VMP Magazine

Everyone thinks they want authenticity, but in actuality, what’s presented to us as honest and raw — endless social media stories, reality shows, six-hour livestreams — is actually preened over and manicured. The musician Oliver Sim recognizes this: It’s why his terrific debut album, Hideous Bastard, is all about how honesty is relative. How it changes over time in our minds, how it’s liberating to some but terrifying to others, and how it’s sometimes best consumed with a chaser of artifice.

“It’s about the journey, not the destination” is one of those treacly quotes that we’ve heard so many times it can make your skin bristle. So leave it to Julia Jacklin, one of our shrewdest, smartest songwriters, to breathe new life into the tired mantra. Written in fits and starts during the last few years and largely recorded over a few months in Montreal, the Melbourne-based musician’s third album, PRE PLEASURE, focuses on dismantling the notion that work and enjoyment are separate, both personally and professionally.

We’re all plenty familiar with the tortured artist archetype, the tormented creative who spends sleepless nights trying to perfect a brush stroke or the wording of a crucial sentence. It’s an alluring concept to be sure, except when you’re an actual artist making actual art. Deconstructing that myth is part of why British singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya decided to title her second LP PAINLESS. 

After two decades making music in New York’s cramped quarters and rehearsing in “dudes’ basements,” Hamilton Leithauser needed something different. The Walkmen singer and accomplished solo artist set to work building a studio space in his home, a journey that transformed his whole musical approach and led to his new solo album The Loves of Your Life. But before he got there, Leithauser’s new environment and approach led to a period of intense writer’s block.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, the second full-length album from Okay Kaya.

In 2019, mainstream music seems like a solo artist’s game. The “Rock is dead” discourse gradually spread to bands in general, and many popular acts today (i.e. Bon Iver or Tame Impala) are essentially one-person endeavors buoyed by a few regular live musicians. Fortunately, the members of Free Nationals committed to the idea of a shared musical vision long before these conversations become de rigueur.

For Caroline Polachek, each album she makes produces an equal and opposite LP down the road. She’s been making hard sonic and thematic pivots in her music since she was part of the acclaimed group Chairlift, going from smart-yet-staid fringe pop songs on their debut to more urgent, angular, and electronic tunes on their subsequent projects. The trend has continued into her eclectic solo career.

Photo by Adam Alonzo

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring the new EP There's Always Going to Be Something from Jackie Hayes.

Image by Brett Carlson

There’s nothing like the feeling of stumbling upon a great album you’d forgotten about. Buried in the depths of your mind are lyrics you thought were long lost and unexpected memories with a whole host of songs. In the case of Matthew Dear, there was one extra caveat — the album he rediscovered was one he’d made himself.

“It’s pretty fucked up, because Sam [Valenti] of [my label] Ghostly, he was the one that kinda put all the things together again and said to me, ‘Hey remember all this? Remember this thing?’ And when I heard them it was so messed up, because I could sing every one. My wife, too,” Dear recalled. “She remembered every song and we looked at each other like, ‘Oh my god.’”

Titling songs is not an exact science. Some artists go for rambling and poetic (think Sufjan Stevens), while others go for droll absurdism (i.e. JPEGMAFIA, Sidney Gish, Fall Out Boy). Experimental figures like Arca often opt for curt, one word titles that belie the complexity that lies within. For All Things Blue, the indie project led by India Coombs, the titles on their new record Get Bit underscore their music’s charming idiosyncrasies and good-natured accessibility.

Australian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Donny Benét didn’t think he’d be here. For Benét, “here” means both stuck in his home unable to tour in support of his latest album Mr. Experience due to the coronavirus pandemic — but also releasing another record at all.