Tag: Video premiere

WATCH: Tom Heyman, “The Mission Is On Fire”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Tom Heyman
Hometown: San Francisco, California
Song: “The Mission Is On Fire”
Album: 24th Street Blues
Release Date: October 6, 2023
Label: Bohemian Neglect Recording Works

In Their Words: “I have lived on the Eastern end of 24th Street in San Francisco’s Mission District around the corner from SF General Hospital for more than 20 years now. I work at a bar near the corner of Mission and 22nd Street and a number of years ago (pre-pandemic), there were a series of devastating fires on Mission Street — two of them practically next door to my workplace, and another about three quarters of a mile south at 29th Street. Fires in a densely-populated city full of attached wooden houses are scary enough, but add in the scarcity of affordable housing, the simmering resentments around the huge influx of tech workers, and the white-hot real estate market and the overall effect was pretty unsettling.

“The phrase, ‘The Mission is on fire’ popped into my head and I knew there was a song there. I chased it down until I thought I had it. Around the time that I wrote it, I had another record coming out that it wasn’t really right for, but I knew that it was going to fit squarely into the group of songs that made up my new record, 24th Street Blues. It seems that San Francisco is in the news often these days and is struggling with all the things that an awful lot of cities are struggling with, but I deeply love my neighborhood – and most days I find it difficult to imagine living anywhere else.” – Tom Heyman

Photo Credit: Lauren Tabak

WATCH: Nicolette & The Nobodies, “Rodeo”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Nicolette & The Nobodies
Hometown: Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Song: “Rodeo”
Release Date: August 24, 2023
Label: Art Haus

In Their Words: “I gave up on being a musician a long time ago. I let some negative thoughts knock me down and keep me down. That if I wasn’t good enough then, I’d never be. ‘Rodeo,’ the song and video, is about how I got back up again. The night I walked into that karaoke, sang some songs and met my band – that was the first step to bringing me back to doing something I truly loved.” – Nicolette Hoang

Photo Credit: Dzesika Devic

WATCH: Barbaro, “Gardens”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Barbaro
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Song: “Gardens”
Album: About the Winter
Release Date: October 20, 2023
Label: StorySound Records

In Their Words: “This tune is one of those that was written quite easily in one sitting, but took the band a while to finalize it. Looking back at voice memos, we started working on this one about three years ago. There was a clear vision for the composition, but took us a little to realize how each instrument can be used to accomplish it. The goal for the song was to be a long crescendo from start to finish. It starts with just guitar, then adds bass, then adds a simple counter melody on the banjo, then fiddle, etc. We like to think of it like building with Lego blocks, every six bars you add a new piece, a new color, until a nice little mosaic presents itself. It’s a really simple song, same three chords looping over and over again, the same melody plays following every verse. Because of this, the goal was to change the way these parts were played every go around, whether playing muted, more percussive, or playing each note with more sustain.” – Barbaro

Photo Credit: Wolfskull Creative

WATCH: Arny Margret, “waiting”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Arny Margret
Hometown: Ísafjörður, Iceland
Song: “waiting”
Album: dinner alone EP
Release Date: September 22, 2023 (EP)
Label: One Little Independent Records

In Their Words: “Sometimes you feel like you’re waiting for someone, or for a moment to say something, but the person doesn’t really see or give you the time. This song is about a lot of things: feeling left out and alone, feeling unheard and unwanted. It’s a song that was scary for me to write. Like most of my newer songs, I feel like I’m starting to write in a bit of a different way, a more honest way. This song is all the things I would never say out loud to anyone, I’m not using any metaphors or trying to mask anything here. That’s a pretty scary thing to do to, at least for me.” – Arny Margret

Photo Credit: Keiko Ichihara

WATCH: High Fidelity, “The Mighty Name of Jesus”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: High Fidelity
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Mighty Name of Jesus”
Album: Music In My Soul
Release Date: September 15, 2023
Label: Rebel Records

In Their Words: “‘The Mighty Name of Jesus’ is an incredibly special song to me. It came to me at a time in my life when I was struggling with mysterious health issues, and all I had to get me through was my faith in the Lord. Early one morning, I woke up with it playing in my head like a recording. I knew I could easily fall right back asleep, and I actually started to, but I thought, ‘I better just grab my phone to record this.’ I was so sleepy that I actually forgot that it existed for a few days! When I finally remembered something about it and listened to the voice memo, I was a bit in shock. It was like listening to a song for the first time, only it was me singing it! I had gotten three verses and two distinct choruses that morning. As I wrote out the words, the fourth verse came to me, so I wrote it out, too. I could talk on and on about the amazing things with this song. I hope it is an incredible blessing to everyone who hears it!

“Much like the making of this song, there are so many special things I could talk about in the making of this video! Location after location fell through right up until the morning of the video shoot when the weather threatened to rain on our only day available for shooting. Love Circle was a location that came to me while desperately praying for ideas and direction, and it turned out to be absolutely amazing. The unique weather that day combined with our videographer Warren Swann’s artistic touch created an indescribable texture quality to this video that almost feels like Technicolor. It’s hard to believe that this is the first video High Fidelity has shot in our hometown of Nashville proper. The city has changed so much through the years, but we still love and care deeply for it. To be able to perform this song of healing and deliverance right there in our hometown with our beautiful city skyline behind us was beyond special. As the ‘songwriter,’ I feel so incredibly blessed to have received a song like this and to get to perform it with High Fidelity — I hope it can be a blessing and encouragement!”  ̶  Corrina Rose Logston Stephens

Photo Credit: Amy Richmond

WATCH: Birds of Play, “Breathe”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Birds of Play
Hometown: Telluride, Colorado
Song: “Breathe”
Album: Birdsongs of the American West
Release Date: August 25, 2023

In Their Words: “‘Breathe’ was written as a response to witnessing my wife navigate a somewhat tumultuous time, rife with hard questions about meaning and purpose and her place in life. I was also wrestling with some of the same sentiments at the time and wrote this song as a friendly reminder to us both of the impermanence of all of our states and experiences and how much agency we have to reground with a simple breath. We worked this song up specifically for this album as it was one of the only songs in this group that we hadn’t played before recording Birdsongs of the American West. We’ve only started to play this live during our most recent tour around the PNW and it’s been really moving to see how deeply it’s resonating with our audiences.” – Alex Paul

Photo Credit: Sarah Schwab

WATCH: Rachel Gore, “Good Death”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Rachel Gore
Hometown: Wilmington, North Carolina
Song: “Good Death”
Album: Forgotten Woman of Folk
Release Date: August 11, 2023 (single); October 6, 2023 (EP)

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘Good Death’ in the midst of dealing with a lot of anxiety – specifically surrounding death. I feel like it’s a topic that’s not normally discussed openly, so I wanted to write a song that took that fear and made it into something really beautiful. I recorded the song with Americana artist and producer Sarah Peacock, who transformed it into something beyond what I could have ever imagined.

“Much of ‘Good Death’ and the upcoming EP surrounds spirituality and Southern upbringing, so I knew for the video that I wanted to find some really beautiful old churches in the country. I brought this idea to the director, Corbin Eaton, who just blew it out of the water. We spent a day roaming around rural Tennessee finding the most incredible historical chapels, and we even got invited to record inside the last one we were filming. I’m so thrilled to share this song with the world, and I hope there are people who feel like ‘Good Death’ is exactly what they’ve needed to hear.” – Rachel Gore

Photo Credit: Corbin Eaton

WATCH: Tim Higgins, “Second Chance”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Tim Higgins
Hometown: Greensboro, Alabama
Song: “Second Chance”
Album: Higher Ground Society Presents: Patchwork Symphony
Label: Cartographer Records

In Their Words: “This song is about a young man who just keeps making wrong decisions – who feels invincible. And because of those decisions, he gets the book thrown at him. Growing up, I’ve known a few very sweet, and seemingly all around good guys, who just keep doing all the wrong things – like they have some devil controlling them. And when you get a reputation with the police in a small town, you’re marked. They’ll follow you around; and when you’re immature, you’re an easy target. The law loves to make an example out of kids like that – I don’t know if it’s to try to scare everyone else straight – or perhaps it’s just about exerting power.

“In the Deep South, where this song is set and where I live, private prisons and the lack of mental healthcare and other resources feed into a system that doesn’t allow for second chances; it’s a system that allows for things to go from bad to the worst case scenario in an instant. Anyway, this is a little story about one such lost boy, who ends up in jail for a very long time – with ‘No Regrets’ tattooed across his chest when certainly, with age, he is very full of regret. Recorded at Cartographer Records in Mobile, Alabama, as part of their OddCollege Music series, ‘Second Chance’ will be featured on Higher Ground Society’s Patchwork Symphony, a compilation showcasing Alabama artists, funded in part by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.” – Tim Higgins

Photo Credit: Trey Lane

WATCH: Abby Posner, “The Starting Line”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Abby Posner
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “The Starting Line”
Album: Second Chances
Release Date: August 11, 2023
Label: Blackbird Record Label

In Their Words: “I have always been torn between being an artist and having a family, and a part of this song is about working through some of these complicated feelings. ‘The Starting Line’ is also about feeling like an outsider, and ‘falling behind’ — it is a journey toward cultivating a new relationship and new perspective with that part of myself.

“I really wanted to do a stripped-down, live version of this song, because I didn’t want it to be perfect or over produced. The rawness is an important part of the song’s overall message. I have spent a lot of time in Temescal Canyon meditating, hiking, and unplugging from the sometimes chaotic hustle and bustle of LA! This is a place that I have always been able to self-reflect and see things more clearly.

“I hope that other artists, queer people, and non-conforming/unconventional folks will be able to hear this song as an anthem for being able to let their freak flag fly, and be proud of marching to the beat of their own drum.” – Abby Posner

Photo Credit: Jeff Fasano

WATCH: Briscoe, “Sparrows”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Briscoe
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Sparrows”
Album: West of It All
Release Date: September 15, 2023
Label: ATO Records

In Their Words: “‘Sparrows’ is a heartbreak song inspired by time spent in Paris, France, and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. The song aims to capture the effect evil has on a relationship, as shown through that of Adam and Cathy Trask in the novel. ‘Sparrows’ holds a special place in our hearts as one of the few sad songs on the record, and has already become one of our favorites to play live.” – Briscoe

Photo Credit: Philip Lupton