TIRED is depressed Dad Rock from the home of bin strikes and heavy metal, Birmingham, UK. They are TIRED because everyone is tired.
Their debut album, Tales of Middle Age, is the product of a midlife crisis and a creative itch that was left un-scratched for far too long. Taking influence from post-punk, stoner rock, indie, metal and post-rock, the album explores and mocks the mundanity of life.
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The solo project of Universe 25 channels decades of underground experience into a cutting-edge fusion of post-punk, industrial, and dark electronics—with sharp political commentary at its core. The debut self-titled album is out on the 1st of October – we spoke Jamie Godman, the driving force behind Universe 25 about the project and his personal journey, and how modern technology and techniques have helped him to achieve his vision.
“After being in the bands Door Marked Summer and later Nine 9, I stepped away from music around 2000. There were a number of reasons for that, including health issues, frustration with the realities of being in bands, and having reached the point twice where opportunities were being limited not by the music itself but by the practical difficulties of working with others and navigating the industry (The Gate Keepers).
For more than twenty years, I did very little musically. I had effectively accepted that chapter of my life was over.
The reason I returned was not to start a new project. It was simply to archive and release the old Door Marked Summer and Nine 9 material. I wanted to finally put the music out into the world, draw a line under it, and give it a proper send-off.
In the process of doing that, I discovered how much music production had changed. I began learning about modern DAWs, stem separation, remastering, online distribution, playlist pitching, digital artwork, and many of the new tools available to independent artists.
At first, I spent a significant amount of money trying to outsource parts of the process. I used Fiverr for artwork and video production, spent money on promotion, and experimented with different services. Some of that worked, some of it didn’t, and some of it was money effectively wasted. In total, I spent hundreds of pounds before I had even begun creating new music.
While remastering the old recordings, I started experimenting with recording new material. One song became another, and eventually that led to Echo Chambers and the beginning of Universe 25.
The important thing is that Universe 25 only exists because I was able to learn and use these modern tools myself. As a solo artist with ongoing health and mobility issues, the ability to work from home, record when I am able, learn new skills, and create without depending on multiple other people has been invaluable.
Everything I release is written, arranged, performed, recorded, edited, mixed, and assembled by me. The technology has enabled me to do that independently and at a cost that is realistic for someone in my situation.
If I had been required to hire musicians, vocalists, artists, studios, engineers, and designers for every step of the process, Universe 25 would almost certainly not exist in its current form. At best, releases would have been far less frequent. At worst, the project would never have happened at all.
For me, these tools are not a replacement for creativity. They are what made it possible for me to return to being creative after more than twenty years away from music.
Universe 25 takes the famous mouse experiment as an analogy for the post-war West, and the sense that we may have been living through an experiment of our own. The songs look at how our environment shapes the way we think, behave and relate to one another. They explore things like online tribalism, parasocial relationships, surveillance, free speech, identity, consumerism, AI and declining birth rates, and what those changes reveal about human psychology.”
Universe 25 is out now!
If you’re releasing music at any level, you’re probably aware that Spotify and other streaming services and distributors regularly remove music (and don’t pay artists) due to ‘fake streaming’. Sometimes this is very cut and dry, and sometimes you’ll see artists complaining that the removal was unjust, and they’ve done nothing wrong. We thought we’d highlight all the different ways this can happen, and what to do (and not do) to ensure you ‘stay clean’, so your music isn’t removed.
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New album from CDNQB, pax humana is a collection of songs of uncompromising intensity. Built in the basement, with a laptop, a bass guitar and a big mouth. This music is made for cathartic release—for the artist and the listener. pax humana contains the musings of a hopeful misanthrope. Have you survived something? Then you will find a friendly voice here.
CDNQB is the solo project of legendary Canadian bassist Mike Wall, formerly of Bif Naked, who has shared stages with QOTSA, Nickleback, Blink 182 , Sum41, Everclear and others.
A blend of heavy rock, grunge, industrial – call it whatever you like, there’s an incredible raw energy and power to this digitally remasterd album, released on UK Alt Rock label Avondale Records, that smacks you in the face and leaves you wanting more. Listen now!
Smoke ’Em If You Got ’Em, the new album from Swedish alt-rockers Mollys Habit, was written over the course of 5 years, because the band really wanted to get it right! It’s a collection of powerful songs dealing with age-old themes such as love and relationships, done in a fresh way.
In a world where every pop song sounds the same, Mollys Habit’s originality and mixing of different music genres is a refreshing break from the norm. They don’t care if it’s rock, pop, punk, emo, metal, or grunge – they make it their own, and make it loud & exciting.
Uniquely, all 4 members of the band – drummer Anton Lindgren, bassist Jonas Eriksson, guitarist Rickard Tapper, and vocalist/guitarist Roger Eriksson – all contribute to writing the bands’ songs. The writing process of Mollys Habit is that someone brings a riff, a fill or a more or less developed idea for a song, then they work with it in the rehearsal-room. The magic really happens when all four members of the band has put their touch on to a track.
Smoke ’Em was initially chopped up into a 3 part demo but has now been released as an full-length re-mastered album, released on UK alternative rock music label Avondale Records, who signed Mollys Habit in August 2025.
The special Mollys Habit touch can be found throughout the whole album, it’s loud, powerful, varied, and absolutely guaranteed to entertain and have you wanting more – for now, listen on repeat, more new music from Mollys Habit is coming soon!
Spotify is the biggest streaming service. We all know this, and almost all musicians (and labels for that matter) focus all of their promotion energy and funds on Spotify. But does this actually make sense? We’ve run the numbers, and have a different story to tell….
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Frantic! is a project like most music from Pickap.art, born out of frustration with the world and what’s going on in it. A quickly put together release of raw punk energy and frenzy, with short, to the point songs.
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So, you want to record music? What do you need? This article details what we consider to be the minimum requirements, the things you really need, to record professional standard music at home. Many people we work with record on setups like this, and send the music to us for mastering/distribution remotely – home setups can be so good now, for relatively small amounts of money, that expensive studio time isn’t always required. As we mention a lot, especially for new/independent artists, anything that saves money is a very good thing.
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