The Male Pattern Was Shot in the Heart

Released on September 25, I Was Shot in the Heart! is the debut album from The Male Pattern, a project by Will Schwartz (he/him), a songwriter, novelist, and English professor from Queens, NY. He began making music in the early 2010s as a co-songwriter/vocalist in Uncles with Daniel Bateman (who appears on this album) and Tom White of Frog before issuing one solo EP via Monkfish Records. Schwartz then shifted his focus to fiction writing, and his work has been published in Newtown Literary, Ninth Letter, The Baltimore Review, and The Briar Cliff Review, from which he received the 2017 award for literary fiction.

His first musical work in over a decade, I Was Shot in the Heart! is a character-driven, narrative work that explores and exploits Americana tropes to capture its time and place. It’s a concept album in the tradition of Darren Hayman’s Pram Town (dubbed a “Folk Opera”), Terry Allen’s Lubbock (On Everything), and Alex Cameron’s Forced Witness.

It’s a funny, intelligent, and violent album that shows Schwartz relishing writing a different kind of fiction, which is ugly, weird, unworkshopped, and most importantly, free of the constraints of academia and publisher appeasement.

The singles, ‘I’m a Soldier’ and ‘Charlie (The Robbery)’ will be released on August 14 and September 4, respectively.

Listen to The Pinebox EP

Irish singer-songwriter Darren Flynn returns with his latest single, a cover of the U2 classic - ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, which is set for release on August 7. It’s a heartfelt rendition of a song that he has loved since childhood, and is imbued with his unique mix of rootsiness and optimism.

The new single highlights Flynn’s love of both Americana and Irish music, blending both influences into an uplifting take on a rock classic, with harmonica and banjo sitting in for the original’s jangly guitars, complimented with close-part harmonies on the chorus refrains.

The track is the final single off his new EP, also being released on August 7, called The Pinebox EP. The collection of five songs showcases the breadth of Flynn’s songwriting styles and musical tastes, from some acoustic bluesy Americana to Irish folk-inflected protest song with Waits-ian overtones.

You can catch him at his next show in The International, Dublin on Friday, August 28.