Hello world,
Check out the latest FP Picks update for banging new tunes as always inc trx fm Sluice, SPRINTS, The Sophs & many more. If you like what you hear please follow and share this playlist, it helps us keep doing our thing by getting the algorithms on our side. Also please support the artists featured in any way you can!
Until next week
Helen (Futureproof) x
Lia Pappas-Kemps – Towers
Lia Pappas-Kemps recently shared the emotive new single Towers, taken fm upcoming debut album Winged – frenzied lyrics meet fuzzy guitars with the raw, textured sound a representation of the panic that sets in when a deep-rooted relationship feels due to meet its end. Typically a solitary songwriter, 21-year-old Lia took a different approach with the track. “I wrote this in my living room in Montreal with my cousin Elia. He produced the whole album, but this is the only song on the record where we started it all together … Working from the ground up on the music rather than narratively made it more intricate, sonically. We took more chances production-wise. The production became a part of the songwriting.”
Noah Kahan – The Great Divide
Noah Kahan fans may recognize new single The Great Divide already as the Vermont native has played the song at live shows since 2024. Kahan told British GQ that same year that the song was inspired by a friendship where he and the friend would smoke and drink to excess, hoping that it would help break down some of the emotional barriers between them, but it never did. “There was an atmosphere of pain where we were, but we would never speak about it because of a stigma that you shouldn’t be a baby and talk about feelings,” Kahan said of his upbringing in Vermont. Those themes of masculinity and friendship are ones that Kahan has signaled he will explore more on his forthcoming album, which doesn’t yet have an official release date.
SPRINTS – Deceptacon
Dublin’s post-punk band SPRINTS recently shared a high-energy, “rocked-up” cover of Le Tigre‘s 1999 dance-punk classic Deceptacon. Vocalist Karla Chubb explains: “I’m not sure there’s a woman in the world who plays guitar that hasn’t been inspired by Kathleen Hanna. Deceptacon is a dance punk classic, a constant in the tour van, and a cover we used to throw into festival sets for fun. What better way to mark our return to the States and honour our love of US Punk than to release our little rendition of Deceptacon.” Having risen to fame fronting the legendary punk band Bikini Kill – who spearheaded the riot grrrl movement with their incendiary lyrics and electrifying live performances – Hanna’s presence in the punk scene made it a safer and more inclusive space for women.
MX LONELY – Anesthetic
New York shoegazers MX LONELY just dropped their fervent new single Anesthetic, taken from the upcoming debut album ALL MONSTERS. The track is a heavy, melodic zone-out about longing for numbness after a breakup. Singer/keyboardist Rae Haas describes it as “a love song to the addict, an ode to and feeling highs and lows rather than searching for something to numb the pain.” Haas describes the album as confronting “addiction and neurodivergence, which are two things we all have our own connections with individually.” With Anesthetic, the band stay true to their indie rock influences. Cavernous guitars crash into dizzying vocals and demand a full-body response.
Bleech 9:3 – Cannonball
Pulsing with emotion and visceral tension, new single Cannonball from Irish four-piece Bleech 9:3 retains a heartfelt vulnerability, capturing “the echoes of hell that are happening in there.” Vocalist Baz Quinlan states: “It was written down the back of Sam’s house one day after we had spent a few hours there doing recovery related work. To me it’s a reflection of how bad worship in the form of a lover had made love itself into something else, a moment of clarity is found at its ending which maybe shows the recovery work was doing its magic.” Raspy guitar strums sketch a fragile stillness before the track fractures into dissonance. The foundational bass drives the song into a feverish pulse, where distortion and intimacy entwine.
The Sophs – GOLDSTAR
Los Angeles six-piece The Sophs have confirmed their debut album GOLDSTAR, releasing the explosive title-track with its distinctly Latin backing sonics. Frontman Ethan Ramon describes the track as “the worst person you know yelling at God to give them a sign that they are good.” He adds, “In a deliberately unserious way, we want the song to prompt the same question that the album raises, which is – if you are a good person for the wrong reasons, does that detract from your goodness?” The much-hyped group have made a plan, and stuck to it – The Sophs crafted those pivotal early demos, and cold-called Rough Trade Records, sending them to label heads Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee before they ever even played a show.
Dom Quincey – Through the Door
London-born artist Dom Quincey has shared the melancholic new single Through the Door which confronts unresolved gilt. Combining soft indie-rock and honest folk-pop, the track builds slowly with delicate guitars, restrained drums, and emotional lyrics. Quincey states: “It was a weird song to write because it’s so vulnerable. I had the first couple of lines, but I didn’t really know where to go with it because it was too overwhelming. I wasn’t in a space to be writing songs.” It was while writing his previous single It’s Not the End … that Quincey found the clarity to return to the song, sitting with the unresolved grief of losing a close friend. “It kind of opened the door for me to be able to write about that loss.” Thought-provoking lyrics on this haunting, beautiful track.
Modern Woman – Dashboard Mary
London-based art-rock outfit Modern Woman have shared the new single Dashboard Mary, taken from their debut album Johnny’s Dreamworld. Songwriter Sophie Harris states: “This is a song that I wanted to write like a film. I wanted to confront the feeling of the ‘morning after’ and the decisions made during that time of exhilaration the night before. A vital theme I’ve always wanted in Modern Woman is the idea of conflicting things, of the tender/harsh, loud/quiet and scrappy/polished. The style of everybody’s playing, drawing from a melting pot of influences, coming together to form something new.” The album gathers these ideas into a full-bodied debut, exploring the strange poetry of the everyday while navigating the contradictions of womanhood.
Sluice – Beadie
North Carolina’s Sluice recently shared the heart-rending single Beadie, taken from their upcoming album Companion and it’s a homespun reflection on community, belonging, and time stood still. The song evokes a sense of stillness against the movement of life, a feeling of time moving forward whilst you stand still and try to take stock of what has, and continues, to happen. Vocalist Justin Morris states: “I think that if not the space of the room then definitely the location, being out in the country is important to the song.” The song plays as an ode to love, friendship, and to the romantic indulgence of sparing a moment to take in the world.
Eaves Wilder – Hurricane Girl
Eaves Wilder has shared powerful new single Hurricane Girl ahead of the debut album Little Miss Sunshine. Eaves states: “This is my go at cock rock. I love Pearl Jam, I love Janes Addiction, I love Stone Temple Pilots, Sound Garden, Aerosmith. I love how swaggering and soaring they sound. The first time I ever listened to Pearl Jam, I was up a mountain, and I wanted to make mountain music too. Songs with elemental scale.” Eaves says: “I want to have a sunny disposition, but that’s not naturally the case. Male songwriters who are subject to extreme mood swings – that somehow becomes part of what makes them a genius. So, I think it’s important, if you’re a woman, to be upfront about your mood swings. Because we often have more of an excuse – and it’s unhealthy to suppress it.”
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