ifitbeyourwill Podcast: A year in intimate conversations and genre-bending discoveries

When you think about the vital threads weaving through indie music in 2025, ifitbeyourwill Podcast stands as one of those understated connectors — a show that doesn’t just interview artists, but listens to them. Across the 22 episodes of Season 6, host colleyc carved out a space that was cozy but incisive, unhurried but revealing, and always deeply invested in how and why these musicians make their art. 

Rubber Band Gun: The One-Man Machine

In late December, If It Be Your Will welcomed Kevin Basko, the mastermind behind Rubber Band Gun — a project that thrives on the tension between analog warmth and DIY restlessness. Basko’s episode was a rare glimpse into how limitations — technical and personal — can become artistic fuel. His hybrid analog workflow, a self-imposed “RBG25” challenge, and reflections on borrowing traditions without mimicking them felt like lessons in artistic identity. It was not just a conversation about music, but about the joy of doing it your way. 

Highschool: Lockdown Roots to Global Aspirations

The Melbourne-born Highschool brought something else to the mic: urgency. Their episode captured the raw velocity of a band formed in lockdowns and hardened by intention. With unfiltered talk of turning mood into melody and image into sound, this is a project that feels primed to define the indie rock trajectory of the next few years — not through bombast, but through craft. 

Eades: Post-Punk Poetry in Motion

December’s conversation with Eades — the duo of Harry Jordan and Tom O’Reilly — was a study in how personal history finds its way into sound. From Pink Floyd–blasted mornings to a songwriting partnership born of opposites attracting, Eades reminded us that post-punk energy doesn’t have to be kinetic chaos; it can be thoughtful, meticulous, and evocative. 

Ada Lea: Vulnerability Turned into Voice

One of the season’s most tender conversations belonged to Ada Lea (Alexandra Levy), whose path from singing Christina Aguilera in a bedroom to teaching voice at Concordia University was equal parts relatable and profound. This episode distilled what makes If It Be Your Will so compelling: it’s not only the music, it’s the becoming — the honing of voice, the negotiation with setbacks, and the art of living a creative life with sincerity.

sundayclub and the Alchemy of Serendipity

In early December, sundayclub offered a conversation about the kind of serendipity that defines so much of indie output — a guitar pulled from storage, a fortuitous concert encounter — and how these unplanned moments shape sonic identity. Their warm, hazy dream-pop ethos was as much a reflection on creative process as it was on how art feels in the moment. 

Why This Matters

What unifies these episodes — from Rubber Band Gun’s analog experiments to Ada Lea’s reflective storytelling — is a refusal to be rushed. In a musical era obsessed with virality and metrics, If It Be Your Will offers something rarer: depth. Here, tempo isn’t measured in streams per minute, but in meaning per conversation. That’s a big part of why the show has become such a vital soundtrack to 2025 — not just as a document of artists’ lives, but as an archive of how indie music feels alive. 

And if Season 6 is any indication, 2026 is poised to be even richer — a year where the quiet stories of process, place, and persistence become as compelling as the music itself.

Give us a follow…. Your support means a lot 💖

best of 2025 • Vulture Feather • It Will Be Like Now

The heads will know McCann and Gossman from their time in the prehistoric Don Martin Three (recently re-issued catalog by Numero Group) and later, Wilderness (Jagjaguwar). While prior efforts are beside the point, this is undeniably the sound of people who have been making music together for 25+ years. Glistening as much as howling, the guitar and vocals function as duet, delivering The Only Story Ever Told over a concise and thunderous rhythm section. It's the sound emulating from everywhere, all the time, through thick carpets of clouds, reverberating off canyon walls, through troubled waters, and finally to your devices, your ears, your heart, if you choose to hear it. -Mike Taylor 

 

ifitbeyourwill S06E22 • Rubber Band Gun

There’s a point where trying to sound like your heroes stops being useful. For Kevin Basko, that moment didn’t lead to reinvention so much as release. Under the name Rubber Band Gun, Basko has built a body of work that values motion over mythology—records that feel lived-in, slightly unfinished in the right ways, and unconcerned with landing in any single genre lane. Rubber Band Gun moves freely between indie rock, psych textures, and playful concept albums, but the sound is held together by process. Basko works with a hybrid analog setup—tape machines, outboard gear, and an aging computer that forces decisions instead of postponing them. These aren’t aesthetic choices so much as practical ones. Limits speed things up. Speed keeps the songs honest.

That instinct was sharpened early. Basko went from writing lyrics in backyards to getting an unexpected elevator text that pulled him out of music school and into Foxygen’s touring band. The jump offered a close-up look at how records move through the world, but it didn’t replace his DIY core. If anything, it reinforced it: whatever the scale, the work still had to feel alive. The clearest expression of that philosophy came with RBG25, a self-imposed challenge to release a flood of albums in a single year. What could have read as excess became a reset. Working fast forced Basko to trust his ear, commit to arrangements, and learn when a song was finished—not perfect, just done. Mic placement mattered more. Tempo became a quiet organizing force. The songs stopped asking for permission.

Tempo comes up often in Rubber Band Gun’s world, less as a technical detail and more as a mindset. Faster tempos discourage fussing. They keep doubt from settling in. The music moves forward before self-editing can flatten it. Basko is openly skeptical of the blank page. Total freedom, he argues, is a trap. Constraints—time limits, concepts, arbitrary rules—give songs something to push against. That’s how En Passant, a chess-themed record written in a three-day sprint, came together. The idea wasn’t precious; it was functional. Influence shows up here as method, not mimicry. Dylan’s presence is felt in motion and reinvention, not sound-alike gestures. Film and comedy shape pacing and structure. The goal isn’t to reference, but to absorb.

Rubber Band Gun doesn’t sell a grand theory of creativity. It just keeps making the case, record by record, that momentum matters. Keep projects moving. Release often. Let listeners meet the work halfway.

Sometimes the fastest route to your own voice is simply refusing to wait for it.

https://earthlibraries.com/collections/rubber-band-gun

best of 2025 • Teethe • Magic Of The Sale

Teethe re-emerges with Magic Of The Sale, a soft but steelyfull-length album where the Texas band's four distinctsongwriters, singers, and artists ask a series of interlockedquestions about what it means to build a life in a time of sharedcollapse. The result is a sad and beautiful self-built world ofSouthern slowcore, where four people turn toward one anotherand drift forward, together. dead dog

best of 2025 • Hallelujah The Hills

hallelujahthehills.com

best of 2025 • DOPE LEMON • JOHN BELUSHI

https://dopelemon.com/

I'm doped out, self-medicated at all times

I'm the undertaker's favourite song to dance to

We're all just pine boxes doing the tango

The music makes me move like a spooky boy

I put my lips to God's ear and said, "Now, listen"

I ain't hanging up the boots, is that clear

I'm the king ghost, I'm the spooky boy, you can't catch me

And I saw my reflection in her tears

Cowboy the fuck up, let's get moving

As I stumbled out the bordello store

Chain me up to the fridge and sell tickets

I'm a freakshow and I want more

I was there in the room when Belushi had his send-off

Man, that night the gods must've broke out their finest gear

I was there when the Roman Empire crumbled

How they must've partied upstairs, oh dear

Hey, I'm going to give you all my love

Hey, I'm going to give you all my love

Hey, you don't have to go it alone

Hey, I'm going to give you all my love

My love, my love, my love now

best of 2025 • Zack Keim

linktr.ee

best of 2025 • Golden Apples

Golden Apples is a prolific group of musicians formed and heralded by singer and songwriter Russell Edling. Shooting Star, their fourth album, is a sprawling new work packed to the brim with playful eccentricities and dynamism, one that owes as much of its inspiration to mid-century folkies like Michael Hurley and Karen Dalton as it does to alt rock of the nineties like Yo La Tengo and Stereolab. The album is a constellation of influences, experiences, and reckonings–with the state of the world, with others, with creativity, and with oneself.

best of 2025 • Avery Friedman • New Thing

 

“Her full-length debut, New Thing, is a work of raw singer/songwriter confessionalism, evoking the knotted melodies, homespun arrangements, and searing edges of musicians like Squirrel Flower, Babehoven, or Adrienne Lenker.“ – UNDER THE RADAR MAGAZINE

ifitbeyourwill S06 E21 • Highschool

HighSchool came together during Melbourne’s lockdowns, when time felt strange and options were limited. Instead of overthinking it, they focused on what they could control: making songs, working quickly, and trusting their taste. From the start, they weren’t chasing big arrangements or studio tricks. The songs came from a mood first — images, colours, a general feeling — and the music followed. Tempos stayed high. Parts stayed tight. If something didn’t serve the song, it didn’t stay. That approach runs through their self-titled debut.

A lot of that clarity comes from how the band works as a duo. Both are multi-instrumentalists, but roles matter. Lily, who began on drums before moving to synth, brings a strong sense of taste that keeps things from getting too clean or overworked. Sometimes the “right” part isn’t the most emotional one, and she’s often the voice pushing the song back toward feel instead of finish. When they moved to London, the process stayed the same. Writing became routine — like showing up to work — without forcing outcomes. They spent months in South Bermondsey, using a small studio as a shelter from the weather and the noise of the city. Melodies showed up when they were ready, sometimes half-asleep, sometimes all at once.

The album itself pulls from different moments. Some tracks took shape slowly. Others happened fast. Sony Ericsson is a good example — nearly scrapped, then rebuilt from scratch in a single day. That urgency is part of what makes it work. Mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer, the record keeps its rough edges while sounding focused. You can hear traces of shoegaze, post-punk, and dream-pop, but nothing feels overstated. It’s music that leaves space, but still moves.

Since release, the response has grown steadily. Radio support in Australia, the US, and the UK has brought new listeners back through the catalogue, song by song. There’s no big reset — just forward motion. The plan is simple: tour, write, release often, and don’t wait around for perfect.

HighSchool’s story isn’t about hype or reinvention. It’s about trusting your instincts, keeping the process lean, and letting the song do what it needs to do.

linktr.ee/High_School

direct link MP3

best of 2025 • The Beths • "Mother, Pray For Me"

“Mother, Pray For Me” is stripped-down and intensely personal. Over plaintive finger-picked guitar, Stokes’ voice is childlike in its wistful plea for connection. Here, Stokes grapples with the lives her parents have led, their mortality, and how to see them as people who did their best, even when it might not have felt like enough. “I cried the whole time writing it,” Stokes reflects. “It's not really about my mother, it's about me —what I hope our relationship is, what I think it is, what it maybe actually is, and what I can or can't expect out of it.” anti

best of 2025 • Bleeds by Wednesday

best of 2025 • Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band • “New Threats From The Soul”

“If you don’t know it yet, it’s my privilege to tell you that Ryan Davis is one of the greatest songwriters of his generation. Bold instinct immediately insists that I lose the qualifications: he’s the greatest of his generation, he’s one of the greatest ever. Whatever. Posterity—if there is a posterity—will sort it out. Happily, New Threats from the Soul has beaten the Doomsday Clock to the wire, and we appear to have a little while left to revel in it, receive its revelations, and be revealed by it.

Dutch Interior • Play the Song • 2025

What perhaps hits hardest is the acoustic guitar pattern – dreamy, hypnotic, effortlessly emotive – a progression that lights a fire in your heart without ever raising its voice. It’s delicate, yes, but it carries weight; it holds space. It becomes the perfect vessel for Noah Kurtz to pour his heart out, weaving sentiment and melody into something quietly transcendent. Every strum feels like a step forward, every shift like a pulse, every phrase like a hand reaching out in the dark. atwood

ifitbeyourwill S06E20 • Eades

A granddad blasting Pink Floyd at school pick-up and a six-year-old jealous of a guitar lesson—hardly the makings of a band, yet that spark lit the path for Eades. We sit down with Harry Jordan and Tom O’Reilly to trace how a bedroom project became a songwriting engine that churned out 50-plus tracks during lockdown and led to Final Sirens Call, an album that swaps warehouse aggression for patient, song-driven craft.

We rewind through the DIY years—four mics on drums, Decapitator on everything, compressors barely compressing—happy accidents that gave their early work its raw honesty. From Gang of Four-style interlocking guitars to later sessions where Wurlitzer and organ opened new space, Harry and Tom unpack how they divide roles, welcome vetoes without ego, and build the trust that fuels creative risk. Influences like Dylan, Lou Reed, and Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot pushed them to write songs that stand alone on acoustic or piano before layering in texture—space echoes, tape grit, ghost harmonies—to deepen the mood without losing the core.

We also get real about the hard stuff: sequencing a layered album where one track shift changes the story, adapting dense arrangements for a five-piece stage, and promoting ambitious music in a noisy world. But the momentum’s real—a hometown night at the Brudenell Social Club, an Independent Venue Week run, Europe ahead, and a third record tracked mostly live to capture the spark.

If you’re drawn to indie rock that balances DIY grit with evolving craft—post-punk pulse, garage roots, and rich arrangements—this one’s for you. Hear how Eades build songs that hold up on a single guitar, then bloom in the studio, and why their next chapter leans back into the raw joy of playing live. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Wilco-era ambition, and tell us: which Eades track hits you hardest?

linktr.ee/eadesmsuc

Despite an overarching influence from American indie-rock artists like Wilco and Richard Swift, Eades’ second album is a playful experiment of sound, with the echoes of many genres being heard throughout the tracklist; indie-rock, post-punk, Americana, 60’s, Britpop – you name it, they’ve dabbled. Experimentation being at the core of this album is no doubt due to the inevitable growth and self-exploration that comes with time passing, but also down to their new studio space, Bam Bam Studios, owned and operated by Eades’ frontman, Harry Jordan. With plenty of new equipment and a private, comfortable environment, the quartet had the freedom to really get creative and go in any direction they wanted – so they went in all directions. clunk

best of 2025 • Carson McHone • Pentimento

http://www.carsonmchonemusic.com/

Within seconds of Carson McHone’s Pentimento, one hears how the album organizes itself around this idea. Thrillingly alive in the music are exquisite articulations of pastoral folk with snatches of spoken word. Occasional riffs that call back to her roots in Texas build towards moments of organic and tactile rock. WRUV

ifitbeyourwill S06E19 • Ada Lea

A shy kid singing Christina Aguilera behind a bedroom door.

A bass in the school band.

A choir class where matching pitch felt impossible—and the sting of being told not to sing.

Fast-forward a few years: New York, tendonitis, and a hard pivot to voice lessons that changed everything. That’s the winding, very human path that led Alexandra Levy (you might know her as Ada Lea) to a sound that feels wholly her own—one built on stubborn curiosity, kind mentors, and the courage to start again. We caught up with Alexandra back home in Montréal, the city that raised her musically and still keeps her orbit steady. She talked about When I Paint My Masterpiece, an album that didn’t even start as an album. The idea was simple: trade perfectionism for momentum. Write a song every three days, share it with friends, move on. No endless revisions, no preciousness. Some sketches fell flat; others lit up instantly. Over time, the pile of demos turned into a record—less planned, more discovered.

Between recording sessions, she returned to school for literature, painting, and drawing—creative cross-training that sharpened her eye for detail and her sense of structure. That cross-pollination shows up everywhere: in the visual precision of her lyrics, in the cinematic pacing of her songs.

Teaching at Concordia University adds another layer. Watching her students take risks reminded her what real vulnerability sounds like. “They go to places I used to protect,” she says. That mirror helped her unlock something she didn’t know she’d lost.

We also talk touring—the logistics, the limits, the life part of the life. Levy has learned to keep the stage joyful by designing tours that feel human: shorter drives, earlier nights, and room to breathe. The goal isn’t just survival; it’s longevity. Through it all runs a quiet theme: mentorship, boundaries, and community practice as fuel. Art doesn’t survive on inspiration alone—it needs structure, kindness, and people who remind you why you started. If you’ve ever been told you can’t sing, that it’s “too late,” or that you’re doing it wrong, Alexandra’s story offers a better script. Skill is learnable. Art can be rebuilt. And a voice gets stronger every time you use it with intention.

Stream When I Paint My Masterpiece, wander the Mile End streets that echo through her melodies, and let the music remind you: the best art often begins where you almost gave up.

https://www.adaleamusic.com/2025

best of 2025 • Wet Leg • mangetout

Isolated in a remote house in the countryside, moisturizer was written in a creative frenzy, diving into themes of obsession and all-consuming love. While their 2022 debut earned Grammy wins and chart-topping success, moisturizer brings the bite: brash guitars, heavy beats, and a fearless devotion to feeling everything—all at once. Dom

https://wetlegband.com/

You think I'm pretty, you think I'm pretty cool

You say I scare you, I know most people do

This is the real world, honey, bienvenue

In spite of everything, I guess there's just no getting through

Nice try, now get out of the way

Good job, just take a fucking hint

I said I'll see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya

Wouldn't wanna be ya, eh-ya-eh-ya, ah-ah

Nice try, get out the way

You're in our way, get lost forever

best of 2025 • Case Oats • Last Missouri Exit

https://caseoats.com/

A spectacular record release show for Case Oats’ debut LP “Last Missouri Exit” at The Hideout, with lots of love, family and friends in the room. Casey Gomez Walker and her crew delivered an amazing set featuring the full album, a handful of new songs and a great cover of The Clash’s “Lost in the Supermarket.” TV Buddha opened the show with a killer set of originals and an intense version of “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers. It was a perfect summer in the city night!

best of 2025 • Blondshell • If You Asked for a Picture

Consider If You Asked for a Picture as the second chapter in an ongoing novel chronicling the trials and tribulations of life in your 20s. On Sabrina Teitelbaum’s second album as Blondshell, which arrives two years after her eponymous debut, Teitelbaum is still haunted by the past and stumbling into the kinds of bad decisions that fueled Blondshell. Her head may be clouded by contradictions, yet here, she conveys these conflicted feelings in an increasingly confident, self-assured musical language. PF

https://www.blondshellmusic.com/

best of 2025 • Alan Sparhawk With Trampled by Turtles • Not Broken

Grief doesn’t always sound loud. Sometimes it hums quietly in songs like “Not Broken,” from With Trampled by Turtles. Alan Sparhawk’s voice, joined by the band’s warm strings carries both pain and peace. It’s not a song about falling apart — it’s about holding on, finding calm in loss, and remembering love without anger. “Not Broken” feels like a moment of healing — simple, tender, and deeply human.

ifitbeyourwill S06E18 • sundayclub

A happy mistake at a concert.

A guitar rediscovered in the back of a closet.

Two students on totally different paths who somehow found the same sound.

That’s the origin story of sundayclub, a rural Manitoba duo whose music feels like it was pulled from an ’80s Polaroid—warm, hazy, and quietly intentional. Their new EP, Bannatyne, captures that balance perfectly: pop instincts wrapped in dream-pop atmosphere, four tracks that melt into one continuous mood.

When you talk to Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St. Pierre, you get the sense that their process is equal parts chaos and craft. Courtney writes with a diarist’s honesty, often chasing the feeling a moment left behind. Nick builds the sonic world around those words, leaning on production chops and an obsession with tone. A simple tuning shift to open C cracked something open—suddenly, new harmonies and melodies started falling out of the guitar.

They work fast to capture the spark, then slow down for the final stretch, refusing to rush a lyric or sand off a rough edge just to be “done.” That patience shows. Banatine isn’t a playlist of singles—it’s a short film in sound, one that breathes and unfolds with intention.

Their path to Paper Bag Records came with its own lucky breaks—a well-timed mastering grant, a few key community ties, and a lot of persistence. Listeners have already gravitated toward Nuclear Fallout, a track that wasn’t meant to be the standout but hit something unexpected. Courtney and Nick say that kind of connection means more than any genre label could.

Looking ahead, they’re teasing a reimagined “Last Christmas”, a run of Canadian shows, and new singles that stretch their sound without losing its heart.

If you’re into indie pop, dream pop, odd guitar tunings, and the craft behind a cohesive EP, this one’s for you. Stream the episode, spin Banatine front to back, and see which moment sticks. And if you love what you hear, share it with a friend—because that’s how good music travels.

 

https://www.sundayclub.band/

54•40 • "Virgil” • 2025

Legendary Canadian rock band 54-40 return with their highly anticipated new album 'PORTO', set for release on January 23, 2026. The announcement follows the debut of four powerful new singles, "Running for the Fence," "Die To Heaven," "Time Will Tell," and "Virgil," released today, marking the beginning of a bold new chapter for one of Canada's most celebrated bands.

https://www.5440.com/

Cylindre • Ingénue • 2025

Cylindre is a New York City–based duo weaving together indie rock, post-punk DIY, and dirty dream-pop into something both atmospheric and immediate. Formed by Tim and Riley, the band’s debut album Ingénue, out now on Clearly Records, captures the spark of two artists discovering their shared sound through instinct and experimentation.

clearlyrecords.com

C Douglas • Around the Corner • 2025

linktr.ee/cdouglascdouglas

A heartfelt reminder to live in the moment and hold onto what matters most.

C Douglas unveils his latest single, “Around The Corner,” a reflective and uplifting track about making the most of life and embracing the present. The song explores themes of mindfulness and gratitude, urging the people listening to not take others and the moments they’ve cherished for granted.

Recorded in Hull with acclaimed producer Steve Cobby of Fila Brazillia, the collaboration marks a fresh turning point for C Douglas in his creativity, Known for his genre-blending, instrumental work, Cobby brings an extra DIY-esq energy and fearless experimentation to the studio.

C Douglas said:

“He really opened my eyes and gave me confidence in this new direction, his approach made me realise my music was in the right hands.”

Rubber Band Gun • Crushin’ • 2025

Performed at Baby's All Right in Brooklyn NY 

March 22, 2025

https://rubberbandgun.bandcamp.com/music

The Barr Brothers feat. Land of Talk • Run Right Into It • 2025

https://found.ee/letithiss

Haley Heynderickx & Max García Conover • Song For Alicia • 2025

My grandpa was a communist, they might've said a terrorist

And when someone looks at what I've done

I know songs won't seem like enough

Songs are for sure not nearly enough

So it's ride, Alicia, ride

Move, Alicia, move

I would be Boricua even if I was born on the moon

The two groups convicted of American sedition

Are the Proud Boys and the Puerto Ricans

We share a Wikipedia page

So what else can you say?

It's ticker tape accumulation, neoliberal sublimation

New precariat convinced that immigrants are corporations

Hold the phone, just be patient while we burn your poets' pages

While the doctor takes the medicine and tries to fuck the patients

Oh my God, they put her in a courtroom in Chicago

They bound her hands behind her back, put tape across her mouth

And when she screamed, the tape released, and she said what the world says

"You cannot own a country, you do not own a country"

And so two guards took her legs and held her to the floor

While another punched her in the face and gagged her like before

And she got fifty years and more

And they never said what for

https://fatpossum.com/collections/haley-heynderickx-max-garcia-conover

ifitbeyourwill S06 E17 • Mirrorball

 Dream pop isn’t about turning everything down — it’s about tuning everything in. That’s the pulse of our talk with Mirrorball, the Los Angeles duo behind those lush, cinematic songs that somehow still feel like they’re whispering right to you. From the first late-night demo to a surprise label release, their story drifts through noisy beginnings, an obsession with sound, and the quiet confidence that comes with learning when not to play.

We get into how they write: Scott starts with grooves, guitars, and synths in Logic. Alex listens, and melodies spill out — sometimes all at once, sometimes over time. Some songs bloom in a day; others sit for months, waiting for the right mood to arrive. Recording, for them, is a kind of home — layering overdubs until the room disappears and only the song remains. Playing live, though, demands something different: less control, more trust. The goal isn’t to be louder, it’s to make people feel. Small choices, big emotion.

There’s honesty, too, about what it means to be an indie band now. Without a label, they’ve handled everything themselves — the videos, the press, the endless scroll — keeping things moving with a steady run of singles. Now they’re building toward a full LP, something that captures the whole arc of who they’ve become. With producer Chris Coady’s touch — tiny shifts in timing, arrangements that breathe — the songs pulse and shimmer instead of shout. At home, Alex tracks vocals dry, chasing raw takes; Scott trims the noise, staying closer to what feels real.

If you’re drawn to guitars that glow, vocals that drift just out of reach, and rhythms that dance a little behind the beat, this one’s for you. Press play, sink into Red Hot Dust, and stay awhile. If it hits, tell a friend — the dream gets brighter when more people are in it.

https://mirrorballband.com/

the bittersweet wonderment of “Red Hot Dust” signals a truly enchanting debut is on the way. 

—grimy goods

Wormy • "27 Days” • 2025

Shark River finds Rauchwerk embracing vulnerability with a collection of songs that explore loneliness, heartbreak, and the comforting but ultimately doomed escapism of life on the road. His work as a touring drummer has offered him precious little stability, but plenty of time for reflection. Skillful production and backing vocals from his bandmates Conti and Samia drench the LP in a sepia-toned indie glow, complete with the occasional pedal steel, but Rauchwerk’s vocals betray his fondness for emo-leaning folk luminaries like Bright Eyes and the Mountain Goats. Sometimes, his singing feels more or less like melodic speaking, a friend telling you about a hard day over a couple of beers; other times, you can feel his panic as he shouts into the microphone.

Website

Jeffrey Martin • Alive July 25, 2025

Portland, Oregon folk artist Jeffrey Martin has announced his first-ever live album, Alive July 25, 2025, which is set to release on February 20, 2026 via Fluff & Gravy Records. The album was recorded at Portland's The Showdown and presents an unabridged take of the night exactly as it unfolded — whatever mistakes may have occurred, whatever musical wanderings — in the hopes that the magic of the live show could be captured in an honest way. 

buy here

ifitbeyourwill S06E16 • Tiberius

A clarinet in fourth grade doesn’t usually lead to fuzz pedals, pedal steel, and a packed tour van, but that’s the path Brendan Wright of Tiberius traces on Troubadour. We start with the spark—how a quiet kid found a home in melody—and follow the trail to the moment those bedroom songs finally stepped into stage lights. Through it all runs one through-line: honesty. The kind that feels safe when you’re singing alone, and the kind that feels a little dangerous when a room goes silent to hear it.

Brendan talks about walking that line between catharsis and the reality of sharing their work. They used to write like they were passing secret notes to themself. Now the notes have to breathe among strangers. They open up about shifting from super-specific diary lines to lyrics built around wider feelings—anxiety, persistence, the weird fog of transition—so more people can slip inside the songs. It doesn’t dull anything; it actually sharpens it. You can hear it in a line like “Why do I try to keep on trying?” and in the way the band lets silence hang before a chorus hits.

We dig into the making of Troubadour, from the piece-by-piece construction of Fish in a Pond to focused sessions at The Record Co. in Boston. Drummer Ben Curell, bassist Kelven “KP” Polite , and guitarist Christian Pace helped pull the songs into their live shape, with Nate Scaringi behind the board helping the drums land just right. The result is a sound Brendan jokingly calls “farm emo”—folk bones, a little country dust, and an emo heart—wrapped in those loud-quiet-loud dynamics that feel as much Neil Young as they do modern indie. It’s tender one moment, towering the next, built for small rooms that don’t stay small for long.

We close on motion. The northeast run—Burlington, Portland, Boston, Albany, Philly, New York—feels like both a celebration and a goodbye to a set they’ve lived inside for two years. New songs are forming. Brendan’s headspace is shifting again. That’s the promise here: a record that captures exactly where Tiberius is right now, and an artist already leaning toward whatever comes next.

If this one hits you, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs a cathartic chorus, and leave a quick review—it helps more listeners discover Tiberius and stories like this.