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Certain types of people just love the spotlight and Nick Hexum is admittedly one of those people. He enjoys the attention. It’s what he tells fans who come up to the frontman and co-founder of the genre-bending band, 311, when they ask for autographs or selfies. “I’m so sorry to bother you, do you mind?” they say, timidly. He replies, “If I didn’t like the attention, I would have picked a different career.” In other words, he digs the whole kit-and-caboodle of being a well-known musician. Hexum has been doing just that since 1995 when 311 broke through mainstream culture with its self-titled LP and hits like “Down” and “All Mixed Up.” Today, some 30 years after the band formed, they’re on tour spreading the good 311 word.

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Growing up, Isaac Brock, frontman for the Pacific Northwest-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Modest Mouse, listened to a wide swath of music, from Hungarian and Irish folk to the “pro-cookie” songs of Sesame Street. His was one of those households where music was so prevalent and so natural that it just became the thing to do as he got older. For Brock, music was his “primary” interest. As a kid, he sent away for one of the 12-CDs-for-a-penny and got back artists like Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and Dead Milkmen. At 11 years old he was working at a community theater in Issaquah, Washington, surrounded by amateur musicians. At night he’d get a ride from the stage manager and go to an all-ages club in Seattle to see whoever was playing. Then he’d go to school the next morning.

Bits from all of these experiences and more are packed into his band’s newest LP, Golden Casket, released in June. In fact, the record itself is an amalgamation of stories and sounds; a composite of song fragments and feelings.

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If you ask the award-winning songwriter and performer, Judy Collins, about her father, she’ll tell you that he helped to set her foundation as an artist—but, perhaps more importantly, she’ll also tell you that he helped to set her foundation as a hard worker first and foremost. Collins, who later went on to earn several Grammy nominations and a win in 1969, is known today for her crystal clear singing voice, folks aesthetics, and interconnectedness with some of the biggest names in American entertainment, from Leonard Cohen to Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Stephen Sondheim. Collins—whose forthcoming album, Live At The Town Hall, NYC, set for release Friday (August 27)—remains focused on the work at 8 years old. She’ll drop another studio record in 2022 (called, Girl From Colorado) and, she says, she’ll continue to write, sing and live in song for as long as fate allows.

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It’s said that life is often a battle between what one wants and what one perceives to be the expectations of others. For Tierinii Jackson, frontwoman for the Memphis-born Grammy-nominated band, Southern Avenue, growing up, this was absolutely the case. For Jackson, who was raised in a musical but religious household and who spent many hours in church, life early on was a struggle to find and fight for her identity—even in the places where she should have been accepted the most.

In a world where Jackson was taught more what she couldn’t do than what she could, finding her voice and her place wasn’t gifted to her by her parents or the church. Yet, she pushed ahead. Now, she and her band are set to release their latest LP, Be The Love You Want, a positive, advice-laden record that reads as much like a blueprint for self-worth as it does entertainment.

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Famed French composer, Yann Tiersen, remembers seeing a mountain lion. He was out in nature about five years ago in Northern California when the animal began following him and his cycling party. Tiersen and his group were hours into a long ride and far from formal help. He remembers seeing cubs, too, thinking that the mother and babies were probably very hungry, even starving. It was dangerous. Around that time, a cougar attacked several hikers in Washington State, killing one. While the mountain lion never pounced, for Tiersen, the experience was formative. At that moment, a strong sense of what an ecosystem really is crystallized in his mind. Life is not human-centric, of course. So, Tiersen thought, his music — including his new release, Kerber, out Friday (Aug. 27) —should be something of an ecosystem, too.

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Think of two jump ropes. You’re in between, one arcs above your head as the other sweeps under your feet, which are themselves lifted off the ground. Picture this whirl of string and height going for two, three, four minutes at length. This is a metaphor for the music of Oakland-born artist, Still Woozy, whose dreamy, off-kilter songs are produced with such studio savvy that it comes across like sonic childhood Double-Dutch. Still Woozy, aka Sven Eric Gamsky, makes music that feels like your eyes just opened or your whole body is in mid-air. This is especially the vibe of the artist’s latest album, If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is, which he released on August 13.

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For many, the name Debbie Gibson evokes memories of dance, pop music, youth, sunlit blond hair and fun. Gibson, who burst onto the national scene in 1987 with her debut, platinum-selling LP, Out of the Blue, has been famous ever since she was 17-years-old. If one were to believe the fairytale Gibson seemed to be living, one might also believe then that Gibson led a life of golden faucets and pillows made of clouds. But like everyone else on earth, Gibson has had her down times too—difficult days and insecure moments that may drag on for what feels like eons. Yet, Gibson works on what she can control. Namely where her energy goes and what perspective she keeps. Those are the pillars upon which her upbeat new single, “One Step Closer,” is built. The track, out today (July 16), harkens both to Gibson’s glory days and portends new ones.

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Chicago-born rapper and actor Common (born Lonnie Lynn) remembers first hearing music at the feet of his babysitters. He was three years old when he started to absorb the songs that would change his life. His babysitters, two sisters from a music-loving family, would play vinyl records from acts like Chaka Khan, The Commodores and Earth, Wind & Fire. To this day, Common says, parts of Chicago still feel like they’re living in the 1970s with the familiar fashion and melodies swirling in the air.

A few years later, Common acted in his first school play. He already loved movies and he quickly fell for the stage. But after performing in a modest production, Common says, he didn’t quite get the proper adoration he’d hoped he’d get from the audience. Thus, his momentum for acting slowed. Nevertheless, for Common, whose father was a professional ABA basketball player and whose mother was an influential educator, success in the spotlight was in his DNA. Armed with his passion for music, he began to write lyrics. This, of course, would soon lead him to win three Grammys and an Oscar in 2014.

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