Kemi Adegoroye dreamt her entire life of having her own album-release party. It will finally happen on Jan. 29, but thanks to the coronavirus, it won’t be quite as she imagined. Absent from the event, to be broadcast online from Crescendo Studios in D.C., will be a live audience, though several of her bandmates will be present to share her music with the DMV—and the world.

“It’ll be full lights, five cameras, a full production. And people will be able to watch it safely and comfortably from their homes,” Adegoroye said this month, adding that the song arrangements will be slightly different from what will be heard on the EP, also recorded at Crescendo. “I love that it’s full circle. So to be able to come back [to Crescendo] for the release out into the world is a really special thing.”

My first introduction to One Way Out was as an open-mic host at Villain and Saint in Bethesda, MD, which closed its doors on September 30, 2019. That would mean I had the pleasure of catching their music careers beginning to develop at the ground floor, before many of them had turned eighteen, similar to my exposure to Southern Maryland rockers Flippin’ Eyelids. Today’s young rock bands have a leg-up on previous generations in that their parents have been watching a two-decade or longer restructuring of the music business, which has yet to settle into its ‘final’ form. The family units that manage these young artists and develop them into career minded individuals are much more aware of their intellectual property, and the ability to harness the various benefits that technology and connectedness afford.

This week, I got the wonderful chance to speak with up & coming artist Kimberly Shires, a native to the DMV area, about her new single called “Ride Your High.” “Ride Your High” is Shires’ debut single. The record is a bluesy rock tune with her sultry vocals and features her own father, Dean Shires, on the organ. The record was produced, mixed and mastered by Max Rich of Los Angeles, CA, who also played guitar and bass for the track.

While this is Shires’ debut single, it’s certainly not the first time she’s been involved in music. It might not even be the first time you’ve read her name on this platform. She is also one of the writers at Alchemical Records. Shires is the type of person who really goes for it, and in that vein she has been dedicated to different forms of music for decades.

Vacation Manor is a band that has really caught out attention lately. Their 2016 debut EP, Girl, Say, yielded fan favorites such as “A Toast and a Spirit” [9.9 million Spotify streams] and “Careless” [6.2 million Spotify streams]. On its heels, 2018’s Everything I Can’t Say Out Loud elevated their total streams past 25 million powered by “Say We’ll Make It” [1.5 million Spotify streams] and more. During 2019, they commenced their next chapter. Reteaming with Girl, Say producer Kyle Cummings, the musicians wrote and recorded their new EP, Thoughts in Progress, Pt. 1.

Color Palette – comprised of Jay Nemeyer, Joshua Hunter, Matt Hartenau, Rogerio Naressi, and Maryjo Mattea – is an Indie/Electro/Rock band from Washington, DC. The band’s sound has been compared to that of The Cure, M83, Depeche Mode, and Tame Impala. They’ve shared the stage with the following notable artists: Charli XCX, The Naked and Famous, Soccer Mommy, Mother Mother, Day Wave, Yumi Zouma, and Mr Little Jeans.We we’re fortunate enough to learn more about them through an interview.

Zen Warship has been a living, breathing, and evolving band that entered the Washington D.C. area music scene in 2016. The band revels in the enthusiasm fans show on the dance floor for its captivating live sound that blends various elements of funk, rock, soul, and disco, along with individual influences including pop, punk, and jazz. As 2020 draws to a close, Zen Warship in its current stage of metamorphosis prepares to release their first full-length album aptly titled, Anything That Grooves, currently available for pre-order on Bandcamp, and on all other major music platforms on December 11. Alchemical Records had the pleasure of sitting down with Tyler, Roberto, Alison, and Preethy to dig into the inspiration behind the album and the recording process the band is using to help listeners immediately feel connected to those live elements that are such an important component of the band’s sound.