With her new single “December”, VILLFORTH releases a song to end the year by telling a story that has made her who she is today. The singer grew up without a father and was never able to get to know him personally, except for a letter correspondence. He died shortly before her 16th birthday in December. Since then, the festive month has been holding a very melancholic meaning for her. But no matter how sad the story may seem, with lyrics like "I'm still hurting but I'm not broken", VILLFORTH wants to give hope to herself and others with a similar story.

December

It'll Be Lovely

Edge Of A Feeling

Gina

You're an Animal

I'm a Dinosaur

The River

Written and performed by Daniel Trakell
Produced, recorded and mixed by Josh Barber
Guitars, clarinet and Mellotron by Daniel Trakell
Percussion, bass, keys and vibraphone by Josh Barber
Pedal steel by Matt Dixon
Mastered by Shawn Hatfield @ Audible Oddities, California
Released by Dumont Dumont 

Lyrics
One day we’ll leave and we’ll never come back 
Ditch the roads, cross the rivers and cover our tracks
Find places on maps few have seen
As far from the city anyone has been
Take on despair whatever the cost
Find a beautiful, beautiful place to get lost
And if we take our time, reclaiming all we find

You’ll see everything change
To be exactly as you imagined it to
Into the blue

Far from the sins of mankind
Beyond distractions, all we left behind
Let the stars in the sky light the way
Across landscapes the sun breaks
The first light of day
And if we take our time, reclaiming all we find

You’ll see everything change
To be exactly as you imagined it to
Into the blue
You’ll see everything change
To be exactly as you imagined it to
Into the blue

Into The Blue

“A national musical treasure" The Guardian

Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings in November 2023.

Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks. 

Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London.

“Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest (IS THAT OK?) record to date.

Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS.

Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards.

Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone.“I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”.

The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore.

DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”.

Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things".

“…astonishing tenderness in its simplicity … brilliant lyrics.” Q Magazine
“…the tunes are instant and uplifting, but the real wallop comes from the lyrical imagery.” The Guardian
“…barbed modern life chronicles.” UNCUT

Drops

Living In The Local Void

Steven Adams - Living In The Local Void

No Doubt

Thawed

Words

I Only Have Eyes For You

A Melbourne, Australia based indie/folk-rock artist with 70s piano pop influences, Daniel Trakell's double-tracked vocals and songwriting style have drawn comparisons to artists like Elliott Smith and The Beatles. After winning a Triple J Unearthed competition in 2016 to make a music video Daniel released his debut EP the following year, with the video for the title track "Paradise" being debuted in October 2017 by Rolling Stone Australia, who noted the track's "haunting, melancholic isolation and just-off-centre obscurity."

Into The Blue

Daniel Trakell

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