LEFT ← Writers

Thomas "Tommy" Brenneck is an American multi-instrumentalist, writer and record producer, perhaps best known as the founder and leader of Menahan Street Band, and core member of The Budos Band. Tom also produced renowned soul artist Charles Bradley, performed with the iconic Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and has worked closely with Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Anderson .Paak. Brenneck is the founder of Dunham and Diamond West Records whose studio is based in Pasadena, CA. Notable songwriting cuts include Mark Ronson Feat. Miley Cyrus (“Nothing Breaks Like A Heart”), Travis Scott (“Antidote”), Bazzi, 21 Savage (“Focus”), Panic! At The Disco (“Say Amen (Saturday Night)”), Lizzo (“Break Up Twice”), Freddie Gibbs, Anderson .Paak, Raekwon (“Feel No Pain”), Jay-Z (“Rock Boyz”, “Open Letter”), Eminem (“Groundhog Day”), the Black Eyed Peas (“Imma Be”), and Lady Gaga (“Joanne”, “Sinner’s Prayer”).

Novo Amor

Novo Amor is Ali Lacey. He lives in Cardiff, in a house that’s part-home, part-studio, a place where the distant chatter of a party across the street, Bonfire Night fireworks and the seagulls that congregate on the building site next door bleed into his recordings.

He began Novo Amor as a project of sorts - an act of defiance in the wake of a break-up, but along the way, quite unexpectedly, he found something rich and rewarding. Years ago, a summer spent by an evergreen-surrounded lake in upstate New York supplied both the impetus and imagery that he would use to craft his debut album Birthplace (2018).

As he prepares to release ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’, Lacey contemplates a past soundtracked by songs of quiet hope and longing. “I can still see the lake upstate when I picture ‘Birthplace’, the songs sheltered by this place I’ve romanticised that doesn’t actually exist anymore. These new songs feel immediate and noisy in comparison, almost optimistic. If ‘Birthplace’ is the countryside, then ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’ is the city.”

RY X

RY X gravitates towards connection. Connection to nature, to his emotions, to his body and spirit, to the human experience. On his third, transcendental solo album, Blood Moon, the Australian musician delves into what inspires the pull into these spaces – the ways in which we move through the world – in songs that serve as the apotheosis of his artistic expression.

Josh Crocker

Josh Crocker is a UK-based multi-instrumentalist, writer and producer. A true collaborator, highlights of Josh’s released works include production and arrangement across Celeste’s UK Charts Number 1 and Mercury Music Prize nominated debut album “Not Your Muse”. Further Celeste cuts include co-writing credits on “Ideal Woman” and Co-production on “A Little Love” by Celeste featured in the John Lewis 2020 Christmas Commercial.

Vicky Farewell

Vicky Farewell Nguyen is an LA-based multi-instrumentalist and writer. She has writing credit on Anderson .Paak’s Grammy winning single “Lockdown”, and production credits on “When Winter Comes” include in McCartney III by Paul McCartney. Further writing and production credits are “Reachin’ 2 Much”, “Winners Circle”, “Celebrate” and “Parking Lot” from Anderson .Paak’s Grammy-winning album Ventura and Grammy nominated album Malibu.

A gifted piano player, Nguyen is at ease collaborating with writers and artists alike from the ground up, either in person or remotely. Vicky is also well-suited to finishing off existing ideas. Other notable cuts include “Eternal Light (feat Chronixx)” by the Free Nationals, included in their self-titled Grammy nominated album, take your time (feat. Tinashe) by Channel Tres, “WUTD” by Genesis Owusu, “It’s Better For You (featuring Anderson. Paak)” by Shafiq Husayn, and “Shine” by TOBi. Vicky is signed as a solo artist to Mac DeMarco’s label, distributed by Virgin Records.

Ed Tullett

Oxford-born, Cardiff-based, Ed Tullett is a prolific songwriter, producer and collaborator, best known for his work with Novo Amor (Ali Lacey). Tullett and Lacey met in 2013 at one of Tullett’s shows and quickly became friends. The result was the collaborative album ‘Heiress’ (2017) and the co-authoring of both Novo Amor albums: ‘Birthplace’ (2018) and the widely- acclaimed successor ‘Cannot Be, Whatsoever’ (2020). The pair continue to work together closely.

In 2018, Tullett formed two new collaborative projects. The first, Lissom, with French pianist Julien Marchal; the second, Hailaker, with Bristol-based Jemima Coulter. Across these projects four albums have been created and released, with Hailaker’s most recent single featuring S. Carey of Bon Iver.

In 2021 Tullett formed an electronic project with lifelong friend Auryn Tate (Shinamo Moki) and continues to write and collaborate across a wide spectrum of musical styles.

Elizabeth Fraser

Elizabeth Fraser is a gift. The former lead singer of Cocteau Twins, Fraser’s vocals are intimate, yet emotionally euphoric. Each song she pens is rare air, delivered with an intuitive strength and wonder.

Cocteau Twins' influence today prevails with artists such as Prince, The Weeknd, Radiohead, Sigor Rós, Beach House, M83, The Sugarcubes and Slowdive counting Cocteau Twins as an inspiration. Fraser continues to offer her vocal and songwriting craft in collaboration with others. A selection includes Massive Attack, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jónsi, Harold Budd, Ian McCulloch and Yann Tiersen, along with featuring on The Lord of The Rings soundtrack.

In early 2022, as part of the collective Sun Signature, Fraser will be sharing five unreleased archive songs on Record Store Day.

Chris Chu

Chris Chu is the primary songwriter, producer, and lead vocalist of POP ETC (formerly known as The Morning Benders). The band has been streamed over 100 million times across platforms and toured extensively throughout the world.

Some of his production and songwriting credits outside the band include- Bear Hands, Hoodie Allen, Danger Mouse, First Aid Kit, Van William, LostBoyCrow, Run River North, Foreign Air, Tim Atlas, Miniature Tigers, WATERS, Spirit Animal, Avid Dancer, Meija, and Mourners.

He has also worked extensively in Japan and Asia, credits there include Yoko Kanno, Kimura Kaela, Leo Ieiri, Galileo Galilei, BBHF, and Stamp.

His songs have been featured on several national/international commercial campaigns including Sony, Hershey, and Samsung, as well as many prominent film and TV placements, including The Twilight Saga, Big Little Lies, New Amsterdam, Midnight Sun, Lovesick, The New Normal, Chuck, The Vampire Diaries, and many more!

Field Medic

Field Medic is the recording project of american folk artist Kevin Patrick Sullivan. He got his start playing in the streets of San Francisco, and has now toured nationally and internationally. His large catalog of music speaks to his prolific approach to song writing, sometimes referred to as “fulltime freestyle”. Kevin will often write a song and record it in the same day live in one take.

His music centers around themes of anxiety, addiction, love, & everything in between. While Kevin mostly writes for himself as Field Medic, he does collaborate with similar-minded writers, recent cuts include “Bloom Later” by Jesse (of The Neighbourhood).

Kate Bollinger

Kate Bollinger’s songs tend to linger well beyond their run times, filling the negative space of ordinary days with charming melodies and smart phrasings. She writes them at home in Richmond, Virginia, letting her subconscious lead stretches on guitar, an open-ended process she likens to dreaming. From a chord progression appears a line, maybe a syllable will start to stick, enough to pursue, but she says sometimes the words don't feel like her own, more like shapes that form in the mind’s sky. While many are personal and deal with the emotions that surface with finding her place in the world, she’d prefer they be whatever you’d like them to be, to connect with listeners in their own way. Bollinger’s musical universe is relaxed, tender, and unassuming; within lives a timeless sensibility, a songwriter’s knack for noticing the little things and their counterpoints. Darkness and light, pain and pleasure, reality and escape.

Made Kuti

The grandson of the pioneering inventor of Afrobeat Fela Kuti, and son of Femi -- the keeper of Fela's flame -- Made Kuti blends aspects of that genre with jazz, highlife, rock, and reggae while maintaining the socially conscious themes that have always been at the forefront of his family's music

Femi Kuti

Femi Kuti is the heart and soul of modern Afrobeat. Femi’s father, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, created the style – a blend of traditional Nigerian drum patterns, the smooth groove of highlife and American soul, funk and R&B – and took it to the world, inspiring people with insistent dance beats and lyrics bristling with political statements. Afrobeat moved several generations of musicians, in Nigeria and around the world, to follow Fela’s dictum and use music as a weapon to fight for justice and freedom. Femi and his band, Positive Force, are at the forefront of that movement, continually expanding the music’s vocabulary, adding hints of punk and hip-hop to the sound, while maintaining its traditional roots and political message.

Seun Kuti

Seun Kuti is the youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He has spent most of his life preserving and extending his father's political and musical legacy as the leader of Egypt 80.

James Lavelle

For the past 30 years, James Lavelle has been at the forefront of global club culture. Known as much for his highly eclectic DJ sets as for his production work as UNKLE, Lavelle has been lauded as a highly influential tastemaker and musical curator.

The Oh Hellos

The Oh Hellos began in a cluttered bedroom in 2011, where siblings Maggie and Tyler Heath (born and raised in southern Texas) recorded their self-titled EP. In the fall of 2012, the duo released their debut full-length record Through the Deep, Dark Valley, an album full of regret and redemption, which they wrote, recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered themselves. In early 2013 the Heath siblings reached out to friends both new and old and gathered together an ensemble of touring musicians the size of a circus, tumblers and all.

Notos — released in late 2017 — is named for the ancient Greco-Roman god of the south wind, who brought storms in the summer. The band’s influences include groups like Fleet Foxes and the Muppets, Sufjan Stevens, and animated works such as Over the Garden Wall and the films of Studio Ghibli. The band delights in bending and blending styles and genres into a unique mixture of eclectic folk rock.

Aaron Fletcher

Aaron is a Lyricist/Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist who is a co-founding member of Mercury Music Prize nominated The Bees and the critically acclaimed duo 77:78. Both projects release stunning records steeped in the roots of British rock, Country and American soul. An avid record listener and collector, Fletcher is a fantastic DJ who’s sets are always filled with nuggets