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Indie

Sometimes used interchangeably with “guitar pop rock”, in the mid-1980s, the term “indie” began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels. During the 1990s, Grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term lost its original counter-cultural meaning. Yet, it became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. By the end of the 1990s it developed subgenres and related styles including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music industry and in music technology enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success.
– Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia

Forever and a Day

by The Nouve

The Nouve Band Logo


For Leonard Cohen, Felix Flaucher, Karl Liebknecht & Rosa Luxemburg…

So yes, I’m writing songs, producing songs, mixing songs, writing lyrics, novels, screenplays, essays, doing video clips, short films, sure… but you want to know WHY? Great Question, man! What makes us doing what we do? Is there a rational and catchy answer, maybe a citation (Where is Leonard Cohen when you really need him? Why did he had to go at all??) – Well, “Music was my first love”, eh right, that’s what they all say… but that never led to give up their normal lives: they never had the idea to look behind the curtain, sell themselves at the Crossroads and die on the dream to release just this one and only song that sounds like it did in their head once before they recorded it.

So why? It doesn’t make sense if you could have stayed on the safe and secure consumer site, does it?

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The Birth of “Don’t Mean to Hurt You”

by Poli Nika

POLI NIKA


I look into his eyes and remain silent. I know my silence wounds him, but I can’t utter a single word. My throat tightens, my head spins with the darkest thoughts I’d never dare say out loud. “What would he think of me then?” These are the monsters inside me, and I’ll never let them destroy what we have. I’ll never let them out, because then…

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Unbearable Circumstances

by Vadym a.k.a. last past.

last past. - do you feel?


I often think about injustice in life. Sometimes, circumstances turn out so that the life you lived yesterday no longer exists today.

I could feel it when I left my hometown to go to university and left my closest friends behind. I still miss them very much because we can’t see them often.

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How an Emo Rock Opera Saved my Life

by Tucker Coughlin a.k.a. In Luna’s Garden

Mina / In Luna's Garden


Desperation Breeds Creativity.

Mina vs the Pit of Despair is an album born out of desperation. I’ve struggled with chronic depression and suicidal thoughts since I was 11 years old. I’m sure many of you can relate to teenage years full of tumultuous emotions and searching for answers. My memories of high school and early college are filled with trips to the doctor, seven different therapists, countless medication modifications, and reading philosophy and religion, all culminating in a 3-month inpatient residency. No matter what I did, nothing could convince me that life was worth living. In a final attempt, I decided to construct my own thesis on why life is inherently good. This effort would coalesce over two years into my debut album, Mina vs the Pit of Despair.

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In Solitude

by K Gocebe a.k.a. The Strange & Odd Secrets Club


What is The Strange & Odd Secrets Club? It’s not a club, or even a band. It’s really just one person – Me. Hello there! I try to put an emphasis on making my songs sound like a collective effort rather than the solo project that it truly is. Through some “social experimenting” with other musicians I found that I work much better in solitude. Part of this is due to my insecurity surrounding vulnerable lyrical and arrangement ideas, but also because I love taking on the personal responsibility of creating each element of a song.

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Love Is Punk

by John Kennedy of The Dark City Kings

The Dark City Kings - Love Is Punk


Out of the blue? That doesn’t even describe the moment. Dark City Kings was the runt of the litter in the Asheville music scene. We’d lost two guitar players in the Spring and had just brought in a new guitar player and fiddle player. The core of Dark City Kings has been around the Asheville music scene for a decade – but this band was the runt of the litter and then tossed into a raging river to drown.

Dark City Kings? We were a drunken brewery band that was slowly writing original material. We wrote simple songs. We meant them. We wrote melodies you can sing in the shower and big sing-along choruses. We’d just decided to try again, write an entirely new songbook with this new band formation, practice twice a week, and play a show once a week.

We played our first show together on August 5th.

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34 years of DIY … and just getting started

by Tuffy Brazil of STROMBLE FIX

STROMBLE FIX


It all started in 1990 when five teenagers formed a new punk band. In fact, STROMBLE FIX was a merger of two bands that rehearsed door-to-door in the local youth center in the Ruhr area of Germany.

We played many shows in the early 90s and recorded our songs on 8-track or 16-track tape machines in a friend’s studio whenever we could afford to spend a weekend. The music was published on compact cassettes, and there was a culture of sharing tapes with other bands or even taping tapes to get the music heard. Mail orders these days worked so that you requested a printed catalog first and then ordered your vinyl or cassettes by writing a letter.

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‘10 Years of Travel’ – The Long Journey Home

by Andy Coombs of Soft Cotton County

Soft Cotton County


Music was once ‘the most important, unimportant thing we had,’ said music critic and presenter Robert Elms. This sums up my relationship with writing in general and music in particular. I want to keep it unique and avoid the fillers and the B-sides. One great song would make me happy. In an ocean of mediocrity, sea levels are rising, but starfish are still found in the depths.

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How I Started as a Solo Artist

by Raging Flowers

Raging Flowers


Hi, I’m Raging Flowers, a singer-songwriter-producer from Auckland, New Zealand. My primary instrument is the electric guitar. I make jazzy self-help indie pop that celebrates the diversity of feelings. My music is about truthfulness, exploration, and hope.

My music career has had an unusual start. I’ve been a long-time music learner, but I decided to pursue a career in tech. I studied Computer Science and had a career as a Software Engineer. I worked for some of the top software companies in New Zealand. I was a star Software Engineer in various fields, including music, blockchain, and AI. Back in my programming days, my ambition was to run a small business of my own.

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If I Were To Have A Daemon, It Would Be A Squirrel

by Liv Luce

Liv Luce


Writing music has been a constant in my life. I was the kind of kid who sang constantly to myself, my friends, my parents, stuffed animals, anyone, anything. For a while, I had a pen pal with whom I’d exchange song lyrics. I’m pretty sure there was one about a baby swallow I tried and failed to nurse back to health in my parents’ attic.

I began taking piano lessons around the age of nine. Being an introvert, I spent many a school break in the music rooms playing and composing songs. Then, aged 12, I plucked up the courage to approach other musicians about forming a band. It was then that Suzie (guitarist in my first band, Caliber) introduced me to Radiohead and Nirvana. I learned bass and have been in bands ever since.

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