Guest Blog: Chuck SJ

Innovative artist and activist Chuck SJ has been a big favourite at Get In Her Ears for some time now, having played live for us on more than one occasion, including most recently supporting Irish queer punks Strange New Places at The Rossi Bar in Brighton last year. Continuing their development as an artist and organiser, they introduced the BYENARY record label earlier this year: “A place for all those assigned flawed and miscreants at birth to find and create music that they can see themselves in. We support trans and queer artists to access and thrive in the music scene, focusing on analog physical music and community events.” And now, following empowering pop-punk anthem ‘Ur Not My Mum’ a couple of months ago, they’ve shared a stirring new single ahead of the release of their upcoming album next Spring.

To mark the release of ‘Lovesick Puppy‘, Chuck has written a few words for us; reflecting on what inspired the writing of the song, what it means to transition, the complex nature of grief, and their epic journey to write and record their album while travelling the UK’s canals with their trusty companion, Archer. Read below, watch the beautiful new video for ‘Lovesick Puppy‘ and sign up to Chuck’s mailing list now!

How fitting that I’ve been asked to talk about ‘Lovesick Puppy’ during a period of time where my past keeps chasing me. In another lifetime the planets would be my hyperfixation, but as it is, astrology has always been homework that sits on the bottom of my to do list. Fortunately, my world is so queer I breathe it in like second-hand smoke – I’m paying enough attention to know I feel more unsettled than usual, and that’s likely due to us all being in a ‘transition period’

What does it mean to be trans in transition? When does transition become complete… ? When the final box is unpacked? When the last tear is shed? When we’ve buried our last friend?

When I wrote ‘Lovesick Puppy’, I did so with itchy feet and a yearning to find whatever comes next. Enough time has passed now that the things, the people, the homes that I’ve found since have been and gone. The pursuit continues, and I have no idea what I’m looking for.

The song is the first from an album that I set out to write from my narrowboat whilst doing a 225 mile journey across the UK’s rivers and canals, just me and my dog Archer. What started off being about a need for solitude whilst simultaneously craving the queer community that city life brings, then transitioned itself into a conversation with the internet where I plead for answers around my mental health in a state of facism. In the end, it became a realisation that austerity has destroyed the way I grieve for my late mum.

I think my mum was the most awesome woman to have ever existed. She was funny, she was intelligent and she held a room in a way that I now know is no easy feat. So, to admit that a part of me doubts that she’d have loved who I turned out to be feels like an insult to her memory; a suspicion I should keep to myself. The reality is, it’s not her fault I hold these doubts, and it isn’t mine either. I have spent the past ten years living in a country where transphobia has dominated our headlines: despite the buffet of forever changing prime ministers that we’ve feasted upon, despite Brexit, despite the global pandemic, despite the rising cases in poverty, transphobia has never stopped trending. What if mum got swept up in that? I feel guilty for grieving my mum because I worry I’m too queer for her to have loved me if she were still here.

What a heavy realisation to have in the middle of nowhere on a boat without a person around, and how obscure to think I may have never made this discovery had I not set out to write this album. A brutal reminder of why I write music; it’’s how I figure out what I’m feeling.

I suppose that is what it is to transition. To move through these states of awareness with both confrontation and purpose, carrying the people we’ve lost along the way.

Huge thanks to Chuck for writing so beautifully about their new single and reflections. Their album is due for release in Spring ‘2027 under BYENARY records. Sign up to their mailing list to not miss it – this is particularly important with all the restrictions that are part of social media now, which mean that mailing lists are now an essential tool for musicians to reach people. Chuck’s also doing a Europeon tour from 25th November and would love to see some folk there. More details here. Help them cover the costs of touring by ordering some merch or a CD from their bandcamp now!

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Five Favourites: Midori Jaeger

An artist I discovered by accident when seeing Tanita Tikaram at Royal Festival Hall last November, Midori Jaeger instantly caught my attention with their distinctive style of playing the cello and the soothing allure of her vocals while playing in Tikaram’s band. Originally from Japan, and having played alongside the likes of Daughter and Courtney Pine, as well as Tikaram, she released her latest EP (Re)Planted this summer, showcasing her immersive, genre-defying sounds and poignant, insightful songwriting. Following its predecessor, (Un)Planted – which drew on themes of displacement and identity – this latest release reflects on Jaeger’s experiences of migration and mixed cultural heritage in a softer, more expansive way, drawing a parallel between the cello (once a living tree), and her own journey as a child uprooted several times and forced to build roots in different soils. It’s a truly beautiful collection, drawing you into Jaeger’s unique, captivating sounds and stirring heartfelt emotion.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of (Re)Planted, we caught up with Midori to find out about the five albums that have inspired her songwriting the most. Read about her five favourites below, listen to (Re)Planted, and come along to see her captivating performance at Stone Nest tomorrow!

Johann Sebastian Bach – 6 Suites for Solo Cello (played by Steven Isserlis)
I think my parents had this CD around and I added it to my iTunes library and listened to it on my iPod as a teenager. These pieces were way too hard for me to play myself at the time, and I remember thinking of them as a real marker of ‘grown-up’ cello playing, wondering if I would ever be able to get there, as I hated practising! Nowadays I play at least one of these pieces every day when I practise, and have done (on and off) for probably the last ten years, since I left music college. It’s the way the cello is so self-sufficient in them — covering harmony, rhythm, and melody, without compromising expressivity by sounding overly technical or cello-specific — that, over the years, has kept me going back. In turn, it’s probably instilled in me this idea that the cello can do everything. In my songs the cello is always the backbone, providing groove, rhythm, and harmony. I think without the example of solo cello music where the cello drives the fundamentals of the music (not only the Bach suites but also other pieces like Kodály Solo Cello sonata, Wellesz Solo Cello Sonata too), I might not have felt inclined to start creating my own cello music in this way.

James Taylor – Sweet Baby James
My dad gave me this CD when I was about fourteen, maybe along with a few others. Although I don’t think I necessarily consciously thought about it in a technical way at the time, I remember being struck by the simple arrangements that centred the acoustic guitar and voice. And the timbre of his voice is one I can just listen to endlessly (along with probably many other people!), though it’s exactly at that kind of spoken range that is impossible for me to sing along with! The identity of the songs seemed so contained within the guitar parts and vocals in a way that gave them such a uniqueness that didn’t get watered down by a produced ‘album version’. I imagine that really enjoying listening to these songs, where the raw and stripped-back recordings highlighted the writing, and doing so since a young age, probably had an influence on me choosing to write songs that originate from a prominent cello part and vocals only.

Saya Gray – 19 MASTERS
This was a more recent discovery that I’ve found conceptually inspiring. There’s a courage and assuredness that shines through this music, especially in the production. I get the sense that the artist really knows who she is and wants to be playful, which I absolutely love. She’s also of mixed Japanese heritage and there is clear influence from western classical music, which I also relate to. The songs are mostly in English but I really enjoy the little bits of spoken Japanese on this record which tap into a deep part of me and take me somewhere. I get a lot just from the solidarity of knowing that she’s also one of few female solo artists of our heritage to be doing this job. The music centres acoustic guitar and piano, whilst building a world of electronic and fun/extraneous sounds around that in a totally distinctive and imitable way, which I am realising is something I must really like!

Moses Sumney – grae
Moses Sumney is an artist I’ve respected since I first found out about him in 2020. It was partly knowing that he’d rejected several label offers that wanted to mould him into something he wasn’t, and partly the completely idiosyncratic nature of this album’s world that really drew me to it, mostly driven by the freedom of his singing. I don’t quite know how to describe it but his voice seems like much more than just ‘the vocals’ of the song, like a really far-reaching sonic representation of his musicality as a whole, or something. The album’s themes of multiplicity in various facets of identity also really spoke to me as a mixed-race, bilingual, queer artist who’s lived in different cultures, particularly the lyrics “I insist upon my right to be multiple”. I’d say this album provides conceptual inspiration to me as well as musical.

Madison Cunningham – Revealer
It’s the writing on this album that has pulled me in from the first time I heard it and keeps me going back! It’s rare for me to hear songs where it feels like the melodies, lyrics and chords are developing symbiotically with each other in such a natural way that my attention is totally gripped until the next section, and the next section. I get bored quickly when I listen to music. But Madison’s music always keeps me there as it seems she has so many tools to work with. I respect how the lyrics often jump from one quite specific image or object, to in the next line some kind of general statement or rhetorical question about life at large. I like that I never quite know exactly what she’s singing about, but there’s lots to connect with nonetheless and I enjoy the mystery of it. Madison’s music makes repeated listening really satisfying too, as I find new lyrical interpretations or melodic points to focus on even after years of listening to it. I suppose I connect with what I experience to be her lyrical style too, as I don’t often opt for super obvious lyrics. But then the beauty of it all is that of course somebody else might listen to her lyrics and find something very specific in there.

Huge thanks to Midori for sharing her Five Favourites!


Make sure you take a listen to (Re)Planted (and (Un)Planted), immersive yourself in its captivating beauty, and then nab tickets to come and see Midori Jaeger live tomorrow, 21st October, at Stone Nest in Shaftesbury Avenue. Tickets here.

Photo Credit: Inigo Blake

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Five Favourites: Perennial

I remember being told by some friends who got to see New England’s Perennial live when they were last in the UK that it was one of the best shows they’d ever seen. The band’s chaotic frenzied energy was unmatched and the way they interacted with the crowd whilst delivering their immense mod-rock anthems was unlike anything they’d seen before. So, I am extremely excited that we’re going to have them playing for us next week! Come and experience this one-of-a-kind live show for yourself at A L P H A B E T in Brighton on 9th October, along with Kansas-born Piney Gir and Brighton’s own shoegaze superstars Minor Dents. Tickets are on DICE now and they’re cheaper in advance. In the meantime, listen to their epic new album Modernism (and all their back catalogue from the last few years) and get your dancing shoes ready.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of Modernism, we caught up with Chesley, Chad and Ceej to find out about the five albums that inspired the writing of the new album the most. Read about their five favourites, listen to the Modernism on repeat, get tickets to one of their UK tour dates and watch the glorious video for recent single ‘Ready! Steady! Go!‘ below:

The Who – A Quick One
Our favourites are always changing, so we’ve decided to really focus on the key albums that influenced our new record, Modernism. And A Quick One by The Who is at the very top of that list. It’s a pop art masterpiece — catchy and tuneful and tight while also being brilliantly experimental and abstract and sonically adventurous. It’s all melody and weirdness. We really loved that idea of a compact, 10-song pop record that also finds all this room for more elliptical, left-field stuff. Even within individual songs the record will go from power pop to abstract noise at the drop of a hat. Hooks and killer melodies and feedback and weird sonic collages: What’s not to love? A really, really important album for us.

The Jam – Sound Affects
A lot of what is so brilliant about A Quick One also applies to Sound Affects, another short sharp record full of hooks with all this heady, arty stuff just beneath the surface. Of course the mod sound/aesthetic is a really important element for us, and what The Jam are doing here is the iteration of mod that is most at the heart of what we’re doing today. There’s this very stylish, almost playful post-modernism going on on Sound Affects that we really dig. Take something like ‘Start’, which is so clearly and brazenly borrowing the groove and riffs of The Beatles’ ‘Taxman’, but The Jam trust themselves to bring enough electricity and wit to the table that they can really reframe how that very classic groove works and what it has to say. Just a very cool record featuring one of our favourite bands at the height of their powers.

Various Artists – Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971
I’m fully aware this is probably cheating since this record is a four-disc compilation, but I don’t think there’s a single album that has shaped us more as songwriters and producers. That sense of specificity, of pop songwriting as a widescreen, cinematic endeavor full of detail and personality. Then there’s the production on these records: all this experimentation with instrumentation and arrangement and mixing and effects, but all devoted to making these pop gems are memorable and striking as possible. Add to that the fact that this run of songs is, to my mind, the absolute acme of pop music. In particular the mid-60s Motown singles from The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, etc… etc… etc… is just astonishing. ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, ‘It’s The Same Old Song’, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, ‘Heatwave’, ‘Up-tight’. I could go on and on. Perfection.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions – This Year’s Model (1978)
Pop music played as punk music. Costello’s lyrics on this one are unreal; the way he’s able to put together his phrases, his images, his rhyme schemes. It’s always so clever and sharp and fluid, and on this record in particular its all married to this really dynamic, punchy power pop sound. Poetry that stings while electric organs and Fender basses bash away as accompaniment. ‘Pump It Up’, for instance, is just a marvel. Lyrics that good atop a garage rock stomper that perfect. My goodness! As a working pattern of a record that is so flawlessly tailored and such an endless pleasure to listen to, This Year’s Model really can’t be beat.

The Go! Team – Thunder Lightning Strike (2005)
The hooks, the energy, the studio-as-instrument Technicolor joy. An endlessly re-listenable record. We caught The Go! Team live last year on the anniversary tour for this LP and it was such a beautiful, life-affirming night, and a reminder of just how incredible Thunder Lightning Strike is. There’s this collage effect to the way these songs are put together, where there is some really adventurous studio craft, some real experimental production stuff, but it’s all directed towards melody and energy and making the songs that much catchier and that much more electric. It’s a sonic sugar rush, and a really inspiring album to listen to while you’re working on a new project. This absolute burst of infectious creativity.

Huge thanks to Perennial for sharing their Five Favourites with us! Their new album Modernism is out now and we cannot wait to host them live at A L P H A B E T in Brighton next Friday, 9th October. Tickets available on Dice now. In the meantime, get in the mood by watching their glorious recent video for ‘Ready! Steady! Go!’:


And, if Brighton’s not handy for you, catch Perennial on any of their other UK dates over the next couple of weeks. All tickets here.

Perennial UK Tour Dates:

8th Oct – Oxford – The Library
9th Oct – Brighton – Alphabet
10th Oct – Liverpool – Outpost
11th Oct – Leeds – Grindhouse
13th Oct – Nottingham – JT Soar
14th Oct – Coventry – Just Dropped In
15th Oct – Manchester – The Modernist Gallery Shop
16th Oct – London – The Cavendish Arms

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Video Premiere: Gabi Garbutt – ‘Snaggletooth’

Having been a big fan of Gabi Garbutt since the release of their 2022 album Cockerel, and being utterly charmed seeing them live supporting queer folk legend Grace Petrie back in 2024, it’s been great to see them go from strength to strength over the last few years; they’ve received acclaim from the likes of Cerys Matthews and Chris Hawkins on BBC 6Music and John Kennedy on Radio X, had a chat with fellow ‘punk poet’ John Cooper Clarke for Clash, and now their recently released new album Radical Love has showcased just what a beautifully gifted songwriter and storyteller they are.

Following the release of the album’s poignant title track and the driving danceable allure of recent single ‘Lightning Held‘, Gabi is now sharing ‘Snaggletooth’. Flowing with lilting folk-strewn melodies, the track offers a heartwarming reflection on childhood; a beautifully stirring ode to being different, and finding comfort in music and nature, it’s yet another example of their exquisite songwriting and ability to ruminate on life’s challenges in a way that’s both relatable and empowering. Of the track, they explain:

“This song is about being a weirdo kid. It’s about not fitting in and instead getting lost in nature and the untamed energy of rock & roll. It’s about how that little troubled kid with a snaggletooth, obsessed with music, animals and birds, is still very much a part of me.”

‘Snaggletooth’ is accompanied by a wonderfully hand-crafted new stop-motion video. Made by Gabi with help from GIHE fave Jemma Freeman, it perfectly portrays the nostalgia and reflective sentiment of the track, using Gabi’s actual childhood toys!

Watch the video for the first time here:


Radical Love, the new album from Gabi Garbutt, is out now via INH Records.

And make sure you catch Gabi Garbutt celebrating the release, headlining for us at The Cavendish Arms this Thursday 10th September! Support comes from Celeste Madden with her dreamy, shoegaze-tinged offerings and First Timers Fest alumni The JuOh. Would love to see you there! Tickets are on Dice now and cheaper in advance (but we don’t turn anyone away for lack of funds so please do ping us a message if you fancy coming but would just like to pay what you want on the door).

Photo Credit: Suzi Corker

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