INsiders Guide: Clinton Kane, Wax on Water, The Velveteins, ABISHA, Bodyhorror, Softcult, Honey Davenport, J-Onyx, Fleur Electra, Hunter Blair Ambrose…

Vevo, the world’s leading music video network released the complete list for its highly-anticipated Vevo DSCVR “Artists to Watch” 2022 campaign. Beginning November 1, Vevo’s DSCVR ATW will showcase engaging, high-quality live performance video content from the class of 2022, with two unique performances from each artist, shot exclusively for Vevo. 

Born out of Vevo’s taste-maker series and brand DSCVR – “DSCVR Artists To Watch” is now in its 8th year and consists of 21 global artists whom Vevo has tipped to break through to the mainstream. With over 500 submissions, Vevo’s DSCVR ATW program is one of the most highly anticipated and competitive lists to appear on, as the artists and bands that make it receive critical exposure and promotion that help propel their careers. ATW artists and bands will be marketed and featured in Vevo’s expert music video programming via playlists and editorial features across Vevo’s network, including YouTube and connected TV platforms, such as Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, and Apple TV. Vevo has a long history of supporting and introducing emerging artists to new global audiences and its DSCVR ATW champions emerging artists through live performance content. Alumni include now-household names such as Billie Eilish, Pop Smoke, Sam Smith, EarthGang, Guaynaa, Lewis Capaldi, Arlo Parks, Maggie Rogers, James Bay, Jorja Smith, and more. 

Speaking to their Vevo DSCVR “Artists To Watch” live performance video for “I GUESS I’M IN LOVE,” that’s streaming everywhere as of today, Clinton Kane says, “I’m humbled and grateful to be chosen as a Vevo DSCVR Artist to Watch! Thank you to Vevo and thanks to the fans and everybody. It’s incredibly wild to be chosen for this legendary honor.”

Parul Chokshi, Vevo’s Senior Director of Talent, says, “I dare you to resist feeling when listening to Clinton Kane. Whether he is singing about obsessive love or gut wrenching regret, he pulls you in for a cathartic roller coaster with his raw, melodic voice and delivery. Clinton has a rare ability to unify music fans with his passionate emotional performances. No matter who you are, how you identify, or where you are from, everyone understands those intense, vulnerable moments that are inevitable in relationships. We’re delighted to name Clinton Kane as an Artist to Watch in 2022.” – Parul Chokshi, Senior Director, Talent Booking.” 

Vevo’s global in-house production teams worked closely with the artists and their teams to shoot all content in accordance with the CDC’s COVID-19 safety protocols. All content was shot in 2021. The Vevo DSCVR Artist to Watch 2022 campaign is sponsored by Ray-Ban Stories, built in partnership with Facebook.  

Camden, London, UK is the home of Alternative Rock band Wax on Water fronted by charismatic lead singer, songwriter and producer Maya Damaris and joined by new addition Steven Blessing on guitar. The band alchemically fuse together grunge, electronica, and industrial sounds with layers of strings, piano and intense guitars to produce a sound that is entirely and unequivocally their own. The band release their new EP “The Drip- Part 1” on 19^th November 2021. Full album “The Drip” lands in May 2022.

Maya Damaris, a classically trained pianist and singer, put together Wax on Water in 2012 because she “…wanted to create music that causes a reaction in people, in the same way that the grunge, rock and industrial bands that I grew up loving, did to me”. Guitarist Steven Blessing joined the band in 2019 and was previously with the rock band Estrangor as well as collaborating separately with a range of artists and bands. Together they bring an inspired range of influences from across the genres to take Wax on Water to the next level.

The band’s 2018 debut album “Procession” was an album of seven songs of admirable diversity evoking the raucous grit of Queens of The Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails, to the rootsy goodness of The Black Crowes and beyond, all infused with Damaris’ inherent dark and grungy flair. The album was critically acclaimed and secured a distribution deal with The Orchard/Sony Music for their own Record label, Howling Tempest Records.

Forthcoming album “The Drip”, due in May 2022, is a collection of sixteen songs that builds upon the strengths and raw ‘gutsiness’ of the first album and, with guitarist Blessing on board, elevates their sound with a higher energy. Drums for the album were played by LA drummer, Garren Orr (YolkLore, Tennis System) and the record was mixed at MooseCat Studios, LA and mastered by Will Borza at the Grammy Award Winning Howie Weinberg Mastering Studios, LA. 

 The new EP “The Drip – Part 1” is a collection of four very different tracks, all taken from the forthcoming album of the same name, along with an intriguing and atmospheric “Prologue” to theatrically set the scene. “Don’t Bore Us” is inspired by certain people who are hellbent on barking orders and making you do what they want. It is more of a ‘revenge’ track for Damaris who says: “… you think ‘does this person have so little in their lives that they derive pleasure from trying to break me?’ and the answer is ‘yes’ – some people really do thrive on that negative energy…so this is my ‘f** you’ to that situation and all those people!”  “Seventh Son” is about the dark descent of a relationship. As Damaris says, “Seventh Son is about how a relationship can turn from being something that makes you feel alive to making you feel less than…it’s about reclaiming yourself when you’re standing on the shadow side of love”, and “For the Love of Money” is an ambitious and intriguing reimagining of the O’Jays Philadelphia Soul classic.

Focus single for the EP is the radio track “The Sting In the Raw”:  a song which describes that ‘moment’ when you realise the relationship you have valued and nurtured in the hope of a lasting union, has actually started to crumble into dust and is, ultimately, doomed. Damaris says: “It’s lonelier being in a room with someone and there being unspoken tension, than it is to actually be alone. I always say that hope is a cruel mistress! She is so beguiling when in play and so crushingly disappointing when she is misplaced.”

Collectively, the songs on “The Drip – Part 1” EP demonstrate the wonderfully eclectic range of influences expertly mixed and brought to the table by Wax on Water.

Soaked in the bright psychedelia of the 1960’s and dipped in the indie rock explosion of the new millennium, The Velveteins are best described as a bridge between the two. Inspired after living out of a camper van on the beaches of Australia for a year, frontman Spencer Morphy returned to Canada and started the band with co-songwriter Addison Hiller in 2014. Later joined by Dean Kheroufi and Danger Sedmak, the foursome have since made a name for themselves for their incendiary live performances. 

 “Make It Through” is The Velveteins second single off their upcoming sophomore release. Recorded at producer Colin Stewarts studio in Victoria, Canada the track narrates a melancholy yet hopeful rumination about loss, representing a notably mellow departure from the band’s typical output.

Affected by the loss of a few close friends, the song embodies the natural process of trying to make sense of it; Morphy sings, “We didn’t make it but we’ll make it through.” Featuring a slow-paced beat, jangly guitars and an overall laid-back feel, “Make It Through” is a beautiful concoction of all the emotions felt during the grief and turmoil of losing important people.

 Garnering millions of streams for their music to date, The Velveteins have built an ever-growing, dedicated fan base across all corners of the globe. Their vigorous touring schedule has led to international festival appearances (SXSW, and The Great Escape) and opening slots for established acts including Wolf Parade, Hockey Dad and Chad Vangaalen.

ABISHA beckons us into the most vulnerable corners of her mind in her new single and music video “Numb”, premiered via Complex. Blending her silky croons with slow-burning production, the hypnotic track finds ABISHA ruminating on the toxicity of social media and hollow relationships that can take a mental toll.

“Numb” fences off what has been a tough period living under the physical and emotional pressures of the pandemic that have put our mental health to test. The stunning dark-toned visuals feature her through an intimate, close-up lens where the peaceful solitude of her surroundings highlight the private and lonely nature of her inner battle. “I wrote ‘Numb’ at a time where I felt exactly that. The pressure of social media alongside superficial friendships and dead-end relationships was really getting to me and I was feeling pretty low. I was also struggling with self-image and my identity, which has always been a battle for me; I wanted to include all of these things in a song so that anyone else who might feel the same way wouldn’t feel alone,” shares ABISHA. 

Bodyhorror is the pseudonym of Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist and producer, Sean Panacci. Having played in many bands in the Toronto music scene, Bodyhorror is the project where Panacci summons the highest reaching efforts of his creative output. Taking the role of writing, recording, producing, and engineering the project, Bodyhorror’s new mini-LP, EVA, will be determined to take the listener through the depths of the cosmos on a psychedelic and synth soaked journey. “Arrival” is the second single from the upcoming release, and exemplifies what the album has to offer.

Photo Credit: David Arn

, Canadian indie-rock duo Softcult released their new single and video for “Perfect Blue”. The track is the 4th single from their forthcoming EP “Year of the Snake”, and the follow-up to their previous EP release “Year of the Rat”, which has quickly propelled the duo into the spotlight, racking up over 1.25 million streams on Spotify since its release in April 2021.

Twin sisters Mercedes Arn-Horn (vocals/guitar) and Phoenix Arn-Horn (vocals/drums) have quickly
become the band inspiring a new Riot Grrrl movement for the digital age. PRO: feminism, social activism, creative freedom, self-empowerment, gender neutrality. ANTI: sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, patriarchy. On the introspective “Perfect Blue” Softcult balances the biting social commentary that dominated their recent releases “BWBB” and “House of Mirrors” with a heartfelt, melodic offering. Complemented by their powerful vocal harmonies, the track shows a depth to the duo’s songwriting that gradually reveals itself as the song progresses.

“We wrote ‘Perfect Blue’ about a time in our lives when we felt like nothing was in our control,” explains Mercedes. “In our previous project, we were signed to a label that butted heads with us creatively and wasn’t allowing us to express ourselves authentically. They weren’t interested in the music we were creating at the time, so we became unhealthily obsessed with trying to please them to release anything at all.”

Photos by Davide Laffe

With over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry, James Heath-Clark, a.k.a. Honey Davenport, has left an indelible mark on the New York City nightlife scene and beyond, touring the world as a singer, dancer, actor, drag superstar, and club DJ. They are a recording artist and vocal activist whose music speaks to the experiences of the oppressed, advocating for equality for all. Today they announce a new EP, LOVE IS GOD, out on January 14, 2022. Today they also share a new video for the title track, featuring Manila Luzon and Electropoint.

LOVE IS GOD is a collection of songs about love and overcoming dark times with an overarching story of judicial and sexual liberation. The five tracks draw upon a myriad of inspiration — from pop, disco, house and reggaeton — while spreading a message of social justice and change. It features the iconic house DJ / nightlife legend Kevin Aviance (of the House of Aviance) as well as drag superstars Manila Luzon, Tammie Brown, LaLa Ri and Jackie Cox.

Of the EP, Honey shares: “Mama Ru always reminds everyone to say love, so I choose to sing about it. I believe that love is the driving force of human existence. All of our emotions and our actions derive from our desire to feel and experience “love.” If there’s one thing I want my listeners to take away from the LOVE IS GOD EP, it’s that love has infinite possibilities. I created some bops with my dearest drag sisters that really share a message of love and hope overcoming dark times.”

LOVE IS GOD: THE VISUAL ALBUM, a short musical film directed by Honey Davenport featuring a story woven together by all the songs on the EP, will be released in 2022.

Labelled as an artist to watch in 2022, South London’s rising emcee J-Onyx has recently unveiled the visuals to her latest fired-up single named, ‘Hood Stuff’. Underpinned with a skittering and bass-heavy drill production, the promising force continues to prove why she’s an artist to be reckoned with as she showcases her local ends. Encapsulating a raw and gritty side of London, J-Onyx is joined alongside her friends as they begin to navigate us around her local area; paired with a set of dancers, face paint, and an eerie feel, her unapologetic and hard-hitting approach sits centre stage in this wheel-up worthy banger!

neillfrazer@hotmail.com