I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on the east side of town, where the railroads wind and the neighborhoods are sleepier than their western counterparts.  When I was a kid, I remember riding with my grandfather in his 1980 Ford F-150 in the dead heat of summer, listening to washed up country singers moan about heartbreak and hangovers while the cracked vinyl seats pinched the backs of my legs. As the scent of dipped Skoal snuff hung in the air like smoke from an ashtray, I remember watching my grandfather sing along, hitting each nuance like he wrote the song himself.  

While he sang, I remember seeing these lines around his eyes and mouth that I hadn't seen before, as if some bridled jubilant rage took over and breathed life into an old memory, if just for a minute.  I think that's one of my first memories of seeing what songs are capable of.  And even though it's a cat-and-mouse game, it's what I've been chasing after ever since.

Having met through the Three of a Perfect Pair Music Camp in 2011, bassists Julie Slick and Marco Machera started collaborating in April 2014 to play a short run of shows in Tuscany, after Julie's European tour with The Crimson ProjeKCt. Very spontaneously, some brand-new songs were written during a couple of days rehearsals and played to very appreciative Italian audiences. The impromptu ‘bass duets’ ended up being so satisfying and well-received that Julie and Marco eventually decided to write more material together and record an album. Nearly one month later, “Fourth Dementia” was completed. It's not quite what one would expect from a couple of traditionally low end instruments; the recording reinvents the role of solo electric bass and brilliantly displays the songwriting abilities of the duo; it's a captivating combination of loop music, ambient soundscapes and interlocking bass patterns, always melodic yet aggressive and edgy at times. 

The bass guitar has a prominent role throughout the record, however more tracking was provided by acclaimed drummers Eric Slick and Pat Mastelotto, and violinist extraordinaire Sarah Anderson.

"Fourth Dementia" was promoted with a short tour of the east coast of the USA in January 2015, with concerts in Washington DC, Baltimore, New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York City. Julie and Marco were joined on stage by special guests Pat Mastelotto on drums (King Crimson, Mr. Mister, XTC, David Sylvian) and Philadelphia-based guitarist Tim Motzer (Ursula Rocker, David Sylvian, Secret Rhythms). 

At the same time, the duo completed the recording and production of their second effort, "Le Fil Rouge", also with the help of their fan base, contributing to a fundraiser on Kickstarter. Machera says: "I feel this record marks a real leap forward for us. I still love Fourth Dementia and its spontaneity, but I'd say that Le Fil Rouge sounds a lot more organic, diverse and sophisticated." The album undoubtedly adds more layers to the sound palette of the duo: most of the songs were built around heavier riffs, with a strong emphasis on groove and occasional hints at dub bass lines, jungle and trip hop rhythms. "We also wanted to have more vocals this time", says Machera, who sings on "Mirror Writing" and "Die in Dust". 

Van Darien should've felt elated. She'd just released Levee, a debut album filled with southern soundscapes and moody, melodic songs written alongside partners like Maren Morris. Championed by Rolling Stone for "[mixing] Americana atmospherics with overdriven guitar and throaty hooks fit for pop royalty," Levee was her big break, spreading her music far beyond her adopted home of East Nashville. 

Even so, her world was in upheaval. Back in Weatherford, Texas, where Van had grown up listening to albums by Fleetwood Mac, the Highwaymen, and alt-country pioneer Billy Falcon, her parents had fallen on hard times. At home in Tennessee, her romantic relationship of nine years was crumbling. And everywhere she looked, the world around her seemed to struggle beneath the weight of a pandemic that had left permanent scars in its wake. 

"Everything seemed to be spinning out of control," she remembers. "With all that uncertainty around me, I wanted something that would make me feel better. The only way I could control what was going on was by creating my own world… and that world was bummertown."

Split halfway between autobiography and surrealistic fiction, bummertown unfolds like the soundtrack to some long-lost movie. It's a cinematic, cathartic album about leaving behind the things that bring us down — dead-end towns, uncontrollable lovers, haunted memories, lingering anxieties — and putting the pedal to the metal, speeding toward a bigger, brighter horizon instead. With its sweeping synthesizers, spacey guitars, and larger-than-life choruses, it's also a reframing of Van Darien's sound, nodding to her roots in Texas and Tennessee even as it builds its own unique musical geography. Call it astral American rock & roll, maybe. Call it alternative Americana. Call it synth-driven singer/songwriter. Van Darien just calls it her own. 

"I'm a big fan of high contrast," she says. "I've always loved when a rocker sings a ballad. Something about hearing Tom Waits' rough voice reciting a love poem over a dreamy clarinet creates some type of balance in the world. It soothes me. I think it's a lovely complement."

A complement, indeed. bummertown mixes the organic with the otherworldly, backlighting the sharp edge of of Van Darien's songwriting with the rounded glow of drum machines, vintage keyboards, billowing reverb, and experimental guitar tones. To create that uplifting sound, she teamed up with collaborators like songwriter Daniel Markham — another Texas native with an appreciation for '90s alternative music — and producer Owen Beverly. "Daniel came to Nashville for four nights," she says of the album's co-writing sessions. "In those four days, we wrote nine songs and made demos for all of them." bummertown's opening title track, a sweeping, Springsteen-sized anthem about escaping the clutches of something you've outgrown. Punctuated by booming snare hits that echo out into the ether, "bummertown" serves as a harbinger of what's to come, kicking off an album whose track list also includes standouts like "end of the world" (a raw, riff-driven rocker, driven forward by fuzz guitar), "surf the stars" (an astral, atmospheric song partially inspired by Peter Pan), and the glittering "pyromania" (a bittersweet send-off to a relationship that burned far too brightly to last). 

The result, she says, is "a 33-minute journey through your imagination," stocked with songs that find beauty in struggle, color in austerity, and uplift in the challenges that pull us back to earth. "It's a fantasy rooted in reality," Van adds. "In some ways, the songs are just sensationalized versions of the real thing. I put the high saturation on lighter songs like 'dream' and 'starship exodus,' and I put the high contrast on songs like 'longshadow,' 'haunted house,' and 'end of the world.'"

These days, Van Darien has earned the right to feel elated. Reintroducing herself as a songwriter unbound by genre or geography, she creates her own universe with bummertown, an album that swoons, stirs, and swaggers in equal measure.

Boston-based Fiddler, Tunestress, and explorer of New Acoustic music

Grammy Winning Performer/Artist/Songwriter (Jon Carroll & BraveSoul, Starland Vocal Band, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Peter Wolf etc.) 20+ time WAMA (Washington Are Music Association)winner. Writer of songs for Linda Ronstadt, etc. JonCarroll.org

Over the last decade, Seth Walker has become recognized as one of the most revered modern Americana artists in the United States; a three dimensional talent who combines a gift for melody and lyric alongside a rich, Gospel-drenched, Southern-inflected voice with a true blue knack for getting around on the guitar. All Music states, "Walker is deft and elegant, weaving together sounds and stories in a way that has a quiet, lasting impact,” while Country Standard Time declares: “If you subscribe to the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth Walker –with his blend of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, and a dash country—just might be your poster boy.”

Currently residing in Asheville, North Carolina, after stints living in Austin, Nashville, and New Orleans, Walker has used those experiences wisely, soaking up the sounds and absorbing the musical lineage of these varied and vibrant places. With a bluesman’s respect for roots and tradition, coupled with an appreciation for—and successful melding of—contemporary songwriting, Seth sublimely incorporates a range of styles with warmth and grace. 

With the release of his memoir 'Your Van Is On Fire’ in February 2021, Seth is also now a published author. This book is a riotous and charming melange of a touring musician’s meandering life. Part memoir, part meditation, part art gallery, it sheds light on the ins, outs and what-have-yous of life inside the mind and van of an artist. The collection includes short essays, poems, and paintings capturing Walker’s early years growing up in a musical family on a Quaker commune, to his discovery of the blues guitar of T-Bone Walker, and his coming of age as an artist. The book centers on his life making music in the southern love triangle of Austin, Nashville, and New Orleans, and includes some hilarious, contemplative, and wild tales from the driver’s seat of the van and other random locales.

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