Indie Female Musicians to Keep an Eye on This Year
Just one look at the Grammy nominations proves that 2023 was a huge year for women in music. Women dominate, with artists like SZA, Phoebe Bridgers, Victoria Monet, and, of course, Beyonce and Taylor Swift leading the way.
Music fans who love indie songwriters are also in luck, as there’s no shortage to pick from. As we head into 2024, let’s check out a few female indie musicians to keep an eye on.
Lila Drew
Lila Drew is a young songwriter and musician whose star is already rising. After touring Europe in 2022 before releasing her first full album, All the Places I Could Be, Drew has continued to release new material.
Drew has also released new music videos, such as the one for her song “Used To,” featured in the 2023 movie The Other Zoey. Drew writes with a plain-speaking tone that somehow contains a wink without being drenched in layers of irony.
The music fits on any good vibes music playlist because there’s something playful in the instrumentation, even when she sings about the hardships of young people navigating love and relationships.
Kaÿcie
The singer-songwriter known as Kaÿcie was born in France but writes her folk-pop indie songs in Los Angeles. Expect ringing, haunting acoustic guitar tones that build in tone with seductive vocals over top.
Kaÿcie will make you think, even as you hum the captivating melodies and tap your foot to her rhythms. There’s something infectious about the music and deep in her lyrics, but without any self-conscious striving for profundity. It’s poetic and relaxed and at peace with itself.
Zoe Gotusso
Formerly comprising one half of the pop duo Salvapantallas, the Argentinian star Zoe Gotusso is taking on the music scene solo with her 2020 debut album Mi Primer Dia Triste rising on the charts. It didn’t hurt that she released a documentary about producing the album at the same time, giving fans a behind-the-scenes peek at how the magic gets made.
No wonder she won the Best Pop Album at the 23rd annual Gardel Awards. Keep listening to Gotusso’s new music to find out what she does next,
Wolf Alice
Finally, let’s end our list with a bold, genre-defying female-fronted band, Wolf Alice. Ellie Roswell’s soprano voice and seductive dream-pop melodies are perhaps the defining features of this band, along with thoughtful lyrics that transcend categories and really connect with audiences.
They’re not a new band, exactly. Wolf Alice has been around for nearly a decade, but they’ve matured and developed a lot over the years, and their trajectory is still ascending. Their third album, Blue Weekend, is out now, a testament to all their growth over the years.
Listening to new indie music is always exciting because, unlike older genres like Classic Rock, it hasn’t undergone decades of analysis. There’s something vital and fresh about hearing the up-and-coming sounds, so check out the above artists and others like them for music you can’t hear anywhere else.
