In making their third record, Hex Key, Mamalarky spent entire seasons hunched over guitars and obscure synthesizers, their long hair sweeping over strings or covering concentrated eyes. The band recorded takes in between the sounds of passing ice cream trucks and yowling stray cats in their LA home studio, a tight but prolific living room. Hex Key is a document of perseverance, of going for the gold while somehow remaining totally aware of one’s own vulnerabilities. These effervescent, swirling songs chronicle vivid desires crashing against real-life limitations but finding a way to keep burning anyway. That tension between anguish and resilience, between performed aloofness and brutal honesty, drives the music, imbues it with a compelling intensity. Over the last 8 years, the quartet’s members have lived in Austin, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, and have established a bond that they acknowledge is rare. “We have an unmatched level of trust in each other,” drummer Dylan Hill says. “There is no air of professionalism. It's literally just four friends hanging out and getting to the bottom of something.” Given their closeness, Mamalarky are able to fight like family, not necessarily with each other, but for the music, to make it the best it can be. Whereas their last album, Pocket Fantasy, was exploratory and free-flowing, the songs on Hex Key are the result of absolute devotion and fine tuning. It’s the kind of attention to detail that can only happen when the four bandmates are working alone together, uninterrupted by producers, engineers, or any outside influences. “It’s never ‘kick your feet up, let’s see what happens,” guitarist and singer Livvy Bennett says. “We’re always staring each other deeply in the eyes saying ‘Let’s make this next take incredible.’ We never settle.” The band is so committed to their craft that Hill even recorded the drums for “#1 Best of All Time” amidst an intense bout of poison ivy. The determination he felt in the moment manifested itself in the song’s frantic-but-focused percussion, he says.
From small-town girl to now a part of the Epitaph Records family, Royale Lynn has been experimenting with a nostalgic alt-metal influenced, hard-rock sound that has resonated with over 1 Million followers across socials and over 65 Million global streams. Proving her prowess for bridging the gap between two seemingly different worlds, on her full-length debut, the self-professed “metalhead from a small town” brings an extensive musical acumen and deep songwriting roots to elevate her visual and sonic identity. Over the past year Royale has scattered previews of the record with hard-hitting singles like “DEATH WISH” featuring Danny Warsnop (Asking Alexandria), a song dedicated to first responders which landed at #27 on the rock radio charts. Unafraid to tackle serious topics within her music, “BATTLEGROUND” chronicles the tumultuous experience of escaping a toxic relationship and emerging stronger and more resilient, while the powerful music video for “SACRIFICE” paints a visual picture of the darkness that can accompany mental illness.