We Speak Music

Jessica Wilde drops soulful new track ‘FADE’

Published

2 years ago

April 24, 2024

Don Reed

Highly acclaimed South London artist Jessica Wilde is back with an outstanding soulful and thought-provoking new single ‘FADE’, as she turns up the heat for her highly anticipated new album project dropping this summer.

‘FADE’ is about the ‘Art of letting go’ and is the latest chapter in Wilde’s healing and inner work, which saw her 2022 debut album chart her journey from mad parties, escapism, addiction and toxic relationships to self- healing, empowerment, self-love and living sober. The album gained acclaim from the likes of Clash, Complex, Wonderland, The Independent, BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio London and more and has paved the way for perhaps her best work yet, as she returns with the smooth yet soaring, finely produced, ‘FADE’.

Through Wilde’s healing journey she has accepted that everything is constantly changing and the more we cling to people who are no longer good for us, the more we hurt ourselves. “When we truly let go, life opens doors for new people and possibilities to come in exceeding our expectations. It hurts, but letting go is an act of self-love and value”, she explains.

Wildeco-wrote ‘FADE’ with multi-platinum selling writer James Newman, who wrote Rudimental’s Brit award winning song ‘Waiting All Night’ with Ella Eyre, as well as ‘Lay Me Down’ with Ed Sheeran. The track follows her recent singles ‘Freak Out’, ‘Feathers’ with Zoe Kypri and ‘Love Like This’ with Josh Barry, also from the forthcoming new album. The previous singles stirred up some serious heat, with multiple spins on BBC Radio 1’s ‘Future Artists’ with Jack Saunders and from Jess Iszatt, who has supported on both Radio 1 and BBC Introducing, plus airplay from John Kennedy at Radio X and editorial playlist support across the board on Spotify, Apple, TIDAL, Youtube Music and Pandora.

Not only will Wilde’s artistry across the smoky ‘FADE’ continue to impress music lovers and tastemakers alike, but so will her ‘PxSSY PWR’ platform which she created as a response to the disparity between support for male artists compared to the lack of support for female. The residency at Hootanany Brixton has become a hub and major platform for some of the most exciting underground female, non-binary and queer artists, including sold out shows with the likes of Etta Bond, IYAMAH, Zoe Kypri and Tamaraebi to name a few.

‘PxSSY PWR’, which is fronted by Wilde’s fierce, unapologetic, comedic, pink wigged and biro smoking alter ego, ‘ya gurl Charlene’, also has its own Radio show, clothing line in collaboration with FAME Magazine and this summer ‘PxSSY PWR’ returns to Secret Garden Party Festival to take-over the Noirorganics stage.

Now with ‘FADE’ proving that Wilde can once again continue to deliver high quality socially relevant tracks, it is a very exciting time to join Wilde as she brings her life and music industry achievements to date together and moves into a brilliant and tantalizing new era of her career.

We Speak Music

SCARECROW’s John Blaze Delivers a Career Milestone With “Twisted” and Earns Josie Music Awards Song of the Year Nomination

Published

6 hours ago

August 31, 2026

Jimmy Star

John Blaze has spent nearly four decades fronting SCARECROW, the New York hard-rock outfit he founded in 1989, and in 2026 he delivered one of the most ambitious releases of his career with “Twisted.” Now, the song has reached another major milestone: “Twisted” has been nominated for Song of the Year in the Metal/Alternative category at the Josie Music Awards.

The nomination places Blaze and SCARECROW among this year’s recognized independent artists and songwriters at the Josie Music Awards, with the awards ceremony set to take place at Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry. For an artist whose career has been built on persistence, independence and decades of hard-rock storytelling, the recognition gives “Twisted” an entirely new chapter.

Written by John Blaze and Chaffin, “Twisted” pulls together a lineup of guest players that reads like a rock family reunion, built around Blaze’s long-standing friendship with Dee Snider and the legacy of Twisted Sister, a band woven into SCARECROW’s story from its earliest days.

That connection goes all the way back to the beginning. SCARECROW’s original lineup featured guitarist Eddie Ojeda, best known for his work in Twisted Sister, and the two camps have remained connected ever since. “Twisted” makes that history explicit: Dee Snider appears on the record with guest vocals during the track’s climactic second verse and chorus, lending the song an instantly recognizable jolt of arena-rock power.

Snider isn’t the only marquee name in the credits. Mark Wood, founding violinist of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, contributes electrifying violin work that gives “Twisted” a cinematic sweep uncommon in modern hard rock. Rounding out the track are TJ Jordan on lead guitar and Bobby Marks on drums, creating a powerful, road-tested foundation behind Blaze’s signature gritty vocal delivery.

The Josie Music Awards nomination feels particularly fitting because “Twisted” isn’t simply another SCARECROW release. It brings together different eras of Blaze’s musical life while pushing the band’s sound forward. There’s history in the recording, but there’s also urgency. It doesn’t sound like a band looking backward. It sounds like one with unfinished business.

For Blaze, the nomination also represents recognition of a career that has largely been built outside the traditional machinery of the mainstream music business. Independent rock artists rarely survive for decades without a fierce commitment to what they do, and SCARECROW’s longevity speaks for itself. From the band’s early years and its 1991 debut, through the Blood, Sweat and 20 Years retrospective and the theatrical production I Am SCARECROW, Blaze has continued developing a world around the music rather than simply releasing songs.

That makes the Song of the Year nomination especially meaningful. After nearly four decades of building SCARECROW, Blaze now heads to the Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry with one of his most ambitious songs recognized in the Metal/Alternative category.

And there’s something wonderfully appropriate about the song that got him there.

“Twisted” connects SCARECROW’s beginnings to its present, reunites Blaze musically with figures tied to the band’s history, and demonstrates just how much fire remains in the project. With Snider and Wood contributing to the record and Blaze still driving the band he created from the ground up, the track feels less like a nostalgic reunion than a statement of survival.

Now it’s also an award-nominated song.

For John Blaze and SCARECROW, nearly four decades into the journey, “Twisted” has become more than another entry in the catalog. It’s a career milestone — and this September, that milestone is taking SCARECROW all the way to the Grand Ole Opry.