When Alexa Dirks started describing her latest album as Begonia, Powder Blue, she turns to vivid imagery: her baby blanket, the airiness of clouds on a summer day, chlorine-filled water in a hotel pool, circa-1970s Elvis Presley wearing an ill-fitting jumpsuit, her collection of faded denim jackets.   "Powder Blue is more of an emotion," the Winnipeg, Canada, native explains. "The name of this album needed to be something that encompasses all of the feelings that these songs give me when they are put together. When I listen to them as a unit, they send me back to the words, the color." Fittingly, Powder Blue's music feels timeless and classic, as well as eclectic. Trip-hop beats and propulsive grooves pulse throughout the album, shadowing Dirks' stunning voice; she alternates between a dusky croon and an expressive, belting delivery. The album nods to vintage soul ("I'm Not Dying," "Crying") sunny R&B ("Bleeding Heart") and soaring balladry ("Chasing Every Sunrise"). Yet the album is firmly in the realm of contemporary music: Standout "The Only One" is modern, keyboard-polished pop that features Dirks' most powerful vocal performance on the album.   With Powder Blue, Dirks is also trying to let go of needing concrete lyrical definition. "I still feel like I have to be like, 'Let me explain to you exactly where I was coming from,' even though I don't always want to do that," she says. "I don't want to tell people how they should feel or what they should think when they listen to the music."   Although Powder Blue's lyrics do mention specific situations—"NYE 2013" describes vivid heartbreak at a memorable party—the album wrestles with life's thornier moments in more evocative ways. "Crying" espouses embracing defiance in the face of harsh criticism and pigeonholing, while the narrator of "I'm Not Dying" has finally realized they'll be okay after a breakup. On the flipside is "Married By Elvis," where a couple embraces unconventionality, and "Chasing Every Sunrise," which describes a tender and vulnerable (if imperfect) relationship.   Powder Blue emerged during a challenging time for Dirks, as she was navigating emotional ups and downs. "Some of it was written when I was feeling lower than I ever have in my life," she confesses. "And then some of it was written through all these different waves of taking care of myself—and then not taking care of myself."   These challenges eventually took a toll on her mental health. "There was a period in my life where I felt like, 'Well, I can always choose to be joyful,'" she says. "And then there was this moment where I couldn't even access that. I didn't have that. It felt like I didn't have that option anymore." Luckily, Dirks had a support system around he, including a manager that made sure she talked to a therapist. Part of her discomfort stemmed from Powder Blue's origins and genesis. In 2020, Dirks wasn't supposed to be making a new record. Instead, she was due to be touring in support of her album Fear, which was released the previous year. Dirks did manage to play five sold-out shows in Winnipeg in February 2020, but extensive touring also didn't happen due to the pandemic.   Going from being on the road all the time to staying in one place was a jarring and even disorienting experience. "I would have to sit there and be like, 'How do I even take care of myself in this state of mind, knowing that I'm not going anywhere?'" Dirks says. "I had been touring basically full time since I was like 19. Before, there was always this impermanence to my routine. I knew I wouldn't be staying in one place long."   However, Dirks strived to make the most of the downtime. She looked through the results of impromptu sessions with her go-to songwriting partners, Matt Schellenberg and Matt Peters. "A huge catalyst for making the music that I make is working with people that I trust," she explains. "Collaboration is huge for me." The songwriters met up occasionally and worked on music without a timetable, preferring to follow their creativity wherever it took them. "When I'm writing on my own, I'm writing very sparse things on the piano or I have melodic lines and then I come to them and I'm like, 'Okay, let's flesh this out,'" Dirks says. "We aren't tied to one specific sound."   She also took time to dive into journals and other bits of writing she had amassed over the years, going so far as to fold down pages and use colored Post-It notes to mark potential lyrics. This exercise put her in an unexpected headspace. "I wanted to be prepared for whatever muse would come my way," Dirks explains. "But then it started to feel like this record became really nostalgic. I was pulling from different emotions that I had felt five years ago, combined with the fucked up feeling I felt in that moment. It crystallized in this strange, nostalgic kind of way."   For Dirks, this steered her writing down a different path, because she was used to processing her emotions in a more immediate way. Instead, she started facing some difficult chapters from her own life. "The last record I put out, I was like, 'Finally, I'm setting myself free,'" she says. "And then I listened to that and realized I wasn't even scratching the surface. I discovered that I have barriers and am aware of people's perception of me."   Among other things, she grew up religious and started worked through her conflicted feelings toward no longer being in the church. This is alluded to directly on "Heaven" ("If I get to heaven/Will I be free?/Let go of the past life haunting me") but more obliquely on "Butterfly," which references realizing your worldview has shifted.   Dirks admits she was nervous about releasing "Butterfly" because "it felt like it was the most honest I had been about losing my religion, even though it is so veiled," she says. "It's something that I've always struggled with talking about publicly, for no reason other than I'm still working through it in real time."   And then "Marigold," in which she talks openly about her sexuality, was another big song for her. As with her realizations about religion, Dirks discovered she didn't have a lot of answers to big questions. "When people are like, 'Are you this or are you that?' I'm like, 'I can't say with certainty.' It sounds so cliched, but I'm just constantly evolving in real time. Both 'Marigold' and 'Butterfly,' are statements to me, but still feels like I'm in these moments of constant self-discovery."   This intense self-reflection carried over to Powder Blue's recording sessions. For starters, Dirks' grandmother died during the making of the album. Because it was during the height of the pandemic, Dirks could only visit her from outside a care facility. "I would go there every morning before the studio and some days we had to cut it short," she shares. "We ended up having to tack on more time to the recording because her health decline happened in real time while we were making this record. It was unbelievable and so surreal, and strange and sad."   A November 2021 recording session was also bumped to early 2022. While the unexpected delay pushed the album timetable, the delay proved to be a silver lining: She wrote three new songs in the meantime. "In the back of my mind, there was an itch of, 'I feel like we could do more, but we're probably done.' And then when that grace period happened, I realized it was true that we weren't done. And then when we were able to go into the studio again, I was like, 'Okay, now we're done. Now I can put this together and figure out what it is saying to me.'" Despite the turmoil from which it emerged, Powder Blue represents Dirks feeling settled by coming to terms with her past and present. "The last record I wrote felt a bit more frantic," she says. "And it's so interesting that this was all written during the time of pandemic, amidst a sense of loss and longing, but it doesn't feel as frantic to me. Even the name Powder Blue, it feels like a bit calmer even though there are still moments of release. There is a sense of calm in the unknown."   At the end of the day, Dirks recognizes that Powder Blue ended up being written and released at the exact time it was supposed to be. "That's what it felt like to me," she says. "In the moment it didn't always feel that way. It felt frustrating. But then I was also at this time where I was like, I can't hold onto anything too tightly in this moment. I need to just be okay with things not working out constantly."   ===   Pegged as Canada’s breakout alt-diva, Begonia has built a legion of fans online and at her legendary live shows. Between her debut EP & album (Lady in Mind and Fear respectively) she was named on of NPR’s Artists You Need to Know, had two #1 songs on Canada’s CBC national radio chart, were nominated for a JUNO Award for Alternative Album Of The Year and longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Fear spent 10 straight weeks as the #1 album in Canada on Earshot’s Top 50 chart and had songs synced to numerous Netflix and Oprah Winfrey Network shows.

With nearly a million plays on Spotify alone, female singer songwriter Archie has been lighting up streaming platforms and the live stage over the past couple of years. With a voice that truly explores the pop sensibilities, she has been consumed by music since her childhood years. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Archie is equally at home under the spotlight of the big stage as she is in the studio. Currently opening for Alaska Thunderfuck on her national North American Red 4 Filth Tour, she has also opened for Zara Larsson, and impressed audiences at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party in 2022 appearing alongside Charli XCX, Flo Milli, and Remi Wolf. The theatrics of a performance and that raw unbroken connection she creates between artist and audience provides the energy that propels her forward. Inspired by some of the industry greats including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, and Queen, that musical and performance expressionism is clearly evident in everything she touches. Filling her songs with messages of hope and desire, she wants her audiences to understand that they are never alone and that they should leave a little room for magic in their lives. Rather than having fans, she wants to build a community of friends so that no one should feel lonely, lost, sad, or unworthy. Your future is yours to own, and her music gives people the chance to achieve that. Being an introvert in her personal life, music gave her the opportunity to express herself more openly and become more engaged with the world around her. Sharing that journey has resulted in some extraordinary work including her stand out hit Bad Bitch. In isolation the song is a brilliant example of what Archie delivers, but when considered against the rest of her back catalogue, there is no point in trying to typecast the artist from Seattle Washington. With a voice that can draw every single drop of emotion from her songs, her star is about to burn even brighter with the release of her debut album in 2023 and another tour in the works. Strong, independent and a fierce ambassador for female empowerment, Archie is an artist for our times. Intelligently designed music that engages the mind as well as the soul, there is no doubt that she will light up the night with songs of inspired brilliance. Take the time to spend a moment with Archie as she breaks new ground with every step she takes.