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Doug Robb, the crystal-clear-voiced, Southern California-born singer, performer, and frontman for the Los Angeles-based rock band Hoobastank remembers dancing in his room in his “tighty-whiteys” at four years old. He and his family lived in a small apartment at the time and Robb can recall his mother listening to what he remembers as lively Salsa music.

The sounds emanated through his bedroom door and, without even thinking about, Robb says he got up and started dancing. “I still remember that,” Robb tells American Songwriter. “Very vividly.” Something about the music got him to jump out of bed and start to move. Ever since then, Robb has existed in music, from early years making up joke songs with friends to releasing platinum records with some of those same pals a decade-plus later. And on Saturday (November 20), Hoobastank will celebrate two full decades since releasing the self-titled LP that changed the members’ lives with a show at the Whisky A Go-Go in L.A.

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Los Angeles-born rock band L.A. Witch began from a dire situation. “This is kind of fucked up,” says the group’s frontwoman and co-founder, Sade Sanchez. After the preface, she continues with the story of a bad relationship. Her then-boyfriend was physically and mentally abusive, she says, to the point that, when Sanchez decided she wanted to start a band, he forbid her from including male members. So, not yet ready to part ways with him, which Sanchez later did, she sought women players for her new group. “That was really hard at the time,” she says.

Now, though, some years later, Sanchez’s group is going strong and so is a burgeoning community of like-minded rockers, including groups like the Coathangers across the country in Atlanta. On November 19, L.A. Witch and the Coathangers will release their new split 7” album on vinyl, which features covers of Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” and The Gun Club’s “Ghost on the Highway.”

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Sometimes when you’re a world-class performer, the difference between focus and failure is all about the small, most minute details. Sure, there are the big things like which hit movie or television series you’re starring in (or set to star in), what is your latest popular song? Those are the headline grabbers. But for the people who work in creative fields day in and day out, there must be smaller, more granular aspects of thinking about things so as to maintain focus and clarity.

For rapper and actor TJ Atoms, who stars in the popular Hulu series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, one bit of crucial minutia that he keyed in on was his name. Born Tyree Adams, the artist wasn’t into his last name, so he changed it to Atoms. Why? He’s all about energy. More than any line or lyric, the energy he puts into work is most essential. Which is why his latest song “Potato Chips,” which Atoms released last month, is so full of verve and vigor.

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For award-winning drag performer BenDeLaCreme (born Benjamin Putnam) music is often the proverbial spoonful of sugar that helps make the medicine go down. For “DeLa,” as she is known, childhood included melodies all the time. Whereas many families might have kept the television going 24/7, in DeLa’s home growing up it was musicals, soundtracks, and artists like Barbara Streisand and Eartha Kitt. As she points out now, it was the perfect soil for a soon-to-be-aspiring drag queen flower.

But soon, DeLa noticed something about the music she heard and musicals she followed, the songs provided the way for a message to sink in. Ever since, the artist has been utilizing this quality music allows. Most recently, she does so with her longtime collaborative partner Jinkx Monsoon on both their planned upcoming 26-city musical tour and new vinyl release earlier this month.

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The way songwriter Baby Tate (born Tate Sequoya Farris) thinks about it, music first came into her world the day she came into the literal world. Tate’s mother, after all, is Dionne Farris (of crossover hit, “I Know,” fame). Her father is a former music producer, though she didn’t have much contact with him growing up. Yet, for Tate, songs were always around. There was no time without them, she says. Her mother could see an interest in her at a young age, and so Tate was enrolled in a performing arts school, from elementary through high school.

Tate is one of those people who has always known what she’s wanted to do. For her, it was never a “doctor” or a “lawyer” when asked about her future. It was always a singer. Now, that supreme focus and dedication have paid off: Tate is a recent signee to Warner Music and today (Nov. 12), the artist has released her newest single, “Dungarees,” from the upcoming soundtrack for the new Halle Berry film, Bruised, which itself also features artists like Cardi B and H.E.R.

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Musician Jake Shimabukuro is probably the most famous ukulele player in the world. His fingers dash like sprinters, his hands strum like torrential winds, and his music emanates from the instrument like dancers. His music videos earn millions of views and he has thousands upon thousands of fans. Yet, Shimabukuro has a very particular relationship to the ukulele, and music, in general.

One might think that someone who takes music and practicing and playing so seriously, might also take the ukulele supremely seriously. Yet, Shimabukuro believes it all should be looked at with joy, not intimidation. When people ask him if it bothers him that people joke or look down on the ukulele as something of a toy, he says not at all. He says all instruments should be considered a joy to approach in this way. And it’s with this same joy that Shimabukuro approached his newest LP, Jake & Friends, which began a number of years ago, but is set to drop on Friday (November 12).

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Throughout his career, soul singer and songwriter Allen Stone admits that he’s suffered from “imposter syndrome.” It’s the feeling that you don’t belong or aren’t good enough. For some, this may be hard to believe given Stone’s other-worldly singing voice. His is a tone like golden light doused with dripping butter. Yet, that doesn’t necessarily alleviate internal feelings of insecurity. In the end, perhaps nothing might. But what Stone has realized over the years is that he can control the smaller things about his craft: showing up, being prepared, trying hard. He’s about the work. The rest—outwardly offered awards and acknowledgment—is for the birds.

As such, Stone is set to release his newest LP APART, an acoustic, stripped-down reimagined collection of some of his best songs over his decade as a professional musician. The record, which showcases both the origins of the songs and Stone’s vocal prowess performing them, is out November 12.

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Globally known songwriter and performer, Netta (born Netta Barzilai), moved with her parents from her native Israel to Nigeria as a three-month-old infant. When she was school-aged, her folks enrolled her in an international school where students had myriad different backgrounds. There were kids from Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, and other nations. As Netta says, there were all sorts of cultures and languages. The principal was American and he always carried a guitar. The place celebrated diversity, not monoculture. Netta remembers the Beatles and African gospel in her airwaves.

Later, though, her parents moved back to Israel when she was 7 and homogeneity kicked in. Suddenly, she was one of 40 ”white kids” in a classroom, and she was immediately just “the fat, uni-browed kid with the accent, who is also very, very sensitive.” This jarring juxtaposition, in a way, fuels every song the artist creates now. For Netta, music became a lifeline, a light source. And this is perhaps most obviously displayed on her newest single, “CEO,” which came out three weeks ago and has already amassed more than two million views.

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The story of Heavy Load Blues, the new record out Friday (November 12) from the prolific rock band Gov’t Mule, begins with two separate rooms. For a number of years, the band’s co-founder, Warren Haynes, had been talking about the idea of making a blues album. Generally speaking, Gov’t Mule is a jam-rock band, founded originally as an improvisational power rock trio. But once the 2020 pandemic hit, Haynes found himself, like many other artists, writing song after song, and he’d accumulated a significant number of blues tunes that he wanted to lay down. But when the band eagerly agreed to the idea, there was one more stipulation: the group had to record two albums at once. In two separate rooms, simultaneously.

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