the song is more than just that, to me it has different layers so I’m not sure more words would help, just listen and find out yourself what you feel. Maybe one day we can talk about it “

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Speaking about the track, Katie said: “‘board games’ is genuinely based on a party I went to where I was playing Jenga. It’s about all the little funny moments of falling in love and hoping they don’t get boring or turn into something you look back on one day.”

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