We're beyond ecstatic to announce that Post Precious is officially part of the Maximal Music Sync roster! The band is the new side project of off-kilter pop singer Alex Winston and MS MR’s Max Hershenow. Their longtime friendship turned into a creative collaboration when both artists found themselves moving from New York to Los Angeles. Originally writing for other artists, Winston & Hershenow realized along the way that the songs they were making should be a separate musical entity. While on hiatus from MS MR, Hershenow was excited to explore new ways of writing and releasing music outside of the major label system. Winston, coming off of her last EP, was looking for a creative outlet to explore new sonic ideas before putting out her next LP. The name Post Precious is a statement of the ethos around the project – freed from the yoke of the label system, they’ve tried to focus their joint project on what’s fulfilling and fun about making music.

Of the partnership, Winston says “It was just refreshing to be uninhibited again. There was no agenda, other than writing songs that we liked. It’s like, Oh shit, I remember this feeling.” Not only is the music a fresh new venture for the two, but the decision to self-release the project is a new frontier for the both of them. Releasing music independently, on their own label, interested the two because, according to Hershenow, “We have total control over every element of the project, which means we can play and experiment not only musically, but also with artwork, videos, and new ways of releasing music."

Their collaborative effort layers pulsing, upbeat synths beneath the soaring, sweet sounds of Winston’s voice. It is pop music at its finest, with a hint of the gravity of life that Winston has come to be known for in her lyrics. Fans of both MS MR and Winston’s solo work will be thrilled to hear the new EP in the spring of 2018.

We're excited to welcome Brick Fields to the Maximal Music Sync Roster! 

Brick Fields is an Arkansas original musical group fronted by the ambrosial voice of Rachel Fields bring you their ‘Roots’ music using a Blues, Folk and Gospel platform as with an Americana Soul feel on their new album “Blues Habit”. The Brick Fields foundation is married couple Rachel Fields and Larry Brick. Rachel was recently presented with The Arkansas Arts Council Individual Fellowship Award and is a co-founder of the power group “Divas On Fire”. She cut her musical teeth first in the Arkansas river valley, by way of her Uncle Mike "Burger" Scoggins, then in the jam band circuit touring in the late 90's east and west coast festivals opening for acts like Government Mule and later singing on a tour with JGB. Larry has spent over 40 years in the music business as a guitar player, songwriter and also as a worship leader during the California Calvary movement of the 1970’s. 

Together, Brick Fields has been called a magnet for other musicians and music lovers alike.  Ever evolving, this couple’s original music can charm venues in an intimate relaxed setting with the acoustic duo telling stories of musical roots or bring a full-on band experience that brings the house to its feet. 

Maximal Music Sync is delighted to add Seattle-based indie rockers Pickwick to our roster! 

Listen to LoveJoys, the sophomore release from Seattle, WA’s Pickwick, and you’ll hear a band that has pushed aside external pressures and expectations, overcome internal demons, and plugged directly into their own creative center. Slinky, sinewy, and articulate, the record pulses with a palpable confidence. Hypnotically intricate, just-right sonic ornamentation shimmers around a thick, undulating bed of propulsive rhythm. Submit willfully, give yourself over to Pickwick’s practiced ministrations, and you’ll find yourself exhausted and deeply satisfied, slick with a sheen of glitter and sweat.

Following the breakout success of 2013’s self-released Can’t Talk Medicine (which WXPN lauded for its “wonderfully engaging lo-fi rock and soul”) the band found themselves on national tours with Neko Case and Black Joe Lewis, performing on the main stage of the Sasquatch Music Festival, headlining the Capitol Hill Block Party, and performing alongside with the Seattle Symphony. They holed up to begin work on what was to be the follow up release, and things got complicated.

As the band was forty songs into writing a pop R&B record, they became deeply unsatisfied with the direction the music was taking. Tensions boiled over, and they lost a member in 2016. Walking away from a mountain of music, the group was able to tap into the joy of writing for themselves. “We rediscovered what we do best by not overthinking what we make, and learned to love the process of creating again” relates vocalist Galen Disston. “LoveJoys is a specific type of euphoria,” says drummer Alex Westcoat “a liberating feeling of inspiration that can only be achieved through the sacrifice of one's own ambition. It is the shedding of expectations; an uninhibited escape into a world of child-like infatuation and wonder.”

After an intense three month writing session the band – Disston, Westcoat, guitarist Michael Parker, bassist Garrett Parker, and keyboardist Cassady Lillstrom - turned to producer Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, Tacocat and Moondoggies) for guidance in putting the music to tape. LoveJoys was recorded at "Chemical X" and "Black Space" (February - May 2016), Blood’s studios in the basement of the old Rainier Brewery building in Seattle. It features performances from: Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Sean T. Lane, Marquetta Miller (Breaks and Swells), Taryn Rene Dorsey, and the Black Space’s in-house horns and strings - Alina To (Passenger String Quartet) and Jeremy Shaskus (Breaks and Swells).

Written in the midst of personal and political turmoil, LoveJoys became a lyrical and sonic escape somehow, a place for the band to purge all their deepest concerns while also being relieved of them. LoveJoys embodies the relationship between inspired creativity and the use of escapism as a way of getting there. Like little fossilized explorations of his own greatest fears and anxieties, Disston’s lyrics bury themselves into the band's bright new sonic landscape, both contradicting their collective fantasy and reminding them of why they chose to construct it in the first place. 

Maximal Music Sync is thrilled to announce the addition of New York-based singer-songwriter Hayley Coupon to our roster! 

Having already drawn national attention for her introspective songcraft and distinctive vocal power, Hayley Coupon is poised to reveal the true scope of her talent with her highly anticipated debut album, WIRE AND ROPE. Set against a spare yet surprisingly lush backdrop provided by GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Craig Street (Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson) and a cast of studio all-stars, songs like the finely etched “All You Gave” and the first single “Curse Me” bend diverse musical genres into new forms to suit the astonishing gravitational force of Coupon’s widescreen vocals and equally potent lyrical voice.

Coupon grew up in New York City and was immersed in its “cultural pulse” right from the very start, attending opera, theatre, and concerts of all kinds with her mother from the age of three. The music inspired her to sing, loud and often, a talent nurtured during middle school to the point where Coupon knew it would be her life’s work. 

Coupon released her debut EP, REMEMBRANCE, in 2013, followed two years later by a second EP, DO THE RIGHT THING, LIKE YOU SAID YOU WOULD, prompting T: The New York Times Style Magazine to declare her the city’s “New Chanteuse To Watch.” Coupon continued to work on songs and performance, finally making a long desired “huge leap forward” via her collaboration with Craig Street.

Street took an old fashioned approach to Coupon’s artistic development, allowing her time and space to find her own route. Though she had built up a stockpile of songs, the producer asked her to start from scratch.

In 2015, Coupon went to Texas for a pair of writing and demo sessions at El Paso’s renowned Sonic Ranch. Located on 2,300 acres of pecan orchards bordering the Rio Grande and Mexico, the studio – the largest residential recording complex in the world – proved the ideal locale for her continuing creative evolution. Coupon found her songwriting voice at Sonic Ranch. Street further complemented Coupon’s songs with a remarkable array of session players, including guitarist Davíd Garza, bassist Sebastian Steinberg (k.d. lang, Dixie Chicks), keyboard player Jebin Bruni (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann), guitarist Chris Bruce (Seal, Meshell Ndegeocello), and drummer Abe Rounds (Andrew Bird, My Brightest Diamond).

With WIRE & ROPE ready at last for its long awaited arrival, Coupon plans to herald the album with a series of live shows in New York and Los Angeles, followed by a national tour accompanied by the multi-talented Garza.

We're so excited to welcome the multi-talented, Reykjavik, Iceland-based production and songwriting team High Hat (Janus Rasmussen, of Kiasmos and Bloodgroup, and Sakaris Emil Joensen), including electro pop artist SAKARIS, to the Maximal Music Sync family! Read on to learn more about both projects. 

HIGH HAT

High Hat is a production/songwriting duo based in Reykjavik, consisting of long-time friends and collaborators Janus Rasmussen and Sakaris Emil Joensen. Originally from Iceland’s sister country Faroe Islands, the two musicians relocated to Reykjavik to expand their ventures. Janus is best known for being one half of acclaimed electronic duo Kiasmos and electro pop band Bloodgroup. In addition to his own solo project, Sakaris has been active as a producer and songwriter for more than 10 years. Since forming the High Hat collaboration, the pair has settled down in a fully equipped and treated studio by the Reykjavik harbor, working daily on writing, producing and mixing for a variety of Icelandic and international clients. The duo’s focus is mainly on electronically produced music, working on everything from fully featured vocal pop to beat-driven hip hop to ambient dance to advertisement music. The duo has worked with a range of popular artists, including Arnor Dan (from Agent Fresco), Hildur, Árstiðir, GDRN and Heidrik. In addition to this, they have also provided music for TV shows, commercials, and radio programs. The combined expertise of the two producers provides an effective and inspired workflow, delivering world class productions and mixes.

SAKARIS

SAKARIS is the main project of Faroese electro producer Sakaris Emil Joensen. Starting out in 2010 with his quirky 8-bit electro funk debut "Darling EP" and further establishing himself with the full-length 2012 album "I Have Beautiful Eyes", SAKARIS has become one of the most prominent electro artists from the remote and tiny Faroe Islands. The music ranges from tight, bright and optimistic dance music, to soaring 80s nostalgic soundscapes. The latter years have been littered with performances on various prominent festivals, such as Spot Festival, JaJaJa Festival, G! Festival, Dias Nordicos and Waves Vienna, along with press hype from Clash Music, Wired UK and The Line of Best Fit.

Maximal Music Sync is over the moon to announce the addition of our newest signing, Seattle-based singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone! 

Across her four critically-acclaimed albums, including 2017's From Where I Started, Sera has become known for creating stirring, hushed Americana music that embodies raw emotionalism. Her songs have always been the sort that grab the listener by the collar and pull them close. And yet fans may not even realize they’ve yet been held at arm’s length until they hear the revisited arrangements on her new, forthcoming EP, The Flora String Sessions, due for self-release on April 20, 2018.

The Flora String Sessions revisits some of Cahoone’s most beloved fan favorites from across her remarkable career, with just her starkly honest vocals and guitar plus violin, viola, and cello. It’s somewhat of a greatest hits collection, albeit with more intimate, stunningly beautiful arrangements by Led to Sea violist Alex Guy.

Cahoone has always been a master of intense lyrical intimacy. And while her exquisite live band has provided her previous recordings with lush, intuitive instrumental support, there is something remarkably pure about hearing some of the best songs of her career delivered in this more nuanced manner.

As Cahoone has steadily gained a wider audience over the past twelve years, the Denver- native-turned-Seattle-mainstay (and former member of Carissa's Weird and Band of Horses) has toured with Son Volt, Kathleen Edwards, Blitzen Trapper, and Gregory Alan Isakov, to name a few; but it was a duo tour with Guy that set the pair spinning toward The Flora String Sessions.

We're so happy to welcome Ft. Collins, CO based singer-songwriter Kyle James Hauser to the Maximal Music Sync family! Kyle’s music career began auspiciously: he performed at CMJ, SXSW and the Toronto Int’l Film festivals; was a competitive finalist at Telluride Bluegrass and Rocky Mountain Folk festivals; and released his first record Oh Oh on sonaBLAST! Records. 

A graduate in Songwriting from Berklee College of Music, Kyle James Hauser went on to study banjo under Jayme Stone, Noam Pikelny, Chris Pandolfi and others. He’s been involved in over a dozen album releases over his career, and his album You a Thousand Times reached #1 on Colorado Public Radio a month after its 2014 release. His songs are featured in film and television, including Judd Apatow’s The Big Sick, MTV's series 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom, Where Hope Grows and many more.

Kyle has shared the stage with Nathaniel Rateliff, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Head and the Heart, Brett Dennen, John Hiatt, David Grisman and more. Playing with Colorado band Rapidgrass (2014-2016), Hauser released two albums and toured internationally, most notably headlining La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France and winning 2015’s RockyGrass Competition. In 2015, Hauser also seized the opportunity to co-write a ballet with one of the country’s most highly-regarded regional ballet companies, the Louisville Ballet.

In addition to his recording and touring career, Hauser currently serves as Programs Coordinator for the Detour touring program at Bohemian Foundation’s groundbreaking incubator, The Music District and has been involved in music nonprofits Louisville Folk School (as co-founder), Think 360 Arts, Colorado Music Collective, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He also teaches songwriting at the Berklee College of Music and has given masterclasses at schools all over the country, including Oberlin Conservatory and Swallow Hill.

We're elated to add the Bosshouse catalog of songs and masters to the Maximal roster! L.A.-based Bosshouse Music was founded in 2002 by composer / songwriter Stephen Phillips.  Since its inception, the Bosshouse and Transphonic Records catalogs have secured thousands of placements in episodic television, film, advertising, and trailers.

The BH team, including CEO/Founder Stephen Phillips and Amy Roberts as Senior Director/Creative Marketing, has a philosophy of  working from “the inside out” as composers, which has served Bosshouse exceptionally well from day one and continues to be an unbreakable model in all things sync. Bosshouse Music features over 2000 tracks of high quality, vocally-driven songs and underscore, while Transphonic Records provides clients with access to bands, artists, and singer-songwriters.

2018 has welcomed the addition of SottoPhonic Productions into the Bosshouse family.  SottoPhonic is specifically geared toward trailer music production, master reimagining, and underscore composing.

We're psyched about our newest Maximal signing, Atlanta-based rockers Baby Baby! These guys are too awesome for words, so we're going to let them introduce themselves: 

We are Baby Baby from Atlanta. I am Fontez Brooks. I sing songs and play the guitar. I am Colin Boddy. I like a good cocktail kit and yelling is fun. I am Grant Wallace. I hit drums and have a thriving lawn care business. I am Hsiang-Ming Wen. I slappa da bass and haven’t had a hair cut in years.

We play fun-rock. We’ve played it at Riotfest, Made In America, Afropunk Fest(s), Warped Tour and for Red Bull’s 30 Days In L.A. We’ve toured with Fishbone, Black Lips, and some other bands worth mentioning, but we won’t.

We just released 2 songs called “Here” (which is an ode to old Atlanta) and “Boys Poop Too” (which is about male sensitivity).

Our managers say we are “a mélange of Indie, English and Swedish Punk, Bayou Rock, Vaudeville and Carnival”.  But what do they know. They use big words which we don’t understand.

We're excited to announce Maximal's newest signing, award-winning UK musician, producer, and author, Colin MacIntyre, a.k.a. Mull Historical Society and Field Stars! Colin has had two UK Top 20 albums and four Top 40 singles since the release of his Gold-selling debut album, Loss. With his latest project, Field Stars, he's creating electro art-pop produced by the Grammy-winning Dom Morley (Amy Winehouse's Back to Black) and mixed by Lars Norgren (Tove Lo's Habits). 2018 will also see the release of Colin's new Mull Historical Society album, Wakelines, produced by the Mercury Award-winning songwriter and Brit Award-winning producer Bernard Butler (Suede, McAlmost & Butler). 

In addition to making amazing music under his various monikers, Colin is also the author of the novel The Letters of Ivor Punch (W&N/Orion), which won the 2015 Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award, and will have two more books out this year-- his memoir, The Boy in the Bubble, and his children's book, The Humdrum Drum, a picture book with accompanying original songs and audiobook.