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Art Alexakis, the frontman for the uber-successful rock band Everclear, would hear the story repeated to him often. His family would remind Alexakis about the time when he was just 18-months old and in the front seat of his parent’s car as they drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. The song, “Wipe Out,” came on, rich with the big opening drum roll. This was before car seats and seatbelts, sometime around 1963 or 1964. And at that moment Alexakis began to wild out, moving and gyrating in the front of the car, possessed by the track.

It was so overwhelming that his father turned the song off because it was hard for him to drive with his son moving so much up there. But Alexakis began to scream, wanting it back on. So, his father pulled the car over, put it back on the radio, and when it concluded, Alexakis fell into his mother’s lap as his father finally drove back onto the highway. In other words, Alexakis has always had a relationship with music. So, today, celebrating his band’s origins and its debut record, World of Noise, which came out some 30 years ago, with a new tour this summer makes complete sense.

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Xavier Amin Dphrepaulez, who is better known as the Bay Area rocker Fantastic Negrito, may never make another record. At least, that’s what the musician says now, as his latest LP and accompanying visual album, White Jesus, Black Problems, are unleashed into the world today (June 3). For Dphrepaulez, who is constantly on the hunt for new inspiration to create and create more, he thinks he may never have quite the internal push as he did for his latest work: finding out he is the descendant of a white Scottish indentured servant who fell in love and had children with a Black slave nearly 300 years ago.

Dphrepaulez learned about their story, first, through a random DM and some subsequent heavy research. Filled with the fire of discovery, he began writing his new work and the powerful project is now set for the light of day.

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As a solo artist in charge of a piece of work all your own, complete with the final say, the task can be daunting, says legendary musician John Doe. It can also be great. When you’re working with a group, there are many voices in this mix. This can lean toward consensus or compromise—or disagreement. But, as with his past two solo releases—The Westerner in 2016 and now his 2022 album, Fables in a Foreign Land—Doe has been the ultimate voice when it comes to the direction (and the singing). Thankfully for him, though, Doe found his vision and his centerpiece song to the record.

Now, as the album is set for release on Friday (May 20), the musician, who rose to fame with his punk rock band X (with musician Exene Cervenka), knows there is heft and meaning to the work he’s set to unleash into the world. And the anchor to it is the album’s first track, “Never Coming Back,” a song that’s all about fleeing and knowing that there’s no returning to the past.

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When people talk about the idea of an artist’s life’s work, what is really being considered? Yes, in one way, an artist’s life’s work is the total accumulation of all that they’ve made and released into the world. But it can also have another meaning: a life’s work can also be a singular effort that encompasses a life and a career to date. For Lady Wray (born Nicole Wray), her newest album, Piece Of Me, represents the latter.

Wray, who released the LP earlier this year in January, has since been out on the road performing songs from it in cities all over the country (and she’ll continue that tour later this year, beginning in June). In so doing, Wray has gotten a chance to meet and connect with her fans—some of whom have been following her for decades now. This has been invaluable. She has shared smiles and tears with them. And the process has shown her just what her years of working and living in music have meant.

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Popstar Sabrina Claudio was raised around music. It showed up in family gatherings, parties, cleaning time, and chores. And while she never initially thought she’d be a well-known songwriter and performer growing up, she’s become just that, earning millions of song streams and airplay around the world. Today, Claudio, who is set to release her latest LP, Based On A Feeling, on Friday (May 6), considers herself an R&B artist at heart. She’s soulful and insightful in her craft. Yet, she also calls herself normal—perhaps even “too normal”—honoring authenticity in her work more than accolades or marketing manipulation. These roots have proved valuable as Claudio continues to grow and mature, both personally and professionally. In fact, she’s finally been able to hone her vision to one central tenant and that has inspired the bloom of her newest work completely—though it almost never happened.

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Emily Kokal, vocalist, guitar player, and songwriter for the band Warpaint, knows the value of being bored. She might not be where she is today—poised to release the group’s newest album, Radiate Like This, on May 6 and headed out for a European tour—had it not been for boredom. With nothing to do, she discovered songwriting books, guitar chords, and the beginnings of what would become her profession: creativity.

On those occasions when her mother grounded her as a kid, that’s perhaps when it all really started. Today, though, kids (and people, in general) are inundated with options and things to do. But what happens to people, she wonders, without times of uncertainty, without downtime? Thankfully for Kokal, she had her own moments like this, and they helped give her the tools to become the acclaimed artist she is now. With hope, she says, others will experience the same.

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When the clouds had parted and the drizzly U.K. rain had subsided, young Graham Nash could listen to American Top-40 radio on Sunday nights in his bedroom. He was about 13 years old and had already enjoyed work as an aspiring photographer when he began to take notice. Nash had started taking his first images around 11. But through Radio Luxembourg, Nash could hear the songs of Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Fats Domino fill his room. This, of course, spurred the desire to play the guitar. Now, seven decades later, Nash is still wielding a six-string and still writing music. He’s created his own hits throughout the years in various bands like the Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And Nash is celebrating many of the best tunes on his new live album, Graham Nash: Live, which is set to release on Friday (May 6).

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