Meet the Top 40 Nominees for the 2026 Sonic Guild Seattle Artist Grants
Meet the 40 artists in the running for ten $10,000 grants. Final voting runs November 13 through November 20.
The Top 40 nominees for the 2026 Sonic Guild Seattle Artist Grants are here!
More than 500 Seattle-area artists were nominated this year. Over Round 1, Sonic Guild members, past grant recipients and music industry advisors listened their way through the list, and their votes narrowed the field to these 40.
Noise rock and reggae, string quartets and sludge metal, hip-hop, folk, funk and plenty that won’t fit in any box: together, they’re a snapshot of how much extraordinary music this region is making right now. Congratulations to every one of them, and thank you to everyone who nominated, listened and voted.
Now, it’s time to listen.
How the final round works
From these 40 finalists, voters will select the 10 artists who will each receive a $10,000 unrestricted grant, funded by the generosity of Sonic Guild members. That support gives musicians room to create, record, tour, buy equipment and take the next steps in their careers. No ownership. No equity. No royalties. Just an investment in local music.
Final voting is open to eligible Sonic Guild members, past Artist Grant recipients and music industry advisors through a ballot sent by email. It isn’t open to the general public, and social media likes, shares and follower counts don’t determine the results. Eligible voters can take part even if they didn’t vote in Round 1.
Save these dates
November 13: Top 40 announced and final voting opens
November 20 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific: Final voting deadline
December 11: 2026 Artist Grant recipients announced
February 20, 2027: Grant Celebration at The Triple Door
Meet the 2026 Top 40
Listed alphabetically. Press play on a favorite, follow a name you haven’t heard before, and share a discovery with someone who loves local music.
AJ Suede
AJ Suede is a rapper, producer and videographer based in Seattle. Crowned “the most prolific rapper in Seattle” by The Seattle Times, he has released more than 35 projects in the last eight years and has filmed and edited more than 30 music videos around Seattle since 2017.
Alex Vile
Tacoma alt-rock band Alex Vile was founded in 2022 by singer and guitarist Alexandra Vilenius, with Paul Maturo on drums and Kaelyn Stevens on bass. They’ve toured the U.S. and Canada several times, supporting bands like Vial, Teen Mortgage and The Velveteers, and they’re now finishing their debut album, which gives alt-rock a folk twist.
Andrew Joslyn and the Passenger String Quartet
Composer, orchestrator and violinist Andrew Joslyn leads Passenger String Quartet, a genre-defying Seattle ensemble that bridges classical music with indie rock, pop and hip-hop. The quartet has worked with Macklemore, Kesha, David Bazan, Duff McKagan, Judy Collins, Mary Lambert, Sunny Day Real Estate and many more. Andrew also scores films, runs his own production studio, advocates for musicians’ rights and directs popular programming for Seattle Symphony.
Annie J
Annie J blends retro soul and modern pop into something close and personal. Her vocal command and playful stage presence pay homage to artists like Dusty Springfield, Whitney Houston, Janelle Monáe and Solange, making her live sets both fun and moving.
Anthers
Since 2021, Seattle trio Anthers has earned a reputation for peeling the paint off every room they play, both as headliners and opening for The Jesus Lizard, Brainiac and Model/Actriz. Their noise rock is controlled chaos: Taylor Clark’s racing drums, Kevin Blanquies’ bass dragged through a chain of pedals, and E.J. Tolentino as the paranoid doomsayer at the eye of the storm. Go to an Anthers show and you might leave a little lighter than you came.
Antwane Tyler
Raised in Monroe, Washington, after being adopted at eight years old, Antwane Tyler writes from real life: a tight-knit family, a small town outside Seattle and the music he grew up on. His sound moves easily between country, folk and pop, a mix he simply calls authentic: honest, heartfelt and rooted in where he’s from.
Babes In Canyon
Songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Nathan and Sophia Hamer blend synth-folk, alt-pop, club beats and soaring harmonies as Babes In Canyon, a project born during a blackout storm in the Pacific Northwest mountains. Their debut, The New Loud, was engineered and mixed by Jerry Streeter (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers). After two U.S. headlining tours, they’re releasing Whispers & Echoes alongside a 31-date tour of the U.S. and Canada.
Bexley
Bexley is a DIY rock band that won’t stay in one genre, pairing heavy, grungy, distortion-driven riffs with thoughtful lyrics, powerful melodic vocals and the occasional scream. They released their second album, DARK NOISE, in September 2026 after a summer of local festival dates that included Bumbershoot.
Bloqueador Solar
Bloqueador Solar is the solo project of Ulises Mariscal, a pillar of Seattle’s independent and Latin American music community. Where Mariscal usually brings warmth and enthusiasm to the local scene, this project channels raw, dark and uncomfortable emotions into what KEXP’s Albina Cabrera calls a hypnotic journey of experimental soundscapes and lo-fi textures.
Champagne Bubblebath
Champagne Bubblebath is where psychedelic funk and soul meet golden-era instrumental hip-hop. The alter-ego project of Polyrhythmics drummer Grant Schroff grew from a side project into a full live band with Jason Gray on bass, Ben Bloom on guitar and Emerald City funk guitar OG Jimmy James (True Loves, Parlor Greens). Their debut, Mixtape: Vol One, travels from late-'60s rare groove to mid-'90s boom-bap.
Chico Detour
Seattle quintet Chico Detour treats garage rock like a living language, writing lean, reverb-soaked songs built on repetition, crooked hooks and tension. Their EP Wash It Down, released on Den Tapes, earned praise from Shindig! for “testing the limits of surf’s predictable structure.” With Treefort, regular KEXP support and sold-out hometown headline shows behind them, they’ve become one of the Pacific Northwest’s defining new garage psych bands.
Chris King & The Gutterballs
Chris King & The Gutterballs play “garage twang,” pairing gritty indie rock with soulful alt-country storytelling, a sound often described as Neil Young meets Bill Withers. Singer-songwriter Chris King leads the band with Malcolm Roberts on bass and Jack Moriarty on drums. Since 2014 they’ve released records including Cocktails and Painwaves, played a KEXP in-studio, Treefort and Capitol Hill Block Party, and shared stages with Bob Weir and David Crosby.
Clinton Fearon
Clinton Fearon spent nearly two decades in the iconic Jamaican reggae trio The Gladiators before settling in Seattle in 1989 and starting a solo career with local musicians as Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band. More than 50 years and 15 solo albums into his career, he tours the world but stays rooted here: in 2016, he and his wife launched Seattle Reggae Nights at Nectar Lounge, now 32 editions strong.
Gifted Gab
Seattle-born recording artist Gifted Gab has built an extensive catalog along with a long list of features and collaborations. Beyond the mic, Gifted Gab’s work spans voice-over, sync, rap coaching, visual art and consulting.
glass egg
glass egg is the dream pop-ish project of Seattle songwriter and producer Emilia Glaser, who writes, engineers, produces and mixes all of the music. Shaped by the misty rivers of the Snoqualmie Valley and the 2010s Pacific Northwest indie scene, the songs weave dream pop, freak folk and experimental pop. visions & ecstasies (2025) made The Seattle Times’ list of the best Washington albums of the year, and recent highlights include a KEXP Audioasis session and Capitol Hill Block Party 2026.
Kassa Overall
Grammy-nominated drummer, emcee, singer and producer Kassa Overall grew up in Seattle as a child drum prodigy, teaching himself to make beats on an MPC. Pitchfork called him “one of modern jazz music’s most audacious futurists” for the way he blends jazz, hip-hop and avant-garde experimentation. He has toured and recorded with Geri Allen, Jon Batiste, Vijay Iyer and Terri Lyne Carrington, and his latest album, CREAM, recasts ’90s and 2000s rap anthems as jazz standards. He is a 2025 Doris Duke Foundation Prize recipient.
LEMON BOY
LEMON BOY is an all-femme punk trio born in Seattle’s skate parks in 2021: Yaz on a skateboard, Nicole on roller skates and Emily on a bike, together a 14-wheeled monstrosity. Their debut album, Eat. Skate. Die., takes on capitalism, casual misogyny, body dysmorphia and religious trauma, all disguised as the perfect soundtrack for a Seattle summer. The Stranger says they’re “poised to take over.”
Lucha Luna
Seattle duo Lucha Luna mixes Latin percussion, heavy bass, punk vocals and reggaeton flows into an energetic expression of joy and rage. Formed in 2025, they make music about resistance, liberation, community and healing. Their albums BRILLA BRILLA and BRILLA BRILLA: Remixed are out now.
Lucia Flores-Wiseman
Lucia Flores-Wiseman is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter from Maple Valley whose music blends indie, folk, soul, jazz and a touch of rock. Influenced by Brandi Carlile, Amy Winehouse and Norah Jones, she earned a four-chair turn and finished fourth on Season 27 of NBC’s The Voice, and she has shared the stage with Brandi Carlile. She’s now working on her debut EP.
M.A. Sampson
M.A. Sampson is a Seattle songwriter blending Americana, indie rock, country and folk into a sound that feels both weathered and immediate. Their 2025 debut LP, Pistons of the Ages, pairs raw lyrics and driving guitars with intimate stories of everyday life, carrying the spirit of late-night barrooms, long highway drives and the hazy edges of the Pacific Northwest.
mega cat
mega cat makes cinematic instrumental music that sounds like alien transmissions from a feline race, folding afrobeat, film score, hip-hop and psychedelia into jazz-like mutations with punk ferocity. Since their 2024 debut, they’ve opened for Kamasi Washington, Gene Ween and Michael Rother, played a KEXP in-studio, and earned a “Mega mega cat week” from DJ Kevin Cole. They’re on Share It Music, distributed by Sub Pop, with part of every record sale benefiting SMASH.
Meldrop
Meldrop started in fall 2022, when a group of bussers at a Tacoma seafood joint jammed after work and felt an instant spark. Now a five-piece indie rock band with Elijah Tuncap on drums, Aidan Maggi on bass, Aidan Goodman on keys and the interlocking guitars of River Esqueda and Kirran Medchill, they’ve carried that spark into the heart of the Seattle music scene and beyond.
Mike Frazier
Troubadour Mike Frazier has released seven albums in the last decade and tours several times a year. Raised in Winchester, Virginia, he moved to Seattle in 2022 and is often found performing and speaking at rallies around town, inspired by the protest songwriters of the ’60s and ’70s. His eighth album, What Winter Brings, arrives December 11 on Geneva Records.
M.O.S.S.
Formed in a bungalow in 2020, M.O.S.S. lives somewhere between gritty indie rock, alt-country and ’90s nostalgia, a sound they call “twangy sludge slacker.” Guitarists Ryan Mortenson and Jack Swart, drummer Emma McGraw and bassist Nathan Anderson released their first full-length, Youth Loser, on Den Tapes in 2025 and are back in the studio on a new album due in early 2027.
Mt Fog
Called “Seattle’s premier art pop eccentric” by Bandcamp Daily, Mt Fog began as the project of vocalist and classically trained violinist Carolyn B. and has grown into a trio with Andy Sells and Casey Rosebridge. They’ve played live sessions on KEXP, WFMU and Switzerland’s Radio Rasa, plus festivals like Timber and Capitol Hill Block Party. Their 2026 album, Every Stone is Green, is a Gothic tale about finding happiness that KEXP called a “transportive set of soaring art-pop and bewitching synth-pop.”
MUÑECA
MUÑECA is a Seattle sludge-metal band led by vocalist and guitarist Esli and drummer Cho, performing entirely in Spanish. Their heavy, cathartic sets bring a Latin, femme-driven voice to the city’s heavy-music scene, with stages alongside Dinosaur Jr., Eyehategod and Otoboke Beaver, a tour of Mexico and a slot at Calgary’s Sled Island festival. Their new album, produced by Billy Anderson, arrives this December.
Nat Meek
Nat Meek is a Seattle/Tacoma singer-songwriter whose ethereal vocals, intricate melodies and introspective lyrics feel both intimate and expansive. Drawing on folk and dream pop, she began writing and performing her own songs on guitar in 2023 and has quickly become a distinctive emerging voice in the Pacific Northwest music community.
Noire Svlon / Adra Boo
Noire Svlon (n’wah-r suh-lon), formerly Hotels, is the project of Adra Boo and Blake Madden. It grew out of Hair’s Breath, a music show about the Black hair experience created for The BTMR Project, and moves through mood, feeling, hair and Blackness, in metaphor and in direct light. The duo debuted at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to strong reviews and has a release planned for early 2027.
Packaging
Packaging is the duo of Daniel Lyon and Connor Birch, merging krautrock chug, psychedelic swirl, electronic grandeur and tuneful hooks with a pinch of self-awareness. Their self-titled debut, with contributions from Luke Temple, Ash Reiter, James Barone (Beach House) and Andy Rauworth, spent more than 10 weeks on KEXP’s top 10 most-played list, hit #1 twice, and earned attention from EARMILK, BBC Radio and American Songwriter.
plash
plash’s debut album, I live alone, is a set of dynamic, shape-shifting songs where math-rock, art-rock and indie rock meet. Influenced by toe, Cornelius, Deerhoof and Don Caballero, the Seattle band sings in Korean and English over intricate, interlocking instrumentation, making a smart, soaring, labyrinthine sound driven by technical skill and real warmth.
Prom Queen / Leeni
Prom Queen began in 2011 as Leeni Ramadan’s surf-noir solo project and grew into a band known for cinematic music and moody, visual live shows. Along the way they’ve released a video-album, played Capitol Hill Block Party and a KEXP in-studio, opened for Echo & The Bunnymen at the Showbox, and toured the UK. Their latest single covers Mr. Bungle’s “Pink Cigarette,” and new material is on the way.
REPOSADO
Latin, funk, Afro and soul collide in REPOSADO’s TequilaFunk, led by frontman and creative director Jean-Paul Builes. Drawing on rhythms from the Caribbean, West Africa, Queens and JP’s new home base in Seattle, and channeling Fela Kuti, Fania All-Stars, Curtis Mayfield and James Brown, the bilingual collective makes music to bring people together and get everyone on their feet.
Shelby Natasha
Shelby Natasha is a Chinese folk-R&B project from Seattle, shaped by an upbringing between China and the U.S. Ethereal vocals, guzheng (Chinese harp), bass, lo-fi samples and live drums make a sound that’s both haunting and groovy. They’ve played Oregon Country Fair, Northwest Folklife, Timber and NXNE, and in spring 2027 they’ll travel to China to record a full-length album with local traditional folk musicians.
Star Anna
Alt-country, folk, blues, soul and Americana all fit Star Anna, depending on the night, but her voice is always the center: raw and gritty, tender over gentle strings, or spat out with a punk recklessness. Whether solo with an acoustic guitar or backed by some of Seattle’s finest players, she’s drawn comparisons to Joan Jett, John Prine, Fiona Apple and Joe Cocker while sounding unmistakably like herself.
St. Yuma
St. Yuma is the songwriting project of Stevan Alva, from Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Drawing on the melodic warmth and psychedelic textures of ’60s and ’70s pop, the songs drift between memory, longing and transformation. Rooted in quiet observation, they feel less like stories than places to return to, where the familiar dissolves into something dreamlike.
Suzzallo / Rocky Votolato
Suzzallo is a Seattle rock band fronted by Rocky Votolato, who after the loss of his child poured his grief into loud, cathartic songs that turn it into something healing and beautiful. Their debut, The Quiet Year, was produced by John Goodmanson (Sleater-Kinney, Unwound), features Ben Gibbard, and brings back the energy of the ’90s with Rudy Gajadhar on drums and Steve Bonnell on bass. They’re writing their second album for 2027.
The Whags
The Whags cast a wide net over Americana: southern-rock guitar licks, bluegrass-style dual vocals and the easy aura of classic jam bands. The quintet’s roots go back to childhoods around Seattle, and they formed officially in 2017 with Jordan Tan on keys, Chris Porter and Liam Tevlin on guitars, Cam Hancock on drums and Charles Wicklander on bass. Their second LP, All Along the Water There’s a Mountain Song, was tracked at Woodinville’s Bear Creek Studios.
Tinsley
Seattle singer-songwriter Tinsley makes indie pop-rock that’s equal parts heartfelt and playful, drawing on influences like Feist, Kacey Musgraves and Sharon Van Etten. Her self-titled debut, released in January 2025, explores grief, relationships and growing into yourself, with vinyl funded by KEXP’s John Richards. She toured the West Coast supporting Suzzallo, has earned airplay on KEXP, 107.7 The End and C89.5, and has new music on the way.
Tiny Vipers
Jesy Fortino has performed as Tiny Vipers since her teens, honing sparse, haunting folk in punk houses and squats. Her Sub Pop records Hands Across the Void and Life On Earth built a devoted cult following, and later releases ranged from the frosted electronics of Laughter (2017) back to the acoustic songs of 2021’s American Prayer EP. She’s shared stages with Patti Smith, Damo Suzuki and Grouper while staying fiercely independent.
T.S The Solution
T.S The Solution is a Northwest hip-hop artist documenting the complicated journey of becoming a man, father and leader without a blueprint. With soulful production, sharp lyricism and cinematic storytelling, he’s been called “one of the central rappers to come out of the region’s hip-hop scene” by The Spokesman-Review, and he has shared stages with EARTHGANG, Cordae and Sylvan LaCue.
Become a member and help choose who receives support
Sonic Guild is a community of people who believe local music is worth investing in. Our members fund these grants and help choose who receives them, while coming together throughout the year to discover music, attend intimate shows and connect with the people making it.
Celebrate with us on February 20
Join us at The Triple Door for live performances and the presentation of ten $10,000 Sonic Guild Artist Grants. Every public ticket helps fund next year’s grants, and members receive complimentary admission.
To our Top 40: congratulations!
Share the news and tag @sonicguildseattlewa so we can celebrate with you. Questions? Email seattle.grants@sonicguild.org.
Comments