SHY Martin

This time, we sat down with SHY Martin (@shy.martin), a bada** singer-songwriter who has collabed with people like Bebe Rexha, Kygo, and The Chainsmokers. She broke onto the scene as the featured artist and songwriter on Mike Perry’s The Ocean, which has nearly 600 million streams on Spotify alone, and her songwriting catalog has generated almost 3 billion streams. In this episode, we talk about SHY Martin’s songwriting process, going to school in Sweden, dealing with anxiety, and more. She is a beautiful soul and I'm grateful to be able to bring this podcast to you. Without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with SHY Martin.

James Hersey

This time, we sat down with James Hersey, a singer-songwriter from Vienna, Austria. As an artist who does not collaborate often, James made his first mainstream dent on the charts with an original song called ‘Coming Over.’ Kygo and Dillon Francis then hopped on the track, a collaboration with James that now has over 125 million streams on Spotify alone. He was able to replicate that success with the smash hit ‘Miss You,’ which was written, sung, and produced by James.

Starting as a kid on drums who played in punk bands with a mohawk, I respect the Mohawk, James evolved into a hell of a songwriter. Even if you haven’t put the face to the voice, you have no doubt driven in the car, drank at a bar, or worked out to one of James’ beautiful, infectious melodies. After seeing massive success on the track with Kygo and Dillon Francis, singing at festivals all over the world, James could have become a go-to vocalist for mainstream electronic producers, and there would have been nothing wrong with that. Many take that path. But for James, he stayed true to his own artistry, who he was, and made the music he wanted to make. As James’ Dad says, “Creativity allows you to make mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep.” In this conversation, we discuss the story behind ‘Coming Over’ with Kygo and Dillon Francis, a pivotal getaway experience in Austin, Texas, judgment on social media, the inspirations behind his latest project, Innverse, and more.

Even if you aren’t particularly passionate about music, or maybe you haven’t discovered James Hersey yet, I encourage you to listen to the full extent of this conversation. There are a lot of good takeaways that apply to many aspects of life outside of music. If you do anything creative, or maybe you’re at a crossroads and aren’t sure where to go, give this a listen. I’m not saying you’ll find the answer here, but you’ll be listening to a couple of people who share that uncertainty and work through it every day. So without further ado, here is our wide-ranging conversation with James Hersey.

Yoste

Welcome to another installment of ‘Off The Record’ where the artists themselves speak about pivotal moments, share experiences, and answer questions about the things that matter most. This time, Yoste (@soundsofyoste), a producer and songwriter from Brisbane Australia, talks to us a bit about his approach to songwriting and applying emotion to the actual song structure. In his bio, Yoste writes “I’ve struggled for years with a severe sense of listlessness and general lack of purpose. I still do in fact. It’s something I now recognize in many of the people around me, both young and old. It’s damn fascinating to write about.” Well, I can say Yoste, you are damn fascinating to listen to as well, both your words and the music.

FINNEAS

On our latest podcast, we spoke with the producer/songwriter FINNEAS who is now making waves as a solo artist. In 2018, FINNEAS has released six single thus far, treating each song with its own story and carefully crafted cover art. He has also made music with talents like Khalid, Tori Kelly, Wafia, and of course, his sister Billie Eilish. In this article, we’ve taken a few of our favorite quotes from the podcast interview and broke them down.

Lil Aaron (part 1) →

This week, we sat down with an artist who considers himself a non-conformist in the music industry, Lil Aaron. Most people know Lil Aaron as the party-hard, pop-punk, green-haired misfit, but that's only one side. Growing up in Goshen, Indiana, Lil Aaron lived the realities of moving broke out to LA. He pushed past the point where most give up and has spent thousands of hours honing his craft. Down to earth and devoid of genre constraints, Lil Aaron blends musical elements in a way we've never experienced before. I hope you enjoy part one of this conversation and gain new insight from Aaron's perspective.