Nanyana Independent Music
New artists, records, interviews and local scenes, read through listening, context and fair criticism.
Sections
Four ways into the journal.
Latest articles
A dated flow of listening notes and practical reporting.
How a first single introduces an artist without overpromising
A practical guide to using a first single to explain arrangement, audience and artistic direction with precision.
· New Artists
Building a live set before building a release plan
How a new artist can shape a live set, rehearsal plan and small-room test before committing to a release calendar.
· New Artists
Listening to a full album in the order the artist chose
A listening method for following an album’s sequencing, opening track, transitions and closing song without rushing to rank it.
· Album Reviews
Why production choices deserve as much attention as lyrics
A clear way to hear mix balance, instrument layers and vocal treatment as part of a record’s meaning.
· Album Reviews
What a week of small shows reveals about a city scene
A field guide to reading local venues, support bills and sound conditions across one week of small shows.
· Scene Reports
How independent venues shape young audiences
What door policy, stage sightlines and community calendars reveal about the audiences independent venues build.
· Scene Reports
Asking musicians about process instead of mythology
A respectful interview approach built around process, songwriting notebooks, demo versions and useful follow-up questions.
· Interviews
Interview preparation that respects an artist’s time
A compact preparation method for researching an artist, writing better follow-ups and editing with care.
· Interviews
About this journal
Read the story behind Nanyana, our editorial policy, sponsored content policy, privacy policy and legal notes, or meet the editorial desk or contact the editorial desk.
Reading outside the music room
Nanyana stays with independent music, but the habit of looking and listening closely travels. Three sites we return to when we want a change of subject without a change of standard.
- Ambient-Musik für lange Abende, in German, for the kind of long, low-volume listening we do before writing anything down.
- affreschi di David Beghè, an Italian gallery page about wall painting, useful when we are trying to describe surface and texture rather than subject.
- LDS chapels in Taiwan, a survey of ordinary meeting rooms, and a reminder that a room is never neutral for the people inside it.