introverttoday's indie picks slow down and dig in: a swedish-brazilian band revisiting an old song as a stripped-back acoustic session, a self-produced arena-scaled pop-rock anthem about watching someone slip away, a minimalist folk meditation on staying hopeful after two decades on the road and a bedroom pop confession recorded entirely alone in the dark. four tracks that all know exactly what they're trying to say.
fernanda (mato sessions) – elephant run
The verdict
“elephant run serve up 'fernanda' - a genuinely beautifully stripped-back acoustic rework of one of their own singles”
fernanda (mato sessions) swaps the original's studio sheen for acoustic guitars, mandolin and upright bass, and it suits the song beautifully. the jazz and tarantella touches give it a loose, live-in-the-room warmth the 2017 original never had. karin älverbrandt's guest guitar and backing vocals add just enough extra texture without crowding things. but it's the vocals which make this track standout; it's dripping of character, restraint and warmth. and i love the 'i'll be waiting for you' refrain. beautiful.
elephant run are a swedish-brazilian band built on a genuinely unlikely origin story, amanda wahlström plantin moved from malmö to são paulo in 2014, met drummer ladislau kardos by chance at a festival, and the pair built out the rest of the lineup from there. the band survived years of physical separation, including the pandemic, before reuniting in brazil to record their second album, leftover land. their next album, infrared, is due this october or november. that kind of staying power says a lot about how much this band actually means to each other. and after discovering this single, we're along for the ride now too.
thank u for making this elephant run 🐘
for you - noah bates
The verdict
“noah bates builds 'for you' into the best brand of widescreen 80s-tinged pop-rock”
for you leans hard into widescreen, 80s snares and modern pop-rock energy, all built for your next glorious night drive or evening alone with your headphones. the hooks are enormous without feeling try-hard, and the production has that self-produced, hands-on quality that keeps it from sounding over-polished. lyrically it sits in that uneasy space of feeling someone slip away without quite being ready to let go. it's a genuinely huge sounding single, but it's the song at the heart of it that is the standout; it's fantastically put together.
noah bates is a brisbane based artist blending indie-pop hooks with arena-rock scale, chasing that stadium haze sound almost entirely on his own. his debut single, coffee in japan, picked up more than 57,000 spotify streams and international airplay, and 2024's gotta go kept that momentum going. it's very easy to imagine this one soundtracking way bigger rooms than he's currently playing. an essential indie single this summer.
thank u for making this noah bates 🌇
"over" - orit shimoni
The verdict
“orit shimoni proves less is more with the acoustically devastating folk stunner "over”
"over" strips everything back to acoustic guitar and a tranquil, unhurried vocal. and it's the restraint that what makes it land. it distills the tension between sincerity and isolation, the good and the bad and the ugly living side by side, into a handful of beautiful refrains that really stick with you. there's a tired, plea-like quality to lines like "come on then, now, let's just change the tune," and it never once tips into melodrama. it's a genuinely moving piece of folk songwriting.
orit shimoni is a winnipeg based singer-songwriter who's spent more than two decades touring canada, europe and the united states in search of genuine connection rather than fame. she's found it here. her album winnipeg earned a best solo artist nomination at the canadian folk music awards, and the calgary herald has called her one of the nation's most alluring vocalists. she's currently working on her fourteenth album while touring alongside dan bern. she's reached new ears over here at introvert disco, and this one should definitely by heard by you too. a beauty.
thank u for making this orit shimoni 🕊️
maybe - jacob barrett
The verdict
“jacob barrett makes a beautifully hypnotic study in bedroom pop restraint”
maybe is deliberately minimal, just guitar and voice with a little sub and synth underneath, and those slightly broken, haunting guitar lines deliver so much. the vocal production is the standout here; are layered dense and lush, which gives all that wide sparseness somewhere to land. it's built around the specific ache of rumination, replaying every what-if after someone stops answering, and that it's that vibe that makes it hit harder. it's a genuinely hypnotic listen, the kind that rewards sitting with it in the dark.
jacob barrett is a san francisco based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who wrote, performed, produced and mixed maybe entirely himself in his bedroom. his last single, here i go again, was called "accessible, addictive, and thoroughly infectious" by the big takeover and charted at #62 on the itunes alternative chart in spain, and his 2024 debut album was featured by the san francisco public library's bay beats program. there's something genuinely refreshing about a song this deliberately bare in a moment obsessed with polish. a stunner.
thank u for making this jacob barrett 🛏️