music

Guilla

H-Town rap artist and producer Timothy Russell, aka GUILLA, may have only released Children of the Sun — a sci-fi-inspired album that includes a collaborative track with HGO soprano Alicia Gianni — last spring, but the 28-year-old, quick-witted rap artist already has a followup dropping this month. His fourth full-length album, Crunchy Roll & Chill, features 14 tracks that are more biographical in nature — there’s a track about his love for girls who cosplay — than his previous, highly esoteric work. It’s also less heavy in tone. “I feel like we’re in a time of extreme darkness right now and everybody is kind of pissed off,” says Russell, who plans on touring Texas this summer, “so Crunchy Roll & Chill is full of upbeat music. I want to put smiles on people’s faces again.”

H-Town rap artist and producer Timothy Russell, aka Guilla, may have only released Children of the Sun — a sci-fi-inspired album that includes a collaborative track with HGO soprano Alicia Gianni — last spring, but the 28-year-old, quick-witted rap artist already has a followup dropping this month. His fourth full-length album, Crunchy Roll & Chill, features 14 tracks that are more biographical in nature — there’s a track about his love for girls who cosplay — than his previous, highly esoteric work. It’s also less heavy in tone. “I feel like we’re in a time of extreme darkness right now and everybody is kind of pissed off,” says Russell, who plans on touring Texas this summer, “so Crunchy Roll & Chill is full of upbeat music. I want to put smiles on people’s faces again.”

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Vivalda Dula

Born and raised in Angola, singer VIVALDA DULA, along with her classical guitarist husband Marcelo Robert, relocated from Luanda to Houston in 2012. In Houston, Dula recorded two albums of her percussion-heavy, Africa-inspired music, 2013’s Insanidade Mental and 2015’s Africa. A dynamic live act, with a griot’s gift for storytelling, Dula often sings her socially conscious lyrics in Kimbundu, a language banned from her country’s schools before the Angolan Civil War. Fittingly, Dula — who boasts an effervescent personality and impossibly glowing skin — just performed at the Global Issues Summit in Sugar Land. The new mom to an eight-month-old girl is currently recording an album with Grammy-winning producer Emilio D. Miller.

Born and raised in Angola, singer Vivalda Dula, along with her classical guitarist husband Marcelo Robert, relocated from Luanda to Houston in 2012. In Houston, Dula recorded two albums of her percussion-heavy, Africa-inspired music, 2013’s Insanidade Mental and 2015’s Africa. A dynamic live act, with a griot’s gift for storytelling, Dula often sings her socially conscious lyrics in Kimbundu, a language banned from her country’s schools before the Angolan Civil War. Fittingly, Dula — who boasts an effervescent personality and impossibly glowing skin — just performed at the Global Issues Summit in Sugar Land. The new mom to an eight-month-old girl is currently recording an album with Grammy-winning producer Emilio D. Miller.

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-Us

Two years after Wild Moccasins drummer Avery Davis, 24, released his debut EP as solo artist -US — and ahead of his performance at this year’s FPSF — the multi-instrumentalist will release his sophomore effort, Contact. The forthcoming five-track EP is full of dance-y, R&B-infused electro-pop and raspy falsetto singing, a departure from his previous work. Davis, who performs shirtless and with colorful makeup, notes that many of his earlier melancholy songs weren’t fun to play live. “I’m not sad anymore, so all of my new songs are happy.”

Two years after Wild Moccasins drummer Avery Davis, 24, released his debut EP as solo artist -Us — and ahead of his performance at this year’s FPSF — the multi-instrumentalist will release his sophomore effort, Contact. The forthcoming five-track EP is full of dance-y, R&B-infused electro-pop and raspy falsetto singing, a departure from his previous work. Davis, who performs shirtless and with colorful makeup, notes that many of his earlier melancholy songs weren’t fun to play live. “I’m not sad anymore, so all of my new songs are happy.”

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