Jacob Allen, also known as Puma Blue, tells me over Zoom that he wears his heart on his sleeve. "I've always been someone who would cry at anything, like an advert on TV— I'm just a very teary Pisces type," he jokes. And his music can be equally as lachrymose. Affectionately dubbed "voicemail ballads" due to their lo-fi and intimate nature, Puma Blue reached cult-like acclaim with his nocturnal, soul-bearing tunes.
Read MorePacked in a space reminiscent of an old pirate ship's belly, I watched awe morph the composure of those around me. Candles stuffed in dusty wine bottles illuminated dropped jaws and sparkling eyes. The bartenders, who usually clamber about, were motionless, and the smell of beer-saturated wood was, for the moment, undetectable.
Read MoreWe were lying on the trimmed grass of the Heath, the sun heating our skin. It was a beautiful afternoon on a Wednesday, and Hampstead Heath was empty except for a few clumps of people. As Molly Payton, an eighteen-year-old singer/ songwriter, basked in the sun in a summer dress and cowboy boots— her most treasured possession and an ode to Jim Morrison— I noticed a group of middle-aged men jesting and glancing over at us.
Read MoreOxford based musician Willie J Healey discusses the ups and downs of making your passion into your career.
Read MoreThe shoegaze tunes of Yuck’s debut album in 2011 wasthe soundtrack of my senior days at Rhinebeck High. Forever cemented into my memory, the album is now a time portal back to those yellow days where my driving was as unpredictable as a hormonal teenager in a Subaru so desperately overdue for an inspection.
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