Music
Our Violet Room Embraces Hardship On Powerful Folk Single “Saved Me”
“Saved Me” poetically captures a turning point from suffering to resilience with a cinematic styling reminiscent of a Coldplay anthem.
Denver based folk artist Our Violet Room – aka Matthew Birch – excitedly anticipates the release of his cinematic single “Saved Me,” out October 22. “Saved Me” is an exciting follow up to Birch’s previous single, “Winter,” which aired on Season 3 Episode 17 of the popular FreeForm show Good Trouble. Released alongside a haunting music video, this track tells the story of embracing hardship and using grief as the motivation to persevere in spite of our suffering. For Birch, “‘Saved Me’ is about going through the fire and coming out stronger – as who you were always meant to be.” This instrumentally decadent track pulls influences from a variety of artists like Eliott Smith (through spritely fingerstyle guitar) and Hans Zimmer (with the colorful orchestral instrumentation). Yielding a final product rivaling the caliber of work produced by icons like Coldplay, “Saved Me” undoubtedly has listeners singing along after just the first chorus.
The music video for “Saved Me” mesmerizes viewers with an enticing stop motion production technique. Showcasing the melancholic scene of a gloomy midwestern landscape, the cinematography of this video captures the bleak essence of going through a great hardship. Carrying on through suffering is no easy task, and the heavy heartedness that comes across in this video perfectly captures that. This music video compliments a cinematic arrangement of a production heavy track. Decorated with all encompassing symphonies and unassuming piano, “Saved Me” is driven by steady fingerpicking on a bright acoustic guitar. This song is a non negotiable for all folk/pop lovers; fans can stream “Saved Me” on all major streaming platforms and watch the accompanying music video on October 22.

A deep love of movie scores and the composers that made them alongside an admiration and passion for folk music is the base of the music that Birch creates under the moniker Our Violet Room. An “indie singer-songwriter with a cinematic twist”, Birch got his musical start in 2018 by playing SoFar Sound shows – first in Denver but soon all over the world. A humble story of overcoming depression, working hard, and diving headfirst into his dream, Birch only has one goal…. to make thoughtful, well-made, emotional art that inspires his listeners and causes them to feel. His music has been compared to the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, and Coldplay for its lush atmosphere, emotional lyrics, and cinematic arrangements and has quickly launched his music career with two songs featured on FreeForm’s Good Trouble series and two songs featured in a Magnolia feature film. “Making movie scores has been a dream of mine and to look at each song as a little movie score has been a great way of creating,” says Birch. Thus far in his career, Birch has released two EPs – Our Violet Room and the live EP Loss and Death in Winter – alongside a handful of singles. Mixing folk and cinematic soundscapes seem to be working for the emerging artist as his songs have a combined 70K+ streams. “ I don’t go for cool or hip, I go for what moves me.”
Album Review
Cognitive Constellation Corps blurs humanity and technology on “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” album
In a world of notifications and automated responses, algorithms, and feedback requests, Cognitive Constellation Corps finds something unexpectedly human inside the machinery. “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” is an alt-pop exploration of connection, isolation, communication, and the increasingly complicated relationship between people and technology, transforming familiar procedural language into something else.
Created by Brooke Tamsin Clevenger, a Belfast-based artist, the project’s principal composer, lyricist, producer, and conceptual director, the album is deliberately constructed around what happens to human emotion when our lives are increasingly structured by systems that process information rather than necessarily understand feelings. The album opens with “Opening Loop (i),” which introduces that world through the idea of repetition, linking software loops to the habits we humans learn in modern life.
Followed by “Signal Received (i),” the track becomes more fragile, a mix of bubbling electronic movement and the promise of waiting for a response. It picks up the strange emotional weight that can be behind something as simple as a digital signal. “Thank You For Your Feedback (i)” examines the pressure to be constantly evaluated, and “Echo Chamber (i)” reflects on how digital interaction creates intimacy and amplifies alienation. “The Curve of Clarity (i)” is a road toward understanding where data and human realization begin to converge.
On the production side, the project explores electronic textures without allowing its technological concept to overwhelm its emotional core. “Threadbare, Threadshare (i)” turns the fatigue of constant communication into an interesting concept. “The Response Loop (You’re Still Talking)” injects a sense of urgency with a faster, more club-friendly beat that mixes early-80s electronic music with state-of-the-art sounds.
“Harmonic Distortion (i)” continues the album’s obsession with emotion that has been filtered, and “Always (i) [Sevahem]” is an appropriate closer, reflecting on organic feeling and ancient human knowledge through the prism of digital sound. “Thank you for Your Feedback” is a tech-driven concept that is always aware of the person behind the screen. Cognitive Constellation Corps is cerebral and electronic and conceptually ambitious while remaining emotionally accessible.
Artist Spotlight
Shawn Brown raises the volume on love, loss, and survival in “What a Way to Go”
Shawn Brown’s new single, “What a Way to Go,” is a guitar-heavy rock-pop anthem that makes doomed young love, instability, and survival something ferociously cathartic. The single, produced by celebrated musician and producer Grecco Buratto, fully embraces the scope of its story. Brown doesn’t turn heartbreak into a quiet, inward experience, but he energizes it, giving it drive and urgency.
“What a Way to Go” is a relationship against impossible odds, and the emotional tension is the clash between a world that feels like it’s falling apart and the stubbornness of two people who won’t let go of each other. That tension is what makes the song dramatic, but it also allows Brown to aim for a bigger, more explosive sound.
Recorded at The Trench in Portland with engineer Gregg Williams and the full Shawn Brown Band and trusted creative team, including Ben Landsverk, Jeff Langston, Ned Failing, Tiago Becker, and Juan Garcia Petri. Their combined presence adds to the muscular, expansive character of the single that one would expect from an anthem of this magnitude.
Brown handles the emotional commitment with confidence, true to its survivalist spirit, and pairs the guitars with a performance that feels immediate rather than remote. “What a Way to Go” is one of Shawn Brown’s most electrifying releases, blending raw rock power with the emotional openness of a love story that won’t go quietly. It’s raw, loud, passionate, and unapologetically alive.
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