The path to that moment was a long one. Shitsel was born in 1987 in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, and his family moved to Germany in 1994, when he was seven. School was hard at first. Over time he learned German, started learning English too, and became a big sports fan, especially football, table tennis and the gym. At 20, he wanted to earn his own money, so he went to work for a car manufacturer in Bremen.

He had real plans there. For about three years, he studied alongside his job and became a state-certified engineer, hoping to build a career inside the company. By his account, a real opportunity never came. Back then he also had a StudiVZ profile, the social network that was hugely popular in Germany at the time. Building one himself wasn’t even a thought.

The idea arrived secondhand. In 2019, a friend mentioned out of nowhere that he’d commissioned a dating platform. Shitsel figured he was kidding until the friend showed him the half-finished homepage, and from that point he wanted to be involved. A year later, with the pandemic keeping him at home for weeks, Shitsel realized he wanted to be independent from the company and have a project of his own. Then the friend called with bad news. The programmer had become seriously ill and couldn’t continue, and the project had failed.

Shitsel was disappointed, but he didn’t want to give up. He told his friend he felt confident he could come up with his own social media platform, and skip the dating angle since there were already plenty of those. Privately, he wasn’t sure he could actually pull it off. That’s when the sketches happened. Soon after, an old schoolmate he’d lost touch with showed up for a visit. He was unhappy with his job too. Shitsel invited him to his birthday party, where the friend saw the drawings, got excited, and wanted in. He also knew his way around graphic design.

From there, a small team of former schoolmates came together, with Maksim Khazanov as co-founder. They had to teach themselves the design and simulation work, so they learned by doing. The paper sketches became computer graphics, the graphics became a full design, and the design became a working simulation that the programming was based on. Shitsel says the beginning was especially hard, though once things started working, the fun of it kept them going.

What they ended up with is a network built around hobbies, activities and interests. Its motto comes down to three choices: “I do the same,” “I would like to do the same,” or “I would not do the same.” You can post photos, but there’s no video upload at all, and the team says the goal is to replace passive scrolling with people connecting over what they actually do. Khazanov has said the platform was built “to reignite real human engagement around what people love doing.”

Signing up and chatting are free. To send requests or message anyone, you just need at least one photo on your profile. Paid premium features exist but haven’t been released yet, and deleting your account wipes it immediately and permanently. Bambkuss announced its U.S. launch in September 2026, and Shitsel is now focused on marketing the desktop and mobile versions. He’s mentioned that a video platform could be the next project.

Shitsel’s message is that when you put your intellect, strengths and experience toward something you think is impossible, with a small, motivated team around you, it can become real. In his case, that started with a few unprofessional-looking drawings, and you can see where they led at Bambkuss.com.

The post Oleg Shitsel Sketched a Social Network in Bed During Lockdown, and Now It’s Live appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

The product mix is where that idea gets practical. Hoodies and button-up shirts share space with jerseys, and there’s athletic gear too, with rash guards and performance shorts made for the gym. This time of year, ugly Christmas sweaters join the mix. Spend a few minutes browsing Anime Ape and it’s clear the brand is thinking about how people spend an actual week, leg day and lazy gaming Sundays included.

Anime gets top billing in the name, but gaming and wider pop culture designs are in the catalog as well, which makes sense for anyone whose interests bounce between a streaming queue and a console. Everything comes from an in-house design team, and the artwork leans bold and expressive, with details meant for people who know the source material well.

Customers also get a say in what comes next. On the design suggestions page, shoppers can request a character, a theme, or a rough idea, and Anime Ape says a number of its products began exactly that way. One Trustpilot user wrote in September that a pair of shorts they’d asked for turned up in the store, and they bought them immediately. The brand’s sense of humor runs through all of this. Its own site sums up the business with a tongue-in-cheek plan that goes from making funny shirts straight to profit, with nothing but question marks in between.

On Trustpilot, Anime Ape sits at 4.6 out of 5 across 2,439 reviews as of October 21, 2026, and 82 percent of those are five stars. The praise clusters around a few things. People mention how many designs there are to pick from, how bright the prints stay after laundry, how comfortable the pieces feel, and how quickly support responds. Some of the details are refreshingly specific. One reviewer was surprised that a zip hoodie came fleece-lined and thicker than expected, though they wished the zipper slid more smoothly. Another mentioned a free sticker tucked into the order. Most of the criticism is about fit and fabric. Sizing varies between items, a few shoppers wanted heavier shirts, and some say shipping ran longer than they expected, so checking each product’s size chart is worth the extra minute. Anime Ape also keeps a page of customer reviews and photos for anyone who’d like to judge the fit from buyer pictures before ordering.

The holiday sweaters show how the brand operates. They mix fandom with humor, which suits a garment that exists mostly to get a laugh at a party. A sweater packed with references to someone’s favorite series also beats a generic gift card, and Anime Ape is collecting suggestions from its community as it works on new designs.

So back to that fan with the ten-minute answer. Fans already know their favorite anime deserves a spot in the daily rotation, and Anime Ape agrees. Its clothes let what someone wears say as much as they do, whether it’s a jersey on the way to the gym or a hoodie during a late-night gaming session. The full catalog is at animeape.com.

The post Your Favorite Anime Belongs in Your Everyday Wardrobe, and Anime Ape Agrees appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

Lord Conrad is the stage name of Corrado Garibaldi, a producer whose roots are in electronic music. He’s built an international following through tracks like “Touch The Sky,” whose official video has passed 1.5 million views on YouTube, and “Only You,” which caught on in the global shuffle-dance community. Gaming has been part of his story for a while. His track “I Minute” generated thousands of user-created videos on TikTok, and a collaboration with YouTuber PEPO3393, whose channel has more than 500,000 subscribers, produced “VIDEOGAMES,” a song that’s been widely used in gameplay content.

On “Rising Empire,” he takes that a step further. Synthwave runs over heavy 808s and distorted guitars, and modern hip-hop production keeps the whole thing from tipping into pure nostalgia. The synths give it the retro feel. The trap elements keep it current. The mood is midnight drives, luxury cars and champagne-soaked nightlife, which is exactly the GTA 6 world the track was built around.

The official music video goes all in on the look, with neon city shots, a high-end lifestyle and visuals referencing the financial markets. Lord Conrad ties it to an empire-building mindset that he says goes beyond the game and into the business of interactive entertainment. The video also carries a disclaimer that its market visuals are fictional and meant purely for entertainment.

For the record, “Rising Empire” is an independent, fan-inspired project and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Rockstar Games. That’s kind of the point. It’s one artist’s take on a game that has people excited before it’s even out.

The single is part of a broader shift for Lord Conrad in 2026, as he moves past conventional EDM toward a mix of synthwave, progressive house, hip-hop, R&B and trap. More is on the way, including a modern hip-hop remix of “Push It to the Limit” from Scarface and another synthwave and hip-hop project about trading.

For now, anyone counting down to Vice City has something to play on the drive there. You can listen to “Rising Empire” on all platforms and find more from Lord Conrad on his official website.

The post ‘Rising Empire’ Is Lord Conrad’s Synthwave Love Letter to GTA appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

Amazon businesses need different kinds of support. Established brands may need better advertising and account management. Resellers may need stronger suppliers and buying terms. Entrepreneurs looking to become an Amazon seller may need help establishing their company and setting up their store.

This editorial selection covers ten agencies and marketplace service providers across those categories. It’s organized by service approach rather than an independently audited global performance ranking.

1. aSellingSecrets

Specialization: Procurement Partner, Wholesale Partner, and Business Setup

aSellingSecrets supports Amazon and Shopify sellers through procurement, wholesale access, and operational services. Its Procurement Partner service gives clients an outsourced team that builds direct brand relationships under the client’s own LLC, handling supplier research, outreach, account applications, and negotiations on pricing and payment terms. Clients keep ownership of their supplier accounts and approve purchasing decisions. For sellers searching “amazon business net 30,” that’s the key distinction: these are terms pursued directly with suppliers, separate from any credit product Amazon offers, and they depend on each supplier’s approval.

Its Wholesale Partner program pairs access to 3,000+ wholesale brands with full store management, covering listings, inventory, and account health for sellers looking to establish an Amazon wholesale account. Brand availability depends on purchasing requirements and restrictions. For newcomers, aBusiness Partner handles LLC formation, EIN and resale documentation, Amazon Seller Central setup, and wholesale access, the practical steps behind the common search “open amazon store.”

2. Tinuiti

Specialization: Amazon PPC, DSP, and retail media

Tinuiti works with brands on Amazon Sponsored Ads, Amazon DSP, and Amazon Marketing Cloud. Its broader marketing capabilities let companies coordinate their Amazon campaigns with advertising on other channels. It’s relevant to brands managing substantial advertising programs where audience targeting, creative, and measurement all need to work together.

3. Channel Bakers

Specialization: Amazon advertising and creative services

Channel Bakers pairs retail media expertise with creative production. Its services address both how brands reach shoppers and how their products appear across their marketing. For businesses evaluating Amazon business opportunities, it’s a way to connect how a brand presents itself on the marketplace with how its campaigns run. It suits brands that want advertising and creative support together.

4. AMZ Pathfinder

Specialization: Amazon PPC management

AMZ Pathfinder keeps its focus on Amazon advertising, including campaign management and search-term analysis. That specialty makes the most sense for established businesses that already have products and operational processes in place. Sellers who want focused advertising support can bring it in without necessarily handing over their entire store operation.

5. My Amazon Guy

Specialization: Full-service Amazon account management

My Amazon Guy combines Amazon SEO, PPC, catalog management, and design. Its full-service model covers several connected responsibilities that come with being an Amazon seller, which helps businesses that want listing optimization, advertising, and account support coordinated together. The agency also publishes educational content, so prospective clients can get a clear look at its methods before signing on.

6. Channel Key

Specialization: Amazon strategy and marketplace operations

Channel Key provides marketplace strategy, advertising, content, and operational support. Its approach treats Amazon as a business channel that needs coordination across several functions. That’s useful for brands looking for a partner that can tie product presentation and advertising back to their operational priorities.

7. AMZ Advisers

Specialization: Marketplace growth and advertising

AMZ Advisers works with established brands on Amazon growth, including advertising and DSP. Its services connect campaign execution with a brand’s broader commercial goals. Businesses can weigh its approach against what they’re able to handle internally, and its offering extends beyond Amazon to TikTok Shop.

8. Podean

Specialization: Global marketplace marketing and management

Podean offers strategy, media, creative, retail management, and analytics, backed by an international presence. That reach matters for brands expanding across countries and marketplaces, where content, advertising, and retail execution all have to stay coordinated. Podean supports businesses looking to keep a consistent strategy while still accounting for what each individual market requires.

9. Pattern

Specialization: Marketplace acceleration and distribution

Pattern’s 3P Accelerator buys and resells brand inventory while supporting marketplace execution. That’s a different arrangement from a conventional agency. Brands considering this model should look closely at inventory ownership, commercial terms, and how responsibilities get divided between their business and the selling partner.

10. SupplyKick

Specialization: Wholesale selling and Amazon management

SupplyKick combines wholesale selling with agency services, including advertising, creative, logistics, inventory management, and brand management. That makes it relevant to brands considering either management support or an outside wholesale selling relationship. The right fit comes down to how much operational responsibility the brand wants to keep.

Choosing the right partner

An automated Amazon business is a common goal, but outsourcing doesn’t remove the need for ownership, capital, and purchasing decisions. The practical objective is to delegate defined tasks while keeping visibility and control.

Compare providers by the problem they solve, whether that’s advertising, operations, wholesale distribution, procurement, or business setup. Review their scope, fees, account ownership, reporting, and client evidence before committing.

The post Top 10 Amazon Agencies in the World, From Procurement to PPC appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

That mindset makes more sense once you know how she got here. Moncler didn’t take a traditional path into the entertainment industry. She worked as a dancer early in her adolescence, and that experience confirmed her love for performing and entertaining an audience. That love carried into digital creation, where she built a presence under her personal brand DOLLSCXM alongside her work in fashion. She put much of it together independently through opportunities she created herself, and she stays very hands-on with her career and her brand.

She credits that background with shaping the performer she is now. It taught her how to command attention and connect with an audience, it made her comfortable in front of a camera, and it helped her develop a recognizable identity as Mia Moncler. Acting is an important direction for her, and she says everything she’s done has shaped the confidence, work ethic and presence she brings to the screen.

DOLLSCXM is where all of it comes together. On Instagram and TikTok, she mixes performance and fashion with lifestyle content and behind-the-scenes moments from her creative career. She sees the different sides of her career as strengths she can bring into acting and future creative projects.

Showing more of her range is a major focus right now. She’s pursuing opportunities in film and music videos, along with modeling and other entertainment work, and she wants each new project to reveal a different side of her. She has no interest in being defined by one role or one platform. “There are many different sides to Mia Moncler,” she said, “and one of my biggest goals is to keep surprising people with what I do next.” She describes this stage as taking everything she’s built on her own and “turning it into something much bigger.”

Moncler was recently interviewed by A Dream Called Cinema, and she’s grateful to the people who have supported and followed her so far. For all her ambition, she says she’s enjoying the process of getting there.

Her own story is the point she most wants to make. “You don’t have to follow a traditional path to build something meaningful for yourself,” she said. “Where you start doesn’t have to define where you end up.” She got here by taking chances and refusing to limit herself to one title or one version of who she’s supposed to be, and she says every chapter so far has given her something valuable to carry into the next. She’s proud of where she came from and excited about where she’s going. She wants people to remember her as someone who is “constantly evolving.”

Seen that way, Henny & Homi is a starting line. She took an unconventional route into acting and turned every experience into a stepping stone, and in her view, what people have seen so far is only the beginning. “Keep watching,” she said. “There’s a lot more of Mia Moncler that you haven’t seen yet.”

Follow Mia Moncler on Instagram and TikTok, and watch her lead performance in Henny & Homi.

The post Mia Moncler Is Building Momentum on Her Own Terms appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

He’s been at it for close to a decade now, with songs like “I Can Finally Know,” “Grooving Without Moving,” “Night Shift” and “Taste” already part of his catalog. His debut album, “Who,” is a separate rollout, a new track every couple of weeks, with the full project landing by mid-November. Born in Sao Paulo and now splitting time between Brazil and Los Angeles, Whitte says the sound just follows wherever he is emotionally when he sits down to write. “I’m not chasing a label or a category,” he says. “I’m chasing honesty.”

The last three years changed things. Whitte spent that stretch being mentored by Corey Rooney, the legendary producer and songwriter. So when he’s asked who he’d want to collaborate with, given the choice of anyone, the answer is Michael Jackson. “Even though he’s not with us anymore, I feel like I caught a glimpse of his magic through my mentor,” Whitte says. “That connection has been a gift.”

That word, magic, comes up more than once when he talks about why he does this. “To me, music is the closest thing we have to magic,” he says. “In a world that can feel really shallow and manufactured, I want to create something that breaks through, something personal and real.” He wants someone to hear a song and land back in a specific night, or a person, or a version of themselves they hadn’t thought about in a while, whether that means dancing, crying, or just sitting with something real.

Once “Who” is fully out, Whitte says he wants people to sit with it before he moves on to anything else. He’s already planning one or two shows in Sao Paulo once the album drops in full. He posts updates on Instagram and TikTok, and his music is streaming now on Spotify.

He was five when Michael Jackson gave him something to chase. Years and one pivotal mentorship later, he’s still chasing it, just with a much clearer idea of what it looks like when he catches it.

The post From Michael Jackson To Corey Rooney, Frannk Whitte Traces The Roots Of His Sound appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

That riff is now the backbone of “Limerence,” the Malta-based composer’s latest single, released on August 13 and clocking in at 4:10. Baddar is 30. The distance between the idea and the finished song covers half his life.

What made the riff worth saving wasn’t complexity. He remembers it as a melody that sounded professional at a point when he could barely play. “Even the way it’s played on the guitar, every note is placed conveniently where your hand can reach without having to stretch or move anywhere at all,” he says. “For me, as a 15 or 16-year-old, writing that riff meant I had a melody that sounded professional, and I was very proud of that because at the time I really sucked at my instrument.”

He wasn’t good enough at guitar or songwriting to turn it into the song he was imagining, so he put it aside with a promise attached, that he’d come back once he could do it justice. More than a decade passed before he did.

Back then the song was called “Lotus.” The title came from Buckethead’s “Padmasana,” which means lotus pose, and whose rhythm guitar shaped one section of Baddar’s track. Somewhere across the versions that followed, “Lotus” became “Limerence.” He’d been carrying it so long that letting go of it was its own adjustment. “The song has been with me as multiple iterations for so long I’ve gotten attached to it almost in its unfinished state,” he says. “Because so many versions of this song had things I wanted to keep but couldn’t.”

The version that survived is built on an idea he’d been circling for years. Baddar came up through groove metal, and what always grabbed him were the clean sections, the parts heavier bands tend to use as a break from the heavy parts. Opeth gave him one full record of it in “Damnation.” Tool gave him melodies he found incredible on every instrument. Buckethead gave him “Electric Tears” and “A Real Diamond in the Rough.” His question was simple enough: what happens if you never turn the distortion back on and let the clean, melodic side carry an entire song? “Limerence” is his answer, and he describes his music as catchy and accessible while still being original post-rock, which is an unusually plain description for something this deliberate.

The detail he’s proudest of is how the parts relate to each other. Instead of stacking instruments that shadow the same line, each one is doing something of its own. He makes that literal at the end of the track. The main riff plays, then stops. The bass comes in. The second guitar riff joins the bass. Then everything is played together once, and you hear the hook assembled from three pieces you’ve just been introduced to individually. It’s a small piece of engineering, and it does something most outros don’t, which is hand the listener the blueprint after they’ve already fallen for the building. “I’m very happy and proud of the fact that every instrument plays something completely different and sounds really good when put together,” he says.

The lyrics and vocal melodies came late in the process. Baddar calls the song his baby and says the words were always going to point inward. “It was more about me trying to give something special to a person, because I have a deeply personal tie with the song itself in a way that has nothing to do with that person at all,” he says. “So naturally, the lyrics were going to end up being about me alone.” They’re plain and repetitive by design, they reference “that metallica song” and later circle back to “and nothing else matters,” and they close on “Please talk to me” rather than any kind of resolution. The full lyrics and the single are on Bandcamp.

None of this happened on a schedule, and that’s the point. Baddar treats music as a hobby rather than a career, and he works on what he calls sparks, the bursts of creative energy where good material arrives without being forced. “There’s no pressure at all. I do whatever I want and release material at my own pace,” he says. “If there was ever a demand, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it because of the way that I write, on sparks.”

His message to other musicians follows from that. Don’t get off on the cheap dopamine of having a song finished. Write out of love for the craft and keep working until it’s right, even if the wait runs into years. It’s not romantic advice, and it costs something. Baddar spent fifteen years earning the ability to record four minutes of music he wanted to hear as a teenager.

He doesn’t play live, and writing vocals for the rest of his clean material, including a bluesier, Kyuss-leaning track called “Electric Smoke,” will take time before it becomes an EP. So things stay quiet for now. He’s already proven he’s willing to wait.

You can find Serag Baddar at his website, on Instagram, on Facebook, and on Spotify.

The post The Fifteen Year Wait Behind Serag Baddar’s ‘Limerence’ appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

The project in its current form began in 2024. AKASHIC GODS describes the turn as a response to a period of isolation, deception and what she calls music exploitation, and says choosing the moral high ground over retaliation became the foundation of what followed. “The realization that past trauma and deep emotional scars could be forged into unshakeable armor became the spiritual foundation for the entire project,” she says.

The chart record since then has been consistent. Debut single “Gods and Machines” reached No. 2, drew worldwide airplay and earned a national TV broadcast in Norway on rocker Petter Wavold’s show. “Weapons in Space” held No. 1 on the UK Talk Radio Hot 100 for three weeks. Third single “Karmic Justice” spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1.

What replaced the electronic era is worth explaining. Working with producer Carlone Lewis, she built a style she describes as cyberpunk mysticism, which in practice means putting two incompatible things in the same room and recording the contrast. Glitchy industrial synthesizers and rigid programmed loops sit on one side. Garage-rock guitar stacks, orchestral strings and choir-like vocal harmonies sit on the other. Her own shorthand for the result is an ancient cathedral wired straight into a cybernetic matrix.

The album is built in two movements. The System deals with manipulation, technology and betrayal. The Sanctuary covers what comes after: awakening, divine justice and forgiveness. Ten tracks run across that arc, opening with “Gods and Machines” and closing with “Ancient Civilians.”

The recording followed the same architecture. A quiet-loud dynamic, which she names as one of the project’s three core elements, turns up repeatedly: verses tracked tight and claustrophobic, sometimes through lo-fi filters, before the choruses rupture into wide-panned guitar walls and stacked harmonies. On “Weapons in Space,” Carlone Lewis engineered completely unquantized full drums kits over industrial synth basslines so human timing would fight the mechanical pulse rather than lock to it. “Skies Dripping Gold,” where guitarist Alan Riggs (Delta 5) works alongside Carlone Lewis, runs at a high-velocity tempo built on the same friction.

The writing pulls from a broad reading list. “Surf the Future” leans on Carl Jung’s shadow work and Robert Frost’s road less travelled. “Orphans of Wisdom” sets a Socratic admission of not knowing against internet arrogance, with a nod to Alexander Pope. “Skies Dripping Gold” maps a descent and rebirth onto Dante’s Inferno. “Live Your Epitaph” runs on Memento Mori and Carpe Diem, echoing Marcus Aurelius. Closing track “Ancient Civilians” slows down, an anti-war piece that flips Isaiah’s swords-into-plowshares image into a blunter question about what bombs know of a golden age. “Surf the Future” appears to be the early standout for listeners who have heard the record in full. Josh Robinson, CEO of LMSUK, the specialist social media management agency handling the album’s marketing, played the album from start to finish one morning and wrote back that he was “in shock” after listening to it, and said of “Surf the Future,” “definitely my favourite track of them all.”

The album’s focus single, “Bring in the Elohim,” is out this August and it’s the only new single releasing alongside the album. It deals with walking away from a hostile personal conflict and leaving the outcome elsewhere. “Conceptually, the song shuns petty physical retaliation, completely anchoring itself in the timeless scriptural promise that vengeance belongs solely to the Creator,” she says. “I paired that prophetic boundary with a bold, counter-cultural choice: weaponizing silence as my ultimate defence.” Carlone Lewis stacked pristine vocal harmonies over a heavy guitar grid, and Andy Baldwin mastered the track at Metropolis Studios. An official music video for “Bring in the Elohim” accompanies the release this August.

Music Marketing agency LMSUK handles the rollout, with Medialuchs working “Karmic Justice” to German radio and securing rotation ahead of the album’s National radio promo in Germany. AKASHIC GODS was interviewed on the red carpet at the UK film premiere of Dream Hacker earlier this year and appeared on the Martin Talk Show podcast. She has played Camden Club and Water Rats, toured with Secret Life and appeared with Shalamar, and made the cover of The Guild of International Songwriters & Composers Magazine in November 2024. A live showcase set is in preparation, with Alan Riggs and Carlone Lewis on board.

For an artist whose earlier records reached people through DJ sets, the aim now is close to the opposite. She says she wants listeners to come away from the album “completely bulletproof, clear-headed and spiritually untouchable,” treating their own scars as material rather than damage. That is a lot to ask of ten songs, and The Ether Element does not ask quietly. It makes its case at stadium volume, then reinforces that the strongest response to a fight is to say nothing and walk away as the message in the focus single “Bring In the Elohim”.

AKASHIC GODS can be found on Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, TikTok and X.

Listen to the Ether Element album on Spotify.

For more context on AKASHIC GODS’ transition from dance music, earlier releases and the “Weapons in Space” campaign, read this Just News International profile.

Album artwork by DesignerAde Ltd.

The post AKASHIC GODS Trades The Dance Floor For Resonance On ‘The Ether Element’ appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

That last part comes straight from Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Curl builds “Julia” around a line most people know from The Little Prince, the notion that what’s essential is invisible to the eye and only the heart gets it right. It’s the kind of borrowed philosophy that could easily tip into greeting-card territory, but Curl keeps it grounded by tying it to a specific person in a specific place. Julia isn’t an abstraction. She’s someone he met, floating in the water on a summer breeze, and the song treats that fleeting introduction as reason enough to write.

Musically, this is softer terrain than a lot of Curl’s catalogue. He’s a Swiss singer-songwriter with English-Australian roots, and his usual mode is folk-pop-rock with enough of an alternative edge to keep it from sounding too clean. “Julia” leans further into the dream-pop side, all peaceful guitar, moving bass, and a vocal delivery that stays close and unhurried. There’s no big swing for a hook, no manufactured lift. The song just drifts, which suits a track about someone described as an angel of the ocean, living young and wild and free with a rose in her hair.

The lyrics lean into that imagery without apologizing for it. Julia turns art into a dream, radiates like a rainbow, keeps the singer believing in something. It’s romantic in the old sense of the word, more about wonder than desire. And the closing lines give the whole thing away as memory rather than present tense: by the end she’s “just a memory of a past scene,” someone whose magic Curl can still feel even though the moment itself is gone. That’s really the point of the song. It’s less about Julia the person and more about what she represents, that a brief encounter can leave a mark that outlasts the encounter itself.

The visuals match the mood. The official lyric video was filmed in Fuerteventura, Spain, and it’s a slow, cinematic piece built around volcanic hills, drone footage sweeping across arid terrain, and Curl sitting alone with his acoustic guitar in warm gold light. Loic Michel handled the filming, with editing by Nevena Deljanin Prvanovic and artwork by Andrea J. Ruiz. The palette runs to muted earth tones and pale blue water, and the editing relies on long shots and dissolves that occasionally layer two images together for a hazy, dreamlike effect. It’s the kind of video where a small human figure keeps getting placed inside a very large landscape, which feels right for a song about smallness and open space.

Curl has a habit of filming in places most people wouldn’t bother hauling a guitar to. He once shot a video at a medieval watchtower on the cliffs of Portugal, and Fuerteventura’s volcanic overlooks fit that pattern. As he puts it, he writes honest songs and then finds increasingly impractical locations to film them in.

“Julia” isn’t a debut or a reinvention. It’s the newest entry in a catalogue that includes two albums, Introducing and Lockdown – Seven Nations, the EPs Slave To Instinct and Hold Me Close, and a run of singles going back to 2021. Along the way Curl has picked up more than 2 million Spotify streams and landed in over 2,000 playlists, numbers he says still surprise him when he checks. He’s played more than 200 shows, everything from living-room concerts to festival slots, and he handles most of the business himself. Independent music, in his telling, means being the artist, the label, the tour manager, and sometimes the guy carrying the amp up three flights of stairs.

What’s interesting about Curl is how little he seems interested in chasing whatever’s popular. “Julia” wasn’t written for an algorithm. It was written because a moment happened and he wanted to keep it. Twenty years into this, that instinct is the throughline, the songs that last tend to be the ones written for the right reasons rather than the ones engineered for a playlist.

You can pre-save “Julia” ahead of its August 12 release, and find the rest of Curl’s music and tour updates on his website, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

The post Seeing With the Heart, Dave Curl’s New Single Turns a Surf Camp Moment Into Dream Pop appeared first on Growth Illustrated.

As a performer specialising in techno and house music, Silverstar Oh brings energy and atmosphere to the DJ booth. Her sets are shaped by powerful rhythms, electronic textures, and the steady momentum that defines both genres. Rather than simply playing a sequence of tracks, she approaches DJing as a complete performance, using pacing and musical transitions to build a connection with the crowd.

This performance-focused approach helps distinguish the Silverstar Oh Korean DJ identity. Techno and house music require careful control of energy. A DJ must understand when to increase intensity, when to create space, and how to keep an audience engaged throughout a set. Silverstar’s background in entertainment gives her a natural appreciation for timing, presentation, and stage presence.

Before becoming known for her work as a DJ, Silverstar Oh also pursued acting. She appeared in the 2018 Korean television drama *Secrets and Lies*, gaining experience in front of the camera and within a professional television production. Her acting career adds another dimension to her work in music, showing that her abilities extend beyond the nightclub or festival stage.

Acting and DJing may appear to be very different disciplines, but both depend heavily on communication. An actress communicates through expression, movement, and dialogue. A DJ communicates through sound, rhythm, and atmosphere. Silverstar Oh’s experience in both fields allows her to understand performance from multiple perspectives.

Her camera confidence and polished personal style have also helped her develop a recognizable public image. She is comfortable in fashion-focused environments, promotional shoots, and entertainment settings where visual presentation matters. This makes her well suited to collaborations that combine music, nightlife, fashion, and modern digital culture.

The rise of social media has changed what audiences expect from performers. Today, artists are often required to be musicians, personalities, visual storytellers, and brand collaborators at the same time. Silverstar Oh reflects this modern approach to entertainment. Her experience as an actress gives her familiarity with scripted production, while her DJ career allows her to perform in a more immediate and spontaneous way.

For audiences searching for a Silverstar Oh Korean DJ profile, her appeal lies in this combination of skills. She is not limited to a single creative category. She has worked on television, developed a presence within electronic music, and built an image that fits naturally into contemporary Korean entertainment.

As she continues to focus on techno and house music, Silverstar Oh has the opportunity to further establish herself as a versatile performer. Her acting background, confident stage presence, and passion for electronic sound give her a strong foundation for future performances and creative projects.

Silverstar Oh represents a new generation of entertainers who move comfortably between different forms of performance. Whether appearing on screen or controlling the energy of a dance floor, she brings together music, personality, and visual presence as a Korean DJ and actress with a multifaceted creative career.

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