If you love the 80’s, you’ll like Nate Merchant aka Merchant. Check out the tracks Dead Days & Gatorade along with Don’t Feel Like Dancing. Both songs are solid.

He hooked up with Duran Duran’s John Taylor and a collaboration began. With Taylor playing bass, they drummed up 6 distinctive synth-pop songs. The track have received support from Ones To Watch (Live Nation) Jason Kramer on KCRW, Billboard, and Sirius XM.

Merchant will drop more singles in the coming months and wrap up the project with a 6 song EP in December.

The LA based pop artist honed his songwriting and production skills working with Sam Martin (Maroon 5, Jason Derulo, One Direction). Nate’s first band Papa Ya cracked the Top 10 on the Spotify Viral Charts with their debut single “Sunny.” Stream the track on KOAR’s Indie Invaders Playlist.

18 year old Lorelei Marcell just dropped her debut EP. Inspired by Alicia Keys, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and SZA, she performs including locally at open mics, cafes, and restaurants.

“I write and record pop music, but I love bluesy R&B. It’s a balance, because I’m a bit of an old soul when it comes to singing. Vocally, I always try to stand out” says the Boston-based singer and songwriter.

Stream Your Biggest Fan on KOAR’s Indie Invaders Playlist. It’s my personal favorite.

Lorelei says: “I was inspired to write this song when I met someone very special, and the maturity and emotions that come with moving on. After this past year, with graduating high school, it felt very difficult yet bittersweet to begin and leave it all behind”

Look out for Izabel and the new track nothingwillbadwill happen. Fans of Halsey and Tate McRae will enjoy. The 19 year old from Montreal caught early support from The Chainsmokers while her first track was featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds, It’s A Bop, New Music Friday Canada, and Night Pop. Give it a stream on KOAR’s Indie Invaders.

Did you hear? Big things coming soon. I can’t tell you how many times I here this. I wait and wait and wait…

And what usually happens? Nothing. It’s a zero score in a game.

People tuned out. Especially if you use buzz words like deep dive, engagement, optimize, and queen. They’re the worse. Do you really want to bore people? Post a photo dump. Like anybody cares about random photos. Let’s face it, you have nothing to post, no story.

A personal story always hooks me. Especially if it’s real and heartfelt. You have to guts to be vulnerable. Especially today because it could be used against you.

Britney Spears is winning her bid to end her fathers control over the conservatorship. How? She told a story. People reacted. Her father couldn’t take the public backlash. He wants out.

Stories have to be real. We know the difference between genuine and fake.

If you make a real connection, folks will want to hear your music. They’ll like your music if they like you. It’s not the other way around.

I can’t help you with story building. Stories are built on the battlefield, not in class rooms.

Universal Music is expanding it’s music recorded-music operations in China.

The labels are Republic Records China, EMI China, PolyGram Records China, and Universal Music China. Each label will operate independently with its own artist rosters, A&R and marketing teams. The suits will report to UMGC chairman and CEO Sunny Chang.

“After 15 years of development in the local market, Universal Music is once again demonstrating its commitment to the Chinese creative community by becoming the first international major music company to launch multilabel operations here,” said Chang in a prepared statement.

“Under the new structure of four distinct labels, the star team at UMGC will be able to better support local musicians in a way that is more professional and comprehensive. With an innovative and pioneering spirit, UMGC will develop rising stars from the Chinese market and promote Chinese pop music so that it can be heard an audience around the world.”