Copper
... and indie for all
Claudia Schmidt
It’s been almost 40 years since a brainy, clear-voiced multi-instrumentalist from Michigan released her first collection of folksy yet idiosyncratic songs. Claudia Schmidt’s 14th solo studio album – that number doesn’t...
Heather Maloney
The town of Northampton, Mass., is a creative hub from way back, attracting the type who make and share art in a scene more hippie than hipster. There are plenty...
Michelle Zauner
Michelle Zauner’s domain name uses neither a dot-com nor a dot-net. It has a dot-rocks. Seriously, her website is JapaneseBreakfast.Rocks. And if you click on the tab labeled “Quest,” you...
Jesca Hoop
I can’t imagine a more auspicious start to an indie songwriter’s career than the one Jesca Hoop had in the early 2000s. She was nanny to the children of Tom...
David Myles
David Myles is a Halifax-based singer/songwriter with a smooth and tender voice, a vaguely retro look and sound, and an insatiable love of many types of music. At 36 years...
Valerie June
When Valerie June was growing up in Tennessee, everyone in her family sang as a matter of course. Now that she’s a New York singer-songwriter with a burgeoning career, her...
Crying
Remember those frantic, chirpy sounds that old 8-bit video games used to make? Did you know there’s a pop subgenre inspired by those sounds? Wait, don’t run away. Chiptune, as...
Hurray for the Riff Raff!
Alynda Segarra is the heart of Hurray for the Riff Raff, which remains a band thanks to whoever she happens to be working with at the time. Raised in the...
Anohni
British singer-songwriter Antony Hegarty now uses a “spirit name,” Anohni. She also now prefers female pronouns, although she has always considered her gender to be fluid. As she told the Guardian,...
Petite Noir
There are as many influences on Petite Noir’s music as the singer/songwriter/producer has claims to nationality. The 27-year-old started life in Belgium as Yanick Ilunga, son to Congolese parents. He...
Deborah Conway
I liked Deborah Conway the moment I learned she had an album called Bitch Epic. Fortunately, that album lives up to its name, and the rest of this Australian singer-songwriter’s output is...
Jófríður Ákadóttir
It’s tempting to picture Björk as the only singer-songwriter in Iceland, wandering alone over the frozen tundra with only her swan-shaped dress for company. Satisfying as that image may be,...
Pura Fe'
No artist springs fully formed into the world. Being creative is a kinetic state, shifting constantly, and not always in linear development. Few singer-songwriters reveal this inner prism more clearly...
Hannah McPhillimy
If a ukulele makes you think of 1960s Hawaiian kitsch pop, then please have a listen to Hannah McPhillimy. The Belfast-based singer-songwriter uses that maligned instrument to bittersweet effect, accompanying reflective...
Brendan Maclean
In Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 movie The Great Gatsby, the small role of party-crasher Ewing Klipspringer was played by singer-songwriter and fellow Australian Brendan Maclean. Although it was not a singing part,...
Anaïs Mitchell
If you were to judge purely by her quiet, breathy voice and earnestly clipped diction, you might think Anaïs Mitchell was just another mousy folk singer. You would be wrong....