International Indie Music: my favorite January 2023 releases

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 Enjoy my favorite picks released in January 2023, in chronological order!

"MY RUNAWAY" - Francesca T - Orlando, USA (released on January 6th)

Francesca Tarantino is super young! She is 14 years old in 9th grade. She lives outside of Orlando, FL and she loves rock music especially the classics. She says: "My Runaway is my debut single. I’m excited about it because it rocks and that’s exactly the sound I was going for. It was co-written with my producer, Mike Walker and my older brother Dominic. It’s about finding yourself in a place or situation where you know you shouldn’t be and you want to escape but at the same time you’re worried what others are going to think of you. I think it really is something that people my age struggle with…doing the right thing without worrying about what others might think. For me this was my escape or my runaway from things that weren’t good for me".

Instagram: @francescatmusic

"COGNIZANCE" - Brenda Carsey - Los Angeles, USA (released on January 9th)

"Cognizance" is Brenda Carsey’s highly anticipated new album. The album was produced, composed, and co-mixed by Carsey who worked in collaboration with Grammy award winning engineer and mixer extraordinaire Mark Rains of Station House Studio in Los Angeles, CA (who has worked with the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Death Valley Girls, Jaime Wyatt, Miya Folick, and Philip Sayce to name a few). The music for this album was written over a couple year period from 2017 to 2019. At the end of 2019 Carsey ran a successful Indiegogo campaign with plans of going into the studio to begin tracking in the spring of 2020. This plan was curtailed by the Covid shutdown. After over a year of eager waiting, Carsey finally went into the studio at the end of April 2021 to begin tracking "Cognizance" along with an all star lineup of some of LA’s best musicians including Kyle Crane (drums), Nick Campbell (bass), Michael Day (guitar), Rebecca Schlappich Charles (violin), Jean-Paul Barjon (cello), Jonah Levine (trombone), Leider Chapotin (trumpet), and David Otis (alto saxophone). "Cognizance", a title aptly chosen for this beautiful album of awareness, experience and growth, has a massive breadth of tones, textures, instruments, and genres. It covers a range of subjects including family, love, breakups, public shootings, partying, fear, depression, isolation, the experience of being a woman in the music industry and in life at large, finding new love, and more. Carsey says "This album is the best quality album I have created to date...I wanted to push myself sonically beyond anything I have ever created and reach into the depths of my soul to bring to life art with a message through music that keeps the mind guessing and the heart happy!".

Instagram: @brendacarseyart

"THE HEART I BREAK (DUET)" - Johan Glidden & Kat Hammock - Prescott, USA (released on January 13th)

Johan Glidden is a singer-songwriter-producer out of Prescott, Arizona. Having entered into the music world at an early age, Johan has played in every genre from classical to blues to pop. Over the last few years, Johan's songs are generally born from questions about existence, love, light and darkness. He seeks to be honest in both his deep faith and in his nagging doubts. The Heart I Break (Feat. Kat Hammock) is a song that Johan wrote for his sister and brother-in-law for their wedding day, but it has touched the hearts of many listeners since. Originally released as a solo acoustic piece last year, this new duet version of the piece features the sweet and soaring vocals of Kat Hammock (known most recently as a semi-finalist on NBC's The Voice). As the lyrics juxtapose intense darkness with romantic sweetness, the production combines the boomy low sounds of timpani with the rich cellos of Harley Eblen (also heard on Double Yellow Lines). 

"CHASING BOYS" - Caley Rose - Buffalo, USA (released on January 13th)

Billboard Charting Caley Rose is an award winning Pop Singer & Songwriter whose music has been featured on TV, radio, & film. She empowers females & youth through her music by partnering with organizations that uplift females and by speaking about confidence in schools across the country. This former opera and Off-Broadway singer’s songs have been featured in commercials for Lipton, Adobe, the Tomorrowland Music Festival, and on Telemundo (La Voz), and have received awards from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, the Empower Pop Music Awards, and more. She has played a SOLD OUT shows at Hotel Cafe, SoFar Sounds, and legendary venues from NY to Seattle to LA. In 2022, she embarks on a cross country music tour in her self renovated airstream trailer, "The Shiny Twinkie". "Chasing Boys" is an empowering dreamy pop song about my own journey with self love. I sing this song in schools to help inspire kids to be confident during my "Music with a Message" program. I won a grant for the song and my program from Arts KC, and I recently had my TV debut performing my music, thanks to that!

Instagram: @caleyrose

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE I GOT MYSELF INTO?" - Emily Lockett - Manchester, UK (released on January 13th)

Emily Lockett is an independent British country pop/rock musician and singer/songwriter based in Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester. She has been described as a mix of Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne. Her original music has received praise from the likes of Maverick Music Magazine with her last 2 EP's being awarded 5 stars (out of 5) and 8 out of 10. Emily was also a semi-finalist in the 2022 The Liverpool International Song Contest (a.k.a.The Road to Nashville) songwriting competition with her track "Do You Wanna Go Out?" making the top 50 out of 20,305 song submissions.

Instagram: @emilylockettmusic

"SPEAKING FOR MYSELF" - Ryan Egan - Paris, France (released on January 19th)

The song was originally an exclusive with French music app Radiooooo x Purple Magazine for their 2070 project, a series inviting artists to envision music in the year 2070. Other participating artists include Polo & Pan, Nicolas Godin of Air, Molly Lewis, Nina Kraviz & more. The concept of the song is: "2070, New York City: Musician and revolutionary leader Junky aka Junky Lomax aka the artist formerly known as Ryan Egan, is discovered by secret police in the Riverside-Lomax encampment beneath the dismantled subway system. In hiding since the 2061 people’s uprising, Junky is brought to an undisclosed prison site to meet his certain fate, but not before leaving behind a letter and a bio-encrypted SAD (Sonar Aural Diamond) within which this song is permanently stored. His last words and musical recording are unearthed by his daughter Jimi one year later, launching the 2071 American Revolution". Ryan says: "I've rarely been as inspired by a songwriting task as I was when the Radiooooo team asked me to make an original track based on my vision of music in the year 2070. After days of obsessive pondering, I landed on this particularly dystopian tale and set out to create the sonic landscape it would exist within. It's very much inspired by classics like 1984 as well as the phenomenal music left behind by David Bowie and Leonard Cohen at the very end of their lives".

Instagram: @thisryanegan

"ALL I KNOW" - Dom Malin - Birmingham, UK (released on January 27th)

Dom Malin has built his life around music. From acquiring his first electric guitar at the age of 12— it was written in the stars, he was meant to be a musician! A pivotal life moment happened at a school talent show where he performed ‘Time of Your Life’ by Green Day: that evening he wrote his first song. Since then Malin has proven himself an undeniable talent and his skill has not gone unnoticed. Dom Malin's latest single All I Know was inspired by the line "down by the river, she calls to a saint". Following a conversation with a friend, I had this vision of losing someone close due to mental health. This allowed me to explore the movements, thoughts, and restlessness that becomes of someone with deep sorrow. The song is depicted from two different points of view, one who is watching and one who is living it. To further enhance the soundscape heI used a repetitive finger-picking pattern and a minimalist production to touch on the absence of reality. 

Instagram: @dommalinmusic

I hope you enjoyed all these beautiful releases as much as I did, I'm very curious to discover my favorites of February!!

Follow me: @laurameetsmusicians

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