Fifteen Minutes of Fame: An Independent Artist Music Review Blog

Originally Published on February 28th Not for nothing, February may have been one of my favorite months doing Fifteen Minutes of Fame. I was excited to see artists coming together to nominate each other for the chance to be reviewed but I had no idea it would be as moving as it was! I am going to find a way to incorporate this more often. For starters, I am going to dedicate one review per month to the February posts to ensure I get to as many of them as I can. Thank you all for being the community I thought you were.  February, as always, is a short month. With the volatility of our nation’s politics, ethics, working in a position with a financial company as the well-being of our national economy hangs in the balance, and moral standards behaving as if they were planets in a solar system that suddenly just lost gravity, snow storms, a loss of a dear family member, and sharing time while being hard at work on recording my second ever full-length studio album, it is safe to say that...

Originally Published on February 26th, 2025 About the Artist I used to be a very confident person, musically. In my younger, more naive years, and growing up as a big fish in a little pond, I treated every compliment as if it were a future Grammy nomination. It was all just validation that a career in music was there for me if I wanted it.  I graduated high school and not much changed. I had a music professor who referred to me as a genius, I was one of the favorites of the music performance department, and I really put effort into learning and diversifying my skill ( I even taught myself to play the piano in my music theory classes).  After college, the attention left. The competition was extensive, my focus was pulled in more than one direction, the game was somewhat rigged, and I just so happened to showcasing as record labels were being decimated by Napster, Limewire, and other websites that allowed people to pirate music. All factors that I failed to see. I took it to mea...

Originally Published on February 21st, 2025 About the Artist I’m going to be telling on myself a little bit here, but, in order to be a critic, I think writers have to be comprised of asshole. Some more than others, admittedly, but it has to be there. People who criticize things they’re not a part of, we’re not involved in, because they have a baseline knowledge of a subject are a little bit pretentious.  Or a lot bit. That is one of the reasons I’ve chosen to attempt to rewrite this narrative. Ironically, it’s the most contradictory way to go about this. “I dont like the way music critics go about doing their jobs these days. I think I can do better.” It’s funny when I play it back.  It is how things get changed though. For what it’s worth, I don’t do any of this for me. I feel compelled to be more of an advocate than a critic.  Any criticisms I offer come from a constructive place. I recognize, as an independent artist, we have so many stories among us, collectively. I ...

Originally Published on February 20th, 2025 About the Artist There are a number of reasons why I am grateful for writing reviews for Fifteen Minutes of Fame. The one I want to talk about today is discovery. For starters, I must admit my own ignorance. Having been involved in the music industry for decades, I operated under the naive assumption that I was familiar with just about every genre of music, to a degree. However, up until October, though I knew what spoken-word poetry was, I didn’t consider it a genre of music; even though I definitely considered it a form of art. I categorized it as literature.  Then I discovered the music of one of the most influential people I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing,  Circumstantial Saint . It’s actually kind of “poetic,” that he would introduce me to this genre. It’s been an eye opening experience. Needless to say, his recommendations are not to be taken lightly.  Also from Pennsylvania,  Coral Rites  is a spoken word ...

Originally Published on February 12th,  About the Artist This artist really resonated with me. If I am being honest, it’s not just because they’re talented. The moment I started digging into this track, I immediately heard a resemblance to a mainstream artist that I love, but the artist is tragically no longer with us (even though his label is still releasing his music).  Jepz  Is very much his own artist and he has his own unique sound, but I can’t listen to him and also not think of the late great,  Mac Miller . Miller, an American rapper from Pennsylvania, passed away in 2018 at just 26 years of age. He didn’t leave this world, however, before leaving a legacy of music that would stay with his fans.  Jepz is a singer and rapper from Denmark. He seems to have that same special connection with music that Miller did. How do I describe it? The closest I can come is that he sings about depression in a way that makes it so beautiful. It’s not in a way that inspires...

Originally Published February 10th, 2025 About the Artist I was very excited to listen to this band. It has been a few months since I’ve reviewed a metal band. I don’t play metal anymore but metal has always been a big part of my musical upbringing. My friend and guitar mentor was a big fan of  Metallica , so when he was teaching me songs, chords, or riffs to play, it was usually derived from something Metal. Being a 90’s teen, I also had a decent exposure to a variety of different artists who claimed to be metal, or at least influenced by, that would inspire the several sub-genres of metal today:  Marilyn Manson ,  Nine Inch Nails ,  TOOL  and   A Perfect Circle ,  Korn , and many others were in constant rotation in my cd player. Then later in college, my roommate was a film major who was the frontman of two metal bands. One of them actually has a profile on Spotify;  Vilejive .  Musical genres, since the 90’s and early 2000’s have really mo...

Originally Published February 7th, 2025 About the Artist I was having a conversation with my wife two nights ago. During the conversation, we discussed this renaissance period music has been having in my life. Why now is different from before. From 16 years of age to my late 20’s, music was a priority to me. I didn’t just want to perform, I wanted to make it in the music business.  Looking back, I can see this visible timeline where I can watch myself descend from a place of certainty to an unfortunate lack of confidence. I was a member of a few different bands that showed great promise but garnered only moderate succcess. Then, after I was no longer in the band scene, I devoted time to recording two EP’s but no time for promotion, marketing, or even playing a show to showcase the music. Of course by then, I was telling myself that it was too late and I just wanted to have a public record of my music to say that I did it. Of course, secretly, I hoped for more. I just didn’t want to...

Originally Published on February 5th, 2025 About the Artist There is a moment in every artist’s life that they can look back to and reference to say, “that’s what made me want to be an artist.” In some way, we have to be inspired. We don’t just wake up and say, “I’ve decided to become singer. A songwriter. An actor. A painter. Something puts pen to paper.  We continue to pull inspiration from all places throughout our lives. I’ve released music that has been inspired by films I’ve seen, moments I’ve witnessed, reflections of my upbringing or important moments in my life. Love. These things keep me going as an artist. If I think about it though, I can remember the very first time I was inspired.  His name was Bastian. He was a geeky little kid that grew up under the duress of bullies, having just lost his mother, and he suffered the affliction of being a “daydreamer.” One day, while evading the neighborhood bullies, he hid in a bookstore, found a book he simply had to read, and...