Sam Blasucci is best known as one half of Mapache, a Southern California roots-rock duo just as instantly recognizable for their elegant, intertwined guitar parts as they are for their devoted, Nudie-Suit wearing fanbase. But when Blasucci was writing the songs that would become his debut solo record, Off My Stars, he found himself less focused on the guitar and more gravitated toward a different instrument: piano. The mother of Clay Finch, his Mapache bandmate, was getting rid of one, and so Blasucci took the piano, carefully transporting it to his home in Ojai, California, with the help of a few strong friends, including Farmer Dave Scher of Beachwood Sparks (and a Mapache collaborator). “Farmer Dave wasn’t even wearing shoes,” Blasucci remembers, laughing. Once the piano was safely in there, he became deeply attached, playing on it multiple hours a day: “It’s changed the way I think about music, having all the keys laid out in front of me,” he explains. “Having that sort of changed everything.” Also inspired by his recent time riding out the pandemic in New Orleans, where the clubs may have closed, but the music never stopped, Blasucci used that piano to start writing one of the most inspired batches of songs of his career thus far.

New gems like “Turn Yourself Around” and “Sha La La” were developing with a Southern swing and classic songbook sparkle, and when assessing the growing stack of music he was working on, Blasucci realized that there was something about these tunes that wasn’t quite suited for a Mapache record. Infused with an honest, personal perspective about settling into adult life—about developing as a person and a partner and a family member—these songs were straight from the heart, a clear window, recently Windexed, into the life of one of the most talented members of the L.A.-area underground rock scene. Using just as much inspiration from the music of Ronnie Wood and Sade as the films of Ingmar Bergman and the writing of Brian Doyle, Blasucci started to see a vision of songs that are all “fully autobiographical.” Blasucci reached out to songwriter and producer Johnny Payne, and the two decamped to Dan Horne’s Lone Palm Studio, the home/studio where Mapache has in the past both recorded and abided in. Blasucci’s direction to Payne—acting as producer and as multi-instrumentalist, performing on everything from shaker to “guitar pancake”—was simple: no pretense, no affect, no Mr. Cool. This approach is most evident through covers on the record—like a stripped-down, achingly beautiful version of Dido’s ubiquitous “Thank You,” or a New Orleans-porch-worthy version of the Cranberries’ classic “Linger.” “There was nothing ironic or gimmicky about wanting to do those,” notes Blasucci.

“I just really, really love those songs.” Also covered on Off My Stars is a raw take on Jimmy Fontana’s timeless ballad “Il Mondo,” sung in its original Italian by Blasucci, who belts it in a performance that ends with him giving it all he has, his voice cracking as he reaches the song’s epic finale. “Il Mondo” is a song that Blasucci particularly wanted to do as a means to get more in touch with his Italian roots—and this wouldn’t be the only way he’d tap into family on the album. On “Proud of You Dad,” Blasucci dug into his archives for a song that’s he had for some time, originally having written and recorded it just for his father, David Blasucci, a musician who was at one time a touring member in the band Toto, and who has performed and acted in Christopher Guest movies like A Mighty Wind. “If I ever told you this while we were in the same room / I know you would cover your ears and run,” Sam sings over a rustic, campfire acoustic progression. As Sam explains, David was a crucial influence on his taste: “A lot of the underlying styles that influenced the rest of the songs on the record definitely come from what he introduced me to,” Sam says. But Sam is his own man now, writing the new chapters of his own life with an aw-shucks tone that belies his prolific workload. Even through the pandemic—and even with the ongoing backlogs at pressing plants—Blasucci has still managed to put out beloved Mapache records in each of the last three years, and he and the band have no plans to slow down anytime soon. “I’m definitely the type of artist that is constantly creating,” Sam says, matter of fact. “And I can’t seem to really stop.”.

(Bio: Blasucci’s Bandcamp)

Born and raised in Farmersville, OH, Tirey grew up in the country where there were no street lights, typical commitments to get anywhere and hardly anyone around. But this special backdrop that intimidates a lot would eventually lead to Tirey’s love for music, more specifically, songwriting. Influenced by the likes of Conway Twitty and Dwight Yoakam in his early years, Tirey eventually started his very own band after high-school, Wes Tirey and The Easy Hearts and soon after relocated to Dayton for more action. With a few releases already under his belt at the time, Tirey released “I Stood Among Trees” with Dying For Bad Music and soon after his highly antiquated follow up “O, Annihilator” on Full Spectrum Records. Tirey now currently resides in Asheville, NC where he continues to work on music with his most recent music project, “Michael Ondaatje's “collected works of Billy the Kid” that will be released by the fine folks over at Sun Cru. In this interview we explore Tirey’s youth growing up in Ohio, his early influences, seeing Brooks and Dunn back in the day, living in Asheville, elements of songwriting, records he’s released over the years and his most recent project he’s absolutely stoked to share with the world!

The Heavy Heavy create the kind of unfettered rock-and-roll that warps time and place, immediately pulling the audience into a euphoric fugue state with its own sun-soaked atmosphere. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band began with a shared ambition of “making records that sound like our favorite records ever,” and soon arrived at a reverb-drenched collision of psychedelia and blues, acid rock and sunshine pop. As revealed on their gloriously hazy debut EP Life and Life Only, The Heavy Heavy breathe an incandescent new energy into sounds from decades ago, transcending eras with a hypnotic ease. In dreaming up Life and Life Only, The Heavy Heavy tapped into many of the musical touchstones that Turner describes as “deeply entrenched in our psyche”: Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, British Invasion pop acts like the Hollies, folk-blues duo Delaney & Bonnie, to name just a few. Pushing past the confines of reverential pastiche, the band imbues their output with a strangely charmed quality and heady authenticity undeniably tied to their status as artists on the fringe, both philosophically and geographically. To that end, Turner hails from the remote town of Malvern, an enchanted stretch of the English countryside once frequented by the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Kate Bush. “It’s famous for the healing qualities of its water, and there are ancient trees where the Druids used to worship—there’s a sort of magical-hippie aspect to it,” he notes. Fuller, meanwhile, elevates every track with her spellbinding vocals and magnetic yet wholly unaffected presence, building upon a kaleidoscopic career that’s included performing at Montreux Jazz Festival as a teenager as well as acting in the London theater.

Rooted in their effusive harmonies and fuzzed-out guitar work, Life and Life Only contains the first track Turner and Fuller ever recorded as The Heavy Heavy, a lilting piece of psych-pop titled “Go Down River.” “I’d had this song a while and couldn’t quite finish it, but then once Georgie added her vocals it all came together,” Turner recalls. “The male-female harmonies gave it this whole new sound; it just felt like lying in the green grass on a hot sunny day.” Self-produced in a London flat, the six-track project also brings that transportive power to songs like “Miles and Miles” (a bright and jangly number whose whirlwind velocity calls to mind late-’60s/early-’70s road dramas like Easy Rider and Vanishing Point), “Man of the Hills” (a groove-heavy homage to Turner’s otherworldly hometown), and “Sleeping on Grassy Ground” (a sweetly languid epic featuring a near-operatic vocal performance from Fuller, a classically trained singer). With their full-length debut due out in next year, The Heavy Heavy recently expanded their lineup to five members, allowing for an even more vast and bombastic sound now touched with heavenly four-part harmonies. A massively prolific outfit who’ve written and recorded hundreds of songs in the last two years alone, the band feels perpetually inspired by the pursuit of making music that provides a rarefied pleasure. “The driving force behind all our songwriting is to feel good, and to make other people feel good too,” Fuller points out. And thanks to their uncanny grace as sonic alchemists, The Heavy Heavy ultimately perform a certain magic with their music: eliciting a sublime daze that goes far beyond pure escapism.

In a little over one year The Heavy Heavy have toured relentlessly in the United States and Europe, garnering numerous accolades from both fans and critics. The Guardian deemed the band “one to watch” and praised their “thrillingly instinctive retro rock;” NME listed them as an Essential Emerging Artist for 2023. The Heavy Heavy appeared on national television on CBS Saturday Morning, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Their single “Miles & Miles” reached the top 5 of the Billboard AAA and Americana Radio Charts. The band also landed high profile placements, such as Netflix’s popular series Outer Banks. ATO Records released an expanded version of their EP Life and Life Only in March 2023, which includes harmony-laden covers of Father John Misty’s “Real Love Baby, CSNY’s “Guinnevere,” and Jonathan Wilson’s “Desert Raven.”

(Bio: from band’s site)

A London Based band formed by Reid Morrison And Laurie Sherman who are also members of Treetop Flyers. The two friends grew up relatively close to each other in West London and were influenced by skateboarding, football (soccer) and artists such as Van Morrison, Dylan, The Misfits, The Beatles and Jackson Browne. The duo met while participating in separate bands, but as the universe would have it, they joined together and over time Albert was born out of the ashes of pandemic. In this interview we explore both Morrison and Sherman’s youth growing up, their influences and what led them to get into music, forming their post-Albert groups and of course their most recent project… Albert!

Michael Dixon lives and breathes vinyl recordings. He runs multiple successful vinyl companies – based on his longtime love of education, records, outsider art and repurposing junk into handmade art pieces. He makes records by hand, one at a time, on 1940’s record cutting lathes. He runs several record labels and travels the world teaching crowds at events and festivals the secret art of vinyl record production. Michael's vinyl mini-empire is delivering living documents that are deeply rooted in a rich history and treasured artifacts that travel well into the future.

From Dixon’s site:

Raised in Bedfordshire, Sharp was raised in a very musical household with influences on him such as Michael Jackson, Paul Simon and The Incredible String Band before falling in love with bands like Sex Pistols, Oasis and hip-hop later down the line. When it came time for Sharp to play music himself, he wanted to be in AC/DC until his young ears heard Nirvana for the first time and then it was on! Sharp would later on form Wolf People when he moved back to Bedfordshire from London and would go on to release three incredible records on Jagjaguwar before the band went on a hiatus in 2020. But this did not stop Sharp from pursuing his love and passion for music. Recently he started a new project called Large Plants and In this interview we explore Sharp’s youth growing up his brothers, getting into music and going to see shows, starting Wolf People and eventually Large Plants.

Born in Hackensack, New Jersey to his native New York family, the Hirsch family decided to relocate to California when he was a young, finding out quickly that he was not a “beach kid”. Hirsch new he had a passion for music though and at the age of 13 he saw an insane lineup up at Irvine Meadows: The Ramones, Debbie Harry and Tom-Tom Club! As Hirsch got older and went off to college, he gravitated towards the hardcore scene that was going on at the time. Pparticipating in bands such as Ex-Ignota, Boxharp and The Court and Spark, he eventually met his longtime friend and bandmate, Mike Taylor. Together they started Hiss Golden Messenger before Hirsch began to venture out as a solo artists in years to come. Still heavily involved with HGM, Hirsch has been channeling his own material with 2021’s release of “Windless Day”, its sister album “Ghost of Windless Day” and most recently his Lagniappe Session for Aquarium Drunkard! It was great chatting with Hirsch about his life, how he got into music, meeting MT, kicking off an incredible solo career and much more!

Born in Western Mass, Bond was asked a very serious question by his mother around the time he was in 4th grade, “drums, or saxophone?”. In which Bond replied, “which one will get me the most girls?” He was a drummer right then there! Bond was and still is, very influenced by The Beatles and would later be swept up by Nirvana, more specifically, Dave Grohl. As time went on it would be that Bond would have the opportunity to play with folks that he admired such as John Andrews and Max Clarke, eventually joining their bands and helping to make their records and tours what they are! In this interview we explore Bond’s youth growing up with his sister, becoming a drummer, playing the local circuits, meeting the Woodsist family, making drumming his life and much more!

Born in LA to Belarusian immigrants, Shusterman relocated with his family as kid to Colorado where he would eventually set his roots and find his musical community. Being influenced by The Beatles, he picked up the keys and at just the age of 12 he started his very first band. In 2012 he met Ratecliff and after a few demos were sent across the table, he asked Shusterman if he’d be interested in working together and they’ve been inseparable ever since! In this interview we explore Shusterman’s youth, his early influences such as Nirvana, Radiohead and Brian Eno’s "Another Green World”, seeing Depeche Mode in the late 90s, playing in his local scene with future bandmates, meeting Ratecliff and much more!

Born and raised in Toronto, Sohota and his family moved to Northern California at just the age of four. He was influenced early on by Bollywood music his parents would listen too. He would later find the music that one of his sisters was listening to quickly sharpening his musical pallet and by the time he was in middle school, he was fully submerged. Prior to Healing Potpourri, Sohota participated in groups such as Produce Produce, Monterey Babe Aquarium, Gaarth, Burgers and G. Green. In 2013 he moved to San Fran to further pursue his music and find a community of like minded folks. During the pandemic Sohota released “Blanket Of Calm”, and “Paradise” and has been paving a way for HP ever since!

Born in Glendale, CA, Schwab began to fall in love with music as a young kid and was influenced by artists such as The Beatles, Elliott Smith, Todd Rundgren, Jon Brian, Everly Brothers, CSNY and his father’s band “Mad Anthony”. As Schwab began to enter his 20’s he tapped into his very own songwriting capabilities and immediately wrote his first song. In this interview we explore Schwab’s childhood growing up, meeting bandmate Jacob Loeb, forming Golden Daze and eventually Sylvie. With a summer tour in Europe and a new Sylvie album underway, Schwab has a lot of music to share with the world and we coudln’t be more excited to see and hear what he has in store.

Born in San Diego, CA, Castelluzo grew up skating and surfing with friends and was inspired by his mother’s talent as a violinist, his older brother’s taste in bands such as VU, The Butthole Surfers and T Rex and his father taking him to see The Stones and ZZ Top for his very first concert. Tragedy struck the Castelluzzo family when he was young, but Paul found a way to express himself and heal through his very unique approach to music. That project is called Heather and with the explosive response to his music over the years and his most recent release of “Covered In Heather” back in March, Castelluzzo is making a name for himself and creating the art he wants to see, feel and hear. In this interview we explore his process and approach to music, his thoughts and ideas of expression and influence and what he has in store for Heather as Covid backs away.

Born and raised in Point Pleasant, NJ, New York based musician Jon Catfish DeLorme began playing music as an early teen and was Influenced by his father’s love and passion for music. DeLorme would soon find himself incredibly moved by the likes of Buddy Cage (New Riders of The Purple Sage) and from that moment on he knew he wanted to play the pedal steel. After befriending the late Neil Flanz, whom he received lessons and wisdom on the instrument, DeLorme has made a name for himself as he cuts his own path in the craft. In this interview we speak about DeLorme’s childhood growing up, moving to New York as soon as he could, playing in ZZZWalk and Nude Party and his most recent project, “The Star Route.”

Keeled Scales was co-founded by two friends and musicians in Austin, Texas. They put out their first release in June 2014.

Seth Whaland already had the name in mind and drew the logo. He plays bass in the bands Très Oui and Literature and co-ran Natrix Natrix Records from 2004-2009, which was a cassette and vinyl label that also hosted legendary house shows in Austin (Woods, Deer Tick, and Real Estate, to name a few). He currently owns and runs the Austin moving company MASH Movers, which employs several Austin musicians and artists.

Tony Presley has played music as Real Live Tigers since 2004, playing over a thousand shows in the US, Canada, and the UK. He comes from a background of booking and promoting local shows, booking national tours, press outreach, tour-managing and artist management. He currently manages the label.

(From the site’s “Who We Are” page)

Ryan Pollie never set out to make a cancer record. The Los Angeles songwriter penned most of his self-titled, self-produced album, his first under his own name, before he got sick. Inspired by the warm, inviting sounds of '70s singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne, Carole King, and Graham Nash, Pollie already knew he wanted to make the most personal music of his career. He had released two albums as Los Angeles Police Department, and now he was ready to shed the protective barrier of his old band name — to make music, simply, as himself. And then he got cancer. It happened the year of his Saturn return, an astrological phenomenon where Saturn comes back to the same place in the sky as it was when you were born, one that's supposed to bring both hardship and transformation. Nearing the end of his twenties, Pollie had already been mulling over the big questions: spirituality, purpose, the fleeting nature of existence. "I just wrote a record about mortality and whether or not I believe in anything, and then I'm faced with the biggest challenge of my life," he says. The record begins and ends with choir music. In the photograph on the album’s cover, Pollie stands inside a church in Stimigliano, Italy. Though he was raised Catholic, Pollie has found himself on a much more individual spiritual journey, one that’s reflected in the album’s lyrics. On the stunning, swelling chorus of "Aim Slow," Pollie sings, "My God's insane." He doesn't sound angry; he's not fuming at the chaos of being alive, just contemplating it gently, ready to take it all in and let it pass through him. Open, searching, and vulnerable, Ryan Pollie takes full advantage of the language of 20th century California pop to bolster its queries on the perplexing nature of being human. Piano, guitar, and bass intertwine with banjo, pedal steel, and saxophone to support Pollie's sugar-sweet hooks.

Bolder and crisper than the albums he's made as Los Angeles Police Department, his self-titled record emerges from a deeply collaborative place. He invited many of his closest friends over to his home to record the album, and a feeling of warm camaraderie shines through the music. "When somebody plays on a song, their character is in it," he says. "I like to think all my friends are on this record. Their personality is in it. That was really important to me. I'm able to do what I do, mentally and emotionally, because of the people around me." As Pollie went through chemotherapy in the summer of 2018, he relied on the support of his friends to finish the album. "Mixing is where it all came together for me," he says. "Because I was sick, it was this new challenge — 'I have to finish this record. I have to get out of bed. I don't feel too well, but I'm going to go down the street to the studio and I'm going to give my notes and overdub some piano.' I finished the record while I was sick, and that was a big thing for me, being sick and being able to finish something. It made me feel strong." One song, "Only Child," addresses that period directly. Ironically, it's one of the more upbeat tracks on the record, tackling the fear and uncertainty of illness with Pollie's characteristic levity and humor.

"My hair is falling out/My parents are calling now," he sings amid a buoyant bassline and trills of flute. Other songs work through periods of loss, confusion, and ultimately triumph. The delicate, synth-driven "Raincoat" traces the end of a relationship with careful empathy. Against a briskly strummed guitar, "Leaving California" fleshes out his relationship with his parents and his childhood home in New England, while "Getting Clean" makes use of a glowing West Coast pop palette to articulate the frustration of trying to break out of a deep rut. Living through illness becomes just one chapter in a record that celebrates living in general, and all the difficulties and surprises that come with it. More than anything, Pollie's self-titled release is a testament to the power of vulnerability—to the magic that happens when you open yourself up and invite the world inside, no matter how frightening or uncertain it may be.

(From Anti- bio page)

Born in June of ‘68, Jeffrey Alexander grew up in a Baltimore Maryland church, where his father was the preacher and his mother the organist/choir director. He has produced works in a wide variety of genres over the past 30 years exploring variations and experiments in folk, jazz, rock and minimalism, including live performances in over 20 countries. He was formerly the Program Director of AS220 in Providence Rhode Island, where he curated four international music festivals, hosted artist residencies and booked hundreds of events. He has also been a carpenter, booking agent, FM disc jockey, espresso bar cafe owner, record label owner, driven an Amish farm truck, worked in record stores in three states, ran the A/V department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and lived in a van on tour with the Grateful Dead for several years.

Born and raised in New York City, Trokan’s influence and passion for music grew from his mother’s impeccable record collection that featured the likes of The Stones, The Beatles, Sam and Dave and many more greats from the 1960’s. He quickly became infatuated with the drums at an early inspired, inspired by the great Ringo Starr and began wailing on hit kit in his family apartment. Trokan would soon go off to college where his musical horizons expanded when he saw some of the most defining groups of his generation, Fugazi, A Tribe Called Quest and Jesus and the Mary Chain. As the years went by, Trokan participated in groups such as Boy Morgan, The Jay Vons and even played with Marky Ramone. Having met Jim Eno, drummer for Spoon, some 20 years ago, it all came full circle when he was asked to become a full time member as their new bassist in the Summer of 2019 and the rest is history! In this interview we explore his youth growing up in NYC, his obsession with The Beatles, his participation in bands before joining Spoon and more recently his solo album, “Hey Lovers”, on Wick Records.

Born in Seattle, WA before settling in Venice, CA, Hale was influenced by The Beatles, more specifically McCartney in his formative years. As his music taste sharpened and horizons expanded, he found himself gravitating towards bands such as Radiohead and Wilco. Having worked with the folks over at KCRW, Hale knew he wanted to be involved with music in someway and thus his friendship with Justin Gage (Aquarium Drunkard) and Gold-Diggers emerged! It was great talking to Hale about his childhood growing up, getting into music, his career in radio and more recent all his work at the LA venue Gold-Diggers!

Dave Heumann is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer based in Baltimore, MD USA. Known for his work as the founding member of the band Arbouretum as well as many other projects, he has been active for over two decades as a bandleader and collaborator, writing, recording, and performing music in North America and Europe.

Growing up in Yorkshire, Parker was influenced early on by heavy metal music before his taste evolved into the sounds of Nick Drake, early John Martyn and Bert Jansch. Parker went on to record his own tales of melody and sprawling poetic expression. With the release of both “Silent Spring” and “Lammas Fair”, Parker has securely placed himself with the contemporary greats of his time and for a fact his ghostly peers would be proud of the path he has carved out of that precious stone of human expression.