Liz B & More Artists You Need On Your Fall Playlist
Songs to start with: “Keep On Walking”; If you’re looking for some classic bedroom pop, you’ll find it with this song. Liz’s fuzzy vocals matched with moody synths create the perfect storm for a late-night-laying-on-your-bed music sesh. Keep a lookout -- we’ve got a feeling she’ll be on the Spotify Lorem playlist pretty soon.
Dream collaboration: Gus Dapperton
Tell us a secret about your music: “I play everything you hear in my songs: the keyboard bass, the guitar, and keys. I do all of the production, I sing, and I write the lyrics. I do everything except sometimes I have to use drum loops because I was supposed to learn how to play drums but I don’t have the equipment to actually record it. Pretty much, I write the whole song.”
Fun fact: “I used to want to go to Berkely to be a composer. I had a really big interest in composing like Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer, but I don’t have the qualifications for that. So, now I want to go to college for music production! Hopefully, not in Texas. I want to move to the Northwest since that’s where my family is from.”
What’s your biggest inspiration for your music?: “The inspiration is mostly just high school and my experiences with the people around me.”
Listen if you like: Experimental R&B, energetic synth-pop, The Garden, and funky car jams
Depending on who you ask, Puzzle can either be classified as underground or in the “of course I’ve heard of them, their song is on TikTok” category. Either way, I added about fifteen of his songs to my fall playlist after finally realizing that he made the cool, buzzy-sounding song I saw all of the trendy indie girls use on TikTok. A solo project stemming from the more-popular duo The Garden, Puzzle makes the kind of music that puts a little funky pep in your step when you’re walking down the street. My favorites so far are “New Harmony”, “World”, “All The Best” and, of course, “I Saw An Angel.”
Michele Leigh - Spotify | Instagram | TikTok
Listen if you like: Phoebe Bridgers, emotional bedroom pop, Girl In Red, and “crying in your car” music
If you could be any song in the world, what would you be?: “I would be “toothpaste kisses” by The Maccabees. The song is all about healing from your own experiences with the spark of a new love. I find love in everything, and it’s a huge part of my healing process. The song makes me want to hug everyone I run into.”
Fun fact: “My favorite color is light purple, I'm a Scorpio and I like to collect crystals.”
How would you describe your creative process?: “Heavily influenced by events that happen in my life, I translate my experiences and document it through music. I often sit in my room in front of my computer, writing down my feelings. This then turns into a creative process when I turn my heartfelt words into the songs you hear on my streaming platforms today.”
If you had to describe your debut EP in three words, what would they be? “Heartfelt, experimental, and retrospective.”
Dianna Lopez - Spotify | Instagram
Listen if you like: Willow Smith, dreamy vocals, meditative ballads, and Orion Sun
Dianna is my go-to artist for homework background music, steamy hour-long showers and those
“staring at myself in the mirror, analyzing my facial features until I don’t feel like a real person” kind of nights. She’s the closest artist I’ve found that can replicate the angelic, tempering voice of Willow Smith. If you’re looking for a break from the typical fast-paced, muddled indie music, this is it. While “Blu” is my favorite by far, some other must-listens are “Euphoria”, “Date With The Moon” and “So I Don’t Feel Useless”.
Ethan Bortnick - Spotify | Instagram | TikTok
Listen if you like: Dark indie-pop, Omar Apollo, piano solos, and Billie Eilish
Ethan started out as a piano prodigy, earning a title in the Guinness Book of World Records and raising over $50,000,000 for charity through concerts. He has appeared on “The Tonight Show”, “Good Morning America” and even “Oprah”. But, as he’s grown older, he has moved away from focusing on the piano and has become his own artist. In his debut EP “Harmonic Minor” Ethan lays out emotional ballads and intense piano-driven car jams, perfect for anyone looking to stray away from typical guitar-led indie.
Weirdest moment of being a child celebrity?: “The first time I met Justin Beiber was at the second recording of ‘We Are The World.’ We were the two youngest people there, so we were allowed to go into the studio with our parents. I saw Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Adam Levine and even Kanye. Me and my dad and Justin and his mom were on the same couch and the whole time he was harassing his mom and basically being horrible towards her. Telling her to ‘F*** off’ and stuff like that… I was nine or ten at the time so I had no idea what was going on.”
Biggest inspiration for becoming your own artist?: “Kendrick Lamar. When I was 14 or 15 I listened to “To Pimp A Butterfly” for the first time, which is kind of his magnum opus. That was the moment where I was like, ‘I want to do something like that.’ It kind of sparked this drive to be the artist I was always supposed to be.
Songs to start with: “Closure”, “Sink And Die” and “5 am”
This collaborated piece was written by Francesca Pavluk and Nina Zajac