Max's Music Mondays with dery and sawyer dust

celebrating 300 subs and 2 more sick songs (sick in a good way)

Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays. My ~music discovery newsletter~ where I get too excited about songs I love. I hope you love them too. If you do, you can follow along on spotify and please be sure to absolute smash that dang subscribe button! tysm :) Your paid subscriptions go towards supporting the artists you read about here too!! That’s right(!!), the artists who made This Weeks Songs are getting paid!! <3

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What the heck?! We hit 300 subscribers (and counting) this week! WOW. A few more and we’re basically rounding up to 1000. jk 300 is a lot and plenty to be proud of. tbh I didn’t even realize we were that close, but I won’t pass up any chance to celebrate. Honestly, it is so humbling. This community has grown slowly but surely, so sometimes I forget that it is always growing and that 300 people subscribing is actually… like, so many. I’m bursting at the seams with gratitude, truly. I love every song I share here, and it feels unbelievable to have an audience to share with on a regular basis.

For those of you who are new, we’re sharing four songs a month from artists I love that I think more people need to hear - the fewer listeners the better imo. Well, the more excited I get at least. But not better, better would be everyone knowing them because they are special and creative and unique and inspiring. Each of those artists gets paid thanks to our incredible paying subscribers (WINK WINK), which right now is around $15 per artist. Absolutely another dream!!! To have an audience to share this all with and some real life cash to give musicians too… folks…. you’re making me happy!! And fulfilled!!

This week we’re back with two more great songs. It feels like there’s less and less places to look and meanwhile more and more music existing. So I’m just glad that these two have fallen into my lap - somehow, someway. Feels miraculous every time it happens.

Thank you all for being here. Can’t wait to do this all again when we get to 400 subscribers (very vulnerable to publish this with a date attached……..) soon. Please share with a friend and help make that happen! XOXO i love every one of you and if you want more music, please drop a comment with an artist or two you’ve been enjoying lately and I’ll try and find something new for you.

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dery - drain

I don’t quite know how to say this, but this song is GOOD. Like not just ya know, good, but like GOOD good. I listen to a lot of songs. And, especially when seeking smaller or newer artists, I hear a lot of variety when it comes to production, mixing, just general quality of songs beyond music and lyrics. And sometimes you hear a song and go Oh, THIS is a SONG. And that’s how this feels. It’s shocking to find out that this song barely has 1k plays on spotify, when it sounds like THIS?!??! But I guess that’s why we’re all here. To find those songs, share those songs, and give them the love and praise they really truly deserve. Which in this case, is so much because this song rules.

Off the rip, that guitar riff is so sick. The tone is magic, dark and blue and fuzzy. The life and energy coming out of those plucks and sting noises, it’s incredible. A perfect take. It bounces around the kick drum - grounded and hard yet modest. Forget lofi beats to study to, i want dery beats to lose my goddamn mind to. She comes out swinging for the fences with the WILD lyric - Called me in love but I’m never letting you call me again. That’s what I’m talking(writing) about!!! Her voice with out of this world tone the whole way through. I don’t know how to explain this, but it’s almost like seeing her voice as the words she sings (stay with me). Where the tops of the words are warm and softly rounded, the bottoms a little fuzzy and grizzled. Does that make any sense?? IDK but that’s what I’m hearing/seeing. As a subtle synth starts to blow across the back of this track, dery opens up a bit more. But things stay simple for a moment longer. Hitting the 0:30 mark, a striking prechorus, the imagery so visceral, draining someone from your body, from your spine. It stings, it hurts, it feels dangerous, but it’s necessary. Also that little flourish across my spine is nuts. So well done.

But her bravery is rewarded, the song soaring out from here. The release giving space for the emotions too. The kick feeling powerful, the guitar just as striking, with some synths reverbing out in the distance. dery delivering one heck of a performance, the lyrics pouring out with urgency then slowing to an ooze by the end of the line. The whole moment moving so masterfully, it’s exceptional. Just beautiful sonically and then also so damn rough lyrically - “I wonder if you ever meant it / any goddamn sentence”. No holding back here, this is absolutely the kind of person you need to drain from your spine. sheesh. And as we cross the minute mark, the song shifts, a whole stack of supporting vocals across that final You. Thank god someones there to support dery because this shit hurts!! The guitar running quicker now, carrying the new picking pattern in to the next verse. Another synth coloring the margins of each line too, giving the verse a bigger, meaner feel. Again, the imagery just so impactful, “chill my blood to calm the simmer / whenever you’re in my brain”. The whole song feels dark and brutal and it gives the word blood so much power and heft. There are these gentle harmonies tucked away for this whole verse, offering such soft and full texture throughout.

The bottom drops out, a moment of relief while dery prepares to drain her spine again. And again, those three words are full of beauty. Each note hitting where and when it’s meant to, her tone so warm with the crackling underneath. I’m so glad they give it the spotlight again here before it takes off. But it does take off, flying back to that beautiful chorus again. Complete with background vocals through out, it’s elegant and fresh. Those layers most visible again on the You that punctuates the moment, this one extending and repeating, getting every last drop of beauty as another synth’s melody cycles and blooms.

Then at 2:46, our final scene. The vocoder joins in, giving dery an entirely new feel. Somehow just as human, but now so damn haunting I can barely stand it. And it fades from there. A lightning fast 3min song, that never stalls, never lingers. It’s efficient but with so much to savor, striking yet soft. The writing is so great, the melodies so fun and tasteful, the whole thing is a damn work of art and y’all better be listening to this and telling everyone you know!!

Follow dery on IG / Spotify

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sawyer dust - hollowing your heart

Hell ya this one is so fun and also cool. An innocent start, a couple layers of these simple acoustic chords. The rhythm is enough to get the groove moving already, so when those drums land they feel right at home. Like they were there the whole time, but now with a bit more punch. More on those in a sec. Before we get there, we do have sawyer dust jumping right in “you think know me and you don’t”. Ok then! Straight to business here!! A brutal line, devastating for both sides, made palatable by the production. That’s right, back to the drums! Consider the ‘sec’ over!! The drums are fun as hell to be honest! The kick has a real kick to it, the snare holding steady, with the clicky hi-hat dancing around at the bottom of the stack. Quickly the band grows - more guitars, more percussion, more energy. Some bells getting knocked around back there, some lasers being pew-pew’d left and right, the new guitars rocking steady and emphasizing the strong groove. A wild, chaotic, and gorgeous scene.

The vocals are so killer here too. Two main layers, both giving slightly different but equally great performances. dust’s vocals feel honest. A voice full of the emotions of the song, eager to get these thoughts out, these feelings out, and doing it in an earnest way. Playful in times, the way they dance around the melody. Through this whole first minute, the song seems to build and build, swelling with new layers and sounds. That subtle harmony take rounding everything out here as dust hits the brutal “the issue at hand is we’re falling apart”, soon after landing the even more devastating “holding your hand but it’s breaking my heart” COME ON!!! It’s Monday!!!! we can’t be doing this on a Monday!! (sry this is my fault, I chose to do this on a Monday). These lyrics hurting to read and type but they sound so fun over these sounds. But this is the line that breaks things open.

We pare back to the intro’s guitar, focused and steady. Some gentle feedback, sounds like synth and bass doing a little exploring, picking up some feedback as they do. This little section 1:03 to 1:18, it’s so magic to me. Simple sure, but scratches this musical itch in my brain and I can’t help but go back and listen to it over and over. It’s just so juicy. But please find the courage to let the song go. There’s so many more gifts to come. From here, the bass keeps running with a new sparking synth up top, the driving snare keeping us pushing. Things really revving up now. Almost feels like the tempo turns up just a hair, unable to hold back as the song swells. It crests with the almost-titular lyric, “there’s a hollow in ur heart” and the band relents. A moment to soak it all in. A few vocals weaving along, into, away from each other over the guitar. It feels like that moment would. Sharing this hard truth with someone, your brain scattered, different thoughts and things to say all trying to get out at once. The glitches, the pitched down vocals, it’s chaotic and entrancing and a beautiful representation.

But 1:50 hits and dust rights the ship, returning to this refrain again, but dropping a gorgeous call me maybe reference that really warms my heart and validates that I’ve found a special song here. I’m really charmed by the “I miss you, ah ah I miss you” bit that follows. That feels equal parts ~tough guy~ and trying to say something while you cry uncontrollably. It’s sweet and playful and just another delightful surprise in this one. It all swells and swirls, picking up more steam through to the final section. That guitar strumming hard before ceding the floor to this dark and warm bass that seems to be exploring the edges of the room, seeing where it can go. It’s a weird and unexpected end, but one that I really love. Just as unpredictable as the next moment in this relationship. So much to enjoy with this one, I hope you give it a few spins and soak it all in - singing and dancing along as you do.

Follow sawyer dust on IG / Spotify

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Yeah, I’ve got another playlist… a live look at the songs I can’t get enough of beyond our weekly picks. It’s a mix of everything. Old, new, big, small, mainstream, weird as hell. Give it a listen :)

Ryan Beatty - Calico (album of the year?????)

Loving this record so much. Sobbed the first time I listened through. Bruises Off The Peach and Cinnamon Bread are early favs but it’s been a new-fav-every-listen kind of album for me. So beautiful and heartfelt and painful. Can’t wait to write a lot more about this one, but enjoy it now!!!

Soft Streak - North Carolina

So beautiful. Feels westerny and windows-down-road-tripy and also future-y and fresh. Gorgeous storytelling too. Swaying in the sun to this chorus, love this one <3 The keys rock, the guitars feels so good, each ingredient perfect.

Zack Villere, 454 - DUBBLE BUBBLE

oh my god this is so much fun i am bouncing all over the place going crazy with a big ol smile. his signature sound brought to life in another new way. the whip sound effect!!

Confidence Man, Daniel Avery - On & On (Again) - Edit

hot and heavy and mesmerizing, lost in another dance HIT from Con Man. They’re taking over the world, I’m telling you.

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What a way to start the month. Thank you all again for this week and for every week. For trusting me with a little bit of your time and taking a chance on these great songs. Paid support goes a long way if you’re feeling generous and life-changingy!

See you next week.

Yours,

Max

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