When Alex Stephens (A.K.A. Strawberry Guy) self-released his debut single in 2018, he was merely doing it out of a love for songwriting. What he wasn't expecting was millions of streams and an avid worldwide fanbase.
A one-man impressionist, painting majestic soundscapes, Strawberry Guy blends truthful lyrics with lush arrangements to conjure new emotive worlds. Inspired by composers of the Romantic period, or Debussy, Ravel, and other classical artists of the 1800s, his wonderland moves like a Monet painting where arpeggios dance between meadows of dazzling dynamics and dramatic key changes.
Imitating nature’s effect on emotion, like 70s songwriters, or the fantastical soundtracks accompanying vibrant scenes in the Japanese animated Studio Ghibli films and video games, landscape is brought to the fore. Monet’s picturesque Meadow at Giverny features as the album’s accompanying artwork – perhaps a reminder of the rural Welsh countryside views through his childhood home’s window.
Take it slow, be at one with the wilderness and remember, when life gives you lemons, swap them for Strawberries.
UK native Fonteyn spent her formative years pursuing Musical Theatre and acting in England, but it wasn’t until she started making music that she felt able to express herself authentically. Writing songs provided a home for her idiosyncrasies to coexist. Bewitched by the sound of the 70’s, Fonteyn draws from her musical idols, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Paul McCartney, to name a few. Her debut album “Trip the light Fantastic” offers music centered around rainbow chords and melody. The songs are playful, sentimental, and offer a sense of the theatrical. Fonteyn wants to take you by the hand and sweep you into another time and place. "Trip the light Fantastic" is an introduction to Fonteyn's songwriting and musical soundscape. Drawing from a rainbow of influences in 1970's pop, the album is a hedonistic exploration of melody with each song in pursuit of a particular musical feeling.
