We Speak Indie Artist
xskarma Reveals Captivating New Track “Hello”
Charles Grimsdale AKA xskarma is a songwriter/producer/drummer from Bristol, UK, creating a blend of indie pop and trip hop, driven by quirky retro funk-inspired beats. He is also a tech entrepreneur who co-founded one of Europe’s first streaming services, OD2, alongside Peter Gabriel. He is an active technology investor and is non-exec Chairman of on-demand vinyl platform elasticStage. He is also passionate about conservation and tackling climate change, and with previous single “Changing”, he has partnered with OneTreePlanted and donates all streaming revenue for the track towards planting trees in Uganda to help restore some of the most important forest for Chimpanzees.
Filtered drum grooves, wobbly synth pads and deep, punchy basslines are the foundation of many of xskarma’s tracks, and he draws inspiration from bands such as Portishead, Massive Attack, Zero 7, Morcheeba, Lamb and Tame Impala. xskarma only started releasing music in 2020 and already has a multitude of releases under his belt and a fast-growing audience. Looking to build on his momentum, he has just unveiled his brand-new single and first release of 2023, “Hello”.
“Hello” was written and produced by xskarma and features vocals from glasscat. Featuring a smooth, downtempo beat, the track commands attention in the first few seconds and is elevated further once glasscat’s captivating voice kicks in. The track also stands out for its infectious and almost hypnotic chorus. A must-hear single, “Hello” will no doubt draw in new fans for xskarma as it becomes clearer with each release that he is one to watch.
Speaking further on “Hello”, xskarma says, “The track is about the unspoken darkness in a relationship and how sometimes a partner can seem distant and distracted, living in a parallel universe. The inspiration came from a glitchy Timbaland track. I then played the live drum beat as an evolution of that and built the rest from there.” “Hello” is available to buy/stream now on all platforms: https://xskarma.lnk.to/hello.
Keep up to date with the latest from xskarma:
Love songs are easy to write and hard to believe. Frankie 5Ø3 gets that, and “R0LL3RC0AST3R” lands because it sounds lived-in, not manufactured.
Pulled from UN P0C0 EM0, the track avoids the usual clichés by keeping its focus on the details. The writing came from a trip to Saint George Island, with long hours spent on a dock and a melody forming somewhere between the guitar and the view. You can hear that setting in the final version. It feels open, calm, and personal.
Musically, it leans into warmth. Acoustic guitar carries the emotional weight, while electric guitar and keys give it texture without pulling attention away from the message. Nothing is fighting for space. Everything points back to the feeling.
That feeling is straightforward: being so in love that language stops cooperating. Frankie writes for that exact moment, when someone changes your world and suddenly every normal sentence feels too small.
What makes “R0LL3RC0AST3R” memorable is that it trusts the emotion instead of trying to oversell it. It sounds like someone saying what they mean, and that still goes a long way.
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