Category: Artist of the Week

Toronto DIY folk singer/songwriter Bryce Jardine set out as a promising solo artist last year after nine years playing in a local band. Thanks to two singles Jardine sent from his debut album, The Kids Are Gone, we were immediately smitten, and wondered why we hadn’t heard of him before now. Actually many extremely talented artists and bands featured on IRC haven’t received, for some reason, much or any mention on indie blogs and music sites, but often get more after their IRC profile. That’s why, this week, we chose Jarden as the DIY Artist of the Week.

Jardine, as a solo artist, is one of the most exciting DIY artists to emerge from Canada this year. His songs are crisp, seductively melodic, superbly written and produced, memorable and polished off with his impressive vocal work, where on songs like the album’s title track, and “Death in Life,” Jardine really shines. “The Kids Are All Gone” is probably one of the best DIY singles we’ve heard in 2012, and the follow-up track is a must-hear as well. We’ve been playing these two tracks – and others on his Bandcamp page – for the past few days again and again. All combined, it was a no-brainer on this side of the screen to name Jardine a DIY Artist of the Week.

“I wrote this record when everything in my life had fallen apart,” he told IRC. “I had no job, no band, and I was staying in an empty apartment on the 16th floor that my sister had rented out. I worked many times up to 12 hours a day on an acoustic guitar for about seven months and became quite isolated in the process. The result is an album that explores themes of loss of innocence, hope, redemption and love.”

“I have opened for many local indie acts, but thus far no name acts,” he said. “Although I have worked with members of The Kathleen Edwards Band, The Beauties, Serena Ryder, City And Colour in the studio.” Among his top musical influences are Townes Vand Zandt, Arcade Fire, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bon Iver, Steve Earle, Lou Reed, and Leonard Cohen. All excellent examples of a young musician with a great taste in music.

The bet we have here in the cafe is that music lovers will catch on to Jardine’s brilliance, and the more they listen to his songs, the more they will be talking about him in the months to come. If not, something’s wrong with the universe. We certainly think there is a high potential for Jardine to have a bright 2013.

We want to hear what you think – please leave a comment below or via Twitter or Facebook.

“The Kids Are Gone” – Bryce Jardine from The Kids Are Gone – Sept. 30th

“Death In Life” – Bryce Jardine from The Kids Are Gone – Sept. 30th

• Bryce Jardine Official Website
• Jardine on Facebook

Paul Thomas Zito of Pittsburgh is a particular stand-out DIY musician for us this week in the cafe, and we’re thinking may very well be for others too. From his new album, Darker Sea, Lighter Sleep, Zito recently sent us two singles.

While both tracks are fine songs, our favorite is “Cluster of String,” a sparkling composition oozing with warm, tropical-like synth melodies and soaring, echoey vocals – a perfect song for a sunny gold, blue-sky late summer afternoon. After a few spins of “Cluster of String,” it was clear we were hearing perhaps one of the best DIY artists on IRC this summer. That declaration was greatly enhanced by the second track Zito submitted.

“Cluster of Spring” – Paul Thomas Zito from Darker Sea, Lighter Sleep – Sept. 1st

“Bag” features steady, mechanical drum beats, waves of electronic dream pop that radiates layers of lush instrumentation, high-pitched synth keys and sound effects, of reverb, and vocals that evolve from melodic to harmonic while maintaining a cohesive confluence. That’s not an easy thing to pull off, and that’s another reason we picked Zito for this latest edition of the DIY Artist of the Week.

“Bag” – Paul Thomas Zito from Darker Sea, Lighter Sleep

Zito has been writing and recording his own music since 2004, and Darker Sea, Lighter Sleep is his first release since 2009. He told IRC: “I’ve been making music for about eight years now…[switching] between folk and electronic…I recently started getting into, what I call, ‘reinvention 80’s dream pop.’ It opened up something in my mind, and I’ve been trying to recreate that feeling ever since.”

We think he’s on to something.

The other two songs from the EP are available for purchase via his Bandcamp page

Every so often, while sifting through hundreds – thousands since 2008 – of artist and band music submissions, we come upon a DIY artist that stands out from all of the rest.

The great thing about this series has always been that it profiles artists who are clearly talented, and are usually not widely known. Plus, as with all DIY artists, they write, record and distribute their music without the help of a label or a publicist.

This week we have chosen Dalton, the solo-project of Brooklyn singer/songwriter Nate Harar. Prior to embarking on this recent solo-project, Harar sang and played guitar with indie-rock band Sugar, It’s Eli. However, the band broke up when two of the members moved away.

Last year, Harar decided to embark on his first creative-solo project playing bass, guitar, synthesizer and drums while recording in his apartment studio. The result is his debut, self-titled EP, released via Bandcamp on July 24th.

In a year where indie rock seems to have lost some of its luster, Dalton is one new artist that is doing his part to breath new life into the genre.

Dalton’s sound is energetic, raw and exciting, boosted by a hodgepodge of genres, distorted guitars and wild-eyed, lo-fi vocals reminiscent of popular indie bands like Oberhofer.

“Breaker” – Dalton from Dalton EP

“Animal” – Dalton from Dalton EP

Harar has a wide variety of musical influences, but none more than David Bowie. “David Bowie is my favorite artist just based on the quality and longevity of his career,” Harar said. “His string of albums from Aladdin Sane through Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is unrivaled in my opinion. I really take inspiration from his ability to constantly change his sound from album to album and still put out such amazing music.”

As for his own style, Harar said, “I don’t have any barriers in my songwriting. I don’t sit around and think: ‘I’m going to write a bluesy song today’. I let the music and the song dictate how it turns out. I would get bored limiting myself to one type of musical genre.”

“Hostel” is an earlier track that was not featured on Dalton’s debut EP.

“Hostel” – Dalton

Artists Opened For: None
Top Musical Influences: David Bowie, Nirvana, Gomez, The Pixies, Talking Heads, Arcade Fire, Peter Gabriel, Blur
Official Website: Dalton’s Bandcamp page
Year Formed: 2011

It wasn’t a surprise that starting up the DIY Artist of the Week series would generate interests in the artists featured. The first DIY Artist of the Week for 2012 was 20-year-old Florida lo-fi musician, singer and songwriter Thad Kopec. His profile on IRC got a pretty strong, positive reaction from listeners.

The second Artist of the Week, Ronnie Slogun, didn’t get the same degree of love as Kopec has, but Slogun’s self-recorded and self-released tracks did still manage to drum up kudos from folks who enjoyed his music – again keeping in mind these are young DIY musicians.

This week the spotlight turns to Chicago solo musician and singer/songwriter Ryan McMahon, who releases music under the moniker of Esta Vivo, and like Thopec, is only 20 years old. His work, all DIY to this point (with some very small indie label involvement), has gradually been receiving more recognition with each song he puts on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. However, we actually first heard Esta Vivo after he submitted some tracks via the IRC music submission form.

Esta Vivo, which means “is alive” in Espanol, sent us that new single, along with a couple of others that we’ve included below. McMahon’s music is a terrific mix of styles, including tropical, pop, folk, and new wave – with plenty of songs that are ripe for lazying on the beach, by the pool and summer playlists.

McMahon was previously in the electronica band Bearries which he toured with in 2008 and 2009 during his late teens, opening for artists such as Justice, So-Me, Bloody Beetroots, Danger, Don Rimini, Yelle, and Acid Girls. When Bearries dissolved, McMahon went his own way to create Esta Vivo.

One of his newest tracks, “Smile Back,” released May 4th via his Bandcamp page, is the first single off a planned album release, which McMahon desires to release on his own if he’s not able to find a record label. We think he has a good chance to get picked up by a label, but he may also want to consider Kickstarter to raise money to master and release the album on his own.

“Smile Back” – Esta Vivo from single

His melodic, tropical pop sounds, including the use of xylophone, on “Smile Back,” got our attention right away, and which we have spun numerous times in recent weeks. As he wrote on his LastFM page, “I use everything and anything as an influence leaving myself with no limitations to encounter. While mostly writing folk/tropical type tunes, I ultimately just create by feeling and what comes out is what comes out. If I can guarantee one thing about my art it’s that it will always remain unattached, open, and free-spirited.”

Some of his earlier songs, like “We Do The Skies” and “African Run,” from the self-released album Split, dropped in late 2011, demonstrate McMahon’s terrific talents in composing sunny, upbeat and memorable compositions all on his own. Split is available via Esta Vivo’s Bandcamp page on a name your price basis. We can only hope that music lovers will pay what they can to encourage artists like McMahon to remain DIY and keep putting out terrific music that you’ll never hear on the radio or MTV.

“We Do The Skies” – Esta Vivo from Split

“African Run” – Esta Vivo from Split

It’s something when a band puts out stand-out music, but when one guy does every aspect – from the songwriting and instrument playing to the recording and mixing it all together by himself – it’s nothing short of amazing.

Little by little, we are getting to hear more of Esta Vivo’s terrific talent manifest itself, as he reveals more songs from his upcoming album release. As a follow up to the release of “Smile Back,” McMahon released his latest single, “Sweet Tooth,” on June 12th, under the Esta Vivo alias. The track is a departure from his more sunny, upbeat songs, with a darker, lo-fi electronic intensity.

“Sweet Tooth” – Esta Vivo from TBD

McMahon described his songwriting process, telling IRC that he usually begins with a melody, but rarely starts out a song on an instrument. Although he does the majority of the tracking and mixing himself, McMahon says he has a collective of music-loving friends who help out and play with him live, even though he is considered a solo artist.

“After I have a pretty good understanding of it set, I’ll start figuring out the melodies on the instruments I use in the arrangement.” The instruments, he said, include guitars, bass, drums, pianos, xylophones, violins, congas, shakers, bells, trumpets, synths, and midis.

“Once it’s all worked out I usually sit on it [for] a while and try out different variations and ways to play it until I finally choose the one that stands out to me,” McMahon said. “From there, I record in basements, forests, bedrooms, etc. Really wherever I can go that specific day haha. Some songs I track all the instruments myself with the occasion of having a friend do a bass line or guitar.”

McMahon has opened for a number of bands, including My Brother, She’s My Sister and Radiation City. Among his top musical influence include artists like Devendra Banhart, Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Vetiver, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Nina Simone, The Zombies, Vashti Bunyan, Edward Sharpe, and The Flaming Lips, among others.

Esta Vivo Bandcamp Page

Esta Vivo on Soundcloud

With so many DIY artists flooding our inboxes, last week we decided to revive the DIY Artist of the Week series, that featured a talented and relatively unknown musician, Thad Kopec. IRC has always been about profiling DIY/unsigned artists who have something important to contribute to the musical experience, but for a long time they were included with the big weekly playlist post series, Best New Releases.

This next artist also made an impression on us with his beautiful and brilliant songs that we’ve listened to numerous times. From Tele Aviv, Israel, Ronnie Slogun is an unsigned indie musician and singer/songwriter who sent in some tracks from his new DIY album release, Yonder Our Despiser. The lead track from the album features the dreamy folk pop track, “Baby Blue Eyes,” a song that has quickly become one of our favorite DIY singles of the month.

“Baby Blue Eyes” – Ronnie Slogun from Yonder Our Despiser

Slogun told IRC: “Right now, I am searching for a label that might be interested in my project, sending out a copies of my first album as a demo, and currently planning a few club performances, as well as a live session in the studio.” He added that his indie folk, dream pop sound is influenced by artists like Husker Du, Slowdive, Evan Dando, Belly and John Frusciante.

After years of playing in various bands in Sweden – where he was also working on a master’s degree – and in Israel, Slogun decided last year to record nine tracks from his “nearly 100-song music book.” And we’re sure glad he did. What is important to keep in mind – and we have to be aware of this all the time – is that Slogun is a DIY artist, and wrote, recorded, mixed, released and promoted his own material.

“River Blues” – Ronnie Slogun from Yonder Our Despiser

“In my songs,” Slogun told IRC, “I combine acoustic/semi-acoustic sound with simple melodies and unobtrusive, low-key lyrics.” For those interested in listening to more of Slogun’s tracks, visit his Bandcamp page which features all nine original songs and one cover song.”

In the next track, “The Night Song,” reminds us of Billy Corrigan of The Smashing Pumpkins. The lo-fi demo, featuring only Slogun’s soft vocals and an acoustic guitar, projects a sincere melancholy that is heart-felt, and highlights the mixed emotions of young love. The song “Mrs. Katsuragi” is about a woman Slogun had seen walking up his street almost every day, and when he had just got up the courage to go out and talk to her, she never returned. Eventually, he found out who she was.

“The Night Song” – Ronnie Slogun from Yonder Our Despiser

“Mrs. Katsuragi” – Ronnie Slogun from Yonder Our Despiser

Based in Ocala, Florida, IRC’s DIY Artist of the Week is musician, singer and songwriter Thad Kopec, who started writing and recording music when he was 19 years old. Now at the age of 20, he has written “more than 50 songs.”

With that and other songs he plans to record, Kopec is aiming to drop his DIY debut album this fall under the moniker ‘North,’ which is already on our anticipated albums of the fall of 2012 list. Since the ‘North’ alias will make it difficult to find him in web searches, we respectfully suggest adding something to that, like ‘North Kopec,’ or what have you. But, at the same time, one can see how the DIY ethos chime in to say, “well, yeah, but I don’t really want to be found.”

For a 20-year-old self-taught musician who only really started playing and recording a year ago, Kopec is off to an impressive start with his thoughtful, endearing and uplifting songs; he’s clearly an extremely talented artist, and the more we listen to his fairly large catalog of lo-fi tracks, the more convinced we are that he deserves to get more notice, and suspect that will happen when more people give him a fair shot – we’re always looking for totally DIY artists and bands that make some good shit.

In addition to writing and composing each of his songs, Kopec records all of the instruments and produces the final tracking himself. But Kopec does get help from others on occasion. “On this particular recording [“The Ghost and The Thief”], I’m playing everything but drums, which are played by my friend Curt Hensley. On all my demos on Soundcloud though, I do play everything, except for on the ‘White Christmas’ cover, on which Josh Gilligan plays bass and piano.”

“The Ghost and the Thief” – Thad Kopec, single

While there’s definitely influences like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver in his songs – which he freely admits – Kopec is authentic and original at the same time. “Once I started to discover that I could write songs,” he said, “it was contagious.” Kopec recently recorded a video session with Oceana and Carousel.

His most recent song, the uplifting folk rock track, “The Ghost and The Thief,” is the newest example of his talents and abilities as a songwriter, singer and musician, especially for a young guy with no formal musical training. Clearly, Kopec has the early indicators of hundreds of musicians over the years who’ve started off with some self-recorded songs, and gone on to gain recognition for their work.

“Keeping Secrets” – Thad Kopec

All things considered, the lyrical depth of his songwriting, the quality of his musical arrangements, his heartfelt vocal range, and the professionalism and maturity of his overall production put Kopec on our Artists to Watch list, without hesitation. We literally listened to every song he has up on Soundcloud page (approximately 50 tracks), and picked some of our favorites for this profile. It should be noted that some of our favorites were also among those which have been hearted, played or downloaded the most by others. But it’s apparent from the number of overall plays that Kopec has still not received the wide recognition he deserves.

When listening to his songs, the influence of artists like Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver is unmistakable, and you can tell that he has been steep deep in the music of those artists for enough time to have used those roots as a basis for his own style and sound. There is still work to be done on perfecting his existing skills, but again, given all the facts, it made sense to us to profile Kopec as a DIY Artist of the Week.

The next song, “Heart of Man,” is one of his most recent tracks. While listening to the song, it’s apparent that his music is evolving before our very ears. The song is a more complex arrangement compared to his earlier tracks, which again signals a growing sophistication, but also risk-taking. And so you know that you are getting something original and pure, rather than music that is being directed by producers and label executives.

Best of all, the more that you listen to his already extensive DIY discography, the more likely you are to realize that Kopec’s music is coming from the heart, which just so happens to serve as nice segway to “Heart of Man.”

“Heart of Man” – Thad Kopec

If you are wowed by Kopec’s songs, you’ll probably be even more enthralled once you listen to more of his music via his Soundcloud page.

It would not be a huge surprise if Kopec starts getting some phone calls from labels in the next couple of days or weeks. But at the same time, he might be better off remaining DIY. The final conclusion from our perspective is that more people have got to hear Thad Kopec. In the past, we’ve had our own DIY favorites, and sometimes they’ve gone on to bigger things, and other times they’ve built a smaller following, but few have gone unnoticed by others.

We’ll definitely do an update when more information is available regarding the planned DIY album release. It’s great to hear people’s feedback, so feel free to leave comments below (no signup required).

The memorable and catchy melodic hooks, lo-fi guitar licks, splendid song compositions, and dreamy, reverb-heavy vocals of Madison, Wisconsin musician Wes Doyle, aka, Slow Loris, blew us away the first time we heard the tracks he sent us a few weeks back. In fact, we’ve only come to admire this relatively unknown one-man DIY bedroom artist the more we have listened to his music, by now having spun all of Doyle’s 30 or so tracks – all of which he has released via one EP and two LPs in the past 16 months.

The more we listened to his music – and the more people that asked ‘who is that?’ – the more apparent it became that we had to profile Slow Loris as an Artist of the Week, especially since he really hasn’t had very much exposure compared to the enormity of his talent. It would be difficult to understand if Doyle doesn’t get more attention from the music press and blogosphere, and ‘indie’ and alternative music lovers, in the weeks to come.

Some music fans are showing signs of being burnt out by successive waves of young DIY bedroom musicians who create lo-fi, hazy beach pop and soon find themselves gaining name recognition in the more mainstream music press after they’ve successfully branded themselves – usually without the aid of a label, publicist and manager – following a blitz of blogger buzz.

We can definitely see why some people would be burnt out, but we say if a new artist is making some sweet tunes, and send them in to us, it would be a disservice to our readers and visitors to not share – especially a musician who is definitely not just another copy of Panda Bear, but instead has an authenticity that is quite refreshing and all his own. That’s why we really believe that Slow Loris is one of the great overlooked DIY artists of 2011. We even kind of scratch our heads wondering – “why isn’t this guy getting the love he deserves?” And that’s what we do all of this for – to expose overlooked artists and bands, rarely heard songs, and under the radar albums.

As with many relatively unknown DIY artists that IRC has profiled over the years, the organic quality of Doyle’s songs, and the fact that he composes, sings, plays all of the instruments, and mixes and produces all of his songs himself, adds a level of originality and rawness that is not possible with Top 40 mainstream music, and creates a mystique that makes his music all that more appealing. Following the release of his debut album, Extra Colors, last November, Slow Loris just dropped his second album, Routine Glow, in June.

Below are two tracks from Routine Glow that exemplify why it is an overlooked album. “Everybody Knows,” with its cool guitar licks, sounds like an epic track in the tradition of alternative rock circa 1995 – you can clearly hear evidence of Slow Loris’ affinity for alt rock bands like Pavement and Built to Spill. Following that standout track, is yet another standout track – “Practice” – that is undeniably of the chillwave/bedroom pop origin. These tracks are also qualifiers for the upcoming mixes of Best Rarely Heard Songs of 2011.

“Everybody Knows” – Slow Loris from Routine Glow

“Practice” – Slow Loris from Routine Glow

Over the past five years especially, the rise of one-man (and increasingly, one-woman) bands has really created it’s own successful, and wildly popular, sub-genre within a sub-genre of indie rock. In this case, Slow Loris is a one-man lo-fi beach rock band, and, as with some other eclectic one-man bands, he covers so many genres and sub-genres that it’s nearly impossible to give a simple answer to “what is his sound like?” It’s recorded layers of chilled beats, shimmering guitar notes, enticing hooks, cozy rhythms, reverb-heavy vocals, and glistening synth keys with a clear influence of alternative rock.

Slow Loris’ sound is similar to bands like Wavves and Beach Fossils, and to a lesser extent, Wild Nothing and The Drums. Doyle lists among his biggest influences artists that range from alternative rock gods Pavement, indie bands like No Age and Yo La Tengo, psychedelic classic rock bands like The Velvet Underground, and post punk and Brit Pop bands such as Television, Big Star, and Teenage Fanclub.

In fact, you can hear all of these influences in Doyles wonderfully crafted songs. Last November, he released his debut album, Extra Colors, which followed his March 2010 EP Dreamland. Here are three tracks from that album that we want to share. Just choosing three tracks from this spectacular album – perhaps one of the most overlooked of the summer – was not an easy thing to do.

“La La Swin” – Slow Loris from Extra Colors (2010)

“We Were Never Alone” – Slow Loris from Extra Colors (2010)

Doyle’s sound at times definitely falls into the lo-fi beachwave indie rock sub-genre, even though Madison is some 1,000 miles east of the Atlantic. But, if you count the shores of the Great Lakes as beaches, then his has a nearer source of inspiration. Yet, his beachy/sunny/sandy sounds makes sense after learning that Doyle is a recent transplant to Madison from Delaware, a state not exactly known nationally for its beaches, but it has them nonetheless. Here is another track from his most recent album, plus his 2010 EP, Dream/Vacation, released in March of last year.

“Golden Lines” – Slow Loris from Routine Glow

“Dream Vacation” – Slow Loris from Dream/Vacation (2010)

Listen to and download more of Slow Loris’ music via Bandcamp