We Speak Music
“Hold On Tight”: Why Another’s Dark Indie-Rock Anthem
“Hold On Tight” sees Why Another diving headfirst into the emotional chaos of modern life. Hailing from New York, the band has long built a reputation for music that feels both intimate and expansive, and this track is no exception. From the opening guitar riff, there’s a sense of tension and urgency that immediately pulls you in, setting the stage for an indie-rock journey that’s as reflective as it is cinematic.
The song unfolds with a careful sense of pacing. Malka’s vocals float over a shifting backdrop of analogue textures and punchy rhythms, capturing the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. There’s a hypnotic quality to the track, as it moves seamlessly from moments of frantic energy to spaces of introspective calm. It’s a balancing act that Why Another have honed to perfection, creating a sound that’s both familiar and excitingly unpredictable.
Production-wise, the track benefits from the full ensemble’s synergy. Each band member contributes to the ebb and flow of the song, ensuring that the emotional peaks land with impact. The collaborative energy is palpable, lending a warmth and spontaneity that elevates the track beyond polished studio perfection. It’s indie-rock designed to be felt as much as heard.
The accompanying animated short brings the song’s themes to life. The surreal narrative of a character in free fall mirrors the track’s exploration of surrender and acceptance. Printmaking-inspired visuals with overlapping flat colors and abstract shapes provide a mesmerizing complement to the music, reinforcing Why Another’s commitment to creating immersive, multi-sensory art.
“Hold On Tight” proves that Why Another are still pushing boundaries in the indie-rock world. It’s a song that balances vulnerability with boldness, offering listeners a cathartic escape into a world that feels both personal and universal. With its hypnotic grooves and cinematic ambition, the single cements the band as one of NYC’s most compelling voices in contemporary music.
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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