Alena Spanger / CrossLegged / Nathan Bajar - sounds by amani

Alena Spanger

A striking vocalist whose melodies trace mercurial and richly emotive trajectories, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Alena Spanger’s debut album Fire Escape—out now via Ruination Record Co.—is a richly varied collection of songs workshopped in the half-decade since her revered band Tiny Hazard’s breakup. Spanger’s compositions combine fractured beauty with mischievous play. Operating in a space between concrete expression and pre-verbal murmurs, she offsets sharp hooks with unsettling gestures—deliberate pressure at the top of her range, gasps, and scrambled electronics.

CrossLegged

Born in Norristown, PA and raised between Pennsylvania and California, Keba’s musical inspirations span folk, experimental pop, post punk, indie rock and soul. She grew up in a Jamaican household where the sounds that filled the air ran the gamut of roots reggae acts like Burning Spear and Third World and singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s like Carole King and The Mamas and the Papas, which developed her original love of singing and pure melody.

When she was a teenager she fell in love with The Pixies, and then folk music, which is ultimately what pushed her to learn how to play guitar and try her hand at writing songs too. She ended up studying visual art at Cooper Union but couldn’t resist the vortex of sound that was doing door at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium. Keba’s early days as Crosslegged were inextricable from the creative community that she built with friends through festivals and art shows she helped plan between NYC and Norristown, PA. Eventually she became a manager at Silent Barn in its later years and since then has helped to run a string of arts organizations in NYC. Her latest self-released album, Another Blue, was critically acclaimed by Rolling Stone as #15 in Rolling Stone’s Best Indie Rock Albums of 2023 and Pitchfork’s 33 Great Records You May Have Missed.

Nathan Bajar

Nathan Bajar (b. 1991) is a Brooklyn based Filipino-American producer, songwriter, and visual artist. His musical inspirations span rock, rnb, pop, and soul. He credits his father’s karaoke obsession with helping him develop an ear for melody and love for singing as well as exposing him to music by stevie wonder, fleetwood mac, larry graham, and todd rundgren. He received a photography degree from Montclair State University and was inspired to start writing his own music while working on photo and video projects with musical artists in his community. He writes songs about his family and everyday experiences`