Ray Seraphin is a Bay Area  songwriter and musician who builds “raucous, large-scale rock songs, then hushes them to ghostliness around intimate, murmuring vocals that tickle the inside of your ear”. He was part of Talkies, Mean Jolene, Glitz, Lenz and Impediments before going (almost) solo as R.E. Seraphin. His debut album was Tiny Shapes (Paisley Shirt Records/Mt.St.Mtn.) in 2020 and a couple of EPs preceded and followed it: A Room Forever EP (Paisley Shirt Records/Mt.St.Mtn.), in 2020 and Swingshift EP (Mt.St.Mtn./Dandy Boy Records/Safe Suburban Home) in 2022. Fool’s Mate is Seraphin’s second-full length under his own name. It was recorded with Jason Quever of the Papercuts at his home studio in Crockett, California. Seraphin had been playing with a full band as the lockdown eased, and this album reflects the live chemistry that he’s developed with his crew: guitarist Joel Cusumano (Sob Stories, Body Double), drummer Daniel Pearce (Al Harper, Reds, Pinks, & Purples), bass player Josh Miller (Chime School, Extra Classic), and keyboardist Luke Robbins. Seraphin, Pearce and Miller recorded the basic tracks live, then added Robbins’ keyboards in overdubs. In addition, Seraphin’s frequent collaborator Owen Adair Kelley of Sleepy Sun contributed acoustic and slide guitars, while his wife Hannah Moriah sang background harmonies. “The lyrics are meant to evoke a sense of corporeality — there are references to skin, sweat, teeth, and breath throughout the album, which I intended to unsettle the listener,” says Seraphin. “On the surface, they are love songs but there’s a suggestion of something more ominous.”

London based singer-songwriter, Ned Roberts, has three studio records to his name –Ned Roberts (2014), Outside My Mind (2017) and Dream Sweetheart (2020)- and has featured frequently on BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland. His bittersweet songs sit comfortably among the classics of the Laurel Canyon era, with a timeless quality and a poetic turn of phrase. With shows across Europe and America, live highlights include a tour with celebrated songwriter Anais Mitchell, plus support slots for Joe Pug, Micah P. Hinson, Those Pretty Wrongs, and Sarabeth Tucek amongst others. Two of his critically acclaimed albums were out for the Aveline label (home to Ani Di Franco), and he has a decade long creative partnership with renowned US producer and songwriter Luther Russell (Sarabeth Tucek, Fabiano do Nascimento). Ned has just released his fourth studio album, Heavy Summer. Teaming up again with producer Luther Russell, and sound engineer Jason Hiller, the record was cut and mixed in 6 days in the late LA summer heat. Recorded mostly live to a vintage 8-track tape machine, Luther (keys, mellotron, guitars, drums) and Jason (bass) doubled as an expert band. Heavy Summer showcases both sides of Ned’s creative output, with gorgeously constructed band takes, recorded during the heat of the day, and intimate acoustic numbers, recorded just as night drew in. Throughout, there is a sense of searching, of something just beyond reach. “Days into days / a uniform parade / Run ‘cross the fields / is salvation on the way? / To ease the sense of time / Go steady on the wine / I’m young and I’m old / I’m living and I’m dying.’ Solo acoustic closer, The Breakers, with Sarabeth Tucek on backing vocals, brings the record to a meditative end.

Katy Pinke is a Manhattan-based singer-songwriter, painter and actor and her self-titled debut album is out now on the new Glamour Gowns label. The songs on her album possess a direct and inviting quality, but within each, a quiet battle is being waged in an ongoing struggle to, as Pinke puts it, “unconditionally love a fragmented self.” The album strips Pinke’s art down to its absolute essence. At the home studio of Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Cass McCombs), she recorded her vocals and minimal guitar accompaniments live with drummer Jeremy Gustin in front of an audience of a few friends. The idea was to capture the energy of Pinke’s live shows—storied events in the NYC indie rock scene. Katy’s music is best described as experimental folk, inspired by the odd song structures and conversationality of artists like Bill Callahan and Aldous Harding with a lithe vocal delivery reminiscent of The Roches and Connie Converse. She’s a really respected figure in the NYC scene and she also regularly plays in Delicate Steve’s band. The record’s most devastating moments are sometimes also its most fun (“Tomato,” “One Coin”). Elsewhere, there are bittersweet moments of effortless beauty (“Grapefruit,” “Strawman”). In Pinke’s music, life sometimes feels like a series of pushes into a vast, hopeful unknown, and the time spent conserving our energy in between them. All we can do, she hypothesizes, is try to stay in tune with ourselves while waiting for the next opportunity to try again.