Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Blues Women!

At the same time, Van Etten, 37, was in the midst of returning to her day job as a singer-songwriter, plotting a music video shoot, getting ready for a tour set to begin in February and awaiting the imminent delivery of the finished vinyl for her fifth studio LP, out Jan. 18 via Jagjaguwar. Though typically understated, the album’s title, “Remind Me Tomorrow,” nods at Van Etten’s current juggling act — a tongue-in-cheek mantra for a multitasking mother who also happens to run the small business that is an independent band.

“Crazy, crazy, crazy,” Van Etten said, taking in the scope of her hectic but life-affirming last three years, which, ironically enough, began when she tried to press pause on her music career. “I can’t even believe we’ve done what we’ve done.”

It’s Van Etten’s now-frequent use of we and our in conversation that best mark her transition from a solitary, searching singer, known for her languid, almost gothic breakup songs, to something fuller and less fragile — someone to be counted on, someone in charge of things. Together with her romantic partner, Zeke Hutchins, who was once her drummer and now works as her manager, Van Etten has undertaken what the couple characterizes as various adventures — acting, school, scoring, parenthood — each of which adds to her ongoing project: becoming a more well-rounded, more empathetic artist.

“So much of creative work today is all about like, the solitary genius and sudden rise,” said Zal Batmanglij, who directed Van Etten in “The OA,” the Netflix sci-fi series. “But it’s the people who actually do the work, day in and day out, that are special. They’re after something deeper, their work gets better — things that aren’t necessarily super-fashionable right now. They last the test of time. That’s everyone’s reaction to Sharon.”MORE

Members

Nakano Miho – Vocals/Guitar
Araya Tomomi – Guitar
Oda Mamiko – Bass
Ishikawa Minako – Drums

Former

Okuyama Reika – Drums
Ishibashi Wakano – Keyboard

The original five band members were high school students in Sapporo when they formed the band in 2009. They changed drummers in 2017 and their keyboardist left in 2018. (official site: drops-official.com)

At the moment Drop’s style seems to be changing, though one consistent in their music is that is their sound tends to evoke styles of the sixties and seventies. The song in the above video —こわして— has a loose, grungy, rough-edged sound reminiscent of Patti Smith’s 1976 punk ballad Pissing in a River. Drop’s latest release —毎日がラブソング—is an upbeat song that feels much more ‘pop’. The new style is more accessible, but the arrangement, particularly the horn parts, still has a retro feel, which is a signature feature of band’s sound. When introducing performers they admire, the band members tend to name-check performers from bygone eras (e.g. Little Richard, Elvis, The Beatles, Chet Baker, Link Wray, Earl Palmer, Janis Joplin) or performers who have stylistic roots in the past (e.g., Tom Waits, The Black Keys). These influences come through in the the retro feel of many of the band’s songs.

If the thoughts in your head are about to eat you alive it’s best to get them out of your system. Sometimes this almost feels like vomiting. At least it did for Elena Tonra. ‘It was the end of a relationship, and there was no way to undo it.,’ the leading lady of acclaimed UK trio Daughter explains the scenario behind her first ever solo record. Going to the studio on a daily basis was her therapeutic way out before getting eaten by all these thoughts as she explains: ‘The moment I realised it wasn’t going to be resolved the way I thought it was also the moment I realised I should write about it,’ she states. So, Elena did walk the same streets everyday, like a ritual, wrote these songs in her head and tried to form them into proper music.

‘A lot of the songs are long rambling notes to myself. Like writing letters you don’t actually send. A pile of paper I never quite got the courage to put in an envelope. I was trying to find a way to say things I wanted to say, but couldn’t anymore. Things I was too proud to admit to thinking or feeling.’MORE

Michelle Zauner is in the middle of reading one of my stories when I meet her backstage at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. She’s there for the first of two sold-out shows, but she immediately starts asking about me. What do I like to write about? What do I want to write about but haven’t tried? After sound check, what would I like to eat? Would Korean food work?

The 29-year-old frontwoman of the deceptively upbeat audio/visual/performance tour de force Japanese Breakfast zeroes in on a nearby spot: Lucky Pig, a joint a block away, where the lighting is disorientingly split between incandescent on one side and fluorescent on the other. Dressed in all-black basics and a pair of slides my grandmother might’ve worn in her lifetime, Michelle chats with the staff in Korean and English. The restaurant is so new that it doesn’t have its liquor license yet, so the wait staff directs us to the nearest corner store for alcohol.

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Part of what makes Michelle such a prolific and proficient artist is that she’s been practicing for this spotlight for almost half of her life. Born in Seoul and raised in Eugene, Oregon, she was 15 when she got her first guitar and 16 when she first started working on her own music, initially under the name Little Girl, Big Spoon. As a student studying creative writing and film at Bryn Mawr College, she worked so closely and well with nearby Haverford College’s Federation United Concert Series (FUCS) organization that she became the first Bryn Mawr student to join its booking team. Around that time, she and some college friends started performing as the four-piece Post Post. After school, she built a following in the DIY scene with the Philadelphia-based emo band Little Big League, where she sharpened her non-music-related band skills through sheer necessity.

For much of her run helming Japanese Breakfast, Michelle wore extra hats as the manager of the band and the point person for audience interactions, as well as organizing tours and merch. It’s only recently that the band’s been able to tour with their own front-of-house audio engineer, a luxury to someone who still remembers budgeting and splitting $200 show fees between her bandmates. MORE

Beatrice Kristi Laus (born 3 June 2000), also known as Bea Kristi or professionally as beabadoobee^[13] (/biːbəduːbiːˈ/),^[14] is a Filipino-British indie singer-songwriter. Since 2018, she has released 5 extended plays under Dirty Hit, and has supported The 1975 on both their Music for Cars Tour and their Notes on a Conditional Form Tour in 2020. As of March 2020, Beabadoobee has over 300 million accumulative streams on Spotify. She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards, and was predicted as a breakthrough act for 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.

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Laus was born in Iloilo City, Philippines on 3 June 2000 and moved to London with her parents at the age of 3.^[3][4] She grew up in West London listening to OPM (original Pinoy music) as well as pop and rock music from the 1980s. While she was a teenager, she listened to indie rock including Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Florist and Alex G.^[9] She attended Sacred Heart High School for her high school education and Hammersmith Academy for her sixth form education.^{[citation needed]} Kristi spent seven years learning to play the violin, before getting her first guitar second-hand at the age of 17.^[5] She taught herself how to play the instrument using YouTube tutorials.^[9] She was inspired by Kimya Dawson and the Juno soundtrack to start making music.^[4]

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Kristi has cited Elliott Smith, The Mouldy Peaches, Pavement, Mazzy Star, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Daniel Johnston as her musical influences.^[12][4] Kristi has told Vice that she plans on making film soundtracks in the future, as they heavily inspired her to make music.^[4] On her background and using YouTube to find success, she said:^[35]

My very traditional Asian family had the classic way of thinking: ‘play an orchestra instrument’ or ‘be a doctor’. Today, people start off making beats on a laptop, but hopefully I encourage young people to pick up the guitar and rock out! YouTube tutorials are a great way to develop your own style, and go at your own pace

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For Bea Kristi, her whole 2019 has been a dreamlike story, ripped from the pages of a music nerd’s fan-fiction. But the difference? Bea doesn’t have to wake up, because this is her real life now. “It’s like, ‘What the fuck!’” The Philippines-born, west London-raised 19-year-old giggles over the phone from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Currently mid-way through a US tour with bedroom-pop artist Clairo, it’s clear that Bea - better known as Beabadoobee - is also aware of how ridiculous the past year has been.

The whirlwind the singer now finds herself in began around two years ago when, aged 17, she got kicked out of school. Feeling lost and not really knowing what she wanted to do, her dad decided to buy her a guitar because she seemed “really bored” all the time. Teaching herself how to play, she first learnt Sixpence None the Richer’s ‘90s classic ‘Kiss Me’, and subsequently wrote her first original track ‘Coffee’ - a hushed, emotional bedroom-pop bop that ended up going low-key viral.

“At first, I just thought that songwriting was cool and then, when we released it, we had a lot of people saying that they liked it. People were recognising me on Instagram and were like ‘Hey, you’re that ‘Coffee’ girl?’ And I was like, ‘What the fuck, I’ve never worked as a waitress?!’” she laughs. “Then I was like, ‘Oh fuck, they’re talking about my song!’ That was really cool and motivated me more to do it because people were interested and enjoyed it. You know how everyone has a ‘thing’? Well, I didn’t have have a thing and then I realised that this is my thing!”MORE

WM: How did you first get in touch with Rock and Metal and who were the first bands that influenced you to create your singing style?

Angela Gossow : I discovered Metal through a British radio station when I was about 15 years old. They played a lot of Thrash and Deathmetal. I got hooked on Metallica, Slayer, Death, Carcass, Napalm Death, Entombed, Morbid Angel… When I started singing in that style these were the bands that influenced me most.

Wikimetal: Arch Enemy has a very unique sound, how would you describe your music to someone who had never heard the band? Is there a way to label the sound of Arch Enemy?

AG: We play Extreme Metal. We mash up elements of Thrash, Death, Speed, Prog, Melodic and Classic Metal. We work with a broad range of influences. This is why our sound is very distinctive and pretty unique.MORE

Angela Gossow was born to Orthodox Christian parents in Cologne, Germany, and had three siblings. She was 17 when her parents divorced. Further financial troubles came in when their business went bankrupt. Being anorexic and bulimic further added to her woes.^[1] It was at this time that she decided to move out of home and join the metal band Asmodina. After graduation she joined an advertising company as a trainee, specializing in marketing. She simultaneously began studying economics. In 1997, the band Asmodina split and Gossow formed another band: Mistress.

Gossow is one of the first among a small number of women to front as a death metal vocalist. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range, with a death growl.^[2] She uses false cord screams.^[3] Her main influences are Jeff Walker of Carcass, David Vincent of Morbid Angel, Chuck Billy of Testament, John Tardy of Obituary, Chuck Schuldiner of Death, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, and Rob Halford of Judas Priest.^[4]

Gossow joined Arch Enemy in November 2000, after the removal of lead singer Johan Liiva.^[5] She had previously interviewed guitarist Michael Amott for a German webzine. While interviewing Amott, Gossow gave him a demo that she described as a "poor quality" video of a performance at a club. After firing Liiva in 2000, the band called in Gossow for an audition. Amott later said that "she wiped the floor with all the other contenders." She then proceeded to record Wages of Sin with Arch Enemy.
On the eve of a 2002 tour, Gossow was diagnosed with nodules, which almost stopped her from growling. However, after some vocal therapy, she was able to recover her voice and she proceeded to begin taking piano and screaming lessons from renowned coach Melissa Cross. She continues to work in close conjunction with her.
On 17 March 2014, it was announced that Gossow was stepping down as Arch Enemy vocalist in order to pursue other interests and spend more time with her family. Gossow recommended Alissa White-Gluz from Canadian metal band The Agonist as her replacement, and will remain business manager for the band.^[6]MORE

Alissa: I didn’t really make an intentional goal of being a frontperson of a metal band but I always had a very loud voice, I would even get into trouble at school for being really loud! I was a really good student but my voice just projects so I always had this really loud voice, I was always pretty fearless when it came to anything and I still am I guess. I grew up in a house where my Mom, my Dad, my older sister and I have a younger brother too but he was younger than me but he was just a little baby when I was growing up and these are all music lovers and my sister actually is also a frontperson in a touring band and so we have this great respect and appreciation for music. My Mom has vinyls on the wall of Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie, Janet Joplin, Nirvana, Eric Clapton, The Who, Deep Purple, just all sorts of really cool music influences. MORE

Alissa White-Gluz (/əˈliːsə ˈɡlʌz/;^[2]) (born 31 July 1985) is a Canadian vocalist, best known as the lead vocalist of the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy,^[3] and former lead vocalist and founding member of the Canadian metalcore band the Agonist.^[4] Her vocal style includes both growling and clean vocals (singing).^[5] Although primarily associated with melodic death metal and metalcore, she has appeared as a guest vocalist for power metal, symphonic metal and deathcore bands, notably Kamelot, Delain and Carnifex and has performed live with Nightwish and Tarja Turunen.
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White-Gluz was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as the second of three children.^[6][7] Her grandparents were prisoners in concentration camps during World War II and managed to escape. Their experiences in the camps would go on to inspire the Arch Enemy song, "First Day in Hell".^[8]MORE

Guitarist Yoshi and vocalist Rami formed Aldious in Osaka in June 2008.^[3] The name Aldious was created by Rami shortening the phrase "Ultimate Melodious."^[8] In November they took part in the compilation album Red Hot Burning Hell Vol.16,^[9] soon after which guitarist Ruki and bassist Sawa left. In January 2009, Toki and Kaze joined as guitarist and bassist respectively, later the band released their debut four-track EP Dear Slave on November 7.^[9] Kaze left in December, and drummer Aruto joined in January 2010. March saw the return of Sawa on bass and around this time Aldious formed their own record label, Bright Star Records.^[9] Their first single "Defended Desire", released July 7, reached the number 4 position on Oricon's Indies chart and number 49 on its regular chart.^[9][10] In April, Bright Star became a sublabel of Spinning and the band released their debut album Deep Exceed on October 13, 2010.^[3] It reached number 15 on the charts.^[11];MORE

Anita is an established blues singer and social justice advocate who lives in Seattle. The 61-year-old musician has been professionally going by “Lady A” since the ‘80s when she performed in a Motown group called Lady A & the Baby Blues Funk Band. She was with the group for 18 years before she went solo. Her first album under the name Lady A came out in 2010 ("BlueZin the Key of Me"), and she’s released four more since (the fifth album, "Lady A: Live in New Orleans" comes out July 18th, on the singer’s birthday).MORE