Bringin' it Backwards

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Blue Stahli over Zoom video! Regarded for his slick, genre-bending electronic rock, Bret Autrey - commonly known as Blue Stahli - produces cyberpunk anthems of the fringe zeitgeist. Born in Phoenix and currently residing in Los Angeles, Autrey's musical career began with the discovery of computer trackers as a teenager. Soon after, he led electro-industrial collective VOXiS before a stint in the Midwest to hone his mix of explosive guitar riffs and ghostly vocal hooks. The one-man beat-heavy electronic noise collage Blue Stahli launched his solo career, which expanded to include Sunset Neon - an indie pop blast of ocean breeze, sun-drenched skin, and nu-disco dance floors. Beyond artist projects as Blue Stahli which include the self-titled debut album (2011), the Antisleep series (Vol. 1-4 from 2008-17) and the deadchannel_Trilogy albums Quartz, Copper and Obsidian (2020/21), he produces custom music which can be heard in film and video game trailers. Perpetually cinematic, Blue Stahli's body of work has also underscored scary monsters (Lights Out), zombie decapitation (Dead Rising 2), the rescue of the galaxy (Iron Man 3; Star Trek Into Darkness), hailed a new era in video games (Playstation 5 worldwide launch), soundtracked brutal digital battlefields (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare), and calls to mind gunfights, explosions (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), and cosmic horror ("American Horror Story"). Most recently his tracks "Upgrade" (with Danny Cocke) and "Clockwork OS/Stackoverflow" appear exclusively in the highly anticipated video game Cyberpunk 2077. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing EXES over Zoom video! Today, Los Angeles-based duo EXES – fronted by Allie McDonald and producer Mike Derenzo – are thrilled to release their gorgeous cover of Dashboard Confessional's 2006 hit "Don't Wait" featuring Chris Carrabba himself. Says Carrabba, "I have always enjoyed covering songs I love, by bands I love, and even better when it's a song by friends I love. I have made a habit of doing this for my whole career. So you can imagine how moved I was when a band I love, EXES, decided to cover my song Don't Wait. I heard their delicate and sweeping rendition of Don't Wait through a friend, and I remarked to him at the time "I only wish my version was this beautiful". Then EXES invited me to be on their version and I was thrilled. They were patient. I had broken my shoulders and ribs and probably other things...too many to list anyway. And so my friends in EXES waited until I was well enough to prop myself up to a mic and be a guest on what in many ways I now consider their song. It was an honor. It is an honor. I know people will fall in love with this song and for some it will be their introduction to the band EXES. For those that do discover EXES from Don't Wait I ask only one thing. Please listen to more of their music. You will love it, as I do. I promise." Imbued with sentimentality and inspired by the people, places, and things in their lives, EXES invite listeners into the whimsically romantic world of their design. Allie's lyrical intimacy combined with Mike's sonic intricacy allow the duo to create a detail-oriented sort of indie pop; equal parts affectionate and vulnerable in production, lyrics, and melody. With more than 90 million Spotify streams to date, EXES has been featured on Billboard, Ones to Watch, Refinery 29, BlackBook Media - and has had singles that charted Top 10 on Hype Machine and that were featured on Taylor Swift's "Songs Taylor Loves." EXES' music has also been featured on ABC's drama Quantico, Netflix's reboot of the fan favorite DeGrassi, and the UK's BAFTA Award-winning Made in Chelsea. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter and Sean Ulbs of The Eiffels, we had the pleasure of interviewing Oxymorrons over Zoom video! When you think about Alternative music Oxymorrons undoubtedly come to mind. The New York-based boundary-pushers have made a name for themselves in the spirit of change - building a movement from years of being told they were too rock for hip-hop, too hip-hop for rock. They boldly committed to creating music that defies arbitrary rules of classification, cementing the band as early pioneers of the modern genre-blending revolution and receiving co-signs from Billboard, The Fader, Complex, VIBE, Hypebeast, Highsnobiety, Ebro Darden's Beats 1. As the newest addition to Jason Aalon Butler's (Fever 333) Artist Collective '333 Wreckords Crew', Oxymorrons expanded their sound with their first release under the collective, "Justice". With the recent signing to 333 Wreckords and release of "Justice", they're finally getting the recognition they deserve in the Alt-Scene with support from Kerrang!, Revolver, Discover Mag, Hot Topic and BBC1's Daniel Carter. Although 2020 was the year of the pandemic Oxymorrons solidified their base, finished a new album and are in prime position to bring the noise in 2021. Oxymorrons set the tone for 2021 with their single "Green Vision" - a blended hip-hop x hard-rock vibe that makes you want to hit the mosh pit and the dance floor. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter and Sean Ulbs of The Eiffels, we had the pleasure of interviewing The Messenger Birds over Zoom video! The Messenger Birds is not a rock band. It's just two guys (Parker Bengry and Chris Williams). But there is more to this two-piece than meets the eye and a lot of noise to back it up. The Messenger Birds have quickly gained a reputation for putting on an intensely loud and energetic live show, and if you weren't paying attention, you'd think there were five people on stage. With catchy hooks, monster riffs, and unapologetic lyrics, their Detroit brand of alt-rock is often reminiscent of bands like Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, and even Nirvana. While the world has unfortunately slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this certainly has not stopped the duo in their tracks by any stretch of the imagination. After releasing a string of singles (such as the widely popular "Phantom Limb," which has accumulated over 5 million streams on Spotify since hitting the platform on Halloween of 2018, and the intense and apocalyptic "Play Dead (Just for Tonight)) as well as creating and co-hosting their own podcast titled "We Got Ourselves (And Kevin) Into This", the guys are just getting started. Written almost entirely in the fall of 2018 and recorded in early 2019, the album feels eerily like a premonition of what is happening now in the world. It walks the line between the personal and political and paints stark portraits of a surreal existence in an increasingly polarized and dystopian society. Despite not being able to tour in support of the record release, there is no doubt that the band will find a way to push forward. And as soon as it is possible, they'll be back touring and playing as relentlessly as they were in 2019, appearing alongside household names like Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, And Lizzo at Mo Pop Festival and supporting artists like '68, Wilson, The Fall of Troy, and many others. It doesn't matter what you put in their way - nothing is going to stop The Messenger Birds from making noise. The Messenger Birds released their debut album 'Everything Has To Fall Apart Eventually' on October 7th, 2020. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing XIXA over Zoom video! Formed in the heart of the deep American Southwest, XIXA are a guitar-slinging six-piece, uniquely attuned to the desert and their Latin roots. Combining gritty guitars, the bumping grind of chicha, and desert blues into a mesmerizing stew. They're also a band whose time had come to define what they call "The New Southwest"-intense, sun-bleached music shot through with an inky gothic horror that scans like the long-lost soundtrack to a cult, macabre B-movie Western. Their debut record, 2016 "Bloodline," saw them inject heavy fuzz guitars and Latin pulses into sandy rock and roll, a potent mix that took them all over the world for two whole years. For 2019s EP "The Code" they blended psych-rock, cumbia, goth rock, cowboy folk and windswept desert blues into a dark, simmering occult. Coming in early 2021 is the bands long-awaited sophomore album which finds XIXA delving deeper into their admiration for Peruvian chicha, extracting and refining their core, and giving voice to their most primal instincts. Informed by the bands rich history as songwriters and storytellers, they've carved a wider space for their psychedelic rock to swell, a place where scoundrels and coyotes roam free, and magic runs deep in the earth. It is the ultimate desert trip. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jenna Torres over Zoom video! If there's anything 2020 taught the world, it was to accept vulnerability, harness the unexpected, and find power and joy in life's ups and downs. It's a lesson in which singer-songwriter Jenna Torres was already well-versed — and one that she brings to music fans everywhere in her fifth studio album, All Heart. As fitting as these songs of hope and heartache are for these raw times, they were all penned and recorded the months before the pandemic hit. For Torres, writing is just as much a form of transformation and healing as it is her offering to the world. The album is a welcome gift during a period when so many are struggling to find meaning amidst both the light and the dark. "I don't think we have the option to avoid heartache," she told American Songwriter upon the release of the album's title track, "All Heart." "It's our responsibility as songwriters and as performers to transmute the pain and the hurt into something that has the power to actually help somebody else through their experience. That's my absolute goal. You have to surrender the goal in order to be true to yourself." Produced by Stephen Leiweke, All Heart was penned in Nashville, where Torres lives and draws musical inspiration when she's not spending time in her hometown of New York City. The album's eight tracks take listeners on an emotional journey that ranges from the triumph of hope to the wilds of heartbreak. Each of the 8 songs on the album are standouts, kicking off with the gorgeous vocal harmonies of "Better Boots" and the country-folk anthem "Wild Thing," Torres perfectly encapsulates the sensation of flying high on dreams yet to be realized. As the album moves into the title track, a raw and elegant ballad, Torres deftly showcases the beauty of vulnerability — a theme she continues to explore in "Tell Me Your Story." In "Rose of Jericho," Jenna draws inspiration from the courage of our ancestral foremothers. Finally, the defiant "Going Where The Love Is" brings the album full circle back into freedom once more. All Heart is Torres' fifth studio album, following up the critically-acclaimed A Woman's Touch (2014) and Wild Sugar (2017), the latter featuring the hard-driving single "Heart On Wheels." Throughout her career, Torres has written songs for Warner Music Group and Warner/Chappell Music, including songs for Martha Wash of the Weather Girls as well as a Top 10 Billboard hit, "Busted Heart," penned with co-writer Ben Glover for the band For King & Country. "Releasing this album means more to me than simply releasing music; it is a way of transcending the limitations that we are all experiencing right now," says Torres. "When so many of our natural impulses to gather and celebrate and even mourn have been stripped away — when coming together in the ways we are used is practically forbidden — you can't take the wings off a song. It will fly regardless of lockdowns and pandemics. People will find comfort and joy in music and I, for one, consider it a privilege to offer my songs as way of not only keeping my dreams alive but as a reminder that dreams don't play by the rules." We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kid Hastings over Zoom video! Kid Hastings, AKA Jake McEvoy of Hastings, England(though raised in New Jersey) is a jazz and choir kid turned bleached-hair indie rock/pop guitarist and songwriter currently based in Los Angeles. Returning after a year long hiatus, the new single "Call Me Up" and accompanying video is ​out now​ via ​Ourros​. As "Call Me Up" speaks to the struggle of expressing one's own identity when launching into anew relationship, the accompanying visual acts as a delightfully deranged take on the odds of identity as it flows fluidly across time. Harmonically and melodically, the song was inspired by a particular jazz standard while the production juxtaposes fuzzy synth and plucked guitar with glitchy, layered drums. Channeling that dichotomy in production, McEvoy taps into 2021 with an ode to freedom within his own identity, literally dancing across the duality of masculine and feminine within the music video. With the help of friend and fellow creative, ​Ava Doorey​, the two devised a video that embodies the complexity of Kid Hasting's persona. These self-proclaimed "reformed theater kids" cooked up a concept that not only allows for McEvoy to present his unparalleled physical performance prowess, but also creates freedom through freedom. As the world kept turning, the pandemic made us all stay still. That said, McEvoy stepped into the zone of self-expression through artistic movement, and the freedom of identity that is the basis of the video allowed McEvoy to feel blissfully free himself. Following the success of his 2019 debut EP, ​Golden​, ​McEvoy returns with the release of "CallMe Up" as the first single of his forthcoming project. With over 415K Spotify streams under his belt and previously sold out shows across the indie LA scene, Kid Hasting's is set to take 2021 by storm. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Leahey over Zoom video! A timeless rock & roll band for the modern age, Andrew Leahey & The Homestead are torchbearers of an anthemic, guitar-driven sound once held aloft by icons like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. It's a sound that's taken the Nashville-based Leahey around the world, from sold-out shows in Norway, Mexico, and South Africa to a string of cross-country tours back home. Along the way, his songwriting — hailed by Rolling Stone for its "celebratory mix of sharp storytelling and fist-pumping rock & roll swagger" — has left a unique mark, climbing the Americana Airplay charts one minute with the Top 50 hit "Little in Love" (from Leahey's 2016 debut, Skyline in Central Time) and finding a home on pop/rock radio with singles like "Start the Dance" and "Airwaves" (both taken from his international breakthrough, 2019's Airwaves) the next. When a global pandemic brought the world to a standstill in 2020, Leahey got creative. He launched a weekly livestream concert series, "Andrew Leahey: Live & Online," from his living room, playing to thousands of viewers every Thursday night and cracking the Top 40 on Pollstar's Livestream chart. He also played lead guitar on Elizabeth Cook's Aftermath, an album produced by Butch Walker and released to widespread critical acclaim that September. Most importantly, he continued releasing new songs of his own, from "Keep the Car Running" — a larger-than-life tribute to the power of the FM radio dial, praised by Rolling Stone as "unrelenting rock for uncertain times" — to the heartbreaking ballad "New Memories (4202 Franklin)," which was inspired by a family member's battle with Alzheimer's. COVID-19 might have cancelled Leahey's touring plans, but it couldn't keep him from moving forward. As a frontman, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, contemporary guitar hero, and award-winning music journalist, Leahey knows what it means to push through a life-threatening health scare. During the years leading up to Skyline in Central Time's release, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor that sat on his hearing nerve, jeopardizing not only his hearing, but his survival, too. The operation to remove the tumor took 12 hours; the recovery took more than 12 months. When Leahey returned to the road, he did so with a renewed purpose and perspective, crafting rock & roll anthems that celebrated everything he previously took for granted. Years later, it's that same sense of purpose — entwined with electric guitars, thick harmonies, and vocal hooks that swing for the fences — that continues to thrive at the center of Leahey's music. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Iglu & Hartly over Zoom video! Iglu & Hartly was formed in the foothills of Colorado by college friends Jarvis Anderson (lead vocals, production), Sam Martin (vocals, keyboards), and Simon Katz (guitar). After dropping out and moving to Los Angeles, California, Luis Rosiles flew from Jarvis' hometown of Chicago to join the band as their drummer, and LA local Michael Bucher joined as bassist. The band paid its dues in the glitter and grime of seedy Hollywood nightclubs before being adopted by Hermosa Beach, a Los Angeles sea-side community with a strong punk rock heritage, who identified with their synth heavy, sweaty and wildly packed shows. The love the band felt from this city served as inspiration for the song "In This City" which became a worldwide hit in 2008. Finally embraced by thousands of worldwide fans after the successful launch of their debut record "& then Boom" in 2008, the group signed first to Jodie Cammidge's indie label called "Another Music Another Kitchen" and then to Mercury Records in the UK. As the single grew massively, the synth-pop group rose up the UK pop charts (#5) and US alternative charts. The band toured the UK and Europe at a non-stop pace which resulted in strain on the group's interpersonal relationships and by 2010 the band was dropped by the label, and the members went their separate ways. Iglu & Hartly lay dormant in an extended hiatus for 10 years thereafter. Spearheaded by singer Jarvis Anderson, the group reunited to headline the Hermosa Beach Summer Series festival in August of 2019. Anderson says, "As we closed out our set, and the sun was setting over the water, it just felt like the universe handed us a massive 2nd chance to continue the Iglu & Hartly story". Indeed, those new flames of creativity led to a body of work that is to be released starting with the first single "Cooler"; a song fittingly about mounting a comeback. "Cooler is told from the perspective of a guy that is set on winning over a girl who rejected him in the past. I love how the throwback synths and guitars rise as his story gathers fun, frenetic momentum", Jarvis Anderson said. The result is an absurdly epic and feel-good song that seems serendipitous to the band's actual comeback. The single somehow finds a way of being equal parts soothing and exciting; healing and rambunctious. Those who are fans of their debut Hit "In This City" will find "Cooler" just as irresistible, with its veracious hooks, and genre bending, disruptive appeal. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kevin Besignano over Zoom video! Kevin Besignano has been known in the music world for the last 2 decades as a touring musician and musical artist. He's toured the world playing in bands such as Unwritten Law, Bullets and Octane and his own band, True Rivals. While his roots may be rock and roll, his undying love for the art of music travels so much deeper than that. Having attended Berklee College of Music, Besignano has always been intrigued by jazz, classical, composing and the varying sounds that great the universal love language that is music. In 2011 he opted to stop touring professionally and focus on his dream to become a film and television composer. After an apprenticeship with Mark Yaeger (who learned at the tutelage of the infamous Hans Zimmer), Kevin began to work on short films, commercials, and cues for brands such as Benefit Cosmetics, DJI, JBL, etc. In 2019 he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime when his close friends, Annika Marks and Rich Newey, agreed to bring him on as the Composer to their labor of love – the feature film, Killing Eleanor. Marks and Newey wrote the film, Newey directed it and Marks stars as the lead protagonist – Natalie. The film is a right to die film based out of the Chicago area and stars true staples within the industry: Jenny O'Hara (as the titled character, Eleanor), Betsy Brandt, Jane Kaczmarek, Camryn Manheim, David Eigenberg and Thomas Sadowski. Kevin worked closely with the filmmakers to find the right tone for such an important and beautiful film, not only writing and creating original music but learning to play the cello for a heart-tugging piece that plays over the movies most important scene. The film recently celebrated their first win (Best Narrative) at the Savannah Film Festival where it premiered and appeared at the St. Louis International Film Festival. Besignano continues to build his resume and is currently working on a web series (where he is also the Sound Editor), among other yet to be announced projects. Originally from Staten Island, NY/New Jersey, Kevin currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. I hope you'll be interested in speaking with this talented artist on the rise! We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com. www.BringinitBackwards.com #podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork Listen & Subscribe to BiB Follow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/