Horsepowar is a rapper, performance artist and comedian who has taken the duality of her Western and Eastern culture into her music. She has been a strong voice in the community of Vancouver, Canada. Coming from a South Asian background, she uses her voice to empower and uplift women of color and those who have been marginalized in the mainstream.

Born in the foggy province of Newfoundland Canada, TallBoy (aka Timothy Vickers) has been creating music in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 10 years. He can be found producing for artists under the name Grandbankss - likeMichael Sneed’s “Reinvent”, Sofya Wang’s “Found Love”, ZOLA’s “Crystal Floors” and Elujay’s “Champagne Galore” - and often playing live Jazz with his friends at the bar around the corner from the studio he works out of. However, despite his wide range of multi-label releases for various artists, Vickers’ roots have always been in electronic music. A somewhat introverted personality, Vickers always been steadily and quietly making his own version of dance music in the background.

New project TallBoy is a public outlet of self expression for someone who has devoted their life to creating behind the scenes. Inspired by electronic musicians Four tet, The Books, and Burial, TallBoy’s self-titled EP was produced as a stream of thought in his living room, as pictured in the cover art. The dance EP finds TallBoy sampling himself, the atmospheric sounds outside his apartment, as well as longtime friend and collaborator ZOLA. Coming as a surprise from a producer who has seemingly produced for artists in every genre, new project TallBoy and the self-made stop-motion music video display yet another side of the multi-talented Vickers that (somehow) we had yet to see.

Flaunting vicious flows and a player like persona, Stoni can hold her own with some of rap’s top-tier artists. Born and raised in Oakland, the California native grew up with a passion for poetry and writing. Stoni stormed onto the scene larger-than-life in her first official single “Skirmish” with fellow rapper Tia Nomore, where she literally took the Bay Area in her hands in a Kong vs Godzilla- type music video. Since then, Stoni has been steadily booking shows to a tidal wave of rave reviews. In 2022 Stoni most notably released new single “Night Light” with Texas-royalty Fat Tony, and in February 2023 she opened for Junglepussy as part of Noise Pop Festival. Her set was praised by KQED where they commented that she rapped “ with infectious confidence and laser-beam precision” and that they had “never seen the audience demand an encore from the first opening act, but it happened”.

Stoni’s debut EP, titled after her alter-ego, is slated for Summer 2023.

If the rapper is the heart and soul of hip-hop, then the producer is the backbone. Enter Theaux Elliot (government name, Elliot Slamet), the behind-the- boards man for San Francisco MC, Lord Morgan (government name, Morgan Merrihew). Elliot wears every music business hat imaginable: Composer, engineer, mixer, co-writer, manager, you name it. But his go-to cap and key role in the game is to conjure beats to make you bob your head, pour out your soul, roll up a blunt and hop in the ride.

Morgan started writing raps at 15 years old in San Francisco’s Richmond district. The rapper-producer duo’s first few releases were reminiscent of the then-thriving hyphy movement: Their music consisted of bouncy, choppy beats driven by plunging bass and ambient synth grooves matched by lyrics depicting their youthful endeavors of chasing girls and poppin’ bottles. The 2013 project, “Diamond Lifestyle” got Elliot and Morgan’s songs on the radio and those few glimmers of early success proved their dreams are within reach. With 2016’s “Under My Roof” the two made strides in refining their sound and defining their purpose as artists. The year 2021 saw Morgan making strides with his first official placements: his song “Pesos” can be heard in the Ubisoft Rider’s Republic game, as well as in the “Homeroom” Hulu Original Movie soundtrack.

Bobby Renz is a producer, songwriter and engineer originally from Northern California who now lives in Long Beach, CA. Bobby has spent most of his life playing in bands in San Francisco as a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and vocalist and in the last 5 years has contributed to the music of many artists (Fat Tony, Ricky Lake, Same Girls, Ronnie K, Felicia Douglass, SISTERS, Studio_Dad, Apprentice Destroyer, DonCat, Evan Myall, Ski Team, Richie Cunning, Tia Nomore, GrandBankss, Horsepowar) in roles of producer, mix engineer, tracking engineer, or songwriter.

Bobby is now working on his own music, where he brings all the influence of working with artists across many genres and styles and uses it to feed his own inspiration. Letting things come to him naturally, the music is very much a flow of his surroundings and doesn’t stay tied to any sort of rules or regulations. Bobby’s first full length album as a solo artist, name not yet announced, was made during his summer isolation in his apartment in San Francisco and finished in Long Beach in the fall. Modern yet retro, dance-y but melancholy, Bobby's new album (slated for March 2021 on Text Me Records) deals with the reluctant acceptance of one’s self and finding comfort and peace in the ideals of love in the beautiful but brutal landscape of life and death.

Baybs is the music project of San Francisco musician and songwriter Craig Jacobs. With songs created as a way to cope with an anxiety-ridden past, Baybs' music itself delivers a more optimistic posture while still remaining chillingly intimate and impassioned. Jacobs  recalls, "There were periods of my life where I didn't want to leave my house.. soon I couldn't leave my room.. then I didn't even feel safe in my own body. The times I felt like literally jumping out of my skin the only thing that helped was picking up a guitar and creating a melody."

The resulting sound is an ebb and flow of dreamy folk pop with a flirtatious rhythmic pulse. To create an atmosphere of multilayered vocal texture, Jacobs collaborates with singers Melissa Russi and Chloe Zelma Studebaker (Zelma Stone), live and in the studio. In the summer of 2019 two debut singles, “Heartbeats (Amor Fati)” and “You’re the Only One” were released. After several months of playing live shows at local venues including Rickshaw Stop, Bottom Of The Hill and Amnesia, Jacobs teamed up with producer Timothy Vickers aka GrandBankss (who also plays bass in Baybs) to record the a debut EP "Intovertigo." This five track album is a true testament to the constant turbulence and distress caused by social anxiety as well as the general feeling of chronic alienThis five track album is a true testament to the constant turbulence and distress caused by social anxiety as well as the general feeling of chronic alienation from ones immediate surroundings. Despite the intensity of the lyrics, in normal Baybs fashion, the music itself is upbeat, flowy and meant to make the listener physically feel good.

Reminiscent of the R&B/Hip-Hop sounds of the 90s but with a modern twist, Alexandria's sound has been compared to those like Erykah Badu and the late, great Aaliyah. Her work is full of lush vocals and passionate lyrics, prompting listeners to get lost in the music from the moment they press play. Additional influences include Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Sade and Beyonce.Alexandria discovered her love for singing at the age of six and by age ten, Alexandria was enrolled in vocal lessons to prepare her most life-altering audition at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati. Less than 20% of children that audition are accepted each year. Alexandria was accepted on the spot and studied vocal music, drama, and creative writing. Says Alexandria: "I'm very thankful for what that school taught me musically and creatively. I would not be the artist I am today."

At 14, she left Cincinnati, Ohio and moved to Dallas, Texas with her mother. There, the two went through hard times but Alexandria used them to sharpen her skills as a songwriter. "We moved a lot and being the new kid was difficult. Writing songs was the perfect outlet for anything I was going through."

After she graduated high school, Alexandria was eager to take a shot at a career in music and chose Atlanta for it's buzzing music scene. She briefly attended Clark Atlanta University and started reaching out to producers online, asking if they were looking for talent.

nenci is a Queer Vietnamese-American singer/ songwriter from Vallejo, CA based in Oakland.

Her background is embedded in 80's and 90's R&B/ Soul through the Bay Area music scene and at a young age that gave her early exposure to classical music by playing the flute. This helped her develop her style of diving into the genres of experimental electronic R&B with Hip Hop elements. She collaborates with artist/producer and girlfriend, Leviathe.

She has two new singles coming out called Underneath the Moon and Lydia. They came out of the desire to explore and blend classical flute, California Hip Hop, and experimental R&B. These two songs are a big departure from their past releases offering a heftier tone through growling synths, low kicks and 808s, levitating flute arches, and tape sampled vocals. These songs offer a more optimistic hopeful seduction than her past release (based on trauma and mental health struggles) through the beauty of the imagination when in pursuit of romance. 

As far as creating music is concerned, Northern California-based songwriter and guitarist Evan Reiss (his middle name is Myall) is a self-described ‘lifer.’ After releasing seven full length LP’s and touring internationally with Sleepy Sun and Fine Points, he is set to make his solo debut this Fall with the Basic Gardening EP. Tapped by friend Bobby Renz (Text Me Records/Curasao), the duo hunkered down at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco to cook up a batch of vibey nuggets with sonic touchstones that range from The Velvet Underground and David Bowie to MGMT and Frank Ocean.

The songs feature contributions from hand-picked heavyweight musician pals and are chalk-full of crispy pop melodies, deep-fried grooves, fuzzy nonsensical guitar noise, and ethereal Mellotron ear candy. The album details a modern day human experience amid true love/desire, unmerciful heartbreak, and optimism in the face of an impending doom.

Feel free to get your hands dirty and dig into the organic auditory dirt of Evan Myall’s Basic Gardening EP.

Amen’Auset’s first live performance was in the back of her parent’s Volvo riding around Oakland’s Lake Merrit at the seasoned age of three. She sang the opening riff to Maxwell Ascension(don’t ever wonder) that was as emotionally moving as it was impressive to witness a three year old memorize and croon (on key) with one of the finest to ever grace a stage.

Her soul was imprinted with the essence of the music immortals before she uttered her first words. She was told stories about how her parents would make recordings of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and Roy Ayers and play them through earphones on her Mother’s stomach while she was still in the womb. Her earliest memories of safety, connection, and love were found in melody. Amen’Auset now stands before us with a gift to share, an energy to emit, and a message to convey. Her love-affair with vibration and composition create a lovechild of a truly immaculate conception- she is creativity in its authenticity and is impassioned by pushing the purity of her craft forward. The sister intuitively understands the need for complementing the beauty of harmonic artistry with the kiss of emotional timelessness. Her music speaks. The name Amen’Auset literally translates as “One who seeks truth through trance.” She has found her truth in music…and music is her trance.

Drew Banga's credits include Kamaiyah’s “I’m On,” Rexx Life Raj and ymtk’s “What’s Up,” 1-O.A.K.’s “Lost & Found” (which he co-produced with Kuya Beats) and Caleborate’s latest single, “Bankrobber” (with Chose1). He’s also the musical director for Duckwrth, overseeing every aspect of his live show and producing for the Republic Records-signed rapper and singer. He also co-produced much of Kamaiyah’s highly-anticipated, forthcoming sophomore album.

“There’s not an artist in the Bay I haven’t produced for, done a song with or gone on tour with,” Arnett says. “I’m a producer. I don’t sing, but I write. I try to make whatever I put my hands on better than what I heard before. And I’m all about cultivating people’s sound.”

Drew Arnett didn’t start producing professionally until a year before making the “I’m On” beat for Kamaiyah in 2015. “I just wanted to be a touring bass player,” he says. Now a full-time producer and musician, Arnett spends most of his time at Different Fur as an in-house producer for the studio-affiliated label, Text Me Records. He has his gripes with the lack of an industry infrastructure in the Bay Area but sees his affiliation with Text Me as a tipping point.

“I work closely with artists at Text Me and I’m gonna be able to put the spotlight on a lot of artists in the Bay. Kinda like A&R-ing, but I’m producing too. The artist can be nobody and the producer can have such a big name and the song can go platinum. That’s what I want to do.”

Taken from the KQED article "Behind The Beats: Drew Banga" by Adrian Spinelli

Ricky Lake left his home of Los Angeles at the age of fifteen, moving with his family to Nashville. The son of two doctors, steeped in the usual high school trappings of weed smoke, weird books and hip hop, Ricky Lake got a wake up call. The pseudo-progressive Southern Nashville landscape showed him the real United States: a land full of contradiction and paradox. For a few years he made it work, and for the first time, he made music. But it wasn’t until he found himself fitting into the artsy enclaves of Oakland, CA that he took on the title that he holds today – the dark but delicate trap craftsman we all know as Ricky Lake.

Collaborating extensively with musicians and artists such as Taifa Nia (OCD, Same Girls) and his found family at San Francisco’s Text Me Records, Ricky dug deep into teenage influences like NERD, Blink 182, Crystal Castles and more; gleaning and selecting his favorite elements of modern pop and Soundcloud rap to develop a sound that’s big and glowing. He’s hedonistic, stylish and sensitive. He doesn’t give a fuck, but he really does. Maybe you’ll find him in a club with gold teeth and a bottle of Patron, a bit misty-eyed because of the last girl who broke his heart. It’s all part and parcel to the young artist who embraces the lavishes of our culture but doesn’t shy away from his sensitive side.

Featuring shining production from quite a few artists who make their home at Text Me HQ (where Ricky actually took up residency through the recording of the album), “Last Summer Sucked” is Ricky Lake’s first studio album.

“Coming up in cypher circles and freestyle battle arenas, Tia Nomore forced her entry into hip-hop’s boys club. Her claim as Oakland rap’s little sister started as a teenager when she would jump into her older brother’s rap circles and ditch class to record G-funk-inspired hyphy music. Tia’s fiery wits, lyrical dismantling and command for respect earned her studio time with HBK Gang’s Show Banga, Iamsu! and Too $hort producer Exclusive, and that combo of qualities has been the bedrock throughout her continuous transformation into a fully-realized artist.” - Rocket Radio premiere of “Tokidoki Lenses”

”While hip-hop is known as a boys' club — especially when it comes to the freestyle battles where she honed her skills — Tia has had no problem earning respect. In person she's warm and charismatic, but her sense of humor is filled with a youthful honesty that often verges on bluntness. She amplifies this take-no-shit quality of her personality in her rhymes, with stinging punchlines aplenty. Yet her messages are also uplifting: In her songs and on Twitter, she frequently touts female friendship and self-confidence.” - Noisey

Comprised of multi-instrumentalists Jordan Brooks and Colin Killalea (who takes the lead on vocals), Ex-poets’ create introspective music for twilight times, headphone music for strolling city streets, or just leaning back and taking one last drag. Sonically they slide neatly between Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Nick Hakim, and like all the greatest music, Ex-poets’ songs allow for interpretation. For Jordan “Still Waiting”—with its thrumming bass line, sinuous synths, and a graceful topline that bears the fingerprints of Jeff Buckley at his most spare—the song explores present-day paralysis. For Colin it’s “a tribute to love and wanting to be alone with that person and the elements.” 

Jordan and Colin met over a decade ago, two music nerds (from Illinois and Virginia, respectively) drawn to New York City to study music at The New School. They wound up in a jazz session together, Jordan on upright bass and Colin on sax, and quickly bonded.

Their tastes are similarly eclectic and voracious: Wayne Shorter and Sun Ra and João Gilberto; the Books, Can, John Lennon and J Dilla (whose influence can be heard on album opener “Our Homes” where piano chords kick off an off-kilter dance with dusty beats until the grooves coalesce to a create a soothing swoon of a song).

Sam Johnson’s love for music goes back to his adolescent years, when he learned Bob Marley and Sublime songs on hand me down instruments, and started a reggae band at his high school in Huntington Beach, California. This early influence inspired him to create his laid-back, soulful blend of pop, rock, and reggae styles that he describes as “quintessential California music”. 

But he says his music career really started 8 years ago in San Francisco, where he street performed 5 days a week in the hectic, carnival-like atmosphere of Fisherman’s Wharf. Dodging seagulls and competing with the other street performers for the tourists’ attention, Sam’s chops developed at an accelerated rate. “The first day I played in the wharf, I made $60. I knew one day I would make $600!” In this way Sam supported himself full-time for more than 2 years - one CD at a time, one dollar at a time. He says “it was like touring the world from a street corner.” 

Many of the successes and relationships Sam has had since then are directly related to his time spent busking. During his street performing years, he made thousands of fans from all around the world who support him to this day. So much, in fact, that his fans fully funded his third EP “The City” through Kickstarter, backing the project with nearly $10,000. The album’s lead single “The City” received airplay on San Francisco’s Live 105 FM for several weeks. 

Although he is no longer street performing, Sam maintains a busy

dot Vom is a San Francisco band that has existed in a state of flux since 2013, living out a long rotation of genres and band members before finding their footing in 2018 with a five-member roster and a tongue-in-cheek but earnest brand of over-disclosure.

Songwriter and vocalist Dany Ricci (one of the two remaining veterans from the original lineup, along with bassist Katiana Mashikian) channels a quarter-life crisis through raw emotion and blunt lyrics, rendering self-deprecatory torch songs almost charming until they're cut down by rolling waves of distortion, courtesy of guitarists Beau Mathews and Zach Fahrney.

Practically raisedby wolves (60s oldies, 80s Cantopop, and 40s Italian crooners), Ricci draws from an eclectic range of outdated influences to create their own Omnichord-driven vein of pop. Keeping them current is drummer Shahan Salim, formerly of SF cave-show staples Banshee Boardwalk and Schlemiel O'Neil.

TVRQUOISE is the Los Angeles based, genre-bending, indie pop project of vocalistand songwriter, Faye Wellman. Her 2017 self-titled EP immediately garnered positivereviews by The 405, Audiofemme, and Blackbook. TVRQUOISE’s music is described as electro-dreampop with looping vocal melodies, textured beats, and sweeping synths, and has been compared to indie act, Braids. Earmilk put it best: TVRQUOISE’s music is “a beautiful dichotomy of pessimism and optimism.”

Faye Wellman grew up immersed in music and the arts while moving between various towns of Michigan’s west coast. At the early age of three, she remembers singing songs from Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes, an album favorited by her mother. At this young age, Faye began accompanying her mother to private voice lessons, absorbing her earliest memories of vocal training.

During her adolescence, Faye attended rock music camp, founded by Bay area Blues guitarist, Jimmy Dillon (Bruce Springsteen, Sting, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and Santana). Over a six year period, Dillon mentored Faye as the two played gigs promoting his music camp. When Wellman was thirteen, Dillon encouraged her to start writing and performing original music. Faye cites Dillon as a major influence in her musical development.

After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2013, Faye relocated to Los Angeles. Driving cross-country solo, Faye credits the experience with removing many of her mental blocks and planting the creative seed for

“Music helps me live in the moment. That’s the best high. It’s the best effect music can have on us” the R&B crooner, Berel, explains. Berel Alexander is a songwriter & vocalist based in the Bay Area that provides a nostalgic take on the R&B/soul genre. On the first listen, in a creamy falsetto and rich tone, BEREL entices listeners into a sound that can only be described as a gracious romance, a cooled-out version of soul, brimming with energy.  The San Francisco-based R&B singer/songwriter is turning water into waves and gathering believers along the way.

By fusing old-school R&B with soulful singing, BEREL stands in elite company with the likes of JMSN, Xavier Omär, and Tom Misch by complimenting the sound with his own musical depth. BEREL states “Swimming in sounds, I stumbled head over heels into a surreal moment of musical bliss, trying not to take myself too seriously.” With the support of a fiery group of producers, instrumentalists, and songwriters from the Los Angeles music scene, BEREL has crafted an incomparable blend of R&B, soul, jazz, and a touch of indie folk.

Being firmly influenced by the icons of jazz and soul from the past, he continuously expands his perspective by always keeping his ears open to today’s diverse genres and styles. The resulting sound that occurs is a smooth, tasteful, enriching sound, with musical depth reminiscent of Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall. The self-described “modern renaissance-man with an affinity for fashions in music of the past" has now teamed up with the Bay Area's indie savior label Text Me Records, giving him the support to catapult this undeniable talent to the top.

Born on a gloomy Island off the east coast of Canada, Tim Vickers AKA GrandBankss moved to the states at a fairly young age and began studying music and double bass. After spending 10 years producing and working with bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pat Brown took him under the wing of Different Fur Studios and gave him a place and resources to write and produce at a professional level.

Working with emerging Artists such as MVCK, Elujay, Ace Diego, Odie, DerekTed as well as writing his own Experimental Electronic and Bossa Nova tracks, GrandBankss is creating his place in the Bay Area music. “Ownership” featuring Elujay marks his debut.

Komak, otherwise known as Matthew Pereira, was born and raised in the Bay Area. Having been around music from a young age, he developed an interest for electronic music while at UC Santa Cruz majoring in Film. The concept of Komak, while originally from an unfinished film treatment, naturally became the inspiration for an electronic instrumental and cinematic musical style all its own. Komak finds its roots with an electronic style blending modern genres to produce tracks anywhere from progressive house, intense electro dance/funk, to lighthearted and ethereal synth-pop. Pulling influence from the likes of artists such as Feed Me, Deadmau5, and Porter Robinson, the first two singles to be released are “Kingdom of Dreams,” as featured on Quik by GoPro on November 15th, 2017, and “Komak: The Creature” on December 1st, 2017.

A reclusive songwriter with a chameleonic, regenerative quality, George Montgomery Dallas Davis is known more for shedding his skin than tattooing his intentions to his sleeve. Just as likely to be spotted on a Greek isle or skid row, Davis has never stepped foot on stage, but reliably churns out new song cycles every seven years, each time signing a new lease on the next season of his sketchy, nomadic biography. Davis was last spotted on a North Shore boardwalk hawking caricatures for $10 a pop.

Lip Set is collaboration between Vocalist Felicia Douglass and Producer Studio_Dad aka Patrick Brown. Douglass is a Brooklyn-based artist - most notably a keyboardist and singer in Ava Luna, she also leads her own band called Gemma. In addition to a number of vocal collaborations with artists such as Toro Y Moi, Baile, Helado Negro, and Diane Coffee, she produces her own electronic project with airy melodies over wandering synth lines and tropical rhythms and most recently joined Dirty Projectors.

As an engineer Patrick Brown has worked with the likes of Toro y Moi, KFlay, Beat Connection, The Morning Benders, Lee Fields, and hundreds of others. In 2014 a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Rob Pera under the name WOOF lead to a mixtape produced by the two including rappers and singers like Mykki Blanco, Tragik, and G-Side. Now going by Studio_Dad, Brown is consistently producing both solo and with other members of Text Me Records... a process which lead to Felicia flying to San Francisco for a week to work on what became the "Saucy EP". The first single from the two debuted in remix form on Text Me's Valentine's Day mixtape and featured scrappy Bay Area rapper Tia Nomore.

Raw, unrelenting, and careening out of the Bay Area of California is Coke. A quartet who craft angry and raw slabs of post-hardcore that chunk and chew with angular riffs and acerbic vocals. Plus, they have a song called ‘Ray Liotta’. Everyone loves Ray Liotta. Right?

They also have a song called ‘Da Da’. Which is also the name of a red wine that I really love. I don’t think that Coke drink red wine. I think they bathe in the blood of their enemies and drink from their hollowed out skulls. Maybe.

The soulful sound of William Robert is designed to lift listeners out of the gray. A former NFL football player for the Detroit Lions and the UT Longhorns - turned pop R&B lyricist and vocalist - Robert will release a string of singles starting with Texas on April 28th 2017.

He credits the raw emotion and vulnerability expressed in his music to influences like the Notorious B.IG., Sarah McLachlan, and Coldplay. These tracks embody what it means to start a new family while pursuing the most difficult thing one can do: expressing yourself honestly through art.

The singles to be released include a feature by go-to Bay Area backing band The Park as well as vocalist Nona Brown, who has worked alongside artists such as The Fray and Lenny Williams, and Claire George of HEARTWATCH. Texas will be one of the first releases under new label Text Me Records.