ANCHR's Artist of the Week: OWENN

This week’s ANCHR artist of the week goes to singer-songwriter OWENN.

Photo courtesy of The Oriel

I had another one of my favorite in-the-wild encounters with OWENN when I got the chance to see him support Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour in Detroit. What captivated me most about OWENN was his magnetic stage presence; whether he was playing a more slow-tempo ballad like “Show Me” or the euphoric “Rest Of My Life,” he has an aura around him that can captivate and hold an audience’s attention.

OWENN’s long history of being an entertainer, mainly as a dancer and choreographer, has probably made it an easy transition for him to command the stage for his own musical performance. In addition to working with Taylor Swift, he had worked with starts like Beyonce, Rhianna, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and Megan Thee Stallion before releasing his debut single “Baby Girl” in 2021.

Today, June 16th, OWENN released his new single “Dark Side Of The Moon” which starts with a goosebump-inducing A capella, layered vocal introduction before the beat begins to slowly wind up. OWENN’s small but mighty catalog has a diverse sound, but I pick up tinges of Rudimental in his song “Rest Of My Life,” which I definitely recommend adding to your Summer bops playlist. I’d also recommend checking OWENN out if you’re a fan of A R I Z O N A, Maggie Rogers, and Miguel (I know, that’s a random mix, but trust me!)

Follow OWENN for more music and tour updates, and tune into his new song below.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Fenne Lily

Photo by Michael Tyrone Delaney

This week’s artist of the week goes to Fenne Lily, a singer-songwriter hailing from Bristol, UK.

The first time I heard one of Fenne Lily’s songs, I was both taken aback by her gentle, ethereal vocals and instantly comforted by the sense of coziness that’s threaded throughout her melodies.

Fenne Lily started playing some major UK festivals in 2016, including the BBC Music Introducing stage at T in the Park, which is a Scottish festival I was lucky enough to attend once. From there, Fenne Lily released her debut album entitled On Hold in 2018, and she has continued to deliver more music. Her sophomore album, BREACH, came out in 2020, and Lily recently announced her third album Big Picture will be released on April 14th.

Ahead of the album release, Fenne Lily listeners have been blessed with two singles; “Dawncolored Horse” and “Lights Light Up.” The second single to be released, “Dawncolored Horse,” is inspired by the Richard Brautigan poem “The Horse That Had A Flat Tire.” Lily details the inspiration saying, “[Brautigan] talks about the woman he loves as being a ‘breathing castle.’ I truly don’t know what that means, but for me he’s distilled a feeling of absolute closeness. When you know someone so well it feels like you’re almost living inside them. That can be claustrophobic, but before it’s too much, it’s incredible.”

The entirety of Big Picture was tracked live in Brad Cook’s North Carolina recording studio, and Cook co-produced the record. Just based on the glimpse of the album through these two singles, I can feel the life that Fenne Lily and her bandmates breathed into these songs during the recording process, and I know we’re in for something special. Lily further describes the album and its juxtaposition between theme and tone, adding, “These songs explore worry and doubt and letting go, but those themes are framed brightly.”

In honor of the new music, Fenne Lily will also be hitting the road this spring/summer. Be sure to catch her May 25th at Thalia Hall if you’re in Chicago, and see the rest of her tour dates here.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Blondshell

This week’s ANCHR Artist of the Week goes to Blondshell, the musical moniker of Sabrina Teitelbaum. I first got to know and love Teitelbaum as a musician and songwriter with her previous project BAUM, so when she started releasing singles as Blondshell, I had a feeling I’d love them just as much.

Photo by Daniel Topete

Sure enough, her handful of songs to date like “Olympus” and “Kiss City” are all earworms that managed to catch me not only with the melody, but with Teitelbaum’s descriptive lyrical narratives.

Born in New York and now LA-based, Teitelbaum has cited as Patti Smith, Joy Division and the Velvet Underground as artists that provided her with musical asylum as she grew up in NYC. It was also in Manhattan that she got her start singing songs by Imogen Heap and Elliott Smith at open mic nights, and where she found confidence in her queer identity, walking the Lower East Side to a soundtrack of Tracy Chapman and Sophie B. Hawkins. 

The inspiration from those legendary artists echoes in Teitelbaum’s own music, but she’s been able to truly mold her unique sound and articulate her stories in a special way.

Blondshell may only have a few singles released at this time, but she’s certainly made a huge impact in the music scene already. Blondshell will not only be touring with Suki Waterhouse in early 2023, but she’s also slated for SXSW festival in March.

Be sure to look out for more music news and touring news by following Blondshell, and tune into her brand new single “Veronica Mars” below.

PREMIERE: "The Sun Will Come Back" by Faux Co.

Today we’re premiering Faux Co.’s new single “The Sun Will Come Back" from their upcoming album Radio Silence, out Friday, April 5.

Faux Co. is Ben Mackey, Chris Lee, Christian Whiting and Jayson Homyak // Photo courtesy of Faux Co. by Dan Jarvis.

Faux Co. front man Ben Mackey describes the new single’s journey, saying, “[The song] was originally written as a soft acoustic song by our songwriter friend from Canada, Nick Gagne. We completely reworked it into kind of a banger, with his approval, of course. I really like the idea of old rock records from the sixties that had a few covers on them, like a Motown hit reimagined by the Beatles or The Byrds. You really hear what the band is bringing to the table when you hear a classic song reimagined. Nick Gagne might be a lesser known artist from Canada, but to me this song was always a classic soft and beautiful acoustic track and I wanted to reimagine it our way.”

The piano on “The Sun Will Come Back" was recorded in the (now closed) Uptown Underground. “The strings sound like a synth at points which was a happy accident in the mixing process. For some reason, it seemed to fit perfectly with the other songs on the record, so we put it in there. It is one of my favorite tracks on the record,” Mackey adds.

Take a listen to the finished song below, and pre-order the album, out April 5th, here.

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