If there is one particular theme running throughout this issue, it is that of defiance. A common thread tying many of the artists we speak with, and whose material we share, for we too believe in pushing against the tide, running at a loss at the expense of authenticity, and resisting the overbearing weight of capitulation.    

It is a powerful word and an even more so an empowering belief system. One that at times can be misconstrued as forceful or anti-establishment, but neither definition nor motivation applies to the artists within these pages because their defiance is that of dogged determination. Each and every obstacle that is put in their path is one that they muster the strength to leap over and continue along their given course, which they do with remarkable zeal.

Whether it is Alexander and Zachary James of Twin Temple and overcoming threats of violence toward their views, the trans-misogyny that Narrm artist Simona Castricum rails against, selling all her earthly possessions and flying halfway across the world to record her album as Margo Mann did, or gathering up the ashes of a life literally burnt down to the ground and turning that turmoil into tunes as Bonnie Bloomgarden from Death Valley Girls has done. All seek the same goal, which is to create their signature sound, express their internal worlds, and do so at tremendous personal exertion.