ifitbeyourwill Podcast #201 • The Male Pattern

Will Schwartz spent more than a decade writing fiction before The Male Pattern brought him back to music. On If It Be Your Will, we talk about I Was Shot in the Heart! — a darkly funny, deeply human concept album about a bitter suburban dad who sees himself as the hero of his own tragedy. Will talks about growing up with music and writing, fatherhood, rediscovering the joy of making things simply because you want to, and why hiding behind a fictional character can sometimes reveal more truth than writing about yourself.

https://linktr.ee/themalepattern 

"I am absolutely head over heels in love with this record. It absolutely made my day. The lyrics, the narrative structure: it’s some Randy Newman-level shit. Just brilliant stuff all around." - Chris Ingalls (PopMatters)

“The Male Pattern (aka Will Schwartz) explores the darker side of straight white male consciousness in his upcoming concept album I Was Shot in the Heart! (out September 25.) Schwartz's ice-cold character sketch on "I'm a Solider" exposes the self-pitying paranoia behind the conservative mind, all while skewering country music tropes.” – Rainbow Rodeo

"We’re not certain a satirical concept album described as “Springsteen meets Ween” was on our bingo card of releases in 2026, but sometimes you only realise you’ve been waiting for something when it finally arrives...The undeniable irony and playfulness do nothing to undermine the heartbreaking loneliness running through its heart. An anthem of America in 2026, where vapidity, ridiculousness and mean-spirited self-interest feel like symptoms of some dark, cursed pathology lurking beneath the surface." 

– Various Small Flames

The Deathray Davies • LAMPSHADE EARTHQUAKE MICROPHONE • 2026

Continuing their post-hiatus hot streak, The Deathray Davies are back with “Red Lights,” the first advance single from their forthcoming album LAMPSHADE EARTHQUAKE MICROPHONE, a spellbinding set of pocket symphonies that cull inspiration from vintage garage rock and psychedelic pop nuggets while employing heady musique concrète embellishments and ornate studio wizardry. 2021’s Time Well Wasted ushered in the band’s return following a 15-year hiatus, but this outing reaches back even further for source material; the bones of the record stem from a shelved recording project started in 2006. These excavated sessions were reworked and polished by The Davies, carving out the 13 paisley punk epics that make up the tracklist. With dexterous songwriting, lush instrumental textures, and guest contributions from some Elephant 6 heavyweights, the resulting record is essential listening for the discerning indie rock and roll listener.

Jawdropped • Split Lip • 2026

Secret To Spare officially came together across spare days and weekends across 2025, in the gaps between Jawdropped’s increasingly busy tour schedule, including runs with their labelmates Greg Freeman and Rocket, and juggling various day jobs. “The EP were songs that pretty much already existed,” Kyra Morling explains. “This record was the first time where we were building songs together in a room.” Together, the foursome pooled their simpatico inspirations - the Lemonheads’ beautifully messy country-pop sprawl, Paul Westerburg’s wizened raucousness, and the crunchy hooks of ‘90s greats like Teenage Fanclub and Dinosaur Jr. - into the ten gems that make up this record.

WEBSITE

The French • TV Themes • 2026

Like Hefner before them, The French became popular with John Peel, and they recorded their first session for him in 2003, as well as having two songs appear in that year’s Festive Fifty. This EP of reimagined childhood television themes was originally put together as an experimental Maida Vale session for Peel. Airing on BBC Radio 1 in July 2004, just a few months before the legendary DJ’s passing, this oddity would become Hayman’s final Peel session. 

The French issued just one album (‘Local Information’), which received a five-star review in The Guardian, was called a “Buried Treasure” by Electronic Sound Magazine as well as a “Hidden Gem” by Mojo Magazine, in addition to one of its songs (“The Wu Tang Clan”) finding new life when covered by Allo Darlin’. The album also triggered a lengthy legal issue with the label, Too Pure, and in Hayman's words, “torpedoed” his career, but nonetheless remains one of his favourites of his career. 

 

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Shiloh Lindsey • "Failing Hail” • 2026

Shiloh Lindsey grew up the youngest of six on a ranch in south-central Alberta before her family moved west to the Robson Valley of British Columbia — where the Caribou Mountains rise on one side, the Rockies shoulder in from the other, and the Fraser River winds through the middle like a silver thread. It’s a place where winters hold tight, and sound carries differently. Her now-departed cowboy father still rides through her songs, woven into lyrics like dust into old denim.

Linktreelinktr.ee/shilohlindsey

Dana Margolin • Big Beautiful Sound • 2026

https://go.mhe.fm/dm_bigbeautifulsound

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #200 • Stornoway

Stornoway make the kind of indie music that refuses to sit still: folk one minute, orchestral, wild and wonderfully odd the next. After splitting, regrouping and finding their way back to each other, the Oxford band return with *Beyonder* — a record packed with birds, oceans, memory and big questions. Oli Steadman and Brian Briggs talk beginnings, breakups, folk songs, conservation, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and why, after all these years, Stornoway still sound gloriously like Stornoway.

https://www.stornowayband.com/

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Dutch Mustard • Hear Me Out • 2026

 

It's been a crazy journey, as always, to get new music recorded and out into the world, and this release definitely came with a mountain of challenges, both in my personal life and music world. It's incredible to always land on the same important phrase: "so long as the music is the best it can be, that's all that matters". Which is what all my music friends and friends outside of my work team and family always tell me. And let me tell you. I couldn't have created anything more honest than the music I've made over the last few years. 

A bit about the song

Hear Me Out - the title in itself already tells you a lot about the song. Lyrically, it talks about wanting to be seen and heard by a loved one. Not only because we should all be heard in a relationship (of any kind), but because it can save the relationship. Hear Me Out sonically travels through more stripped-back moments, at the start of the song, then builds into a whirlwind wind of emotion and chaos. Ending in calm intimacy. This is a song for those who deserve to be heard. 

Julia Holter • Fantasy • 2026

Julia Holter always knew there were multiple forms her song “Materia” could take. The tune’s dynamic, Hildegard von Bingen-inspired melody and dense modal chords stood on their own without a complex arrangement on her wondrous 2024 album Something in the Room She Moves, but she felt a lingering desire to expand the texture and stretch out the harmony. Though she could hear the potential orchestration in her head, Something was already abundant with layers of sound by the time she finished it. She stuck with the original form of “Materia,” then, her cresting voice and blue Wurlitzer hosting games of harmonic hide-and-seek above subtle electronics.

 https://juliaholter.ffm.to/materia

juliaholter.com

Kat Greta • 'I Know What This Is’ • 2026

Kat Greta's new indie-pop single ‘I Know What This Is’ has her exploring the universal sting of rejection, those ‘almost’ relationships and the bittersweet, frustrating dance of it all.  ‘I Know What This Is’ and the accompanying music video is out September 11.

https://www.katgreta.com/

Sadurn • "can't stop” • 2026

"I’m proud of that. It has some reversed pedal steel on it, and there’s this one vocal sample at the end from a time some friends were singing in a tunnel in the woods - the same tunnel is featured on the cover of the album, which feels significant in this secret little way," they continue. "The song speaks to the feeling of being stuck on a past relationship, revisiting things over and over and looking for glimmers of hope that it could be real again. This is a big theme in the album - being stuck on the past - although each song has its own subtle emotional valence to that experience.” thelineofbestfit

 

https://linktr.ee/sadurn

Stornoway • The Honeyeater's Song • 2026

Link iconAll Links 🔗stornowayband.os.fan

Hello Shark • The River • 2026

fatherdaughterrecords.com/collections/hello-shark 

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #199 • Jacob Brodovsky

Jacob Brodovsky joins If It Be Your Will to talk about Tell the Kids We Tried, the strange business of making art, and the increasingly ambitious project of keeping it together. We get into songwriting, fatherhood, community, climate dread, and why Canadian indie music seems uniquely qualified to make existential crises sound charming. There’s melancholy, wit, guitars, and just enough optimism to keep the whole thing from collapsing. A smart, funny conversation with one of Canada’s quietly great songwriters—and proof that “we tried” can be both a shrug and a pretty decent philosophy.

http://www.jacobbrodovsky.com/

In some cases, songwriters discover their writing is premonition only after living through the experiences their past-self penned. In 2025, Jacob Brodovsky lived through a loss of community that, at the time, he didn’t realize he’d foretold while writing his sophomore LP, Tell The Kids We Tried.

The award-winning indie-folk songwriter, based in Treaty 1 Territory, began recording with a group of trusted friends and heroes. He brought a batch of songs to producers Gavin Gardiner and Champagne James Robinson (Moonriivr), only to quickly discard many of them in favour of brand new songs stemming from a “Song Every Week” songwriting challenge that the Winnipeg music community takes part in every Winter. killbeatmusic

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #198 • Gvth Dvddy

Two records in two years, and GVTH DVDDY are clearly not slowing down. Their latest self-titled album pushes the sound even further into the dark—massive guitars, strange textures, raw emotion, and songs that hit with the weight of lived experience. On this episode, we go back to Kevin Robinson’s years in Viva Voce, trace the path that led to GVTH DVDDY, and get into what happens when a band keeps pushing forward instead of looking backward. Heavy, hypnotic, epic, and completely human—this is GVTH DVDDY at full volume.

http://gvthdvddy.com/

 

Starter Car • Know What to Say • 2026

 

‘Bandmates Wanted’ posters may be old school, but when songwriter Oisean Burnett moved to London from Glasgow in 2024 the homemade approach was what worked. Fast forward to now and Starter Car have established themselves as darlings of the South London music scene with their unique brand of country-influenced indie. This year sees the release of their debut album, Afterlight, a hooky collection reflecting on life’s beauty and struggles. Recorded and produced by Joe Futák (lilo, Piglet, Baggio), the album’s sound grew organically through the core band plus collaboration with fellow scenesters, including vocals from Christie Gardner (lilo), fiddle from Sophia Bartlett (Tugboat Captain) and banjo from Michael Rhea (Symbol Soup).

https://shop.tapeterecords.com/starter-car-afterlight-4574

Icarus Phoenix • "The Oligarchy” • 2026

 While everyone was watching a liar get elected 

I was making love to the person I care for most 

And rather than engaging in powerless worry 

I wrote the next three words you'll hate. I didn't vote.

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #197 • Johanna Samuels

Johanna Samuels makes songs that can turn a tiny memory into something that suddenly feels enormous. On this episode, we get into Sorry, Kid, revisiting old songs, getting older, the weirdness of memory, and how the places and people in our lives keep finding their way into our music. Johanna is thoughtful, funny, and refreshingly honest about the messy process of making sense of the past while still moving forward. A great conversation with a songwriter who knows how to make the personal feel universal—and a lot of fun along the way.

https://www.johannasamuels.com/

THAO • Show Me • 2026

THAO will release her first new album in 6 years titled Show Me on October 30 via Kill Rock Stars. It was co-produced by THAO and Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of Tune-Yards, and features contributions from Neko Case, The Linda Lindas, and Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas).

 

The new collection is a deeply personal exploration of her journey toward full embodiment as THAO’s personal life underwent a reckoning: divorce, the upending of a home. “I learned that the point of life is not to emerge unscathed, and that I don't want to operate as I always have — masking fear as indifference,” she says. “This album is a real-time record-keeping of my life evolving into a different relationship with love and desire over the last few years. For example, I came out publicly years ago but I’ve never really written a song about sex or queer identity. So, that’s in there.”

https://killrockstars.com/products/show-me

True Mountain Laurel • East of Anything • 2026

 

“True Mountain Laurel make a strong case that we just need to get our friends together and do some vivacious yapping, set it to a dusty, forlornly hopeful folk tune and rise, together.” - Exclaim!

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Accompanying the album today is the new video for “East of Anything”, a song that was written as an act of persistence in the face of creative exhaustion and lives in a midnight room where memory, loneliness, drunkenness, and comfort all start to bleed into one another. The song is a steady flame in the face of emotional dislocation; something to focus your eyes on when you’re feeling slightly outside of reality, outside of clarity, outside of where you thought you were meant to be; east of anything. 

“East Of Anything” was “our first whack at co-writing together,” explains Haley and Sam. “This song sat in such a magical middle place between each of our songwriting and musical tendencies. We silently danced around the subject of who would ‘get the song’ for a little while before we realized it belonged exactly where it was; that was the inception of True Mountain Laurel.”