In 2013 VENTS interviewed a pair of bands that had just collaborated on an album. The bands were Oklahoma City’s LESS LOVE and Wondernaut. The project was the unprecedented Paradigms in the Design.

Today bands come and go with little to no staying power. Then again, a band’s failure to survive their sophomore effort is a problem as old as rock n roll itself. Seven years after that interview LESS LOVE is still going strong. Judging from the ferociousness of their new single Snow White Trash they might be even stronger than ever.

On the heels of the single’s release, celebrating a recent Los Angeles Music Video Awards nomination for Best Rock Video 2020, and anticipating the band’s new LP titled Everybody’s Somebody’s Satan, VENTS reconnected with the sole surviving members of LESS LOVE.

The last time we talked was in 2016 regarding your video for the song Horse Race. Going further back to the first time we interviewed you, what has changed in the music industry since 2013?

Sky:  There are still only 12 notes (except in Asia). Other than that everything has changed.

Billy:  People stopped buying music. Consequently, the albums stopped going platinum. Billboard, Nielsen, et. al. had to invent album-equivalent units, counting streams and downloads in a particular way, in order to continue certifying platinum albums.

Bands all jumped on the bandwagon of giving their music away for free (HA! Bands on the bandwagon!) People stopped listening to rock. Top 40 has gotten worse. We are in another Dark Ages with respect to many aspects of art.

You were a five-piece before. Now you are the only two left. What happened?

Billy: Certain band members moved on to aspects of life divorced from music. I sort of lost my mojo for a while and wasn’t much help when it came to anything beyond studio work. I think the state of the industry became a bit discouraging for several of us. Not that being a musician is solely contingent upon fans, sales, and recognition, but it sure doesn’t hurt.

Sky:  Billy and I are the Lost Boys. All the other kids grew up. The money is not there like it once was. It cost a lot to make music and to travel from town to town. People more reasonable than us chose to quit the struggle. Rebecca is working to be a nurse right now. I think that is fantastic. She will never have to sleep on another stranger’s couch. I mean, unless she wants to.

What effect did that have on the recording of the new single Snow White Trash?

Billy: It upended the dynamic, for sure. We branched out and used several studio musicians, which was not something we often did before. Sky also met some pretty talented and prominent producers and sound engineers and brought them in. Which I approve of. It was nice to bring in some fresh blood, even if they weren’t band members, per se.

How did the two of you begin making music together?

Sky: My brother Paul Baustert was the original bass player for Billy’s band Wondernaut. Billy and I had started a friendship from that connection.

Billy: I had been somewhat prolific in the early Aughts in regards to songwriting and recording. I was on a small label out of NYC for a time and had been working on my first album. Sky approached me about helping him arrange and record some of his songs. It started out slow but snowballed after a couple of years into a full band and studio project.

The video for the song has been nominated for Best Rock Video of 2020. I am sure that is an honor. Were you surprised?

Billy:  Yes and no. We’ve had a few songs and videos nominated for awards. While I absolutely love the video, I thought it would piss people off. I didn’t think anyone would nominate it for an award!

Sky:  The video is hit and miss. Some people get it and say they love it. Then some people see it as just filler.

We promote the video on Rolling Stone.com and Billboard.com. The average view time per advertisement click is only 3 seconds. That is hilarious because the video starts with 2 seconds of silence.  Could you imagine those poor souls sitting through 4 minutes of watching a chameleon watching them?

The award nomination is a great honor. I was also very honored that metalvideo.com added us to their roster. They specifically showcase what they decide are great videos. The fact that they added us right next to the Body Count video for “No Lives Matter” made me proud.  Clearly they got what we were saying. Little things like that get me through the day.

I admit I am a bit surprised at the love the video has received. Like Billy said we were convinced everybody would hate it.

This single is our first peek at the new album Everybody’s Somebody’s Satan. Can we expect more heavy-handed gems like this from the album?

Billy:  Oh yeah! This is the direction that Sky had wanted all along. I guess it is good to do things backward sometimes.

Sky:  Haha we have recorded more tracks similar to SWT, but none of them are on Everybody’s Somebody’s Satan. This album is an anthology. It is our farewell to the old band. It consists of everything we ever recorded including a song Billy sang called A Thousand Sweat Soaked Silent Sorries. It was one of the first songs we recorded ten years ago. It was intended to be on our first album but we never were able to get it to sound exactly right. I gave the original tracks to producer Mike Rodriguez. The first thing he said was he wanted us to re-record it. After I convinced him I was committed to the original recordings he mixed it for us. I love what he was able to do with it.

Will we be hearing more from Wondernaut in the future?

Billy:  (Shakes Magic 8 Ball) “Signs point to yes.” I had to grieve the death of the music industry for a while. But I haven’t stopped writing.  In March, I moved to Moscow, Russia. I am still waiting for my music gear to arrive. Once it does, I intend to start working on new material. I have already made several local musician contacts, so I hope to have Wondernaut revived once Covid releases its grip on us all.

Well as always it has been great catching up with you guys. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us again.

Sky: It is a pleasure. Thank you for your consideration.

Billy: Thank you for having us. Always remember, if the past comes calling, don’t answer. It has nothing new to say. Say “Hi” to your Mom for me.

Whoever this lady is, she is high maintenance with a capital H. Rapper Amir Beats describes in his devilish flow and slick, powerful writing in his track “Get ‘Em Throwin Dollars”. His breakbeats and DJing style cashes in quickly. The rolling beats and repeated lyrics add up to a breakout hit.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/amirmusic2014/

Based in Houston, Texas, Beats’ initially began music as a youngster, performing in church. While studying at the University of Houston, he garnered additional experience DJing at parties. He notes in his press materials that he became sick, and due to his illness, he landed himself in trouble with the law. While “institutionalized”, he finished a degree in social sciences. From there, he was able to get airplay for “Holla At Me” and “Make You Proud”. “Get ‘Em Throwin’ Dollars” is from Beats’ own Pype Dreams Entertainment TM label.

You can look but you cannot touch, Beats slays. The bouncing music bed just twinges and tweaks as he’s spitting the words. His fluidity is pretty tight to the fast tempo bed. At first the bed sounds like a ringtone, but it quickly moves into more dramatic and anthemic rhythms. The overall mix is pristine – just a fantastic mesh of Beats’ vocals and the thematic base lines. Building upon each measure, the base is really incredibly interesting. It has a mainstream appeal, but at the same time, underground undercurrents that could easily standout on their own.

Beats continues she’s got her own house in the south, and the east and the west and the onion starts unraveling. This particular woman is all about the money and any guy that can partake in making sure she is set with the lifestyle she wants. She looks like she could be a rapper’s wife, he drills. One of my favorite lines (that he repeats quite a bit) is stack your change, stack your change! I adore it when songwriters dabble in humor into their lyrical content. For some reason, at that moment I had a vision of Scrooge McDuck jumping into a pile of gold coins, and this woman taking all his money. I also enjoy songs that are literal and you can get lost in the music. What isn’t clear is if he was dating this girl at the time and is warning the fellas of her high costs. Did he lose everything for her, or is he just writing about this from afar? As a listener, those stories were running through my head just as much as his stealth mixes were parallel to his beat drops.

Beats’ style is refreshing and his scratching is timed perfectly. His vibe is a tad vintage, but it has movement that lends itself into modern territories. I would say it has a more Southern or ATL influence than East Coast rapping, but honestly, Beats’ style is pretty unique. He’s worth the investment and your musical library will benefit from his stupid fresh swagger. Amir Beats flexes a good show in “Got ‘Em Throwin’ Dollars” and it pays off handsomely.

by Bethany Page

Imagine seeing a T-shirt that captures your attention for no apparent reason. You are sure you don’t know what the words and symbolism mean, but you also feel like you should know. Those of us who have had the pleasure of seeing such T-shirts have experienced the juxtaposition of well-known obscurity.

Any one of the CBGB T-shirts from Nerd Kung Fu provide a perfect example. People who already know what CBGB is feel good about themselves for wearing T-shirts that make them part of a semi-exclusive club. Meanwhile, the clueless see a CBGB T-shirt and feel like there is something vaguely familiar about the imagery they should know more about.

The juxtaposition of well-known obscurity lies in two seemingly opposite principles. The first principle dictates that the topic or subject at hand is known among a large enough group of people to give it some sort of societal stature. The other principal dictates just the opposite: not enough people know about it to propel it to mainstream cognizance.

The CBGB Club

CBGB was a small Manhattan nightclub first opened in 1973 by the legendary Hilly Krystal to showcase his favorite music. The CBGB acronym stands for ‘country, bluegrass, and blues’. Underneath the acronym on the nightclub’s canopy sign was another acronym: OMFUG. It stood for ‘other music for uplifting gormandizers’, a reference to people who consume music as much as, or more than, they consumed food.

Though Krystal’s original intent was clear, it didn’t take long for the club to become a hotspot for the cutting-edge music of the day. CBGB began hosting acoustic rock, experimental music, and punk. The club eventually started welcoming goth, industrial, and dark wave bands.

CBGB became well known for helping to launch the careers of groups like Blondie and the Ramones. By the 1980s it had left most of its country and bluegrass roots behind to become New York’s home for hard-core punk.

Both Known and Unknown

Music critics, publishers, and aficionados are very familiar with the CBGB name. Some of the biggest names in music can recite the entire history of the club from start to finish. And yet outside of that particular scene, CBGB is still widely unknown. That is what’s most fascinating about this icon of American music.

How a club like CBGB can be so well known in music circles but largely unknown elsewhere is a juxtaposition. Even among people living in Manhattan and the rest of New York’s boroughs, CBGB was not a well-known entity during its heyday. It was the hot spot for fans of punk rock and other forms of alternative music, but virtually nonexistent to everyone else.

The same is true in 2020. A core group of people will recognize a CBGB T-shirt a mile away. They see the two acronyms and know exactly what they mean. T-shirts that feature images of the club’s facade are instantly recognized by the storefront window and canopy.

A person who knows nothing about the punk rock scene might see that same T-shirt and scratch his head. He might spend the rest of the day wondering what ‘CBGB’ and ‘OMFUG’ mean. And he will drive himself crazy believing that he is the only one who remain ignorant.

Such is the juxtaposition of well-known obscurity. If you are well-known to a large group but still obscure to an even larger one, you are in that no man’s land of being neither a nobody nor a superstar. Perhaps the best you can do is hope someone is selling T-shirts with your likeness decades after you’re gone.

Marching out of the darkness like a fascist army in some grainy old war footage, Cinemartyr’s “Run From Terror To Bring It Closer” doesn’t let us get comfortable with its ominous strut before unleashing a complicated deluge of distortion that can wipe out anything that gets in its path. In this track, and all of those found on the new album Death of the First Person, Cinemartyr are meshing metal, punk, noise, art rock and conceptual avant-gardism together with an excitement I hadn’t heard much of prior to this summer, and while I was only somewhat familiar with their sound before, this most recent offering has made me a legitimate fan.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/CINEMARTYR/

The tracklist here is very tight and feels a heck of a lot leaner and meaner than it actually is. “CGI,” “On Earth As It Is” and “The Brain of Hideo Kojimaa,” the trio of songs that start us off in Death of the First Person, blows into us like a juggernaut of colorless noise only to lead us into something a bit more illustrative of the band’s personality in “Stab City” and, later, the psychedelic “Sleep is God,” but the flow is uninterrupted and not lacking in substance at all whatsoever.

In “In Filth It Shall Be Found” and “AR-15,” vocals aren’t exactly a melodic component of the music – truth be told, they’re on the same level as the percussion in a couple of key junctures – but they’re engrained in the music seamlessly just the same. Every part of this record is well-mixed, and though there are some patches, particularly towards the conclusion, that run a little more towards the extreme than necessary, I wouldn’t deem any of the compositions on Death of the First Person as being unworthy of the company they’re in here at all.

Overall, the master mix is very generous with the gritty details that give “Run From Terror To Bring It Closer,” “Tunnel At The End Of The Tunnel” and “Stab City” their one of a kind finish, and I have a feeling Cinemartyr designed this aspect of their new record with audiophiles in mind over everyone else. There’s no pandering to the intellectual crowd here (far from it, actually), but there’s also no denying the fact that you don’t stick a couple of loaded numbers like the boldly melodic “Keeps Getting Up” and gut-punching “The Brain Of Hideo Kojimaa” on the same LP without expecting to get a big critical reaction.

GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/music/preview/Aa43bvqi5qloawvjbmpsdylmd4q?play=1&u=0

It’s not for everyone, but for those who it was made to satisfy this summer, Cinemartyr’s Death of the First Person will be called an instant classic. In 2020, the era of feedback-laced tributes to the Melvins and ear-numbing aesthetical nods to the likes of Invisible Boss, Patton Thomas, Ox-bow and Howard James Kenny are becoming a thing of the past, while taking the concepts forged by those artists to the next level of experimentalism is the fad to be had, and Cinemartyr aren’t relenting from their mission of doing the latter with more attitude than anyone else in their scene right now.

by Bethany Page 

Matt Kiss is a singer, songwriter, and musician from Brooklyn, New York. Some of Matt’s earliest memories were of him singing along to Russian tunes with his parents, or banging around on the piano as a toddler. He was enrolled in piano lessons at a very young age, later gravitating to the guitar at 13.

After years of playing in a handful of young bands, Matt decided that he wanted to go his own route and dove into the world of songwriting. 

Once on his own, Matt hit the ground running playing local venues throughout NYC, Brooklyn, and Queen. He competed in songwriting contests, participated in recording workshops, and even took a BMI songwriting course in 2013. Every new musical experience was an opportunity for Kiss to sharpen his skills as a writer and performer. He developed a live show as both a solo acoustic act as well as a full band outfit, performing in many NYC staples like Rockwood Music Hall, Bowery Electric, and The Shrine (just to name a few). On top of developing his solo career, Matt would often work as a session musician for several artists in the New York area. His live and studio work as a guitarist/bassist/arranger for other artists not only brought him fulfillment, but also informed his own experience and education as a musician. And it was Matt’s vast and varied musical experiences that were instrumental in the development of his own artistic growth.

Most recently, Matt linked up with talented producer Malcolm Fong, and the two immediately clicked. Matt’s new single “Hurricane” serves not only as a standalone song, but also previews the larger scope of his and Malcolm’s collaborative work together.

Canada hasn’t historically been known for burning it up in the world of hip-hop, but that narrative is changing thanks to the efforts of independent artists like Rich Lindo, whose new single “Jungle” is making a big impact at home and abroad this July. Based out of Toronto, Lindo doesn’t let the barriers between his scene and the bright lights of American-sanctioned success stop him from giving a masterful performance in “Jungle,” and moreover, delivering a critical message in the recently-released music video for the song. The imagery in the video is as real as the pulsation of the percussion in the backdrop is, and when this track comes to a conclusion, it’s hard to walk away unaffected by what we’ve just heard.

I really dig this interplay between the beat and the verses, as the dynamic not only highlights the sophistication of Rich Lindo’s execution but also the emotional bend to the music itself. There isn’t a single component to the mix that isn’t lending some element of authenticity to the finished product – even when he’s pouring lyrics out of the speakers like coffee into a cup, Lindo is calm, cool and collected in his presence and seeming sure of himself no matter what he’s trying to get across. His passion translates into the music exquisitely, and for his being an outsider, he doesn’t sound like an up and coming rapper who is still in need of finding his own identity.

BANDCAMP: https://blacklionempire.com/track/jungle

Quality hip-hop is plentiful right now, so for this to be the standout single that it is, you know Rich Lindo has got to be doing something right. A product of the Canadian underground who doesn’t accept any of the nonsensical analyses that would prevent his sound from hitting the masses, this rapper is crushing it in “Jungle” and stylizing a strain of hip-hop that blends elements of protest music, traditional east coast rap and a grainier, edgy electro beat I’m dying to hear more of again soon. He’s one of a kind for sure, and if given some more time and room to grow, he’s going to do some amazing things.

by Bethany Page

Hi Anthony, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?

All good, thank you. Hope you guys are good too, despite the crazy crazy times

Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Himalaya”?

It’s a song about travel in a moment when this word has almost mythical connotations. A perfect symbol of how many things we took for granted are not anymore. But it’s above all a song about hope, about everything we’ll get to do again when the ugly C thing will be over. And about sticking together, which is key at this moment.

Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?

I love traveling and I miss the crazy feeling you get when you visit a foreign country (especially the more exotic ones) for the first time: you form your idea of that country from the news and movies and you’re excited and terrified at the same time. After a couple of days there you settle in, start getting used to the different sounds, scents, the way people move, the different pace and inflection. It’s a regenerating experience. It really changes you. I miss that.

How was the filming process and experience behind the video?

The video is a collage in stop motion: it’s the same style I’ve used for the video of “Making Babies” and it adds a little bit to the playful nature of the song.  The original plan to create a crowdsourcing campaign and have people from the cities mentioned in the song lip-syncing to the lyrics. It would have been incredible but almost impossible, especially now. The idea came from the fact that while playing this song live on stream I had so many people telling me: I’m from Bodhgaya, I’m from Chicago, I’m from Chile! It’s amazing to think how many countries and people you are reaching thanks to music.

The single comes off your new EP Basement Love – what’s the story behind the title?

The title can be read in two ways: it comes from the opening song from the EP and it’s about the secret love you live when you’re young, and you have to hide somewhere to get some intimacy, when the kisses are smuggled and being together alone sounds like a conspiracy. But it’s also a reference to the slightly apocalyptic feel we get in these days, where we have to stay holed up for the sake of our parents and friends. And you get in this kind of Noah’s Ark mood.

How was the recording and writing process?

Every song starts differently, that’s what I love about songwriting. I try to start always in a different way: can be something I’m strumming or fingerpicking on the guitar, trivially, a sequence of chords on the piano, but it can also be an instrumental I’m working on where I suddenly got the inspiration for a top line, a jazz jam you start singing on or maybe a random idea you record on the phone and develop later. Basement Love follows this process to the letter. Then we have the remix, which was a very fortunate last-minute surprise from the talented R&B guru Definitely Dean.

What role do Hamburg and Genoa play in your music?

Hamburg is the city I need to stay under tension a little bit. It’s a positive tension, of course: different languages (my German is still pretty shaky), lots of inputs and events, changing sceneries and challenging climate, especially in winter. Genoa is the home base and the cradle: where I get to relax a little bit, immerse myself in the environment I’ve grown in. It’s a beautiful city and home of great Italian songwriters like Fabrizio de Andrè, Luigi Tenco and Gino Paoli and I’m really proud of it.

What aspect of love did you get to explore on this record?

This period has created new kinds of loves and lovers. Those who have been living in different countries and found suddenly themselves in the impossibility to rejoin, which is crazy if you think about it. And then, on the other side, the ones that suddenly found themselves stuck together 24 hours a day in the same apartment, which can be incredibly romantic and cozy but can become volatile pretty quickly.

Where else did you find the inspiration for the songs and lyrics?

I guess everything that’s happening around us can be a great inspiration. My stories are pretty intimistic but, in the end, our private lives are always a very personal reflection of the bigger events happening around us. And I guess I take a lot of inspiration from what I read and see. Especially movies: I’m a movie maniac and I love watching classics on my projector.The funny things you don’t realize you got all these stories interiorized until you start writing and all these characters simply come to life in your songs

What else is happening next in Anthony Lazaro’s world?

I’m working on my second LP, which is going to be an ambitious musical endeavor: I like to keep my listeners a little bit on the edge, changing slightly style between songs. This LP is going to be the culmination of this process. In a time when we can’t do much touring, we still have ways to create a journey, connecting musicians across space to have something that also travels through time: musicians from London, New York, North Carolina, Nashville, Munchen, Toronto, Genoa and Hamburg working on vocal jazz, indie folk, chill, and electronic pop all in the same album. I think it’s gonna be fun.

LISTEN HERE

Q: Hi Cliff, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?

A: Thank you for having me! With everything going on in the world right now, I’m just trying to stay busy, and engaged with my fans, so that when we finally get out of this pandemic, I can hit the ground running again!

Q: Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Cha Cha”

A: Of course! “Cha Cha” is one of my favorite records right now because it has all of the ingredients needed for a “hit” turn up record. I wanted to make something that makes new listeners ask “Who is that?”, and also wanted to challenge myself to experiment with new sounds and vocal tones. “Cha Cha” really helped me realize that creating catchy music is part of my niche.

Q: Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?

A: My creative process typically comes from one of two points of inspiration. The first being any particular thing that directly impacts me in my life or second being inspired by production. I have this saying, “If you can’t listen to the beat without lyrics, it doesn’t slap enough”. 

I feel like good production writes the song for you. I find myself writing my best songs when I press play and words immediately start flowing through my thoughts within the first few seconds of hearing an instrumental.

Q: Any plans to release any sort of video for the track?

A: I’m glad you asked because we just finished shooting the video for Cha Cha. I believe “Cha Cha” is my most visually pleasing music video to date. It will be released sometime late August. 

Q: How was the recording and writing process?

A: My recording process has been more fun for me lately. I typically write my music in the notepad app on my phone. Now it’s more hybrid. Sometimes I use my phone but now it’s mostly freestyle. I recorded “Cha Cha” without writing anything down. Recording without writing feels more organic.

Q: What role does Long Beach play in your music?

A: I’ve never been asked this question before! Props to VENTS for sure!! Long Beach has EVERYTHING to do with my music. It’s one of the most multiculturally diverse places in the world in my opinion. From food all the way to it’s people. Growing up there allowed me to tap into so many flavors of music and styles hip hop due to the diverse community of friends I had and people I’ve worked with. I believe my city taught me how to be different. I’m grateful because I feel like it shows in my music. It’s funny you asked this question because just the other day one of my fans told me that the reason they love listening to my music is because you never know what you’re gonna get.

Q: What made you want to go for a much Latin-infused direction?

A: I have a friend that listens to a lot of Latin music. I’m learning more about that wave and I find myself getting more into it.  He kinda put me up on some artist making noise in that genre. I remember joking with him and saying “Watch I’m gonna make some Latin sh*t”. I was messing around but at the same time I wasn’t. I came across the beat for “Cha Cha” and took the opportunity to try a new sound.

Q: Does the new single mean we can expect a new material – how’s that coming along?

A: My goal every year is to be more consistent than the last. You can expect more music, more videos and more content. Currently I’m releasing singles while continuing to find new fans. I plan on leading this into an album. Everything is coming along better than I could ask for. My team is always two or more steps ahead of what you see.

Q: Any tentative release date or title in mind?

A: We’re definitely planning on giving our fans an album before the end of the year. It could be a dope Christmas gift. Keep your eyes open!

Q: Any plans to hit the road?

A: That was the plan this year. When I got back home from my concert at Texas  at Texas Tech University, I was hyped!. I couldn’t wait to get back on the road. I was looking forward to visiting Germany and touring overseas. We’re going crazy in Europe right now. I was also looking forward to performing at Rolling Loud but Covid’s got us all in the house. Giving God gives us his grace, after this pandemic I plan on picking up where I left off and getting back on the road. This time with new music

Q: What else is happening next in Cliff Savage’ world?

A: Continuing to find ways to give back and help people while we all figure out the new normal. I plan on doing some more live-stream shows, and hope to tap in with the VENT listeners again in the future!

LISTEN HERE

Hi Becca, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?

Thank you so much! I’ve been doing pretty well. Excited to be creating and releasing music. I think being in quarantine has given me space to explore creatively and focus on sharing what I’ve been working on.

Can you talk to us more about your new single “Past Life”?

Sure! I wrote “Past Life” a few years ago actually so it’s been a long time coming. I wrote it about deep love and longing so there is a nostalgic feeling in the song. There is also an existential wonder about connection with others and self.

Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?

I think the song was inspired by my own personal feelings and curiosities rather than a particular event. I write mostly from a stream of consciousness type of approach.

Any plans to release any sort of video for the track?

I would love to release a video with this track but I am still exploring options for how that would look for this song. If anything, it will probably be a simple visual video.

How was the recording and writing process?

The song didn’t take me very long to write. I remember writing it alone in my room one late night just pondering my own inner world. Like I said, that was a few years ago now! The recording process was so fun. I worked on this track with my dear friend, Eric Leva. I remember we rode electric Bird scooters to dinner one night from his apartment, and by the time we were leaving the restaurant there was only one scooter left, so we both rode back on the same one, which was hilarious. Then we got back and recorded “Past Life” in his apartment!

Who influences your songwriting, and how?

I would say my main influences include Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, and Ani Difranco. I am mostly drawn to a lot of folk artists and pop singer songwriters. I also grew up listening to a lot of musical theater and Disney music as well as worship music from growing up in church.

What role does Los Angeles play in your music?

The reason I moved to Los Angeles was because I knew I would have community here. My musical community has played a huge role in my music and it’s been especially exciting to see some of my peers succeed in big ways.

How did your perspective and experiences change as you moved away from small town Philadelphia to LA?

I actually moved to Boston for college for 4 years before I moved to LA. I loved living in Boston and so moving from there to Los Angeles was a huge culture shock. I moved here without a car or a job and had to figure out how to survive and thrive here which was extremely challenging for the first few years. I think moving to LA changed my perspective of the world and connection with others. You never know who you will run into here!

Does the new single mean we can expect a new material – how’s that coming along?

That’s the plan! I am currently planning my next EP, and I’ve even begun writing songs for the following project. With all that is going on in the world, creativity and music have been my saving grace these days.

What else is happening next in Becca Roth’ world?

I’ve been working on recording the last couple tracks for my EP, and the plan is to just keep recording all the songs I’ve been writing and putting them out into the universe! I’m excited to share who I am with people and I hope the messages in my songs will inspire connectivity.

Find Becca at instagram.com/beccarothmusic, twitter.com/beccarothmusic and facebook.com/beccarothmusicnow.

Welcome Three Sides!  To start off, tell our readers more about the band. Where you started and where you are now?