When Sawyer Hill was 14, his Pentecostal parents made an unexpected concession: They signed a notarized affidavit that allowed him to go to bars, so long as he was playing music and not drinking. For the better part of a decade, that was his life’s driver, gigging in the haunts and dives of greater Northwest Arkansas, often for audiences of a few dozen. But in 2022, “Look at the Time”—a grungy rock hymn about the rock-hard bottom of a romance—exploded when someone posted a clip of it online. Less than two years later, in February 2024, the song topped Spotify’s Viral 50. The natural showman’s career has since ballooned, with a string of hit singles already generating 50 million streams and 120 million video views—all before he has released his debut EP, due in the Spring of 2025.

Indeed, the last two years and a string of subsequent singles have proven that “Look at the Time” was no fluke. Hill has an uncanny knack for theatrical melodies delivered with a blue-collar believability, the grand gestures of the rock he loves reimagined for the up-close-and-personal, sing-along throngs of small dives. “High on My Lows” is an honest and instantly memorable confession about trying to stay sane, even as you get wild with the world around you. The pensive but surging “Symphony” even uses music as a metaphor for deliverance, for being swept up by anything bigger than you while you still can. Hill looks at life’s hardest parts and finds a way to shape them into an inescapable tune, so that all those who have been there can unburden themselves by shouting along for a few minutes at a time.

Phoenix native Izzy Mahoubi is an artist rooted in storytelling. With new-age Pop and Americana influences, she isn’t afraid to write blunt and honest lyrics, disclosing her deepest insecurities with her listeners.

The 19-year-old has been performing in Arizona and Nashville for six years opening for artists such as Em Beihold, Adam Melchor, Mipso, among others. In 2022, she signed with indie label Rude Records and since then has released her debut EP, “How to Run” which has garnered support from Phoenix New Times, The Arizona Republic, Rolling Stone France and more. Phoenix New Times’ Chris Coplan describes her EP as, “A Pat Benatar-ian slice of pure pop-rock, about learning from youthful ignorance and growing up in the very best way possible”. 

In the artists words she says, “I grew up singing to Adele and Tom Petty in the back of my dad’s car and I feel like that shows. I love soul and I love storytelling. I have my mothers Maggie Rogers and Sheryl Crow to thank for teaching me how to tell my own stories. In the coming years I hope to release my first album, tour, and reach a broader audience of listeners”.