Artist Profile: Kelly Moonstone

Written By G.C. Bellchamber
Kelly Moonstone stands in front of a phone booth.

Kelly Moonstone has been etching her ethereal vocals and clever hooks onto the spines of her tracks since the release of Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. In recent years, she’s been steadily returning to the grindstone, releasing a song with poetic virtuoso Mavi and, in 2023, was featured on Navy Blue’s critically lauded album Ways of Knowing. A tour through her brief discography makes one thing abundantly clear; this artist is in possession of a rare combination of charisma and soul-soothing, dripping euphonism.

At the genesis of her career she worked under the name of The Afr0dite, a powerful and swooning persona whose presence very much transferred across the spatio-temporal gap of the microphone. Her first tape, admittedly made primarily from beats off YouTube, shows flashes of the prowess she would display on later tracks. She remarks, however, that this tape represents illusions she had about her music career: a desire to stay shrouded behind the veil of anonymity.

“I always had this very unreasonable belief in my career that… [my] face could remain hidden somehow. I never really wanted to be famous. It wasn't really about that… I just didn't like prying eyes. I didn't like people looking at me and perceiving me. I still struggle with that sometimes, honestly, but definitely not in the same capacity.”

At the start of the pandemic, Moonstone was still somewhat obscure. She’d had studio sessions and multiple managers, but her tape and singles had not found much traction. However, as a remedy to what she cites as the “existential dread” of pandemic-era national turmoil, she began making covers of popular songs and putting them out on social media. 

Shortly after, she began fully doing her own production, imbibing her tracks with the distorted kicks and catchy melodies which mark her current style. 

This was a step which she previously thought to be out of bounds for her creatively, but, as her career grew, she felt compelled to grow as both an artist and a person. This was especially motivated by her desire to work as self-sufficiently as possible, independent of the give-and-take nature of the music business. 

“Being self-sufficient is one way that I've really grown, because I tended to depend on other people. I noticed, over the course of my career, there’ve been a lot of dudes helping me out with stuff, and I don't want to ask guys to do anything for me if I don't have to. Because some of the time, definitely not all the time, but some of the time it can be conditional, and I don’t respect that.”

During this era in her career, she also met and became connected with a number of established artists, including Joey Badass and Saba, who encouraged her to keep creating on her own path. 

This journey culminated with the release of her album I Digress… in 2023 with an Anniversary Edition being released in 2024. Featuring her singles “Psilocybin”, “Sinner”, and “Digress” as well as new tracks such as “Burn Your House Down”, this project represents the blazing, independent spirit of a remarkable voice and talent.

Read More
Artist Profile: Radicule.
Artist Profile: Radicule.

From the time he was first immersed in his brother’s rotation of southern hip-hop, NY-born producer and rapper Radicule. knew that, in some shape or form, he wanted to be involved in the direct thematic delivery and pure artistry those rappers exhibited. In the years since, his style has taken massive leaps and turns, but he and his central creative intention have remained intact.

Artist Profile: Iguana Death Cult
Artist Profile: Iguana Death Cult

Iguana Death Cult came to life as the garage-punk passion project of four teenage friends, and it has seen its fair share of transformations over the roughly 12 years since its inception. But their newest record, Guns Out, represents more than just a sonic evolution for the Rotterdam-based band. After two of the band’s original members made the difficult decision to move on from the project, Guns Out is a triumphant and searing continuation of the psychedelic and funk-rooted influences that defined their earliest efforts.

Artist Profile: best dressed ghost
Artist Profile: best dressed ghost

best dressed ghost, the garage and surf-inspired punk band from New Jersey, has taken a leap of artistic confidence in the release of its second record, Let’s Go Home, in March. When tracing the creative threads through the trails of their first record, however, a singular characteristic of the band’s work becomes clear— all four members possess a special sort of creative unison, elevated by the sheer charisma and energy that percolates not only through frontwoman Stef Leo’s personality-laden vocals but also through the band’s relentless willingness to adapt to the diverse vibrancies that each track demands.

Artist Profile: Ovven
Artist Profile: Ovven

Ovven, the solo project of Dallas Ugly guitarist and touring virtuoso Owen Burton, came to life in February with the release of Gnawing At The Cord, Burton’s debut solo album. But the foundations of Ovven’s sound, which differ starkly from the softer Americana that composes much of his body of work, trace back to his childhood in Chicago— they are, in a word, utterly natural to Burton’s sonic vocabulary.

Artist Profile: Sunsick Daisy
Artist Profile: Sunsick Daisy

Sunsick Daisy, the Adelaide-based, shoegaze and dream-pop influenced rock band, was originally formed from the teenage creative yearnings of its founding members, Kane Gabell and Sarah Grainger. But it has since blossomed into an energetic and surprisingly free affair– one that is capable of achieving the rare balancing act between a continuously evolving sound and a central sonic imprint and identity. 

Artist Profile: ladybug
Artist Profile: ladybug

Every time ladybug, the Massachusetts-based dream-pop and shoegaze-tinged indie artist takes up her improvisational songwriting process, it is the years of musical intrigue and the yearning for creative expression that truly flows forth through her words— a flood of suppressed emotions and untapped creative maturation that is abundantly evident not only in each of her hypnotic and varied singles but also across her collaborations, including the 2025 EP “live from the smoke room”.

Artist Profile: Fai Laci
Artist Profile: Fai Laci

Fai Laci, the Boston-based alternative rock band, has come a long way from its foundations in the collaborative spirit and self-taught musings of vocalist and founder Luke Faillaci. What once started as a solo affair, strung together through recordings created in his college dorm room and at his friends’ apartments across campus, has now become a fully-blossomed project— and the release of their debut album, Elephant in the Room, will serve as the next foothold in their energetic and diverse sound.

Artist Profile: Ghost Lovers
Artist Profile: Ghost Lovers

Ghost Lovers, the Phoenix-based indie rock band fronted by 19-year-old guitarist and songwriter Quinn Edgar, has packaged their relatable and infectious energy into their self-titled debut album, which was self-released in late February. In its mirrored mode of storytelling, it conveys a tale of the rawness of love and loss– leaning deeply into the undeniably abrasive and uncomfortable aspects– it is a strong representation of the unique charisma the band possesses and projects outward both on stage and in their recorded output.

Artist Profile: Somni
Artist Profile: Somni

For Somni, the Los Angeles-based indie-electronic artist and producer, his creative pursuits have always been led by a sort of gravitational pull— he’s largely explored and expressed himself in the sonic territories that have felt most appealing to his artistic tendencies. But his newest project, The Cost of Living, takes a full plunge into the songwriting aspect of his craft that, while ever-present, has long been hidden behind his intricate layers of electronic production.

Artist Profile: Cumulus Frisbee
Artist Profile: Cumulus Frisbee

Cumulus Frisbee, the Pennsylvania-based electronic jazz artist, is more than familiar with stretching the boundaries of his own creative approach, facing down new technical and artistic frontiers with a limitless joy and intentionality that renders each of his tracks deeply intriguing creations in and of themselves.

Artist Profile: Black Beach
Artist Profile: Black Beach

For Black Beach, the Boston-based post-punk and noise rock band, their ability to bend the lines between genres (and shift sounds between projects) is only a natural result of the creative chemistry they’ve steadily built since their time spent jamming as teenagers in Massachusetts basements. Their sound, built initially from a vague idea of a “doom-y surf rock”, has taken on a plethora of forms over the years, with their recent project Mail Thief assuming a tighter, more regimented and intentional approach over the soaring guitars and direct lyricism that is their trademark.

Artist Profile: Hue Hinton
Artist Profile: Hue Hinton

Hue Hinton, the Philadelphia-born producer and singer-songwriter, has been entranced by the feeling of creative productivity since he was a child playing piano on his father’s lap. Between his two formally-issued EPs, Out Loud and Starfish, this fact is more than clear. A distinct bent towards experimentation and an abundant adaptability peek their heads through every track of his young discography and, in many ways, are the defining features of Hinton’s infectious and tantalizing body of work.

Artist Profile: Ndeh Ntumazah
Artist Profile: Ndeh Ntumazah

Ndeh Ntumazah, the Maryland-born, New York-based experimental rock artist, has recently brought his sound full circle after years of experimentations, finding a home in an electronic-influenced, fuzzed-out, and guitar-driven sound that encapsulates, in many ways, the whole of his influences– from the African psych rock his father played throughout his childhood to the dubstep and EDM soundscapes that shaped his adolescence.

Artist Profile: Emma Harner
Artist Profile: Emma Harner

For Emma Harner, the Kansas-born “math-folk” guitarist and singer-songwriter, the technical aspects of music-making have never truly been her primary pursuit. Although a quick look through her social media will reveal a number of impressive feats of finger-picking and odd-time-signature experiments, spurred by her training as a classical guitarist at the Berklee College of Music, it is the depth of her sound— and its sheer capacity for carrying piercing emotion in its sonic breast— that truly separates Harner as an artist.

Artist Profile: Molto Ohm
Artist Profile: Molto Ohm

Molto Ohm, the experimental electronic project of musician Matteo Liberatore, now has two projects under its belt, and with the release of Reality Pills in late February, he has furthered the unmoored sound and cultural commentary that he envisioned when he began work under the moniker. With over a decade of experience in the experimental and improvisational music scenes, the Brooklyn-based artist is certain to continue expanding the creative dialectic and freedom of energy that Molto Ohm is founded upon.

Artist Profile: Vivian
Artist Profile: Vivian

Vivian, the Brooklyn-based shoegaze band, operates with a certain intentionality and clarity of sound that is informed not only by frontwoman Christine Bee’s years of experience in the New York rock scene but also by the unique and interminable contributions of each of her bandmates– Liam McCarthy on bass, Michael Ruocco on Drums, and Claire Collins on vocals and guitar. Their latest EP, “Third Eye Demos”, serves as an indication of the distinctiveness of the sounds to come on their debut LP. They combine a tasteful angst with a lyrical earnestness– a clear desire for loudness with a deeply-rooted sense of sonic purpose– and the result is a sound that is undeniably Vivian in its essence.

Artist Profile: Nolan the Ninja
Artist Profile: Nolan the Ninja

Nolan the Ninja, the storied Detroit-raised and Chicago-based rapper and producer, has been churning out densely lyrical tracks and entrancing instrumentals for over a decade. Now, as he reflects back on his career, and pushes the echelon even further with recent collaborations with Open Mike Eagle and the continued expansion of his own catalog, he knows that his unique creative imprint has set the foundation for everything he’s accomplished.

Artist Profile: Restless Taxis
Artist Profile: Restless Taxis

Restless Taxis, the genre-transient, noise-rock-influenced band based in London, has found their niche with the addition of Jess Nwosu and Dylan Haynes to their lineup just over a year ago, operating within the intuitive combination of the trio’s creative influences to bring a vision of a new sonic wave to fruition– one that incorporates a deeper sound and rhythm of the Black diaspora into the crushing sounds and cataclysmic renderings of shoegaze and post-punk’s usual genre-motifs.

G.C. Bellchamber
Previous

Artist Profile: Hataałii