The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist delves into complex emotions, ranging from confusion to heartbreak to frustration, on his latest EP.
“In today’s world, these emotions will find you at some point,” said Perrone, who’s based in Livonia, Michigan. “I find it fascinating how people, including myself, deal with them in different ways.”
He also unearths the mental health struggles people face when they’re coping with change and searching for closure.
“Directly or indirectly, experiences from our past help us to cope,” Perrone said. “Finding a resolution in times of trouble is an interesting topic to me that I felt was worth exploring.”
Perrone’s baritone vocals evoke feelings of anticipation and longing in fans as they process their experiences while listening to Bend Until It Breaks. The EP’s five tracks feature contemplative lyrics, haunting instrumentation, and elements of indie rock, alt rock, shoegaze, and post-rock.
To learn more, I spoke with Perrone about the EP ahead of a November 15 show at the Ghost Light in Hamtramck.
Amrit Kohli confronts sociopolitical issues on “Mama! I Can’t Breathe.” Courtesy photo
One year ago, Amrit Kohli released a sociopolitical album reflecting on resistance and survival.
Known as Mama! I Can’t Breathe, the album’s dozen tracks span almost three decades of songwriting and explore oppression, resilience, Black liberation, and queer identity.
“It’s more than just an album,” said Kohli, a queer folk singer-songwriter and activist from Ferndale, Michigan. “At a time when the world still grapples with the repercussions of George Floyd’s tragic death, I transform pain into art, using music as both a tribute and call-to-action.”
Kohli examines those themes through improvisational lyrics, emotive vocals, and atmospheric instrumentation. On a deeper level, the album helps Kohli confront identity politics and find refuge in authenticity.
“I feel like an imposter in almost every community that I’m in because I’m outside [almost] all of them,” said Kohli, who has Kenyan and Indian heritage.
“I’m either an immigrant or I’m this or that. The queer community is pretty diverse and different, and the queer community I feel like I belong to. I think culturally, ethnically, and all of those things, there’s a lot of fragmentation in my identity that way.”
I recently spoke with Kohli about their latest album ahead of a Stop Starving Gaza benefit show on June 20 at the Ghost Light in Hamtramck, Michigan.
The Metro Detroit singer-songwriter follows his instincts and keeps the detractors at bay on “Don’t Let Them In.”
“For me, last year was so nuts with the election and everything. It’s easy to get swept up in all of that. In some ways, it connects back to us,” said Trager about his latest indie-folk single.
“I was thinking about the single and the meaning behind it and staying true to your own beliefs and behaviors. It’s easy to get swept up in the media, and we have so much access to things. You can lose yourself and lose the things that matter to you.”
In response, Trager pledges to keep himself grounded and focused on “Don’t Let Them In.”
Backed by earnest acoustic guitar, cello, and Mellotron, he sings, “They will give you a thousand reasons / And you’ll be tempted to believe them / But all their conviction is just a fiction / Oh please, don’t let them in.”
“I had had enough distance from the song that I needed to hear the message,” said Trager, who recorded the single in 2021. “It’s not letting anything stop you from doing whatever you want to do.”
To learn more, I spoke with Trager ahead of a February 8 show at Trixie’s Bar in Hamtramck, Michigan.
“I was shocked and embarrassed about how many mistakes I made in listening to others,” said Moore, the band’s vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist.
“However, I was truly flabbergasted at how badly everybody else I was around at the time was. It helped immensely and allowed me to be a more empathetic human being.”
He also embraced that mindset while writing the title track for the Detroit prog-rock quintet’s latest five-track EP, Listen.
“I think writing music and lyrics is cathartic,” Moore said. “I’m happy to sneak in my self-expression as therapy with the music, and if people don’t pick up on the details, then I’m at peace with that. I have a Buddhist sensibility when it comes to the goals of making music.”
On the title track, Belling The Tiger attempts to help someone who’s on a destructive path before it’s too late.
Alongside Moore, bandmates Duane Harvey (drums, percussion), Andrew Harvey (bass), Ani Balalau (vocals, various instruments), and Nick Geiersbach (keys, trumpet, flugelhorn, various instruments) provide a melodic mix of serene and fearless instrumentation.
Moore sings, “Follow me if you can linear / Thoughts unforgiving and twisting / Speak to me if you can honestly / Unafraid of what we are.”
“The song is about a particular person—however—that person turns out to be a stereotype,” he said. “Therefore, it can have a universal application to others.”
I recently spoke to Belling The Tiger about its EP ahead of two Metro Detroit shows this week.
Brian Raleigh, left, performs with Garret Bielaniec during a Television City show at Detroit’s Lager House in 2018. Photo – Erick Buchholz
Brian Raleigh reminisces about a special moment in the not-too-distant past.
The Television City frontman reflects on a chance encounter with a woman in the U.P. and relishes that random connection on the band’s latest alt-country-rock single, “Lost in Arkansas.”
“It was a very innocent sort of meeting where we talked, we got to know each other, and we felt a very strong connection. That’s all there was,” said Raleigh, the Detroit band’s vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist.
Backed by nostalgic electric guitar, pedal steel, and drums, Raleigh sings, “And in the blink of an eye / She was gone as quick as she came / Back to the wind, the Great Lakes / The trees and the rain / And I don’t think I’m ever gonna be the same again / As I was before / But I can remember when.”
“It’s about being lost in that moment,” he said. “It was a few years ago [when I met her] … and we’ve kept in touch a little bit.”
Raleigh wrote the track shortly after that encounter and shared it with his Television City bandmates.
“I might have written the song the day after that occurred or not too long after. And I put it away, and I thought, ‘I don’t even know if this song is any good or not,’” he said.
“And then I brought it out when we were looking for songs to record this next batch, and [guitarist] Garret [Bielaniec] said, ‘That’s the one.’”
The Ottawa, Ontario blues singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist spotlights the honesty and vulnerability people share after dark on “We Bloom at Night.”
“For years, I had wanted to write a song around an idea that Eniid Goodman, a great Canadian songwriter and interpreter of Joni Mitchell’s music, had shared with me,” said Sturton about her new track, which will be included part of the upcoming Night Bell 12-inch vinyl single via J.M.I. Recordings.
“It was about how there are times in life when we can be wide open to who another person is, but that it can also be stressful if [that experience] is [later] followed by them pulling back.”
At the start of “We Bloom at Night,” Sturton sings, “I see the moon / And the moon sees me / I’m used to hiding / Comes so easily / But the moon’s gentle light / Keeps shining on me / Patient and kind / Shining on what I want to be.”
“[Eniid] shared that she had learned … there are cycles in nature of [flowers] opening and closing. When I had mentioned to [another] friend about how flowers open during the day and close at night, he said, ‘What about the evening primrose?’” Sturton said.
“And in that moment, I got the idea of how to express the song I had struggled with for years. It did kind of change my life and is one of my favorites.”
The track also celebrates Sturton’s love of the nighttime and the tranquility that comes with it.
“I am most definitely a night owl and always have been since I was a child,” she said. “I like how people open up when it gets dark. When I’m myself, I feel like I can hear my thoughts better when the town is sleeping.”
I recently spoke with Sturton about her background, time in Plumtree, current recordings, new song and upcoming 12-inch vinyl single, this week’s shows with Detroit folk singer-songwriter Mike Ward and future plans.
The Detroit indie-rock singer-songwriter shares that realization on her hopeful new single, “I Have Everything.”
“I think at first glance over and maybe with intention when I first wrote it, you can look at the song as definitely being inspired by loss. Maybe bigger than that … that sadness or loss you feel when things don’t really pan out the way you expect them or hope at the time,” said Pia-Allison Roa, aka pia the band.
“As everyone knows, life doesn’t always go as planned, and usually it goes in a way better than you could have imagined. That realization and affirmation that you have everything you need at this moment in time are what I hope people can reflect on to move forward and let go of what their expectations were.”
Backed by soft drums, thoughtful bass and determined electric guitar, pia the band sheds those past expectations and embraces the present as she sings, “I’m trying not to bum you all out / But every time I open my mouth / I convince myself believe / I have everything I need.”
“By the end of the song and after the huge instrumental, I repeat that phrase [‘I have everything I need’] again a couple of times, and to me, it’s a confirmation of ‘Yes, I actually do believe that I do have everything I need,’” Roa said.
“I find myself so many times being in situations with good friends, or being at the beach on a nice day, or even as silly as eating a good burger and being like, ‘Whoa, yup, I have everything I need right now.’”
Border Patrol’s new album, “The Worst Excuses,” poignantly and irreverently addresses a spectrum of inner hurdles and identifies novel ways to overcome them.
Border Patrol masterfully builds a lasting sonic bridge between Detroit and Windsor.
As musical architects, the American-Canadian “folk-everything” duo of Dave Toennies (guitar, vocals) and Cody Howard (banjo, vocals) creates a timeless infrastructure supported by candid lyrics, robust string instrumentation and impassioned vocals on The Worst Excuses.
Released last week, Border Patrol’s second, soul-stirring album spans eight raw tracks layered with shared stories of self-doubt and second guesses wrapped in daily struggles and victories of incremental growth, minor adjustments and hopeful moments. Each Worst Excuses track poignantly and irreverently addresses a spectrum of inner hurdles and identifies novel ways to overcome them.
“It started from my personal experience, and that’s the only way that I’ve managed to make real progress growing in recent years. I’m easily overwhelmed sometimes at the prospect of self-improvement and all the things that have to come with it,” said Toennies, who lives in Hamtramck.
“Because I tend to get real busy and involved in things and overwhelm myself, I try to focus on just the one little thing in front of me that I have to do, get that one done and then move on to the next. Once I started trying to scale that up and applying it to a much more broad growth thing, it’s been the only thing that’s really worked for me.”
Uncovering ‘The Worst Excuses’
With Toennies and Howard at the storytelling helm, Border Patrol invites listeners into a raw, recognizable head trip that crosses international waters and lands directly in the midst of relatable chaos. Their internal journey begins with “A Little Bit Better (Still Bad)” as a tight-knit fusion of folky acoustic guitar, banjo and drums quickly launches into an ongoing tale of feeling stuck personally and professionally.
Despite the track’s initial, dark mood, Toennies eloquently finds a small silver lining, “But there was nothing that could hurt me in that moment/And there was nothing for me in the life I knew/In that moment something unexpected happened/Out of nothing, something grew.” Occasionally, an optimistic, hopeful thought briefly wins over an anxious, weary mind on the toughest of days.
“I hope it’s a positive thing, and there are just a lot of running jokes that we perpetuate, too. It can be sort of depressing music, but I think that it’s depressing in the way that it’s trying to be frank and talk about things that we have a hard time talking about sometimes,” Toennies said.
“We’ve always tried to take these serious topics, and rather than having it sound super serious, maybe make it a little fun, bouncy and upbeat. I hope that it’s relatable and positive in spite of all the things that are wrong.”
The Stratton Setlist 