David Lockeretz of Sons of the Mellow Mafia: “One thing that I come back to is the idea that art (including music) should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”

The Easter Parade: “I think my love of songwriting came from listening to great songwriters such as Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, Tom Waits, and Randy Newman”

Solum: “My musical truth is to be completely free in what I make and unbound by any genre”

Mercy Kelly: “We definitely draw a lot of inspiration from the gothic romanticism of bands like The Cure, but also from the hopeful, anthemic energy of U2, especially their Joshua Tree period”

Seann Medicina: “I prefer to connect with listeners in live performances. Then I can see if they are paying attention or not”

Bad Bubble: “Music is the universal health care of the world. It fixes you. It gives you something to identify with. It helps broken hearts. It helps deal with pain”

Joe Hodgson: “My biggest influences, guitar-wise, would be Gary Moore and Rory Gallagher. What they did spoke to me in ways that no guitar players ever have”

Farbod Biglari: “I see songwriting less as construction and more as discovery—something already there that I just need to uncover”

Andrea Pizzo and The Purple Mice: “For us, it’s not about chasing what's popular, but about evolving while remaining consistent with our identity”

Brook McKeon of The Burbs: “If we could make changes [to the industry], we’d bring back compilation CDs and split EPs. And also bring back not giving a fuck cos at the mome there’s too many squares”