Landon Smith has one of those voices I could pick out from a mile away. A little rough around the edges, full of feeling, and capable of making me stop whatever I’m doing to listen properly.

From the opening seconds of Fast As I Can Crawl, subtlety is very much off the table. This is the kind of song that makes you want to pull on a pair of boots, find the nearest dive bar and kick the doors open on arrival. It’s gritty, raw and packed with swagger - and within one track, Play Boy has already made its intentions very clear.

I think one of the most nerve-wracking things you can do as an artist is release your debut album. It’s the first real, physical documentation of the music you’ve spent years writing, playing live and touring with - suddenly available for anyone to listen to, dissect and fall in love with whenever they want.

When I caught up with the Ohio trio backstage at The Long Road Festival, they had just delivered one of those sets where you could physically watch a crowd getting bigger. I had somehow managed to miss Oliver Hazard every time they had previously been in the UK, so this was my first chance to finally see them live.

The last time I spoke to Lily Fitts, I had one request. Come back to the UK. That was backstage in Glasgow in December, when Fitts was opening for Max McNown and experiencing British crowds for the first time. Fast forward eight months and, ladies and gentlemen, SHE’S BACK.

Jason Scott arrived in Glasgow with one pair of clean underwear left...That probably tells you quite a lot about how Jason Scott & The High Heat’s first proper trip across the pond had been going.

Every time I interview Ty Myers, something huge seems to happen afterwards. The first time we sat down, he was days away from becoming the youngest artist to ever play C2C Festival. Fast forward a few months and he's dropped his album, clocked up over a billion streams, put his own soulful spin on Amy Winehouse's Valerie and found himself opening stadiums across Europe for Luke Combs.

Some interviews begin with a conversation about the new album. My chat with Anna Graves began with tongue twisters, doing makeup in the back of a van and both of us trying not to melt in a London heatwave.