A music series for emerging artists and hidden gems, B-Drop Worldwide premieres its eleventh showcase featuring singer/songwriters Lily Kershaw, Alayna, and E. G. Daily!

Just as every country has its hidden gems waiting to be discovered, every artist has their own hidden gems waiting to be heard.

Atwood Magazine is proud to be featuring B-Drop Worldwide, an exciting new music series giving a platform to emerging artists and shining a spotlight on the A-sides, as well as the beloved (but oft-neglected) B-sides. The latest iteration of this unique melting pot of music premieres today, with a special performance from A music series for emerging artists and hidden gems, B-Drop Worldwide premieres its ninth showcase featuring singer/songwriters Lily Kershaw, Alayna, and E. G. Daily!

“B-Drop Worldwide came from B-Drop TV, an online music platform supporting emerging artists doing a similar format,” founder Cindi Avnet tells Atwood Magazine. “Prior to the pandemic we were filming twice a month in a studio space, doing a few bands each time. The bands would do two songs – an A-side and a B-side, with a brief interview at the end. The last question we asked the artists would be what’s one of your all-time favorite B-side. In 2020, we decided to do continue virtually with Instagram live streams every Monday and Friday doing a similar format.”

“One day I realized I wanted to create a worldwide community that supports emerging artists everywhere. Our plan is to film every 6 to 8 weeks moving from country to country. We will have six artists total performing each time we do the session: Three from the US, and three from the country we have chosen. The format will be similar to regular B-Drop, but it will be in-person sessions. We will also try to support indie labels from other countries by supporting their bands from their respective countries. We started with the UK, and because we think that it came out so well we might spend the summer doing UK sessions just to build up momentum before we move to another country!”

Why B-sides?

“Historically, often B-sides became more popular than the A-sides,” Avnet explains. “At B-Drop we want to encourage artists to have a chance to play one of their songs that is less well known or may have never been recorded. It’s interesting to have them do a current single as well as a B-side. From my understanding most music platforms want to just hear the current single but on our show we enjoy having the point of difference.”

B-Drop Worldwide is a showcase on a mission.

The project is now a collaboration between Avnet, Bella Elbaum, and Chris Jiannino as co-producers.

“Going forward, our vision is to bring attention to bands that may not often have opportunities and chances to thrive in this overcrowded music space we are in, Avnet says. “Our focus is to bring attention to undiscovered artists that may have not had the chance to be seen and heard otherwise. My hope is B-Drop listeners will discover new artists that they may never have heard before and add them to their playlist of artists to listen to. Also if someone is already a fan of the artist, then perhaps they will enjoy their B-side if they’ve never heard it before. The main thing for B-Drop is cultivating music discovery from new artists.”

Avnet’s favorite B-side? “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, from the band’s unparalleled 1966 album Pet Sounds (the A-side was “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”). Co-producer Bella Elbaum’s go-to B-side? The Beatles’ “Baby You’re A Rich Man” (the A-side was “All You Need Is Love”). Co-producer Chris Jiannino’s favorite B-side? New Order’s “Elegia” (full version) off their 1985 album, Low Life. “‘Elegia’ is just one of those truly beautiful pieces of work,” Jiannino says. “It’s cinematic, and each riff holds an epic part in the deep story of the group’s late frontman Ian Curtis.”

B-Drop Worldwide is all about expanding our musical horizons. Discover Lily Kershaw, Alayna, and E. G. Daily in the series’ latest episode, and dive deeper into both artists’ music and B-side picks below!

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B-Drop Worldwide is produced by Cindi Avnet, Bella Elbaum, and Chris Jiannino, and directed by James Schumacher of vertigo productions. Both performances were shot at Zula Den Los Angeles, with host Chris Ruckus.

Lily Kershaw

Lily Kershaw: “Depreshmode” is the first time I ever fully put down in a song the extent of my experience with prolonged depression. It was a difficult song for me to tackle and the one that has taken the longest to write in my career thus far. I ended up editing it, after the initial writing of it, over the course of 18 hours. I am very proud of that song.

“Darker Things” came out whole, in one take, and was exactly what I needed to write and say to someone at the time.

Lily Kershaw: These songs are both special to me because in writing them I got hard things I needed and wanted to say out of my body. “Depreshmode” was things I wanted to say aloud, really to myself, and “Darker Things” was something I wanted to say to another person but just couldn’t.

Lily Kershaw: As a fan, I love a deep cut. A song that feels like it’s just between you and the artist, that’s really special. When a song really resonates with you, and maybe it has a smaller pool of people it resonates with, and the artist also feels that way, I really love that! That connection.

alayna

alayna: These are two songs that are very close to me, and ones that talk most to the relationship with myself. ‘Tender’ was one of the first songs that I wrote with the intention of writing more directly to me, rather than to someone else. It subconsciously propelled me forward in that style of writing that would later come to be the guiding light of my debut album. ‘Meteors’ was a really important moment in my album journey that brought me further understanding of the person I am in this world. It gave me a sense of allowing myself to be, and to feel everything I’m supposed to, and that breaking apart and leaving pieces of me behind as I move through life is what I’m supposed to do. They’re also two of my favorite songs to sing on the piano, so I felt that they were the right ones for this session that represent me as an artist right now.

alayna: I always loved ‘Blessed’ by Daniel Caesar which was the B-side to ‘We Find Love’. I remember these two songs being released at a time I needed to hear them. I feel that Blessed held so much weight and was just as important as the single. The lyric “Yes I’m a mess but I’m blessed to be stuck with you” encompassed the shared humanness of what it can be like to love and be loved at times. Those two songs signified two sides of a coin and represented the multitude of feelings that can be felt in a relationship.

alayna: I love that a B-side can show a completely different side of another song, and add more to the whole story, as if those two songs were always meant to be together.

E. G. Daily

E. G. Daily: My first song is called “Somewhere”… It’s about how sometimes you can hit walls, feel frustrated about where you’re going, what you’re looking for in life. But you know what your craving is out there, you just haven’t found it yet. But you have this determination to find it cause the feeling of desire is so strong.

My other song is called “Black and White,” about the difference between a lil attraction and real knock-you-out, rock-your-world love!

E. G. Daily: B-Side to me is like the extra surprise.

E. G. Daily: I recorded and covered “WE GOT THE BEAT” for a Gogo’s tribute record, and on the B-side of it we recorded a song I did called “ONE WAY LOVE (Better off Dead)” from a soundtrack. A lot of people weren’t able to find the original from the soundtrack, so it was nice to drop it on the B-side of my “WE GOT THE BEAT” recording. So now people can get it and it’s streaming!

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