Month: October 2026

Rise to the Occasion — Kat Steih and The Ferals Conquer Evil Forces on “Feral Geometry” EP

From left: Alex Anest, Kat Steih, Bob Zammit, and Marlo Williams of Kat Steih & The Ferals. Photo – Britten Daywell

Editor’s Note: For a related article, see the One Track Mind feature from Pulp.

Kat Steih & The Ferals confront evil forces and conquer the dark side on Feral Geometry.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan, band sings about courage and resistance while exploring different life struggles on its new art-rock EP.

“To me, the songs are about forces in life that can hijack our brains: despair, denial, addiction, and compulsion,” wrote Kat Steih, the band’s vocalist and songwriter, in an email interview.

“What is interesting and new in this record is that the singer in each song is a voice outside of the hijacking force—a voice that is offering a bigger perspective.”

Steih shares that perspective through confident vocals and evocative lyrics across Feral Geometry’s four tracks, which are backed by spirited instrumentation from bandmates Alex Anest (guitar), Bob Zammit (drums), and Marlo Williams (bass).

“The real creative process of this EP was the long period of The Ferals living with these songs, even though the writing took place across a whole decade,” wrote Steih, who’s releasing Feral Geometry on November 5.

“We’ve been playing them in our concerts since right after our first EP came out, so for three years. Arrangements got tighter, more detailed, and the stories of the songs started blending into a new bigger outline.”

As the band crafted the songs for Feral Geometry, they also explored a variety of genres, ranging from pop punk and doom metal to experimental rock and punk rock.

“So even though some of these songs are more than 10 years old, the record itself feels very current to me,” Steih wrote. “The songs had to travel through all these different versions of me, different collaborators, and finally this particular band before they could become Feral Geometry.”

To learn more, I recently did an email interview with Steih and Zammit ahead of a November 5 EP release show at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti.

Continue reading “Rise to the Occasion — Kat Steih and The Ferals Conquer Evil Forces on “Feral Geometry” EP” →

Character Studies — Jeremy Porter and The Tucos Create Relatable Protagonists on “Sell Their Souls” Album

From left: Jake Reilly, Jeremy Porter, and Troy Toma of Jeremy Porter and The Tucos. Photo – Noreen Porter

As a proficient songwriter, Jeremy Porter brings compelling characters to life.

His characters range from dogs and kids to Shakespearean sidekicks and ranch hands, and together they face regrets, challenges, and hard lessons in different situations.

They’re prominently featured throughout the 12 tracks on Sell Their Souls, Porter’s latest multigenre album with The Tucos.

“It wasn’t really intentional,” said Porter, who’s based in Plymouth, Michigan. “I think you just summed up all the different things that I tend to write songs about. Regret is a constant theme, and it seems in my lyrics that I keep coming back to that.”

To create relatable protagonists, Porter draws inspiration from a variety of TV shows and films, including Wes Anderson movies, neo-Western dramas, and true-crime documentaries.

“I get a lot of inspiration from that,” Porter said. “If I hear somebody say something on the screen that catches my ear, I’ll put it right into my phone, and I’ll build a song around it.”

But his storied lyrics are only part of the equation for Sell Their Souls. The turbocharged, fearless instrumentation from Porter (guitar, vocals, piano, lap steel) and Tucos bandmates Gabriel Doman (drums, vocals, percussion, piano, guitar) and Jake Reilly (bass, vocals) provides the other crucial portion. (The band’s current live drummer is Troy Toma.)

“This is a bit of a heavier record for us, and it’s a bit more rock than we usually do,” said Porter, who released the album via GTG Records. “I always like albums like The Who’s The Who Sell Out. I wanted [the album’s title] to be like that, like a news headline—Jeremy Porter and The Tucos Sell Their Souls—that’s a sentence.”

I recently spoke with Porter ahead of an October 10 album release show at Parts and Labor Bar in Melvindale.

Continue reading “Character Studies — Jeremy Porter and The Tucos Create Relatable Protagonists on “Sell Their Souls” Album” →

Musical Awakening — Dexter’s Brad Phillips Rediscovers His Purpose for Writing and Performing Music

Brad Phillips, right, performs with Jeff Daniels at JD’s Stage Bistro in Chelsea. Photo by Bern.

After years of working as a sideman, Brad Phillips realized it’s time to be front and center.

The Dexter, Michigan, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is focusing more on his own material and live shows.

“I’m at this point where I’m looking back at the whole road that I’ve traveled; I’ve done a lot of stuff, and I’m grateful for it,” Phillips said. “It’s exciting to think about what comes next, and instead of waiting for who’s going to call me next, I’m calling me. And so, I’m trying to be intentional about just doing that on purpose.”

Phillips spent four days this summer revisiting his musical purpose in the woods by writing and practicing music. Playing a variety of different instruments—acoustic guitar, mandolin, and violin, to name a few—helped him feel reconnected to it.

“I brought my little recording rig and creative-vomited for four days, and I got back to basics and practiced my scales and my etudes,” he said. “It was like: ‘Oh yeah, this is a part of who I am, and it always has been.’”

Before taking his musical retreat, Phillips had been touring on and off with actress and singer Patti LuPone for the last two to three years. He also collaborated with LuPone on her 2024 album, A Life in Notes.

“That’s been the primary thing, all while trying to understand what inspires me musically as an individual and as the musician Brad under my own name,” Phillips said. “My whole thing over the last 20-25 years has been: ‘How can I best serve other people’s visions?’ And of course, that is essentially a side man, which I love, and I will always love.”

While he enjoys collaborating and performing with a roster of Michigan musicians, including May Erlewine, Joshua Davis, Chris DuPont, Rachael Davis, and Jeff Daniels, he’s begun releasing his own material.

Americana-folk songs like “How Sweet the Sound” and “Dance Again” demonstrate the musical depth and breadth he brings as a singer-songwriter.

“I’ve gone through a lot in the last decade—a lot of transition, a lot of change—and all of it has brought me closer to living more truthfully, more authentically, which then allows for the creativity to flow a little more organically,” said Phillips, who’s a lecturer at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

I recently spoke with Phillips about his career ahead of a November 6 show at Rancho Tranquilico in Dexter.

Continue reading “Musical Awakening — Dexter’s Brad Phillips Rediscovers His Purpose for Writing and Performing Music” →