Bending Brains

“We’re Matt and Jess and we’re the co-founders and primary runners of Brain Graffiti, an independent DIY music zine that covers the current state of independent music across the country.”

Roy McGrath is a Chicago based tenor saxophonist and multi-woodwind instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and educated in Boston, New Orleans and Chicago, Roy brings to bear these diverse influences in his playing and composing. In addition to leading and recording his own ensembles, he is a member of several others as an in-demand player, recording art...

CHNNLL is a Chicago-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. a.k.a. Chris Davidson tempers emotional subject matter with bold melodies, coating raw truths in hummable hooks. Check out his music and up coming shows. https://www.chnnll.com/

Adalia Powell-Boehne is a singer-songwriter composer living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is 1/4 of the band KNOTTS. When she’s not performing she’s driving her kids around or writing in her journal. 

I made a name for myself in Chicago media (WKQX, WGN, WLUP, WXRT) and a career for myself in the digital and marketing spaces.  On the journalism/broadcasting front, I've earned multiple Lisagor awards in Chicago, as well as a national Edward R. Murrow award. As a podcaster, my long-running "Car Con Carne" podcast was named "Best Music Podcast, 2022" and "Best Music Podcast, 2023" by the Chicago R...

Shelby Pollard is the founder and Black Bobbin, a company that works with and constructs guitars, amp, effects pedals, and more. Shelby is a multi-discipline artist from Chicago that specializes in product and portrait photography. www.blackbobbin.com 

“I don’t think I’ve listened to a band that had a genre distinct unto themselves. Even crazier is that every song on Robot Heart Throb’s first album is almost completely unique”- Pacific Ridge Records. Jared casts Saxophone solos with explosive ADHD, lucious flute-playing sings in midwest Emo style. Heart-on-your sleeve lyrics spin stories with hip-hop and folk-inspired lyrics. Jared’s band Robot...

Dan Stewart is an independent filmmaker and musician based in Chicago, IL. His directorial debut feature film 'Local Band' will begin its festival run in 2024.

Seth Engel is recording engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and music instructor living and working in Chicago. Over the last decade, he has toured nationally and internationally. He has engineered a continually-growing volume of music for both nationally recognized and local artists. In 2013, he received a BA in Music from Columbia College Chicago. He is a recording engineer at Ohmstead in Humboldt...

Will Stephan is a Chicago born Skateboarder and founder of Sapient Skateboards. Will builds skateboards from scratch and gives skateboarding lessons at Sapient Skateboards. Will also puts on Skateboarding events around Chicago. www.sapientskateboards.com

Introducing Friday James, a gifted songwriter originating from Nashville, Tennessee. Relocating to Chicago in November of 2021, Friday swiftly immersed herself in the local music scene, enthralling audiences with her mesmerizing performances. Her artistic essence is centered around a profound appreciation for lyricism and poetic depth, artfully weaving true events from her own life into poignant a...

Sean Neumann is a musician and sports reporter from Chicago, Illinois. He’s currently on tour with his band Ratboys. As a reporter, Sean works for People Magazine, GQ, and other entertainment magazines.  seanneumann.us  has any info you might need!

The Eastern and Western halves of Washington can seem like two different states; one dry and pastoral, the other overcast and lush. Rob Joynes is a singer-songwriter who's music captures these two contrasting landscapes. Raised on the East side of the Cascade Mountain Range, Joynes often invokes his home town of Spokane directly in his lyrics. Pairing themes of queer identity, abjection, family an...

Julien Fontaine is french-canadian percussionist, drum teacher and now certified public accountant from Montréal. Firstly a passionate music lover and compulsive record buyer, he went on completing an interpretation jazz drumming diploma in Québec before making a complete change of path into obtaining a CPA licence. Music, arts and business are now coexisting in an unorthodox amalgam the showed hi...

Joe Gaspar is the owner and founder of 2 Bici Bicycle shop in Willow Springs, IL.

Hannah Bess Ross is a Chicago based illustrator and writer. She lives in a little house with a blue door and an orange cat, but dreams of the woods and the waves of rocky seas far, far away. She likes telling stories about everyday magical things like bugs and stars. She also loves puppets, folk art, and silly word-play. Hannah mostly makes art for a children's market. https://www.hannahbessross.c...

Karen is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Chicago. She is tirelessly curious about all forms of creative expression, and her work includes illustration, sculpting, print making, video editing, songwriting, and sewing. Her tenure in the Production Art space has also provided her with a deep appreciation for graphic design. Primarily, she works with local bands and businesses to collaborate on m...

My first memory is of hitting everything in sight at 2 years old. From playing in the church from the age of 5 to performing with the Percussion Scholarship Group , (PSG), starting in 4th grade, I have had many valuable experiences and lessons that have brought me to where I am today. Directed by Patricia Dash , percussionist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and her husband Douglas Waddell , p...

Molly Compton is a singer-songwriter, visual artist, amateur baker and founder & resident bleeding heart at Ur Mom Records. She thinks everyone deserves a good mom and everyone can be a good mom.

Introducing Friday James, a gifted songwriter originating from Nashville, Tennessee. Relocating to Chicago in November of 2021, Friday swiftly immersed herself in the local music scene, enthralling audiences with her mesmerizing performances. Her artistic essence is centered around a profound appreciation for lyricism and poetic depth, artfully weaving true events from her own life into poignant a...

Alec Koukol is an Omaha-born, now Nashville-native. The multi-instrumentalist and songwriter is involved in many projects within Music City, but his primary operation is Safari Room, Koukol’s indie rock outfit that began in 2018. Five years into the band, Safari Room has released two eps and two full-length albums, ‘Look Me Up When You Get There’ (2020) and ‘Complex House Plants’ (2022). Koukol an...

Julia Danielle is an up-and-coming vocalist, arranger, educator, and composer based in the heart of the vibrant jazz scene of Chicago. As the 2022 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition Winner, part of Julia's prize was performing alongside The Tierney Sutton Band at the renowned Blues Alley Jazz Club in Washington D.C. and since then, has lead her own band and music at the incompara...

Clare Bollnow is a 26 year old artist living and working in Chicago. She started painting in 2019, never having gone to art school, she began with watercolor and eventually branched out; she works with oil paint, spray paint, watercolor and pigment dye among other mediums together on large-scale material. Clare finds inspiration in the human form and its expressions, using vivid color and a unique...

Iyana Brown-Bey is an alternative, neo-soulful musician, who uses her voice to shed light and to uplift. She aims to create music for those who often feel that they are only apart of the background. Iyana believes that “being human is to reflect and to feel, to express and to create with self and others.” And her goal is to build a unified community surrounding these values through music. Iyana cu...

Claudio is an LA based singer-songwriter/poet whose artistry blends the acoustic storytelling style of James Taylor or Jim Croce with the soulful vocal stylings of John Legend or Eddie Kendrick. Originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Claudio relocated to Los Angeles in Spring 2018. Since then, he has kept busy touring the country 4 times while steadily releasing new music. Less than a year after arri...