We Speak Music
Q&A with Swiss-based artist Jack Rush
We caught up with Jack Rush following the release of his latest single, “Tic Toc World”.
Can you please tell us more about your background and what was your starting point in the music industry?
I’ve been a musician since my teenage years but only got around to writing and publishing songs at 66 years young!
Your new single “Tic Toc World” addresses the impact of social media. What inspired you to write about this theme?
Well the mostly virtual (fake) world of social media is obviously a hot topic these days and even moreso with the advent of AI. And as I wonder how such trash emerges in our social milieu including in the music, it seems to me to be driven by algorithms fed mostly by 16 year olds. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no old-fashioned prude and I love today’s youth, but honestly I can’t find a more plausible explanation for the dumbing down of our society including music culture.
How did collaborating with Marcelo Bertozzo influence the production of this track?
Marcelo is an incredible talent and he also seems to find just the right strokes to embellish my songs. I am so lucky to work with him.
How has your journey as a Swiss-based artist impacted your music career and the themes you explore?
I guess my music emerges from somewhere in the unconscious and the feelings that need expression. It seems most of my songs relate to my emotional state at the time of writing them or whatever is on my mind at the time. It’s very challenging but it’s been a lot of fun and a great source of satisfaction. Music for me is the gift that just keeps on giving.
What message do you hope listeners take away from “Tic Toc World”?
The message is that it would be best to keep the influence of social media in perspective and not let it poison us and our society, but I’m not sure that’s possible at this point.
Your music often critiques contemporary society. How important is it for you to use your platform to comment on social issues?
Actually Tic Toc World is so far the only song with lyrics on social issues. I enjoy making music whether or not it contains a social message, but if possible I may try to write more songs about social issues in the future, we’ll just have to see what I come up with.
What can fans expect next from you after the release of “Tic Toc World”?
I’ll be coming out with an end of summer banger, and then in the fall I have an album coming out, so stay tuned!
We Speak Music
Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’
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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