Glasse Factory - Featured Music of the Week: 05.30.2022

Featured Music of the Week: 05.30.2022

Check out our featured picks for the week!

“Fight Forever,” by FERGUS: This artist creates their sound according to their mood. While choosing to embrace the melancholy, he uses the bitter feelings that come to inspire and process through them to find a place of healing and serenity. His formative years were spent singing and touring professionally with choirs, and playing ‘cello with orchestras. When this period of his life – a half, up to that point – came to an end he found himself burnt out, without a sense of identity. Seeking self-discovery, he rebelled. After a time adrift, his love of making music returned for good. The musician turned his ability to blend into a strength, achieving harmony with his guitar and himself.

Complimenting the release of his debut album, this leading single taps into the shape-shifting nature that is this artist’s latest work. It, too, captures some of the essence and the fight through the highs and lows of a relationship in a dramatic context.

“Fight Forever” started as a fun song I made when a brief came through to soundtrack an “ironic fight scene”. I wrote a song about two people falling in love whilst having a physical fight… I rewrote the verses to be less comedic and more dramatic, then added some context in the middle to keep it personal.

~ FERGUS

“Blue,” by NOLA: Malmö-based songwriter and singer, Johanna Karlson, left her hometown of Lund to leave the suffocation that she felt in a small town to explore the wider cultural scene and pursue her passion for music. And upon the release of her latest EP this last week, Someone New, she has seemingly escaped time in her creations. A chapter closing on the pain of her youth, the ep release nurtures the subtle, growing glow of hope as she traverses a new, unwritten and unspoiled phase where she can finally be someone new – herself.

A taste of what this artist has to offer next in her music career, this single in particular enhances an acoustic, emotional experience of Americana that is wholly and truly her own. The simply curated instrumentals hone in focus on the vocal display and power the lyrical arrangements hold. Invoking the senses beyond the color blue, the artist fills in all the lines in between and paint the story it holds; the longing to be unfeeling due to the overwhelming emotions filled up from within.

“shell,” by waters blend: This artist blends all emotions and sounds together as they swirl into the murky depths, until they can no longer separate and be known as their own selves. Each melody they create seems to shimmer in those depths within a steady rhythm that flows, and break through the surface to pull each concept together in full. The music of this project is glistening and still like glacial water, but sometimes loud and heavy like a waterfall, propelling listeners across uncharted waters until the surface reflects the early light of late evening and warm raindrops cloud the water anew.

This single in particular is no exception. Two lovers are formed within the song’s words. As they sit on the beachfront, hand in hand, one loses themselves in the gaze into the depths, and the other tries desperately to cling on and save them from being lost.

“Savior,” by Sacul: A singer and songwriter born in Scotland, grown in Hawaii, also known as Lucas Cusic, has been rising in the music scene with his song, “Funeral,” co-produced with producer Laprete. It was featured as BBC Radio Scotland’s Track of the Week in April 2021, from which he landed his debut performance at King Tuts Glasgow in August 2021. A debut EP will be released soon, and we cannot wait to hear more.

This track hones in on the realization that in the midst of witnessing the struggle of another, you cannot always be everyone’s savior.

“Toothpaste Kisses,” by Daniella Binyamin: This singer and songwriter holds onto her roots of Sweden and the vivid cities of the Middle East as she holds both worlds in her palms. Though she admits she connects to one of these sides of herself more than others, sometimes the two connect in perfect harmony, especially in her song craft. Writing songs and stories have always been her way to try to understand herself and the world outside. Balancing the powerful, yet fragile, her delicate voice builds a presence of its own as it blends with classical instruments, intense drums, and a vivid sense of storytelling. The past couple of years, Daniella’s been working as a back-up singer and songwriter for other artists, such as Lukas Graham, Zara Larsson and Robin Schulz.

This single is all that and more; as it combines a stillness with storm in the contrast of emotions and embrace the conflict as its own.

After a break up and a breakdown last summer, I moved to my mum’s little house in the woods, where my only company was my demons and an old piano. I spent my days running in the forest, planting seeds in the garden and listening to music I listened to in my teens, when I started writing. I found my old records of Regina Spektor, Anna Ternheim, my chemical romance. And somewhere, in the midst of that, the songs from my upcoming album started to take shape. As a monologue with myself, trying to figure out who I once was and who I wanted to become.

The day I wrote “Toothpaste Kisses” I remember feeling everything and nothing all at once. The afterglow of the break up and the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with it was washing over me, and I went back and forth between feeling free and like I’d lost everything. Me and my co-producer and writer Oskar Nyman had booked a session to write for another artist, but when we met I just felt like I needed to write something else. Something real. I needed to get all those feelings off my chest. Those feelings turned into “Toothpaste Kisses”.

~ Daniella Binyamin

“Crashing Down,” by Tayrn: This English singer, songwriter, and producer creates folk full of dream. Arresting the listener with his ethereal voice, lyrics captivate and cause moments of pause to reminisce. Powerful, spacious soundscapes contrast with an intimate message. This artist is just getting things started as they begin to rise in the scene.

Delicate vocals weave through the entirety of the track with an effortless ease. A love song of intimacy and quiet reflection, the song uses delicate engaging vocals, heart pulling strings and cinematic percussion to create a soft yet grand feeling composition.

“Mystery,” by David Myles: This award-winning artist, songwriter and performer has played hundreds of shows, both in Canada and beyond our borders. Of our many time-worn idioms, few are as consistently on-the-money as “opposites attract” throughout his work. Recognizing something unrecognizable in another human being pulls us toward them, spurring us to plumb their depths—to an extent, and this artist’s specialty is pouring all those things into one place throughout his songs.

This single swoons and mesmerizes. As the artist comes face-to-face with a potential lover whose otherworldliness piques his curiosity, a smooth beat carries the melody forth as the tension builds throughout the song’s lyrics. As backup singers chime alongside the dreamy crescendo, and the night in question drifts out of focus, Myles’ love story reminds us that we never forget the ones who challenge and expand our perspectives.

What were your favorite tracks this week? Let us know in the comments, and listen to each track in full on our very own playlist!