Parallels is a Canadian synthpop band from Toronto, Canada led by Holly Dodson. Dodson's vocals have been compared to Kate Bush and True Blue-era Madonna. In Flare Magazine's 30th anniversary issue, Dodson was featured as one of the "Hottest names to know in Canadian Music".
David Grellier is a French electronica musician and founder of the musical projects College (2005) and Valerie (2007). Under the stage name Mitch Silver, he is also a member of the electroclash band Sexy Sushi, active since 2004.
Scandroid is an American electronic music project created by Klayton, which previously included Varien in 2013. The project released its debut single, "Salvation Code", on August 6, 2013. Scandroid can be described as encompassing the retro synth melodies of the 1980s while still adapting to modern production, thus creating a new retro sound.
Power Glove is an Australian electronic music and synthwave duo from Melbourne, Victoria, named after the Power Glove made by Mattel for the Nintendo Entertainment System. They provided the soundtrack to the 1980s-influenced retro-futuristic video game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. The soundtrack was met with critical acclaim.
Dana Jean Phoenix is a Canadian synthwave singer-songwriter and musical theatre actress. She is also a vocalist in the Juno-nominated Toronto funk outfit God Made Me Funky.
Ruth Radelet is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She is best known for her work as the lead vocalist in the electronic band Chromatics, formed in 2001. A native of Portland, Oregon, Radelet joined Chromatics in 2006 after the band relocated to Portland from Seattle, Washington. The band's first album to feature Radelet as vocalist and guitarist was their cult release Night Drive (2007), the record which marked a notable shift in their sound, incorporating elements of synth pop and post punk.
Synthwave is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s. Other influences are drawn from the decade's art and video games. Synthwave musicians often espouse nostalgia for 1980s culture and attempt to capture the era's atmosphere and celebrate it.
"A Real Hero" is a song by French electronica artist College in collaboration with Electric Youth, released in 2010. The song was included as the eleventh track on Electric Youth's debut studio album Innerworld. The track was used as a main theme in the 2011 film Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan.
Franck Hueso, better known by his stage name Carpenter Brut, is a French darksynth artist from Poitiers, France. He has released three EPs, EP I (2012), EP II (2013) and EP III (2015), which were collected and released together as the album Trilogy (2015). He later released three additional studio albums, Leather Teeth (2018), Blood Machines OST (2020) and Leather Terror (2022), along with one live album, CarpenterBrutLive (2017). He has also contributed original music to a variety of soundtracks, both for film and video games.
Anoraak is the musical project of French musician Frédéric Rivière, multi instrumentalist, singer, producer and DJ, former drummer of Pony Pony Run Run and member of the Valerie Collective along with artists such as College, Maethelvin, The Outrunners, Minitel Rose and Russ Chimes. Coming from the rock scene at first, he later came to electronic music, starting Anoraak beside his drummer position.
The Midnight is an American synthwave band composed of Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle and Los Angeles–based Danish-born producer, songwriter, and singer Tim McEwan.
Steven Schriver, also known as Shredder 1984 is a French American electronic/synthwave artist and video producer.
Nina Boldt known mononymously and professionally as NINA is a German singer-songwriter based in London and Berlin. Her music is a fusion of Pop, New Wave, and Electronic music. She released her debut album Sleepwalking in 2018 and her follow-up album Synthian in 2020. Her third major release Control was released as an EP via Lakeshore Records and features samples from Cliff Martinez' Drive film score which ultimately began a modern revival of the cliche 1980s music, art and graphics scene.
"The Archer" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff, and Republic Records released it as a promotional single on July 23, 2019. The track has a 1980s-influenced minimalist, midtempo production and is a synth-pop ballad incorporating dense, echoing synthesizers and insistent kick drums. Critics also identified elements of synthwave and dream pop. The lyrics are about Swift's acknowledgement of her past mistakes and contemplation of her identity.
The Rise of the Synths is a 2019 documentary film written and directed by Iván Castell and narrated by filmmaker and composer John Carpenter. The film explores the origins and growth of the electronic music genre known as synthwave, charting its rise in popularity from the underground online music scene to its recent mainstream exposure, following use in retro-themed soundtracks, notably the 2011 film Drive and more recently, the television series Stranger Things.
Jordy Leenaerts, better known by the stage name Timecop1983, is a Dutch electronic musician from Eindhoven, producing music in the synthwave genre. His debut album, Childhood Memories, was released in 2014, followed by Journeys in the same year. The albums Reflections and Night Drive were released in 2015 and 2018, respectively. He explained in an interview that his stage name came about as a combination of Futurecop! and his year of birth.
Laura Fares, known as LAU or Lau Fares is an Argentine singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer from Argentina, and currently based in Barcelona (Spain), after 21 years in the United Kingdom. She is also the founder of Aztec Records with Ariel Amejeiras.
Aztec Records is an independent British record label. It specialises in electronic and pop music, in the subgenres of Synthpop, Synthwave and Retrowave following the music and pop culture of the 80s. It was founded in 2010 by Laura Fares and Ariel Amejeiras.
Satellite Young is a Japanese synthwave band founded by Emi Kusano and BelleMaison Sekine in 2013. Their music and style are influenced by classic J-pop artists such as Pink Lady, Minako Honda, Chisato Moritaka, Yoko Minamino, Yū Hayami, and Seiko Matsuda, as well as synthwave and new-age artists such as Jan Hammer, Cusco, and Tangerine Dream.
Dance with the Dead is an American music duo formed in California in 2013 by Justin Pointer and Tony Kim. Their music has been characterized as a blend of metal and Electronic music, as well as "dark synthwave".
