Video Premiere: Carry Illinois, “Smoke and Medicine”

Written by Brittney McKenna August 28th, 2015 at 10:55 am

Photo by Pooneh Ghana

There are some childhood memories that stick with us forever. For Carry Illinois’ Lizzy Lehman, an incident with her brother became one such memory, one that inspired her to write the confessional tune “Smoke and Medicine.” The Austin-by-way-of-Evanston songwriter has a knack for channeling small moments into meaningful tunes, as evinced by the band’s debut album Alabaster, which counts its influences as spanning from Laurel Canyon to Smiths hometown Manchester, England.

“I simply didn’t want to hide anymore. ‘Smoke and Medicine’ reveals my imperfections, my secrets, my truths, and my need to express that, like most people, at times I need to quell my fears, anxieties, and sadness through a less than accepted vice,” Lehman tells AS. “When I was in high school, I told on my brother for smoking pot in the garage solely because I was not a fan of the kids he was hanging out with.  A few years later, I found myself hiding away, just the same, partaking in order to feel just a little bit better.  I needed to apologize for what I had done and own up to my own hypocrisy.  I needed to say that I wasn’t always the perfect child, that I did things wrong time and again, and that I needed to decompress from life.  I wanted to tell the world that I wasn’t doing anything wrong even though so many believe otherwise.  We shove legal chemical cocktails into our throats every day and still become unhinged.  It seems that the universal mentality about drugs is backwards, and I want people to know that that is truly how I feel.  Clearly, as we have seen over the past few years, the times are changing, laws are changing, and minds are changing.  People are beginning to see light and it should be discussed.

When deciding how the song should be portrayed visually, I wanted the movements to express physical and mental struggle as well as growth, change, and freedom. I wanted the video to be simple yet strong.  I wanted it to express the trials and tribulations of youth that every young person deals with on a daily basis.  Toronto based video director Sammy Rawal did an excellent job bringing my visions to life.  The video was filmed in black and white with hand colored red shadows behind Toronto based dancer Ila Kavanagh as she moved.  The red shadows emphasize the very difficult dance we go through when navigating the ups and downs of life.  It is tough to grow up and get through it all, but if we work together, support one another, and stand up tall, we will be able to breathe through it and take on another day.”

Check out the premiere of Carry Illinois’ “Smoke and Medicine” video below, and get Alabasterhere.

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LA's Folk&B Ladies ArtPeace Announce Release Date For "Free Music" And Video Teaser!

Website:  http://www.weareartpeace.com

ArtPeace's "FREE MUSIC" WILL BE INDEPENDENTLY RELEASED OCTOBER 23RD, 2015 ON A LABEL APPROPRIATELY TITLED "WILD SERAPE."

And here is the video teaser for single "Hi:)" which is out Sept 18th


On one lazy yet fateful Saturday afternoon, Birmingham, Alabama born and Oakland, California raised, singer/songwriter Taura Stinson googled "Serape Headboard". Feeling unimpressed with initial results, she headed over to Craigslist in hopes of finding a local designer willing to make her Serape dreams come true. She came across Chrissy Depauw's "Love Shack Designs" and the two began discussing specs for Taura's new art piece(pun highly intended). As the conversation came to a close, Taura felt a cosmic nudge deep in her soul and asked Chrissy if she'd consider bartering for the headboard. "Sure, what do you do? ". "I'm a songwriter", Taura responded.

Now Taura could have listed her many accolades, being a Grammy nominated, multi-platinum songwriter who has written for/with artists including but not limited to long-time writing partner Raphael Saadiq, Steven Tyler, Andre 3000, Kanye West, Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland, Paloma Faith, Jennifer Hudson, Solange Knowles and even Earth Wind & Fire, but being humble she didn't. Instead, Chrissy (an accomplished Singer/Songwriter herself) visited Taura's website and jumped at the chance to seal the deal. Chrissy would handcraft a custom Serape headboard for Taura in exchange for a song. Feeling energized by this quirky coincidence, in less than a week Chrissy had completed the most amazing headboard that Taura had ever seen and they quickly arranged their first writing session.

The stars aligned perfectly as Taura and Chrissy connected on a level only understood by fellow Artists completely committed to their craft. They discussed the highs and lows of their journeys during that magical session and their shared view of the state of the music industry, coupled with infectious melodies and a relentless guitar loop... their first song was born.

Chrissy's journey had been the antithesis of Taura's. The San Diego native became a staple at the Santa Monica promenade years ago and her angelic voice would cut through crowds like wild fire. During her tenure she'd sold over 30,000 copies of her independently released self - titled acoustic cd. She has also shared the stage/worked with many artists including Andy Grammer, Capital Cities, Colbie Caillat and Javier Colon.


Both Taura and Chrissy contributed their talents to film. Chrissy served as co-writer and performer of "Set it on Fire" and "Dream" on the Honey 2 soundtrack, while Taura has co-written songs for various films including but not limited to the certified Diamond soundtrack for Men in Black (Will Smith), The Sitter (Jonah Hill), Epic (Beyonce'), Black Nativity (Forrest Whitaker & Angela Bassett) and Rio 2 (Jamie Foxx & Anne Hathaway), but the 2014 Gina Price-Bythewood film "Beyond the Lights" is where their collaborative journey officially began. Their song "Airplay" was featured in the film and was performed by Chrissy.

Both Taura and Chrissy felt their serendipitous union was not destined to end with one song and so they embarked on an musical journey, with Chrissy encouraging Taura to rise from the anonymous background she'd grown accustomed to and join her in splitting vocal duties.

One night Taura had a vision of herself standing alongside Chrissy with the name "ArtPeace" scrolling behind them. "Me, an artist?" She asked herself. Her soul replied, "Hell, yeah".

Immediately they began work on their soon to be released debut album entitled "Free Music". It includes the haunting single "High", co-written and produced by Darien Dorsey who also serves as co-executive producer. Darien's formal training at the Berklee College of Music coupled with Chrissy's undying love of 90's R&B and Taura's eclectic sensibility rendered a pervasive collection of music that bursts through the rigid and confined walls of "genre". ArtPeace describes their sound as "FOLK&B" which marries the organic sound of Folk music with rich lyrics and instrumentation that bleeds like the blues.

In addition to Darien, ArtPeace collaborated with Raphael Saadiq on the Southern hinged backyard song, "Son of A Gun". Saadiq also duets with the ladies on "Heaven Down Here" which is the sonic equivalent of licking batter dipped beaters of Grandmas best kept secret recipe.