EARMILK is excited to unveil our New Music Friday [College Edition] playlist in partnership with Quadio—the college/post-grad creative network and app fostering an incredible community of young creatives from various colleges and cities around the world. Each week, the editorial team at EARMILK will carefully review fresh new tracks submitted through the Quadio network and pick out a handful of music from students and young independent artists that we feel are defining the sounds of tomorrow.
As each week passes and more and more new artists make their debuts, it's getting harder to bypass the influence of the late 90's and early 2000's on this latest generation. While some inspirations are overt, with emo, acoustic and pop sounds as their signatures, it's in the more nuanced nods to the early aughts that can also make an impactful first foray into the world as an artist. The artists in this week's Editors Picks have shown off that ability to take the decade they were born in truly to heart, while bringing their own personality and delivering it all through a truly 2021 lens.
Editor's Picks
Eph See's latest, entitled "The Pill," is a song where at first listen, its simplicities are forward, but with additional time and listening, hits hard as an incredible moment the style and substance of coming of age. In production style, it's reminiscent of the intros of songs from artists like Sum 41 or Blink 182, where a naïveté precedes a hard-hitting truth and rest of the song. "The Pill" lingers in that beginning phase, but it's a charade for some serious deep thinking, partnered with a straight 2021 beat and vocal style. Of course, its title could reference quite a few things, but we can understand its underlying truth as Eph See references, "I started changing before everyone else." "The Pill" explores growing up, learning to understand yourself, and how it all is entangled with wanting to be liked by others, and its message and delivery will linger.
Rella is a self-proclaimed "breakup songs connoisseur," according to her Instagram, and her lates track, "Maryland," is in tune. Calling on the female-fronted bands from the 90's like The Sundays, and early Taylor Swift, Rella has put a mid-Atlantic twist on an old favorite. "Maryland" is every bit nostalgic as it is triumphant, styled in a modern take on the uniquely early aughts blend of folk, rock, pop, mixed with a contemporary lift of self care and empowerment.
Jillian Rossi's vocal performance on her latest, "Fever Dream," starts out as advertised. A dreamy, piano-led song, it begins as what sounds like a ballad, another radio track, builds to a slap-you-in-your-face moment where, as the song builds, Rossi's voice becomes more prominent and her talent overtakes the mood. Another instance where we can hear the influence of early Taylor Swift and 2010's tracks from Lady Gaga or Sia, Rossi comes into her own by the end.
Are you a college student or young independent artist looking to be featured in our New Music Friday playlist? Join the Quadio college network HERE or follow them online via: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
