Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules.
Born in Staten Island, New York, to an Italian-Irish preacher and a Puerto Rican
mother, Mancari has lived a life of transition - from working as a janitor in South
Florida, to writing songs with train hoppers in the Blue Ridge Mountains and
seeking spirituality in India. But it was her time in Virginia and Nashville where
she found roots where she could evolve personally and musically to a seasoned
artist beyond her years.
Her anticipated debut album, Good Woman, is hauntingly lonesome, with dustcloud swells of electric guitar and don't-look-back lyrics revealing scenes from
Mancari’s well-travelled story. Since her music is the landscape of all she's seen,
Good Woman evokes the sound of city grit and the mountain music of her youth,
swirling into a fresh, nostalgic sound.
In reference to her evolving sound, Mancari explains that on
Good Woman, “We played with atmospheric tones and textures, with a lot of
space-like reverb, to create a sort of soundscape.” It's these planetary frontiers,
along with the powerful fragility in her voice, that make Mancari's music stand
beyond easy categorizations.
Perhaps more striking than Mancari’s sound is the tender honesty and
vulnerability present in each of her songs. Ann Powers describes Mancari’s
writing as "lyrical and raw," commenting on the "great personality in her songs."
Her strong sense of self enables her to be a spokeswoman to the outcast and the
misfit, helping her redefine the categories that so often divide people.
As a gay woman in the south, she has had to face her own set of divisions and
has fought hard to reconcile her spiritual beliefs with her sexuality. Though she’s
faced her own struggles, she has only emerged stronger: When Mancari sings,
she shines with charisma and compassion. She walks the line between the
masculine and the feminine, and it is this spirit that is paving a new path in music
today.
After two years of touring worldwide, a new record is soon to be finished. The
new album focuses on themes of forgiveness and acceptance while remaining
light and exhilarating. Zac Farro, from HalfNoise and Paramore, is producing the
record, adding a rhythmic depth to Becca’s storytelling.

The first week of 2018, I entered Isokon Studio with Josh Kaufman and Joe Russo to start work on I Need A New War.

Going in, I saw this record as the third part of a trilogy. Thematically, this was the third group of songs that I had written about smaller moments -- people trying to stay afloat in modern times, attempting to find connection, achieving tiny triumphs and frustrating let downs in their day to day lives.

Also, this was the third record in a row that I'd made with these musicians, along with engineer D. James Goodwin, following Faith in the Future (2015) and We All Want The Same Things (2017).

There is a level of creative comfort present due to having done so much work with Josh and Joe over the last five years. We speak the same language about parts and arrangements. We work quickly. We try things, nix them, move on to new things. Songs change a lot in the room. Things end up a long way from where they started. It's fun and rewarding. It's light on its feet.

Our challenge was to make something that felt emotionally and spiritually connected to the last two records, while offering a different perspective. The music needed to cast different shadows. The stories needed to shine a light in different corners.

The first session yielded four songs. The first song we recorded was “Magic Marker,” which seemed to set a mood and a character for the record. We got together a few more times over the first half of the year and recorded a bunch more songs. The record began revealing itself to us, as it always does. We brought in friends to color the songs with horns (Stuart Bogie, Raymond Mason, Dave Nelson) and back up vocals (Annie Nero, Cassandra Jenkins). We put the final touches on it and mixed it as 2018 came to a close.

We named it I Need A New War, after a lyric in the song “Grant at Galena.”

To me, the end result both connects to the previous two records and also sets itself apart -- the three albums together look at the same people, but from different angles. Faith in the Future is an album about perseverance, trusting that salvation is ahead if you work and believe. We All Want The Same Things is about making connections with other people, trying to form bonds and partnerships to help rise above the mundane and chaotic parts of life and love. I Need a New War is about people trying to respond to modern times, trying to keep pace with a world that might be moving faster than they are.

The characters in these songs put forth varying responses to the change happening around them. They deal with the inevitability of getting older, while trying not to get left behind. They try to get by. They move to bigger cities. They crawl back home. They look for love. They look for escape. They seek help. They seek answers. They formulate plans. They try to outlive past mistakes.

Mostly, they do their best.

And more so than any of my previous records, these songs turn the lens on New York City -- my home for the last 18 years. NYC itself is a city of constant change, throwing its own considerable weight on the people who live there. A number of these songs reflect on the inevitability of the city's forward motion.

And, perhaps, forward motion is everything. The characters in the songs on this record, and the last two, are trying to keep up and keep their heads above water. They succeed or they don't, but their stories are the tales of their attempts at pushing ahead.

And so, with my own push forward, I feel lucky and excited to be sharing these songs and stories.

Because I have Faith In The Future. and We All Want The Same Things. and I Need a New War.
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Nick Lowe has made his mark as a producer (Elvis Costello-Graham Parker-Pretenders-The Damned), songwriter of at least three songs you know by heart, short-lived career as a pop star, and a lengthy term as a musicians’ musician. But in his current ‘second act’ as a silver-haired, tender-hearted but sharp-tongued singer-songwriter, he has no equal.

Starting with 1995′s ‘The Impossible Bird’ through to 2011′s ‘The Old Magic,’ Nick has turned out a fantastic string of albums, each one devised in his West London home, and recorded with a core of musicians who possess the same veteran savvy. Lowe brings wit and understated excellence to every performance, leading Ben Ratliff of the New York Times to describe his live show as “elegant and nearly devastating.”

His new 4 song EP “Tokyo Bay” features Los Straitjackets as his backing band

From haunting acoustic ballads to gritty rock and roll songs filled with swagger and attitude, Matthew Mayfield has spent the past decade releasing music that has changed the hearts and lives of his listeners. His latest LP, Gun Shy, is a collection of songs as varied as the emotions each of us feels. If his previous release, RECOIL, was the fruit of an intense effort by Mayfield to depict the good, the bad, and the ugly in the world he inhabited, Gun Shy is a look into all worlds – those full of darkness and hope.

To connect with listeners and draw them into these worlds, Matthew created Inside the Song with Matthew Mayfield, a podcast dedicated to telling the stories behind the songs of Gun Shy. According to Mayfield, “I grew up with songs in such a deep way that I wanted to be inside them. I wanted to know how this artist could articulate the things I was feeling better than I could myself. The lyrics, the sonics behind the music, everything. I just craved to know more. Growing up with music when I did meant that I looked to liner notes. I think of the podcast as liner notes for your ears.”

Listen to any of the podcast episodes, and you’ll hear what makes Gun Shy Mayfield’s most introspective and personal record to date. “Our Winds” speaks of true love and hope in the midst of pressure from external forces while “Broken Clocks” finds Mayfield accepting a relationship that is doomed to fall apart. The riffs and hooks found in “Gun Shy” and “Best of Me” show Mayfield as the rock and roller he is.

While Mayfield is known for crafting both gripping ballads and eclectic rock songs, Gun Shy’s greatest triumph lies somewhere between those two styles. “S.H.A.M.E.,” the album’s third track, touches on what is currently Mayfield’s deepest concern – a world full of people that feel as if they are alone.

“Shame is something that no one wants to talk about, but we’re all ashamed of something. We all have demons and things that prevent us from seeing our self-worth. The song is about connecting with people and letting them know they are not alone,” says Mayfield.

Gun Shy was produced by Paul Moak, who Mayfield describes as, “one of the most gifted producers, players, songwriters, and overall artists I’ve ever met.” This is the fourth full-length album the two have recorded together, and Moak’s talents played a major role in making it special. Mayfield and Moak also happen to be great friends, which Mayfield says, “helped us push each other along through the process.”

With each new record, Mayfield has grown in his ability to evoke a broad range of emotions in his listeners. “I want to create melodies and lyrics that move people, that make them feel something. Connection is everything, and music has a unique way of helping people connect to others and to parts of themselves that they might otherwise be unable to access.”

Gun Shy is now available on all digital platforms worldwide. Physical copies are available on matthewmayfield.com.