Premiere: "Strange Actress" by Uma Bloo

Photo by Monika Oliver

Today we’re honored to be premiering the single “Strange Actress” from our friends in Uma Bloo. The Chicago-based outfit of songwriter and vocalist Molly Madden, Uma Bloo was originally Madden’s moniker as a burlesque performer before she started performing as a solo musician with the same name. Nowadays, the Uma Bloo project has blossomed into a full band lineup consisting of Mike Altergott on guitar and keys, Steven Rutledge on drums, and Luke Blanco on bass and keys.

The new track “Strange Actress” comes from the group’s upcoming debut album entitled Don't Drive Into the Smoke. Talking about the song, Luke Blanco describes it as “a piece containing the most quiet of moments; a piece containing the loudest,” adding that “Strange Actress” is exemplary of Uma Bloo’s wide dynamic range. “The drums and bass maintain the beat in lockstep during the second verse without sacrificing the subdued mood. Guitars blare in increasing intensity as the song progresses, overdriven guitars blanketing the listener in a warm, yet heightened emotional state. Uma projects her voice with strength - you can hear her diaphragm hard at work through the speakers - yet it falls into the most beautiful of falsettos as the song concludes,” Blanco says.

The entirety of the upcoming album was recorded over a period of just three days at Chicago’s JAMDEK Studio and co-produced by Madden, Altergott, and Doug Malone. The origin of some of the songs on the record dates back to Madden’s late teen years, when she moved to Chicago to explore her artistic potential and broke free from a conservative and religious upbringing. “The emotions I wanted to express in my art didn’t tie in with my family’s values, but once I accepted the fact that I wanted to create, these songs started pouring out of me,” she says. “In a lot of ways, this album has been in process since I was eight years old without me fully knowing it, unpacking the life I had and what I wanted to build.” While many of these songs have been a long time coming, Madden also credits the collaborative nature of the band and her co-producers with pushing her to expand beyond her comfort zone more than ever before. “There were many moments of trying to express an idea or question without knowing the right language or terminology, which felt lonely at times, but that challenge also created a lot of innovative choices on all of our parts. There was a silent acknowledgement of the very intimate place these songs came from that resulted in very intentional communication between the three of us,” Madden says about the group’s collaboration.

Don't Drive Into the Smoke releases March 23, 2022 via Earth Libraries. Pre-Order your copy here, and tune into the premiere of “Strange Actress” below.

Earth Libraries · Strange Actress - Uma Bloo

Don't Drive Into the Smoke - TRACKLISTING
1. Never Know Me
2. Annie
3. Marguerite's Novels
4. Coming Home
5. Strange Actress
6. Your Pussycat
7. Was I Ever
8. The Actor's Last Question
9. Don't Drive Into the Smoke
10. To Be Vast

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: DRAMA

Have you Vaxed & Waxed beauties been looking for some vibey dance music to wind down these final remaining weeks of Summer? Well thank goodness you are an ANCHR reader because we've got just what you're looking for. I present to you: DRAMA. If any readers know the dynamic of the relationship between myself and the editor-in-chief of ANCHR you'll know “Drama” is essentially a nickname I have given her for her anxious rambles and over-the-top reactions. Well, that's not the Drama I am talking about now. The match made in heaven duo of Na'el Shehade and Via Rosa is the only DRAMA that you all need in your life.

With Shehade on beats and Rosa on vocals, DRAMA has produced a lovely R&B and dance blend, which has transcended the Chicago scene and permeated the ears of many music lovers all over the country. Shehade is a home-grown Chicago boy that grasped onto the house scene as a teen and began DJing around the city until he started making music of his own. His talents lead him to eventually working in collaboration with the likes of Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, and Vic Mensa before he was introduced to Rosa via another Chicago talent, Jean Deaux. Rosa was born in Texas, grew up in Northern California and had a taste of the music world early in life, seeing that her parents were in a reggae band. According to DRAMA's bio, Rosa began showing interest in poetry in her teen years and that information revealed to me the correlation of her poetry and song writing, especially in songs like “Low Tide.” Outside of the song being a certified bop, it reads like a poem to me and I was able to tell that Rosa is one of those ultra talented people that uses one talent to fuel another in artistic coalescence. In 2010, Rosa moved to Chicago and eventually joined the THEMpeople collective. Hop in your DeLorean and fast forward a couple years, DRAMA is putting out music that gives us all the feels while simultaneously making our rumps shake.

A few years back when DRAMA played JBTV I was all set to go but something came up and I wasn't able to make it. I was sad I missed them, but all that sadness went away once I finally got to see them at Lollapalooza. Everyone reading this that wasn't at Lollapalooza should actually be sad they missed them because that means they didn't get to see the blouse Rosa was wearing. She was like a pink cloud. Via is short for Lluvia, and in Spanish, Lluvia means rain, and her pink cloud shirt was definitely raining dance grooves because not only was she dancing all over the stage but the audience caught the dance contagion and were also doing their part in the booty shaking department. With the 4 o'clock time slot at the Grove stage, it was the perfect setting to get your groove on in the middle of such a beautiful and sunny day. They're only playing a couple dates out west at the end of October, but you should definitely consider checking them out whenever they hit your city next.

Keep up with the latest DRAMA updates here, and check out the official video for “Years” below.

Premiere: Dream Version's "A Mind Can Change"

Dream Version is Alec Harryhausen, Eric Brummit and Michael Kunik

Chicago three-piece Dream Version has always been an ANCHR favorite, thanks to their infectious energy during their live performances and their tendency to push their creative boundaries. That’s why this week, we’re honored to be premiering the brand new video for their single “A Mind Can Change,” from their upcoming self-titled album.

Dream Version says that for their third album, they’ve decided to take a moment to simply inhabit the space they’ve created— calling upon their two mantras of “Don’t waste time” and “Don’t condescend.” Throughout the span of time between this record and 2017’s Fight Fair, the trio has experienced marriage, divorce, relocation, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The band says, “The result is a looser set of songs that represents everything we like and everything we’re capable of.  We decided to name it after ourselves.”

Elaborating on the new single “A Mind Can Change,” Alec Harryhausen says the inspiration stems from his fundamentally cynical attitude. He adds, “A lot of the story of this album started with me looking up at a dirty ceiling fan in my apartment and thinking, ‘That’s just the way life is; the ceiling fan’s dirty and I’ll never have the time or energy to clean it.’  The notion that it can take about 30 seconds to solve a problem like that, believe it or not, has been kind of revolutionary.  It was a fundamental part of my world view that most problems are facts of life, and even that we as a species might not deserve to have clean ceiling fans.”

From there, he began to shift his own mindset and to rewire his perspective. That fresh outlook, coupled with Harryhausen’s appreciation for Plastic Ono Band, led to him working through his demo of “A Mind Can Change” with bandmates Eric Brummit and Michael Kunik to build out the dynamics of it and keep it interesting for the whole run time. “It was a challenge for us to play this slow; we had to practice it a lot,” the band says.

For the music video, Dream Version worked with director Patrick Betzold, who had some experience doing animated work at his job and wanted to try it in a more ambitious way. As the band describes it, the video tells the story of 3 astronauts leaving behind a dead planet and trying to find a new one.

Watch the video below, and be sure to pre-order the self-titled album ahead of its July 30th release date here, or snag a ticket to the record release show to pick up a copy in person!