Teddi Gold was six years old when her biological father came out. Little changed within the very modern family dynamic, but folks in the community began to see him differently. “All of a sudden, some parents would not let...
Los Angeles-based nondenominational megachurch Mosaic has a storied history in how it handles LGBTQ+ issues. Many queer individuals have professed an inviting and warm environment ─ but for singer-songwriter Sarah Hollins, and countless others, the experience was downright toxic....
Country’s musical threads have long been tattered, torn, and intertwined. The vastness of the genre ─ from bluesy front porch pickin’ to the pristine pop-country of Patsy Cline and Eddy Arnold to today’s hip-hop filtered stride ─ relies heavily...
Jessie Hyde had no clue how cathartic making her first EP would be. With a background in modeling, tech, and entrepreneurship (as the founder of Glucose Goddess), songwriting revealed itself after an especially brutal breakup. She knew she...
Joanie Leeds has proven to be a versatile singer-songwriter. Whether penning personal songs, educational albums centering around Judaism, or fun sing-alongs for kids, she always shines a spotlight on social issues. Her new album, All the Ladies, appeals to...
Lenii likes to drink tea (Barry’s Tea to be exact). While in quarantine with two friends, musicians Ryan O’Shaughnessy and Baby Bill, the trio easily down 12 or 13 cups of a day ─ apiece. Having grown up in...
“I’m terrified,” whispers Emma Taylor. Her muted, somber admission opens her brand new song, “Made Your Bed,” a piano-based track, premiering today on Audiofemme. Its softness is deceiving, as the Los Angeles singer-songwriter wrestles with her demons and a...
Life is about change, and it’s often as abrupt and erratic as the seasons themselves. Whether it’s breaking the county lines for a new life, or a breakup you could not have anticipated would hurt so much, transitions can...
Nikki Vianna will always speak her truth. Her new song “One by One,” a soul-baring, genre-bending confessional, asserts both strength and vulnerability. “One by one, I show you how / I used to break the others down,” she snaps...
Heartbreak can cast your heart in stone and send you careening through dark depression and self-reflection. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, lo-fi pop band Cheap Kisses ─ composed of musicians Aubrey Kay and producer Justin Black ─ observe a former...
You have to let Charles Fauna’s Yonder wash over you. It’s the kind of record that soothes an anxiety-ridden mind. His lush, effervescent soundscape ─ extracted from such influences as Kid Cudi, St. Vincent, David Bowie, and Joe Goddard...
Starting from scratch was a major risk, but she was willing to take it. Formerly known as Madelin, Brooklyn’s queer-pop goddess reemerges this year as That Brunette, a purposely nondescript moniker, the vagueness part of her mystique. Even as...
Sarah Peacock confronts past traumas with razor sharpness. With her new song “The Cool Kids,” she mines a childhood of bullying as a way to finally heal and to also offer compassion, understanding, and a shoulder to cry on....
Lauren Ruth Ward spits fire. She always has. Her vocal lashes are cut from a Janis Joplin cloth, and her configurations are nearly as gutsy, raw, and unruly. Ward’s second album, Vol. II, is a real soul-shocker of a...
There is ripe aggression embedded in Soleima’s work ─ and she likes it that way. “Yeah, are roses red and the violets blue? / So what the fuck did you think that you could do?” she sings on the...
Jane Lui, known professionally as Surrija, was exhausted. Bearing the weight of both personal and industry turmoil, she stepped away from songwriting for a number of years. She had written and released three full-length albums under her given name...
Julian Daniel soaks in the e-boy aesthetic. Perusing his Instagram – culled images of internet fantasy, bubblegum pink hair, and over-exposed filters – you quickly learn that it’s more than a passing fad. Daniel is as authentic as they...
TW: The following contains the author’s recollection of childhood sexual assault. I remember the day only in fragments – like my head is broken. The sweet spring air rustled my short blonde locks, and white-hot sun peeked through the...
Calling from a six-week writer’s residency in the small mountain town of Banff in Alberta, Canada, Lindsay Kay is feeling a creative high these days – while also enjoying a much-needed recharge. “This place is really fantastic. They literally...
B movie sci-fi and horror flicks are special kinds of charmers. The Blob (1958), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and War of Planets (1966), among countless others, all possess a particular aesthetic:...
Carlos Vara is living his best life. He’s unapologetically queer, and as you’ll witness in his “Confident” music video, he commands the room. His presence is both imposing and inviting. He slinks through the crowd, drawing admiration and awe-struck...
Madelin pulses with sheer goddess vitality. Across her latest EP, a seven-song expedition of micro and macro concepts of the human form, particularly that of gender, sexuality and existential dread, called Then Her Head Fell Off, the Bushwick enchantress...
ONLY NOISE explores music fandom with poignant personal essays that examine the ways we’re shaped by our chosen soundtrack. This week, Jason Scott embraces zir genderqueer identity with a little help from pop icon Britney Spears. Britney Spears’ …Baby...
