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DD Allen Set to Captivate with Poignant Single ‘Holborn Avenue’ Ahead of Debut EP Release

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From a rebellious schoolboy in Bournemouth to a rising indie-folk sensation, DD Allen is making waves with his heartfelt artistry. His new single Holborn Avenue, serves as the final chapter from his eagerly anticipated debut EP, Rebel Hero. Following standout singles like the title track, Born To Love You, and Green Room, Allen’s latest release cements his place as a compelling voice in the indie music scene.

Holborn Avenue is a stirring exploration of first love and its enduring emotional echoes. Built around Allen’s evocative falsetto vocals, textured guitars, harmonica, and subtle synth layers, the song evolves into a soaring indie-folk anthem. Allen’s emotive songwriting and commanding voice evoke comparisons to Neil Young, Noah Kahan, and Michael Marcagi, crafting a sound that is as timeless as it is contemporary.

Reflecting on the inspiration behind the song, DD Allen shares, “I think how you handle the weight of your memories defines who you become. Even though Holborn Avenue sounds like a heartbreak song, that whole story and chapter of my life makes me smile. It’s probably the purest song I’ve written. She always had a gift for turning an ordinary day into something extraordinary. It was a special journey, and we were young. But fate tore us apart in the end.”

The song captures the bittersweet essence of youthful love, evolving from an intimate ballad to a rousing indie-folk anthem as it builds to the emotive refrain, “away from Holborn Avenue.”

DD Allen’s Rebel Hero EP, also releasing January 24, promises to be a deeply personal collection of songs that resonate with themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. The EP will be available as a limited-edition deluxe CD, featuring five previously unreleased bonus tracks, offering fans a tangible keepsake of this heartfelt project.

With his distinctive voice and intimate songwriting, DD Allen has built a growing audience eagerly awaiting his debut record. His ability to balance nostalgia with hope has made him an artist to watch, and Holborn Avenue is set to further solidify his place in the indie-folk world.

Stream Holborn Avenue and join DD Allen on an emotional journey through love, loss, and transformation. Experience the full Rebel Hero EP on January 24, 2025, and embrace the artistry of a rising star who is redefining indie folk.

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Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

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Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.


About the track, Michele says, I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.

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