The Witzard

Fiona Snapple posing backstage on her last tour (SOURCE: Fiona Snapple) Fiona Snapple, the Norwegian Black Metal singer turned Nerdcore & Hyperpop collaborator, emerged from Kristianstad, Norway's dreary depths during The Pandemic. With eight years of music under her belt, Fiona Snapple's clever name is a nod to both the Snapple drink and her black cat, Fiona. She signed with Audentes Records, collaborating with Cowboy Coder & MC Lars to blend spooky and high-tech sounds. Fiona fearlessly covers Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Kate Bush, and more, fusing Black Metal with Pop music. Fiona's chaotic process involves tearing tracks apart and adding screaming guitars, synths, and Black Metal elements. She draws inspiration from Mayhem, SOPHIE, MC Lars , and Cowboy Coder. We recently got in contact with Fiona Snapple's label representatives and press agents online, who facilitated an interview with Fiona via email. Along with Fiona's interview question responses,...

Hayley Williams, Hayley Williams(2), and Paramore - "All I Wanted" (CREDIT: Dan Schenker) Art Inhuman is a collaborative effort between Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) artist Dan Schenker and writer Matt Horowitz. Dan takes band names, lyrics, and song names and with the help of an A.I. manipulates them into what he feels best represents them visually. If you have a suggestion for an upcoming addition to this series, Tweet Matt at @SharpChedder856 and/or Dan at @heydanschenker and Tag the band or artist you'd like us to feature next. This project spawned from Dan's decades-long love of music. Dan had been a fan of the band FOLLY since early high school—for the blend of Punk, Ska, and Hardcore they seamlessly wove, for the energy their music made him feel, and for the almost disproportionately poetic lyrics and topics they covered. So, when Dan thought to input some of his favorite lyrics, song titles, and album titles into Midjourney, the results were staggering. ...

"'Drive Me Crazy" was filmed in two days in the greater Seattle area. It was filmed by my friend, Sam Akina , who is responsible for many of the Dell commercials you see on TV. Despite his serious experience, our wardrobe consisted of thrift store [finds] and the actors were my volunteering friends. Our concept was to create a music video in different Pop culture scenes, as if someone was changing channels on a TV screen," self-described Pop-Punk singer-songwriter Alex Hager hailing from Gig Harbor, Washington wrote within a recent stream of emails. "I was responsible for some of the more ridiculous ones, such as the soap opera and fragrance commercial scene. Our props were very low-budget and my buddy invited me to use his house as the set. It was the craziest experience ever and the greatest feeling, having my friends show up to star in my own music video. It’s awesome how everything came together," Hager continued; a wide array of colorful scenes...

The Internet really is a never-ending Twilight Zone -esque worm hole of a place sometimes; case in point, just last night, after returning home from rollicking Sweat N Soul -filled a Har Mar Superstar concert in the depths of Philly around 1-1:30am, I wasted nearly an hour aimlessly Googling covers from Sean Tillmann 's one-time touring mate and fellow Tillman(n) , Father John Misty ... starting with two unabashedly ironic Taylor Swift in the vein of Ryan Adam 's 1989 covers and ultimately, ending up at a sparse SiriusXM cover of Nirvana 's "Heart-Shaped Box." Somewhere down the seemingly endless sonic worm hole I created, I stumbled upon @fatherjohnmisty 's sprawling, wonderfully executed renditions of widely-known Leonard Cohen , The Arcade Fire, John Lennon , Rihanna, and most recently, Nine Inch Nails classics. Former Fleet Foxes drummer and ironic "rockstar" Josh Tillman unexpectedly covered NIN 's breakout anti-pop hit, "Cl...

"There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or fame... but if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you're going, you'll look back and know that it was you," Taylor Swift passionately proclaimed Monday night whilst accepting her Album of The Year GRAMMY ; an apparent rebuttal to long-time frenemy Kanye West's exceedingly distasteful claims that he "made that b*tch famous" and that "[he] and Taylor might still have sex," lines which he previously proclaimed to be Kim & Taylor -approved. Let me first, preface this by saying that I've been a Kanye fan ever since "Through The Wire" and The College Dropout , although, I don't exactly agree with his latest burst of social media over-activity and apparent mental breakdown ... relentlessly bashing poor Taylor Swift , begging Mark Zuc...

"My interpretation [of "Blank Space" ] from the classic Ryan Adams album "1989,"' former Fleet Foxes drummer and semi-ironic, self-loathing Indie-Pop superstar Josh Tillman aka @fatherjohnmisty Tweeted Monday evening on the heels of Ryan Adams' just-released Taylor Swift 1989 covers album. Tillman was seemingly riffing on Adams' 1989 re-imagined in the style of Bruce Springsteen 's Darkness On The Edge of Town meets The Smiths' Meat Is Murder , sloppily crooning Swift's chart-topping "Blank Space" and "Welcome to New York" in the style of Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed . "In the studio working on a [song-for-song] reinterpretation of Ryan Adams "1989," gonna be great! Ryan's amazing," Father John Misty sarcastically wrote in a since-deleted "so psyched"-hashtagged Tweet. While Tillman's rendition of "Blank Space" is, to say the very least, a litt...

Jacksonville 's very own genre-blending Alt. Country superstar Ryan Adams is in fact, no stranger to recording full-length cover albums; Adams reportedly recorded, and ultimately scrapped, a stripped down 4-track revision of The Strokes' critically-acclaimed debut Is This It? (2001). But for whatever reasons, Adams' " Blues cover version" has rather discouragingly still only been heard by members of his former backing band, The Cardinals . Ryan Adams' second attempt (or third, if you count his unheard Vampire Weekend album), at a full-length cover album: a self-described Smiths -indebted version of Taylor Swift 's recent career-redefining 1989 has been very well-documented through his own personal social media accounts. "Ryan's music helped shape my song-writing. This is surreal and dream-like. Countdown to [Ryan Adams' 1989] @TheRyanAdams ," @taylorswift13 frantically Tweeted Thursday afternoon, upon the sudden announcement ...

Aside from a series of pretty lackluster mismatched performances and Kanye 's attempted hi-jacking of Album of The Year winner Beck 's spotlight, the only legitimate stroke of "real artistry" at this year's GRAMMY Awards came from Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Herbie Hancock, ?uestlove , and legendary bassist Adam Blackstone . Sheeran's GRAMMY -assembled super-group performed a spirited live rendition of his latest x single, "Thinking Out Loud;" making best use of recent Late Late Show hosts guitar playing-talents, The Roots drummer/bandleader's "chops," and the classically-trained Jazz pianist's gentle stroke of the ivory keys. It seems as though Ed Sheeran and John Mayer (both reported exes of Taylor Swift ) have put aside whatever differences they might have had, effectively becoming "the weirdest friends ever," to paraphrase Leslie Mann from The Other Woman . I, for one, would definitely not mind hearing a John Ma...

"Somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is still TWERKIN,'" that now-infamous Jay Z line single-handedly sums up the cultural assimilation of yet another once "cool" African-American trend, TWERKING. It's just something that "white bread" middle American women, not entirely unlike Taylor Swift , really shouldn't even be attempting to do in the first place. Atlanta -based Prog-Metal behemoths, Mastodon 's latest video treatment, "The Motherload" could likely coexist somewhere in the unlikely cross-hairs nestled in-between Sir-Mix-a-Lot and Danzig . "We weren't trying to make fun of Hip-Hop videos. It was a fine line, because I didn't want to come off as being sexist, so I thought that maybe the females took center stage and looked powerful and had this dance battle," Mastodon drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor recently explained to Pitchfork . Dailor additionally notes that he and his Mastodon bandmates along ...

"It's some random butt-head who told me if I wanted to use his song, I'd have to rip it off Soundcloud myself, so I did..." kitty pryde exclaimed when one of her trusty Twitter Followers asked who produced her #BRANDNEW track. "Dead Island" is pryde's latest stand-alone release, which pulls a sampled drum lick from "Pon de Floor" (Major Lazer) and also has a pretty iced-out STEAMCLAM -directed music video to go along with it. kitty pryde 's a Daytona Beach, FL 20-something[?] who's currently prepping the release of her new EP, D.A.I.S.Y. Rage , that should be out online later this month. kitty pryde 's cadence and rapping skills seem to have seriously improved since she unleashed haha, i'm sorry . But let's face it, kitty pryde's just a goofy/socially awkward/love-struck teenager who simply raps about what she knows best... she won't be on the same level as Missy Elliott or Jay-Z any time soon, but th...

Kendrick Lamar generously unveiled a BRAND NEW non-album track, "The Jig Is Up (Dump'n)," to commemorate the sheer fact that good kid, m.A.A.d. city has already managed to move some 250,000+ units since it's initial [Oct. 23rd] release; It's a staggering call-to-arms aimed @ Lamar's critics and detractors, which just might end up being a sample of his long-rumored J.Cole -manned album. Kendrick Lamar even lets loose a couple quick jabs @ a washed up rapper who felt the need to voice his unwarranted opinions: "I pray to God this beat is good enough for Shyne , if not J.Cole your shit is trash" ha! For what it's worth, good kid, m.A.A.d. city sold 241,000 copies between Oct. 22-30th, taking second place on the Billboard 200 charts, just behind Taylor Swift . Most likely against Aftermath/TDE 's wishes, Lamar scrapped the potentially buzz-worthy Lady GaGa collabo track, bumped Dr. Dre & Mary J. Blige 's features to mere bo...

It kinda sucks, but it's just that time of year... with school back in session and all sorts of new-found "eye-candy" everywhere, highschoolers and college co-eds nation-wide are spontaneously breaking up with each other! Man, now even Taylor Swift has jumped on the fast-track to singlesville with the release of her latest single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." While it could really be about almost any of her assorted ex-boyfriends from roughly 2010-12, it's more than likely either John Mayer or Taylor Lautner . I feel bad for T-Swift sometimes - All these dumb boys, always being so mean to her and stuff. But seriously, I hope she finds what she's really looking for in a companion sooner than later! Taylor Swift made sure to give the track a BIG, glitzy world premier make-over on the 2012 MTV VMA's the other night (closing performance). Like many 20-somethings her age, Swift has a new blossoming love interest to go along with this n...

"thanks kathryn obvious" by kitty pryde Kitty Pryde is a 19-year-old rapper hailing from Daytona Beach, FL who almost sounds like a strange blend of Lil B #BASEDGOD and reigning Pop princess, Katy Perry . She's going through the same experiences/mishaps as your average middle American teen, except it's being re-told along with a clever Hip-Hop cadence: Facebook infidelity, prom date woes, non-repliant texters, boy troubles, etc. Kitty Pryde recently complied a 15-minute setlist for her first New York area show, which went down this past weekend. It's the accumulation of a discography that can all be easily downloaded over @ Bandcamp . "Okay Cupid" is essentially an ode to Pryde's 3-ring binder-solidified crush, Danny Brown . Director Brian McKay quickly filmed it's companion music video @ a friend's yardsale last month and it's received some 400,000+ YouTube views ever since. I'm not 100% sure if Kitty Pryde's being T...

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's July 2018 and to be honest, I'm really not even sure what exactly this is/was supposed to be... but from what I can put together, it's some type of "Top 40 "Hitlist"' AKA a breakdown(?) I asked Diarrhea Planet guitarist Evan C. Bird to put together about 6-7 years ago. If you're reaing this now, in 2018, it saddens me to inform you that Diarrhea Planet have, unfortunately, decided it's time for them to disband; however, DP have also, decided to "SHRED THEE WELL" with 2 final shows to be held September 7-8, 2018 at EXIT/IN in Nashville, Tennessee. It seems like Diarrhea Planet has simply, run it's course, but let me just say this: it was extremely fun while it lasted, fellas! Blue Scholars - Cinematropolis: Seattle Hip-Hop ! These guys have been on the top of my list since The Long March (2005). These guys are from Seattle and they're not exactly new, but Cinematropolis is definitely a departure f...

When Matthew Arnold penned "The Buried Life" (98-line poem) way back in 1852, I'm sure he never imagined that his compiled works words would still be inspiring young people some 160 years later, in 2012. The present-day incarnation of "The Buried Life" is made up of 4 Canadian -bred friends [brothers]: Ben, Jonnie , Duncan & Dave . Armed with nothing more than a rudimentary cam-corder, a purple bus named "Penelope," and a grandiose vision - The guys set forth on a mission to help the hard-working people of the nation. The crux of Ben, Jonnie, Duncan & Dave's companion MTV series, which originally ran for the length of two 2010 seasons... was to assemble a lengthy bucketlist of "100 things to do before you die." This would, of course, warrant the assistance of many good-hearted, helpful people along the way. For every item crossed off "The Buried Life" crew's list, they promised to assist a newly-befriended st...