Emanuela Drei caught my attention with her latest offering released via Factory Flaws.  She goes by Guingla and is showing off her indie chops. The Italy based songstress released her 4 song EP and her tracks have made a way across the blogosphere.

The track Sand which is my personal favorite made Spotify’s New Music Friday and she’s been featured in NYLON and NOISEY. To get inside Emanuela’s creative mind you can read the interview  with The 405.
giulia@elliefantpress.com, info@giunglamusic.com

Kings favorite Work Drugs has become a band that I really enjoy and continues to pump out good song after good song. The latest single Roll which has a summertime chill vibe was written in Miami during the winter.

Although I’ve been acquainted with the Philadelphia based indie electro act for sometime, the band largely remains a mystery and sonically they are hard to pin down. They do play lots of shows, release their music through Bobby Cahn Records, and have a heck of a SoundCloud audience and social following.

The band has supported Two Door Cinema Club, Phoenix, Peter Bjorn, and Band of Horses — and are winners of the Beijing Film and Art Festival’s coveted Crying Monkey Award. You can check them out at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on 6/10.
workdrugs@gmail.com

Kings favorite Oh, Be Clever has released a new track Love You Now, and I love it. It’s as infectious as the previous track River which reached #17 on the Hype Machine and garnering 50k+ Soundcloud plays.

The Salt Lake duo have an interesting backstory. Both Brittney Shields and Cory Scott Layton met performing in their respective bands. One night after a show, a fight emerged between the two bands and both Brittney & Cory, having admired each other, walked away from the scene, creating their own music which has been praised by the critics.

Blogs including Kick Kick Snare, PressPlay, I Heart Moosiq, and of course Yours Truly have all been goo-goo ga-ga over the indie electro-soul duo.
madetocrash99@gmail.com

Buzzing and coming out of DC is a 4 piece rock act Melodime. Currently headlining a 35 date tour, the band released a new infectious radio ready track Little Thing Called Love.

The Southern-flavored rock act has received love from The Washington Post and The Boot and have an impressive touring resume performing alongside Gavin DeGraw and NeedToBreathe.

On top of a hefty touring schedule, the band pays it forward, running a charity, ‘Now I Play Along Too,’ which provides musical instruments and lessons to underprivileged children.

The boys full schedule can be viewed here while the New Yorkers can check them out at Rockwood Music Hall on 7/7.
management@melodime.com

I had an interesting creative discussion with Joey Sturgis, an entrepreneur and educator,  and a known producer in the rock genre, working with popular acts such as Gold selling Asking Alexandria, Of Mice and Men, and The Devil Wears Prada. When he’s not producing, he is running a business. Joey owns audio recording software companies, Joey Sturgis Tones and Drumforge, and heads an educational mixing site Nailthemix.com. Lastly, he has his own recording community Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast.

What is your brand?

Joey Sturgis Tones (JST, for short)

How did you build Joey Sturgis Tones?

Joey Sturgis Tones came about in 2014 with the introduction of my flagship plugin, Gain Reduction. Gain Reduction was introduced as a simple solution to give everyone my signature vocal sound, as can be heard on all of my work with bands like Asking Alexandria, We Came As Romans & dozens more. Over the past 2 years, half a dozen other plugins have been introduced based on feedback from the audio community, and built around the notion that professional-quality sound can be achieved without the traditional “professional-quality” price tag associated with most plugin manufacturers. I’ve designed the plugins around problems I encountered in the studio, and I gave them designs that any musical or creative person could understand, rather than requiring extensive audio knowledge to use. I wanted to break down technical barriers between artist and production. CONTINUE READING