Three Track Week: Signals #11
- Anne
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
The Stories We Carry Without Noticing
Some ideas become so familiar that we stop questioning them. We assume we know what strength looks like. We decide what's dangerous before looking twice. We even become suspicious of people who say exactly what they mean. This week's Three Track Week: Signals 11 brings together Mustard Service, Gale Forces and the collaborative work of Sam Gravitte, Michael Orland and Jamie Wooten. Although their music moves in very different directions, each release quietly questions an idea many of us take for granted, reminding us that the stories we inherit aren't always the ones we have to keep believing.
Listen to this week’s Three Track Week: Signals selection
This week’s tracks are available in our playlist INDIENOXZINE | Selections, offering a direct way to engage with the sounds discussed in this feature. Follow the playlist on Spotify to stay updated with new selections each week.
Mustard Service - Deciding Before We Know
Most of us make our minds up pretty quickly. Sometimes that's useful. Other times we decide what something is long before we've actually understood it. That's the thought I couldn't shake while listening to "Sharks".
The title immediately points you towards danger, but Mustard Service never really stay there. Instead, the song asks why people are so quick to turn the things they fear into something bigger than they really are. Marco Rivero Ochoa uses the image of the shark to question something much more familiar: our habit of filling in the blanks before we know the full story. It's easy to see that happening everywhere. A headline, a conversation, someone we've never met. We often decide what we think first and look for reasons afterwards. "Sharks" doesn't pretend people will stop doing that. It simply nudges the listener to pause for a second before accepting the story that's already been written.
That same curiosity runs through Mustard Service's music. Bright melodies and Latin influences keep everything feeling open, while the lyrics quietly ask harder questions underneath. The result isn't a song about sharks at all. It's a song about how quickly certainty can replace curiosity.
🎧 Stream “Sharks” on Apple Music · Follow Mustard Service on Instagram
Gale Forces - Learning to Listen
People often talk about change as though it happens all at once. One conversation. One decision. One moment that suddenly changes everything. Real life is usually much slower than that.
That's what I kept thinking about while listening to "Diviner". Jade Devitt has said the song began with something surprisingly ordinary: his partner asking him to be more open in their relationship. There isn't anything dramatic about that. In fact, that's exactly why it feels believable. We don't often hear those kinds of stories in heavier music. Bands are comfortable writing about anger, loss and frustration, but quieter kinds of change can be harder to talk about. "Diviner" doesn't make vulnerability sound easy or heroic. It just treats it as part of learning how to be with another person. The contrast with the music makes that idea even more interesting. The guitars are heavy, the rhythm section rarely lets up, but the emotional centre of the song stays surprisingly gentle. It never feels like the band is hiding behind the volume. If anything, the weight of the music gives those quieter thoughts somewhere to live.
Maybe that's why the song stayed with me. It isn't really about becoming a different person. It's about accepting that sometimes the people closest to us see things we haven't noticed ourselves.
🎧 Stream “Diviner” on Apple Music · Follow Gale Forces on Instagram
Sam Gravitte, Michael Orland & Jamie Wooten - Saying Things Without Hiding
There aren't many songs left that risk sounding uncool. Not loud. Not controversial. Just completely sincere. That's what I kept thinking about while listening to "Love Is Why We're Here".
The song doesn't ask you to decode hidden meanings or wonder what the writers really wanted to say. It tells you straight away. Listening to it, I kept picturing a Disney film. The sweeping melody, the warmth and the sense of hope immediately brought to mind those moments where the music carries the story just as much as the dialogue does. In another decade, that probably wouldn't have stood out. Today it almost does. Maybe that's because we've become so used to looking for a second layer. We expect irony. We expect distance. Sometimes we even expect artists to protect themselves from sounding too earnest. "Love Is Why We're Here" never seems interested in doing that. It reminded me that saying something directly isn't necessarily the easier option. Once you stop hiding behind metaphors, every listener knows exactly where you stand. Some people will probably love that. Others might think it's too simple. Either reaction feels understandable.
What interested me wasn't really whether I agreed with every line. It was seeing three experienced writers trust a straightforward idea enough to leave it exactly as it was.
🎧 Stream “Love Is Why We're Here” on Apple Music · Follow Sam Gravitte & Michael Orland on Instagram
Some songs stay with you because of the chorus. Others stay because they quietly change the way you think about something. This week's Three Track Week Signals 11 leans towards the second kind. Mustard Service, Gale Forces and Sam Gravitte, Michael Orland & Jamie Wooten all begin with different stories, yet each invites us to look again at ideas that often go unquestioned. Not to replace them with new certainties, but simply to leave a little more room for curiosity.
Further perspectives are available in our Artist Features, Cultural Essays and On This Track, each situating music within broader cultural and structural contexts.
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