Amanda Ibanez, better known as Kiddo A.I., was raised in a family of gifted musicians and was completely aware of her destiny from a young age. Not just a talented singer and topliner, she’s also a multi-instrumentalist and a fluent Spanish speaker. She’s what you might call fuego femenino. The first few years of Kiddo’s career saw a string of successful collaborations in different genres. Following her first vocal feature with rapper Bernz, she caught the ear of his label’s co-founder Tech N9ne who pulled her in to collaborate on his track “Til I’m Gone”. She then went on to work with popular DJ duo SMLE, racking up a collective 10 million Spotify streams between the three singles “Into Something”, “2 Me” and “Stranded”. We first encountered Kiddo last year as a member of Miami’s Cashae collective with their song “Endless Summer”, which we placed in the season finale of […]
Since her departure from the Brooklyn indie rock band Debbie Downer, multi-instrumentalist Nicole Mercedes has developed a haunting approach to songwriting that’s wry and witty, yet still vulnerable. Her sophomore LP Look Out Where You’re Going is dreamy and melodic, featuring tastefully arranged organ and synth parts that give the record a profound sense of depth. “This album chronicles the end of one of those long, meaningful relationships that mark a departure from the safety of being attached to someone to the chaos of being on your own,” – Nicole Mercedes Collaborating with producer Joe Rogers (Laura Stevenson, Rubblebucket, Deer Tick’s Andy T), and mostly tracked in her bedroom, Mercedes encapsulates the feeling of long afternoons gazing through rainy panes, desperately longing to be somewhere else. Something we can probably all relate to right now!