Captured at 2016 BMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music Honors
Last night the Americana Music Association held its coveted awards ceremony with the majority of wins going to BMI songwriters. You can watch this year’s show on PBS, which is set to broadcast ACL Presents: The 20th Annual Americana Honors, a special episode of Austin City Limits featuring performance highlights on… Read more...
Summer’s coming to a close, but let’s keep those vibes going with the soundtrack of a new season. In this Fall 2021 edition of the BMI Indie Spotlight, we’re featuring nine exciting acts. You’ll experience the emo-pop quirk of brakence, the vocal talent of Zella Day, the modern classic vibe of… Read more...
It’s not hard to tell that brakence, the alt/emo pop project of 18-year-old Randy Findell, is fascinated by words. The multitalented Columbus, OH native has released uniquely titled projects with names like hypnagogia (“a state halfway between being asleep and being awake”) and bhavana (“spiritual cultivation”), and even his own moniker… Read more...
Zella Day is a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter who hails from the remote town of Pinetop, AZ. Raised by a bohemian family from Long Beach, CA and Mexico, Day immediately gravitated towards music as a child, covering Bob Dylan at age nine, performing in her grandmother’s coffee house, and recording her first… Read more...
Lady Blackbird didn’t mean to soundtrack a revolution, but last spring, that’s exactly what she did. On May 27th, 2020, Los Angeles-based singer Marley Munroe released her debut single, “Blackbird,” a cover of the Nina Simone track from which she created her stage name. By her early teens, Lady Blackbird was… Read more...
KALI is a 16-year-old singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who began writing and recording glistening, catchy indie rock songs in the bedroom of her Santa Monica family home. Her parents acknowledged her musical inclinations early and put her in piano lessons at age four, a move that fostered beyond-her-years wisdom rarely seen… Read more...
Haiva Ru is a Nashville-meets-Santa Barbara indie rocker who released her first single, “Swim,” last summer, and since then, her career has taken off. Her celestial vocals and infectious melodies are at the center of her dynamic production, and her work has been praised by American Songwriter and featured in the… Read more...
CARR is the lead singer of her own band. Her new EP, I’m Just Bored (due out in October), is less bedroom pop than effervescent rock, and channels the emotional hangover of drinking whiskey backstage after a show and realizing you can do so much better than the guy you’re there… Read more...
With a name so nice, you gotta say it twice! Born and raised in New Jersey, Tia Tia made her way to the west coast with a splash. Since moving to LA in 2019, she has penned multiple hits, co-writing “Off My Face” from Justin Bieber’s platinum-selling Justice album and Ava… Read more...
The Warning is a three-piece band made up of sisters—Dany (guitar, lead vocals), Pau (drums, vocals, piano), and Ale (bass, piano, backing vocals)—from Monterrey, Mexico. The trio infuse rock music with a much-needed shot of adrenaline via head-spinning riffs, unpredictable rhythms, stadium-size beats, and skyscraping vocals. After exploding online with one… Read more...
