Riveting Riffs Magazine Pop AC and Dance Section

POP - Crossover - Alternative

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Kat Violin On the Prowl

You want Classical music; she has that covered. You want Rock or Pop she can deliver that too. Now Beatrix Lőw-Beer who doubles as Kat Violin for those of you who crave a little mystery with your music, has taken classic music by highly regarded composers and blended them with original modern beats and just like Cat Woman transforms herself into Kat Violin the DJ and violinist. Meow. Do not try and label Beatrix Lőw-Beer however, because while the one we have dubbed the Lady Gaga of the violin, for her often breathtaking wardrobe selections can just as easily purr as she can hiss, while playing edgier songs.

Well, she can describe her new persona much better than we can, “I am producing my own music, and it is a combination of Classical music and electronic beats. For instance, music from Classical composers. It is 2.0 and it is transported to the electronic music. The (goal) is to perform it live at festivals or bigger events.

It is not so easy doing my own music versus covers. I thought it would be much faster to get reach, but when you make your own music, it is like you have to convince everybody first. Even the followers you gained over the years, don’t follow you (when you branch out), because it is yours. I think it will be a lot of work to make this successful, but I will try my best. I love the idea, the concept and the character. It is all about the cat identity, but not like the animal cat, but it is about the character of the cat and the behavior and the attitude. Read More

_{Grace Pettis - Being Personal}

Singer / Songwriters usually prefer enough ambiguity with their lyrics that the listener has a lot of latitude in terms of interpreting the meaning, but with the new album Down To The Letter, Grace Pettis makes it clear that this a deeply personal collection of songs.

Talking about the song, “I Take Care Of Me Now,” she says, “It is completely autobiographical. It is one of those first songs that I wrote after I left my marriage of eleven years and a relationship of fourteen years. It was something I really didn’t believe yet, because I had been in that relationship since I was a teenager and I couldn’t really conceive of what it would be like to take care of myself and be alone in the world, because I had been part of a couple for so long. I remembered thinking that I was going to be okay, and I could put myself first and take care of myself. I wrote it as a mantra that I could grow into.

It was like when you are a kid, and your parents buy shoes that are a little too big for you and you grow into them. It is a song that I wrote for myself. It is my anti-codependency (song).

The words are emotive and at times poignant, “I take care of me now / Since I made up my mind / I’m gonna be just fine / Every day gets better and / I got bruises, but the good news is / I take care of me now…” They are words that describe the scars that may still remain from a relationship that has ended, but learning to love yourself, which is of more importance. Read More

_{Noah Vonne - Heart Of It}

_{_{Noah
Vonne a native of Texas, who has called Nashville and Los Angeles home
was our guest recently at Riveting Riffs Magazine and the reason we were
excited about her joining us is her vocals remind us of a mix of Joss
Stone, Amy Winehouse, and Taylor Dayne, not that she sounds like a clone
of those singers, because she does not. We use those comparisons,
because Noah Vonne’s vocals are powerful, soulful, and emotive and at a
standard that already reflects the vocal abilities of those three
artists. She is a splendid songwriter who can accompany herself on the
guitar or keyboards and she has a knack for knowing what works best with
her music videos.
Most of her
childhood and teenage years were spent growing up in New Braunfels
nestled between Austin Texas and San Antonio, in a family with five
older sisters. All of them were softball players, almost enough to form
their own team.}} _{When asked if she
was spoiled, being the baby of the family, she says while laughing, “ It
is true. All of my sisters would say one thousand percent. In comparison
to some of my friends, maybe not so, because
_{Read More}}

Ciara Grace - Earthy and Edgy

A few months back, a publicist friend of mine Mike Farley sent me some information updating me on the artists he represents. I scrolled through the list, some names familiar, others less so and I happened upon the name of Ciara Grace. I was intrigued by the release of an album, Write It Down, that at that time was still three months away. I gave a listen to the music of the blonde, blue-eyed young woman, who I guessed to be late teens or very early twenties and found I was pretty close.

Ciara Grace’s music is earthy, edgy with some of the vocals and music being staccato in nature. The themes we want to say mostly dealt with relationships, but that would not be true, because the songs were all about relationships! Even though they were written between her high school years and the summer immediately prior to entering college, whether you are sixteen years old, twenty years old or forty-two years old, there is something here for everybody to sink their teeth into, both musically and lyrically. Yes, we are hearing the expression of feelings from what was then a teenage songwriter, and from a female perspective, but we think we are correct in saying that many women out there are going to listen and say, ‘I knew a guy just like that!” or ‘I remember that guy who treated me poorly,” and “I can’t believe I fell for that guy.’ Now, just so we do not give you the wrong impression, while some of these lyrics do bear the signs of feeling jaded or angry at the time, it is important to note that these are not angry songs, at least in our view. There are enough images and metaphors that keep this from becoming a dark brooding album and you can sink your teeth into the uneven beats and vocals.

We requested Read More

Kori Linae Carothers

Cedar City, Utah, seems a long way from California, but so was Minnesota and Texas, just some of the stops along the way for pianist, composer, singer Kori Linae Carothers. New Age music is also a bit of a distance from the Contemporary Instrumental music and electronic music that she is best known for and yet early on the music industry seemed to want to pigeonhole her as a New Age artist, nothing wrong with that genre, but that is not the essence of who she is. Complete loss of hearing in her left ear and now taking injections to treat spasmodic dysphonia, a condition she shares with two siblings, has not stopped her from continuing her music career.

From her home in California, Kori Linae Carothers sat down with us to talk about her life, her music and might we dare say a very interesting date years ago, that resulted in her marriage to her husband.

“We moved to Texas when I was 15 and that was really hard. I didn’t do change at that age. What was really interesting about that move was nobody cared where I came from. There was not this popularity contest that I had in Minnesota. We moved from Minneapolis to a very tiny farming community southwest of Minneapolis and it was one of the hardest moves that I ever had. People would tease me, because my hearing was crappy, and it just was not a good time for me. That is when I started writing music,” Kori Linae Carothers explains, continuing she says, “I was thirteen and fourteen when things really started to come to my head. Then we moved to Texas and things got much better for me. I lived in Dallas.”

Before we go any further, let's go back, way back, "My dad's mom played piano Read More

Fiona Joy Hawkins - New Music

It was time to get caught up with Australian composer, pianist and vocalist Fiona Joy Hawkins, as the last time we sat down with this affable and talented lady was in 2020. We connected with her at her home in Kendall, New South Wales, Australia. Although you do not often hear her mention it, Fiona Joy Hawkins has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious music venues.

Our conversation on this day, however, takes us far from those concert venues and to the Arctic and how she has combined her music with nature and video.

Acknowledging that her trip to the Arctic was a life changing event, she says, “Absolutely, it was probably the best time I ever had, and it was such an eyeopener with the beauty there. I want to do it again, but there are so many other things I want to do. It really made me aware of the problems there and aware of the power of music and the power of suggestion. I was on a boat that was full of writers, biologists, photographers and politically involved and motivated people. We had really famous political people and I can’t even say who. When I met all of these people I said, all I could really do is my music. There is nothing more that I feel I can do to help these situations. They said to me, in some ways you can do more than many of us.

I was like, really? Read More

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