As far back as Seattle’s Eleni Govetas can remember there’s been Balkan music in her life. By seven years old, she knew the heat of a Greek summer well, winding through tobacco fields on dirt roads in the backseat...
Until three years ago, singer-songwriter Caitlin Sherman’s musical career in Seattle was always attached to one romantic partner or another. For seven years, she was married to local Seattle guitarist Jason Goesl, and for nine years the two performed...
In Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, there’s a beloved diner called Hattie’s Hat—a dim wonderland of emerald vinyl booths, thrift store treasures, and, backlit against the large oak bar, dozens of gleaming bottles of liquor. A dive bar with highway-diner charm,...
On the title track of her new album, What’s This Death, Amanda Winterhalter sings, “You don’t talk to death, you listen close.” It’s the perfect set-up for the powerhouse 7-track record, which leans in to the stories we tell...
In 1959, in the midst of an American craze for bossa nova, Brazilian director Marcel Camus made his stunning film Black Orpheus, an adaptation of the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice set in the mid-century favelas of Rio...
In 2013, Seattle musician Katie Kuffel broke out as a fierce-yet-tender songwriter, with artful piano skills and a husky, blues-imbued voice. She’s also made a name for herself as a community builder, organizing the Fremont Abbey Sessions in 2016—a...
The art of listening to an album—front to back—is in some ways, a lost one. At least, this is what Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy believed when she founded Classic Album Sundays, a worldwide podcast and website made specifically for album...
To Moon Baillie, an immigrant from Buenos Aires and the lead singer and songwriter of Seattle-band PAMPA, to be an expat is to “look at yourself, where you come from, understand it, digest it, and express it” in order...
When Dori Freeman broke out in 2016, it felt as if the whole world was hanging on her heart-wrenching voice and vulnerable storytelling. Three years and three albums later, Freeman’s work still has that power, and yet she’s replaced...
As much as the Seattle sound is about notions of counterculture and nonconformity, the ever-present majesty of the area’s natural surroundings is embedded within it as well, offering a sense of cohesion among what is otherwise a city of...
SassyBlack, a.k.a. Catherine Harris-White, has spent years making lunar-inflected R&B and sending Seattle audiences on a funky galactic journey—both as a member several Seattle-based groups, like rap duo THEESatisfaction, and now as a formidably innovative and prolific solo artist....
On “Getting My Own Place,” a new song from Seattle band Golden Idols’ Uneasy EP, lead singer Patrick Broz croons, “I need some space, and you do too/We need some time to work this whole mess through/Couples counseling or...
I’m somewhat of a veteran outdoor music festivals—growing up in Seattle, my hippy musician parents would tote me around to local festivals like Folklife and Bumbershoot, and several summer music camps throughout the west coast. By ten years-old, I...
Seattle-based singer, songwriter, and drummer Heather Thomas has held it down on the kit since she was a kid in Puyallup, WA, playing in her church youth group band and learning percussion parts from her dad. Steadily, through writing...
Like a child’s pirouette, the new single from songwriter Lizzie Weber, “When You Look At Me,” spins gentle and dreamlike. Inspired by the early days of her relationship with her now-husband, “When You Look at Me,” is sung with...
Seattle’s Nauticult— equal parts industrial hip-hop and thrashing noise punk—was born in a moment of raw inspiration. For years, the members had known each other and even considered rapping over beats together, but they didn’t actually pull the trigger...
In Seattle, bands are known to achieve success in unconventional ways. Unlike bands in popular music towns like L.A. and Nashville, Seattle musicians are stubborn about forging their own way in order to maintain creative control, playing music that’s...
With her teased bouffant, vintage A-line dresses, red lipstick, and coy, lilting voice, musician Celene “Leeni” Ramadan, who releases music as Prom Queen and as Leeni, stands out as one of Seattle’s most unique exports. Though she currently lives...
Cosmic glitter. That’s how singer Aubrey Bramble describes Golden Gardens, the band she co-founded with Gregg Neville in 2012. She’s dead on, of course. Their last album, 2016’s Reign, is one ethereal, melancholic starburst after another. Likewise, the listening experience...
Seattle has a vibrant community for free improvisation, and guitarist Simon Henneman is a veteran member. Since the early 2000s, Henneman has been playing at Cafe Racer, a local hang known for its weekly free Racer Sessions jam, and...
Along with rock, punk, jazz and a vibrant hip hop scene, Seattle has musicians who thrive in the in-between – who have a knack for suspending themselves between styles and bring in multiple influences, highlighting Seattle’s quirkiness and creativity....
Songwriter, guitarist, and singer Jeff Tapia is a true Seattle artist. As an honest, quirky lyricist and melody-focused songwriter, Tapia carries on the traditions of true Seattle D.I.Y. culture. Along with their staunch support of other communities in the...
Half-Inuk, half-Mohawk indie pop songwriter Beatrice Deer hails from Quaqtaq, a small village in Northern Arctic Quebec that’s only accessible by plane. There, she planted the seeds of what she would become—a television director, clothing-maker, mental health advocate, a...
Brother and sister rock ‘n’ roll duo The Black Tones are all about rewriting Seattle rock history, and playing their asses off in the process. Their latest LP, Cobain and Cornbread, draws on the Seattle music and cultural aesthetic...
