On This Track: Weekend Listening #14
Five tracks. Five different ways of dealing with the things life throws at us.
Some songs make you want to dance. Others remind you of someone you'd rather forget, or take you back to a time you thought you'd moved on from. And sometimes a song just puts words to something you've been carrying around for a while. This week's On This Track Weekend Listening 14 takes us from the darker side of indie songwriting to hyperpop, garage punk and folk rock. Oisin Mod has a new record on the way that sounds a long way from the delicate music of his debut. Anthony Arya turns a dress into a reminder of an entire chapter of his life. Boy Sim has found a way to make post-breakup denial sound euphoric, while Hyper Minds play fast and loud for anyone who's ever felt like nobody was listening. And John Mason, after years of life on the road, has written a song about finding home in another person. Five very different releases, then, but all of them come from somewhere personal.
Oisin Mod - “Premium” (feat. Bill Ryder-Jones)
Oisin Mod spent a month alone in a rundown house in West Cork writing the songs for his next album, "Canary". It sounds like the sort of place where your thoughts might start getting the better of you. Mod has said that the songs grew out of disillusionment, cynicism and the feeling that he was becoming a less easy person to be around. He was also watching David Lynch films, spending time with "Twin Peaks" and listening to music that helped him get closer to a mood he couldn't quite put into words. You can hear the change in “Premium”. Mod's debut album, "Honeycomb", leaned on delicate melodies and sparse arrangements. The new single has a darker edge. Bill Ryder-Jones, who produced the album, plays guitar on the track, his parts winding around Mod's vocals while Phil Murphy's drums keep things moving with a dry, forceful beat. There are vintage organ sounds in the mix, too, but nothing feels overloaded. The song has more weight than Mod's earlier work without losing its sense of space. Ryder-Jones and Mod already know how to work together. They recorded "Honeycomb" in just ten days and the new album took twelve. This time, Ryder-Jones encouraged Mod to make something with a little more muscle. The result is a record that still values melody but isn't afraid to get rough around the edges. That makes “Premium” an interesting introduction to "Canary", which is due November 6. Mod hasn't abandoned the qualities that made his first album work. He's pushed them into less comfortable territory. The songs now seem to come from a place where things aren't quite settled and the music follows suit. It's a change in direction that feels tied to where he was when he wrote it, rather than a change for the sake of sounding different.
Anthony Arya - “The Dress”
Most of us have something tucked away that brings back an entire period of our lives. It might be a photograph, an old ticket or a piece of clothing that has been sitting in a drawer for years. Anthony Arya has built his new single around a dress. The San Francisco singer- songwriter says it carries the weight of a whole season of his life, which is a lot to ask of one item of clothing. “The Dress” sits somewhere between nostalgia and closure. Arya starts quietly, with a delicate arrangement that feels almost hesitant, before the song gradually opens up into something much bigger. The build is central to the track. A memory can seem manageable when it first comes back to you, only to bring a lot more with it once you start thinking about what it means. Arya lets the music follow that change in feeling. His sound draws on the folk-rock songwriters associated with Laurel Canyon, with an indie-pop sensibility that keeps the songs from feeling like an exercise in looking backward. Arya has been making records since his teens and has already released four albums. He spends much of his time on the road, playing well over a hundred shows a year, and his songs also take in the ups and downs of life in San Francisco. His next album is planned for spring 2027. If “The Dress” is any indication, personal memories will remain an important part of it. But the song isn't simply about missing the past. Arya describes it as a song about both nostalgia and closure, and those two things don't always sit comfortably together. You can miss a time in your life without wanting to return to it. You can keep something because it mattered, even when you're ready to move on. The dress is just an object. What it brings back is another story entirely.
🎧 Stream “The Dress” by Anthony Arya on Apple Music
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Boy Sim - “Cloud Nine”
There's a particular kind of post-breakup denial that involves telling everyone you're doing great, going out, having fun and making absolutely sure nobody suspects otherwise. Boy Sim's new single “Cloud Nine” takes that feeling and turns it into a hyperpop rush. The Los Angeles-based artist and producer is known for his work with artists including Slayyyter, Ayesha Erotica and Dorian Electra. His own music moves between hyperpop, dance-pop, punk and electronic production, and “Cloud Nine” brings those influences together with a big chorus, distorted synths and live pop-punk guitars. It sounds euphoric, but the subject is less straightforward. The song deals with the moment when the idealized version of a relationship starts to fall apart and you begin to see what was actually there. That contrast is what makes the track work as more than a breakup anthem. The music pushes toward a high while the story is about coming down from one. Boy Sim describes the song as being about performing happiness until it almost becomes real. Anyone who has tried to convince themselves that they're over someone will probably recognize the impulse, even if they've never done it to a wall of distorted synths. There's also something very fitting about the way the song handles that feeling through hyperpop. The genre has never been particularly interested in keeping emotions small or production restrained. Feelings can be exaggerated, voices can be distorted, and a chorus can sound almost absurdly big. Here, that excess makes sense. Getting over someone doesn't always happen quietly. Sometimes it involves a lot of noise, a few questionable decisions and a convincing public performance of being completely fine. Boy Sim's background as a songwriter and producer gives him plenty of room to play with the conventions of pop. On “Cloud Nine”, he uses them to tell a story about the difference between feeling good and wanting other people to believe you feel good. The real high, the song suggests, comes when you no longer need to keep up the act.
🎧 Stream “Cloud Nine” by Boy Sim on Apple Music
Hyper Minds - ”The Dog You Feed”
Hyper Minds formed in 2024, and their debut album wastes very little time getting to the point. "The Dog You Feed" runs for ten tracks and just 26 minutes. The East Los Angeles band play fast, sharp-edged garage punk, with rapid-fire vocals and choruses that sound built for a crowded room. There's not much space to catch your breath, which is probably part of the appeal. But vocalist and guitarist Roland O'Cello has a more personal reason for making this kind of noise. He's spoken about spending much of his life feeling like an outsider, struggling to feel seen or heard. Eventually, he found that writing music gave him a way to express things he hadn't been able to say otherwise. He hopes the album reaches people who are dealing with similar feelings, especially those who find it difficult to stand up for themselves. That intention runs through the record. “Sink or Swim”, one of its ten tracks, is about reaching a point where you have to face a difficult situation, whether you're ready or not. O'Cello describes it as the moment when you either jump into the fire yourself or get thrown into it. It's not a particularly subtle metaphor, but subtlety isn't really what Hyper Minds are after. The song's premise fits the band's direct, no-nonsense approach. Their influences include The Hives, Osees, the Ramones and The Spits, and they've been building a following around the Los Angeles underground, playing venues such as Permanent Records Roadhouse, Alex's Bar and Gold-Diggers. The band have also received airplay on KEXP and recorded a live session for KXLU. For all the speed and aggression, there's a fairly simple idea at the center of "The Dog You Feed": feeling like an outsider doesn't mean you have nothing to say. Punk has always provided a place for people who don't feel particularly comfortable elsewhere, and Hyper Minds are drawing on that tradition without making a big speech about it. Sometimes you just need a loud guitar, a room full of people and a chorus you can shout along to.
🎧 Stream “The Dog You Feed” by Hyper Minds on Apple Music
John Mason - “Coming Home”
John Mason has spent years moving around the world, booking tours and recording music wherever he could make it happen. The Scottish-born singer-songwriter has worked in studios in New Zealand, Canada and California, recorded in the French Alps and along the west coast of Mexico, and toured across five continents. It's a remarkable amount of travelling for someone whose new single is about wanting to be somewhere else only if the right person is there with you. “Coming Home” was written shortly before Mason met his wife. The song captures the kind of love he had been looking for, with lyrics about stubborn affection and the feeling of finally belonging somewhere. But home, in this case, isn't a country or a house. It's a person. Mason has described the song as being about belonging to someone so completely that no other place feels right without them. Musically, it has a restless quality that suits the story. Folk-pop melodies sit alongside powerful strumming, driving percussion and free-flowing violin lines. The vocals carry a sense of longing, and the arrangement grows more intense toward the end. It isn't a quiet song about settling down. There's still movement in it, as if the years spent travelling haven't entirely disappeared just because Mason has found something he wants to hold onto. The single introduces his forthcoming third solo album, "The United Escapades of John Mason". Making it required a different level of commitment from his earlier work. Fans helped fund the project, and his wife sold her truck to contribute. Mason then brought together friends and musicians from different parts of his life to record at the historic Record Plant in Sausalito, with Paul Brisske serving as producer. There's something lovely about that story, although it isn't a particularly conventional route to making a record. The album came together because people believed in it and were willing to put something behind that belief. That sense of connection sits naturally alongside “Coming Home”. After years of finding ways to keep moving, Mason has written a song about the person who makes him want to stay. It doesn't mean the travelling stops. It means there's someone to come back to.
🎧 Stream “Coming Home” by John Mason on Apple Music
There was a time when finding your place in music often meant finding your scene first. You knew the clubs, the people, the records everyone was talking about. Things are less fixed now. Someone can make hyperpop in their bedroom, play punk in a local bar, or spend years on the road before writing a song about wanting to stay. That doesn't mean scenes have disappeared, or that finding your people has become easy. It just means there are more ways to get there. These five releases all come from artists trying to make sense of something personal, whether that's a breakup, feeling like an outsider or finally finding a place to call home. You might never meet the people who made the music, and you might live on the other side of the world, but you can still recognize what they're talking about. Sometimes that's how belonging starts.
Keep discovering independent music with our other On This Track, Three Track Week and Artist Features.
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