Browsing Tag

the voice

Madison Hughes painted a vignette with the poison arrows of a lothario in her country single, The Heartbreak Kid

Posted on 17 July 2023

If Helen of Troy could launch a thousand ships with her face, trailblazing country songstress Madison Hughes could do the same with her velveteen vocal lines in her latest single, The Heartbreak Kid.

Not one to skate by on her most obvious talent, Hughes always ensures her vignettes come to life in enthrallingly vibrant colour. With her latest slice of Americana, she painted a portrait of the kind of lothario you will always hope to never know while providing pitch-perfect solace to the ones that have been shot with poisoned arrows.

The Florida-residing artist started her journey at 10 years old. Since, she has won over all three judges on NBC’s The Voice, which subsequently resulted in her cover of Knocking on Heaven’s Door being streamed half a million times on YouTube. Her most popular single, You or the Whiskey, found a place on the Billboard “7 Must Hear Country Songs” list and the New Music Friday County Spotify playlist. The Heartbreak Kid is easily deserving of the very same accolades.

Stream The Heartbreak Kid on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

We Started A Fire: Passionate Nashville singer Jon Mullins heats up that sweet love on ‘Hot Like Summer’

Posted on 19 June 2021

Inspired by his heroes Sam Smith and Adele, Jon Mullins eagerly drops this new uptempo track that steams up the unsuspecting windows and is flaming intensely with joy called ‘Hot Like Summer‘.

Jon Mullins is an entertaining Pennsylvania-born, Nashville-based indie pop singer-songwriter. After his loving wife suffered a dreadful fall a few years ago and recently, also tragically had the undeserved misfortune of losing their firstborn. His life has changed forever but these experiences have made them both so much stronger, as their love for each other has never waned.

The winding journey has taken him from being revered on The Voice, to now bringing the world some meaningful music, that sparks hope back in our healing hearts.

His performance here is quite a lovely listen, as he sings with such heart and true love throughout this sparkle-filled effort. The sweet beat has your mind in a flutter, as you remember when things were so happy in your stomach, that it felt like you were floating on air.

‘Hot Like Summer‘ from the talented Nashville-based indie pop singer Jon Mullins, is the heart beating story about knowing that you don’t ever want to leave their love. The passion is sparking so high that the birds are going to taste it, as you both run wild with appreciation for each other. This is the time of year that things can start and end quickly, as you hope that this can turn into something longer than a few months.

Hear this audio on YouTube and find out more via his IG page.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Jared Harper has unleashed his garagey indie anthem, ‘All for Me’.

Posted on 14 May 2021

Plenty of people became familiar with San Francisco’s Jared Harper’s smoother than smooth falsetto vocals through his audition on The Voice that saw him put a roguishly sweet rendition of The Rolling Stones’ iconic track, Satisfaction. The audition has garnered over half a million streams on YouTube, but discernibly, singer-songwriter comes into his own by bringing his original material to life. His latest single, All for Me, is the perfect example.

In All for Me, Jared Harper carries his influences in his vintage guitar tones. Any fans of the Strokes will get the same buzz from the kicking instrumental progressions that create an anthemic platform for Harper’s endlessly imploring vocals that would have sent 60s psych-pop fans into hysterics back in the day.

He’s perfected the art of the pop-rock choruses, but All for Me is so much more than your average baseless earworm. The single is an invitation to listeners to seize the day and break out of periods of stagnation; you almost don’t need the lyrics to say anything; the over-driven fuzzed-up instrumentals will leave you psyched until the outro.

You can hear All for Me via Spotify and SoundCloud, or by heading over to his official website.

Connect with Jared Harper and stay up to date with his latest releases via Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Think of Me – Austin Giorgio: A pure feel-good single from New-York Pop artist

Posted on 17 March 2020

New York-based Pop artist Austin Giorgio’s new single ‘’Think of Me’’ is just an all around feel-good track and it’s pretty amazing.

With this high energy and contagious melody, it’s that Pop sound that we all know and love that moves you in a certain way and just lets out this crazy amount of energy. Even though it’s only short.

Think of Me is a track that you can’t help but keep listening too, one that will get stuck in your head and one that will be on repeat. It’s combination of different beats as well as the occasional hum on the trombone it has a rather diverse amount of sound going into it, but the best thing is it works so well. The vocal ranges pull a lot of elements from Pop artists such as Nial Horan and Michael Buble, with that same soft, up-beat vocal.

Austin Giorgio sure knows how to create an infectious track, this is one that you must check out!

Listen to Think of Me by Austin Giorgio for yourself by heading over to Spotify now.

Review by Karley Myall

A&R Factory Present: Tje Austin

Posted on 22 February 2017

Tje Austin is an ambitious Austin-based R&B singer-songwriter. Tje’s personal brand of soul derives from various influences that include John Legend and Lenny Kravitz. Introspective and passionate, Tje uses life experiences to explore the sensitivities and nuances of loss and broken relationships. He strives to create and perform the quintessential emotive experience, with touches of optimism and authenticity.

Originally, from Hawaii, Austin was adopted at four days old, by a loving Mormon family with military ties. He was raised in a multicultural family, which includes five brothers and three sisters – with six kids being adopted from other families. The accidental vocalist eventually made his way to the University of Texas at Austin. Initially there to complete a political science degree, Tje flipped a hobby into a full-fledged career, with some encouragement from some friends.

Tje was a contestant during the first run of the North American adaptation of The Voice. He’s co-written songs with three-time Grammy award winner Taj Jackson (for his Xperience album.) Amongst his received honors, Austin was a Semi Finalist in 2015 International Songwriting Competition – R&B Category and was featured at the 2014 ASCAP Expo for Pop Songwriting.

Completely self-contained, Tje manages himself through his company, Falling Giants Music. An artist in love with the road, he performs continuously throughout North America, and has been a recurring featured artist for Texas on Tour, a State of Texas initiative.

Tje Austin’s new EP, ‘I Belong to You’ can be purchased here.

A&R Factory Present: Jillian Steele

Posted on 2 February 2017

Raised on Long Island, but now living in Nashville, 19 year old indie-pop musician, Jillian Steele, is making her way onto your favourite playlist. Her bold and personal songwriting combined with her unique tone, evokes familiar emotions tucked away in comforting memories. On the NBC show, Kathie Lee & Hoda, Kathie Lee Gifford said “.. her tone is as beautiful and unique as she is. I am excited to follow her journey.”

Her new EP, Find Me, releasing in 2017, pulls the curtain aside for a peak into Jillian as a musician. Her first single Property, was inspired by a safari trip to Kenya when she was 16 and mistakenly entered into a marriage agreement with a tribal leader in exchange for two camels and a goat (long story) Property asserts the power of the essential inner strength existing in all of us that sometimes is forgotten. The reoccurring theme, of personal power and the strength to make changes is echoed in Same Song as well as Miles, both songs on her new EP.

Several years ago, doctors discovered nodes on a very precarious location on Jillian’s vocal chords, After bring turned away by several doctors refusing to operate. she visited the top doctor in Manhattan. Knowing the risk to her voice, the nodes were removed. Forbidden to speak for two weeks while recovering, and losing her main form of communication, Jillian found a substitute voice through songwriting. Writing hundreds of songs while healing, she came to appreciate the power and effectiveness of expression through lyrics. Thankfully she regained her voice and has continued on her journey, one song at a time.

She appeared as a finalist for The VOICE kid’s edition on the TODAY show, performed at Great South Bay Music Festival along with the Doobie Brothers and Hot Tuna. She was also a regular at CountryFEST, Long Island Fall Festival, and Montauk Music Festival. She has taken the stage at The Bitter End in NYC and was in Broadway in South Africa.

“Writing is as necessary to me as a good work out is for others …where you sweat so much your eyes sting.. . I feel purged and renewed, not after the song is written, but only when it is out there for all to hear…” – Jillian Steele

To find out more about Jillian Steele click here

A&R Factory Present: Jean Kelley

Posted on 27 December 2016

A soulful Pop singer/songwriter and highly emotive artist with a resonant voice and diverse cross-genre musical influences, Jean Kelley broke onto the music scene as a breath of fresh air on season 7 of NBC’s The Voice. Following The Voice, Jean was able to rally her fans and raise over $40,000 to fund the production of her debut EP.

Jean Kelley takes influence from her past experiences to pave a new, unique sound for herself while looking to inspire hope and determination with her powerful lyrics. Keep up with Jean Kelley as she plans the release ofher debut EP featuring her empowering single, “Stacking Stones.”

http://www.jeankelleymusic.com/