And after a looooong hiatus (which may or may not continue after this month), welcome back to the April 2023 edition of Emerging Talents’ Tracks Round-Up, where I pick three songs by artists from all over the world and briefly review them!
All artists were selected and contacted on Musosoup. If you’re an artist and would like to know how to submit your track/EP/album/music video on Musosoup, check my referral link right here.
The bios were kindly provided by the artists themselves.
“Anywhere But Here” – katie drives
Katie Drives‘s frustration comes out loud and clear through the electric guitars of “Anywhere But Here,” featured in her latest EP Safe And Sad.
After her brutally honest single “Next To You,” which I reviewed for Lost in the Manor a few months ago, Katie introduced a punk rock track that is just as authentic as its predecessor–as proven by lyrics like “Paradise can be hell / When you don’t belong there” or “You can take a lot of you have to / But that’s not how it always should go,” for instance.
Each line is short and sweet as if taken from a poem or an everyday conversation (“You feed me sweet juice / When I needed water / Served with love / But it’s not what I ordered,” is the very simple metaphor that kick-starts the song). The lyrics convey resentment and anger caused by the feeling of not belonging anywhere and always having to find a new, welcoming home.
Katie has no filters when she writes, nor does she when she sings. Similarly to Paramore’s Hayley Williams, the British artist soaks emotion in every line, and the arrangement could also be taken from a song by the American pop rock band.
Bio: Pop Rock between broken and okay: katie drives raises her powerful and dark voice to distorted guitars and driving drums. She brings back the spirit of the 2000s and at the same time provides a fresh breeze of female power in the modern alternative scene.
Website: katiedrives.com
Instagram: @katiedrives
“Gas Station Bouquet” – Naia Lika
Chill vibes and beautifully overlayed vocals will pervade the room when you play Naia Lika‘s “Gas Station Bouquet.”
The naïve melody, sensual vocals and tropical instrumentals remind me of Kali Uchis’s early works, which convey that innocence I also hear in Naia’s track.
The beats are as unpredictable as the way Naia uses her voice: lonely vocals are alternated to sudden explosions of harmonies while the arrangement starts and stops however it pleases.
Either way, the playful melody of the chorus always brings us back to a familiar place and this sea of back and forths makes the song so enjoyable to listen to.
The way Naia goes from higher- to lower-pitched vocals and vice versa is truly something and I hope to hear more from her soon.
Bio: Debuting her first release at the age of twenty-one, Lika is gracefully stepping into the music industry with a light-hearted, immersive single, “Gas Station Bouquet”. The release derives from an eight-song project, brought to life in August of 2022.
Website: naialika.com
Instagram: @naialikamusic
“Safe Love” – Ivelina Schindler
Ivelina Schindler gave us a banger with her musically aggressive single “Safe Love.”
Riding waves of electronic sounds (which become progressively louder), the artist plays with the many layers of vocals juxtaposed over each other throughout the song. Frequent climaxes explode and disappear just at the right times, usually before and after she starts singing.
Although the very first lines are sung rather softly, this won’t last for long: soon, the many vocal elements (laughs, exclamations and so on) are added to Ivelina’s melody, while some key lines are doubled to highlight their effects.
After the second chorus, we get a chance to catch a breath with a sudden twist: a more melodic and slow-paced section where Ivelina shows off her purely vocal skills before the song goes back to the beginning for one final chorus.
Instagram: @ivelinaschindler
Cover image credits: @naialikamusic via Instagram
Art Kills 
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