Music from the Heart

Hailing from a small Icelandic community in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, Dave Helgi Johan moved to Byron Bay in 2019 to actively pursue music full time as a solo musician while playing and collaborating with many local artists. Dave has played bass for local favorite Luke Morris and performs and records with Patrick O’Reilly among others. Dave has performed and toured for the last decade in countless acts. Recorded and released a handful of albums and music videos in past groups and has finally committed himself to a solo career. He has opened for the likes of Mac Demarco, Kim Churchill, PS I Love You and The Mowgli’s. He has played many music festivals including Canada Music Week, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Byron Bay Surf Festival, Arlie Beach Music Festival and more. His sound has been described Lofi Indie, Folk and Alt Country.

POL (pronounced Pole) is a songwriter based in Dublin, Ireland, with a passion for harmonies, hooks and melodies. Writing, performing, and producing his own music is his form of artist expression, POL (an acronym of his initials in his native language, Irish,) has developed and honed his skill of writing by sitting at a piano, hitting a chord and let it lyrically and musically evolve

Upcoming indie/pop singer-songwriter RUE can be described to be angelic, edgy yet soulful, all at once. Coming from a small village in Northern Ireland, Rue songs are created from an honest place of raw emotion. Singing with a serene and calming tone, her unique tone and light-hearted charm will have you captured immediately.

Exposed to bands like AC/DC and Audioslave from a very early age, playing guitar helped Jaime Orr to overcome major speech difficulties, allowing him to express himself beyond the use of words. It was a huge turning point and is the reason he has dedicated himself to a life in music. "The instrument is why I am able to articulate words the way I do now."  His music focuses on tough themes interspersed with positive messages - soft ballad type verses influenced by John Mayer combined with hard hitting guitar riff-based choruses inspired by grunge and hard rock bands such as Royal Blood and Nirvana. 

Sparkle are a five-piece pop/rock band based in Cork, Ireland. They consist of Caroline Bailey (Lead Vocal) who came second on RTE’s Last Singer Standing, Jen Bowler (Acoustic Guitar/Backing Vocals), Greg Murphy (Drums/Percussion), Ian Carey (Bass) and Tadgh Sheehan (Lead Guitar). The female fronted outfit have developed a melodic yet fierce and engaging sound. They like to set the bar higher by incorporating a wide range of influences into their music to make their music unique and stand out from the crowd. They take these influences and blend them to create their distinctive and unforgettable sound.

Hotel California is an Americana project by singer and songwriter Daniel Green, living in a small village in Northern Europe. During lockdown he wrote 24 new tracks, which are released song by song every three weeks starting in January 2021. He loves his life and his life exists within music. Dark moments transform to songs as do the beautiful ones. His biggest shows so far were the Sziget Festival in Budapest and the Vans Varped Tour in the USA. He has produced songs with Ronald Bood (Mando Diao, Kooks). He now releases Greater Love.

Known within the music industry for their work behind the scenes but now stepping out with their own unique musical & visual project, electronic producers David Anthony Curley and Joe Furlong arrive with their debut single and self directed video for "True Romance"  and announce themselves as The Cope. Based in Dublin and Berlin, the songwriting, producing, film making, audio-visual artist pair, have been crafting their sound since meeting at an impromptu karaoke party in late 2019. Frantically YouTubing songs like Work It by Marie Davidson, Never Come Back by Caribou and Intergalactic by Beastie Boys, their karaoke party turned into a dance party as songs from The Blaze, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Soulwax, Rüfüs du Sol and Justice were added to the mix.

Vincent Vaughan is a recording artist from a little place called Mullinahone in the county of Tipperary, Ireland . In sharp contrast to his take on Rodney Crowell’s Many A Long And Lonesome Highway, shared with us earlier this summer, AIN’T NOBODY HERE BUT US CHICKENS perfectly showcases Vincent’s more light-hearted side. And how could it not, given that Vincent can trace the inspiration for his wanting to cut this song all the way back to…the Muppets! 

Demi Michelle Schwartz is a pop and country songwriter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From a young age, she has surrounded herself with music, playing piano, singing her favorite songs, and going to as many concerts as possible. While in college, she discovered her passion for songwriting and decided to turn her experiences into lyrics. The thought of writing a new song is always in her mind, and she can’t resist typing lyrics into her phone and recording melody ideas when she’s inspired. Her songs hold an authenticity that shows who she is, staying true to herself as a songwriter. Demi Michelle doesn’t hold back in her new single, “Afterthought,” a record that she likes to call a sass-infused genre melting pot with an infectious groove.