This is an extended interview from MI Local, with WDET music host Jeff Milo interviewing Traverse City-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist folk artist Laurel Premo, about her new album, ‘Laments,’ and the series of forthcoming videos for each of the four songs.

Premo is a lifelong admiration for American traditional folk styles with orchestral elements and Nordic arrangements.

She has been writing, arranging, and touring internationally since 2009. In 2021, she released “Golden Loam,” her first album as a proper solo-artist.

On Halloween, she released the poignant EP, “Laments”—four orchestral folk pieces as odes of griefwork, exploring the possibility of grief being an ecstatic act that helps connect oneself with the tremendous energy and love that leads to these immense feelings, with a focus on how this love and loss is all about the deep connections we’ve forged.

The first video, “Laments,” premiered recently, and more will be on the way soon.

Does it ever feel like nothing feels quite like it used to, or has it always felt that way? Well, we’re pondering that notion on this week’s MI Local, with the newly formed minimalist electro-post-punk duo known as Power Moonroof!

The band is comprised of Rachel Kayuk on synth, vocals, and tambourine, and Deleano Acevedo on guitar, vocals, and bongos, but there’s also some other instruments that they tend to bring on stage—a little bit of a controlled-chaos vibe.

They’re wearing cowboy hats in a lot of their recent promotional images, but this ain’t exactly country. Power Moonroof’s debut album, “Nothing Feels Quite Like What It Used To,” is a darkly dreamy blend of post-vaporwave swoons, breathy falsettos, and slick guitar snarls, kinda like a gnarly melding of DEVO-esque rambunctiousness with The Kills’ edgy allure.

Kayuk and Acevedo joined me live in-studio to premiere a couple of songs from their forthcoming album: “Graffiti Cover-Up,” “Hotwax,” and “Live Like That,” with the latter featuring contributing vocals from John Brannon, lead vocalist from the iconic Detroit-based hardcore punk institution, Negative Approach.

Joining Power Moonroof in the studio was Stef Chura, a Detroit-based singer-songwriter who released two acclaimed indie-rock albums between 2017-2019, who then moved south for a spell, relocating back here in 2023.

Within the last year, Acevedo joined Chura’s band, as she works toward releasing her third album sometime in early 2026. Chura, along with Power Moonroof, are playing a show on Thanksgiving Eve at the UFO Bar with former MI Local guest Valerie Salerno, who performs as Dick Texas, and Mutual Heaven, with DJs Charles Trees and Kenjiro. Power Moonroof will have vinyl copies of their new album available at this show!

During our chat, we talked about the origins of Power Moonroof, which grew out of another concurrent band known as Mango Star. Acevedo also detailed his recent onboarding to Stef Chura’s band, while Chura, herself, treated WDET listeners to an exclusive in-studio performance of her song, “All I Do Is Lie.”

We also listened to a solid bit of newly released tracks by local artists; find the full playlist below!

• “Come 2 Me” – Molly
• “Visions” – Atlas the Kid
• “Bad Idea” – Ritual Howls
• “Conversations” – Scott Masson
• “satellite” – bonnie hook
• “Speed Table” – Winged Wheel
• “Long Dirt Driveway” – Dick Texas
• “Graffiti Cover-Up” – Power Moonroof
• “All I Do is Lie” – Stef Chura, live in WDET Studios
• “Live Like That” – Power Moonroof
• “Hotwax” – Power Moonroof

As someone that spends a lot of time at concerts and festivals, I always preach the importance of thanking the people who do all the heavy lifting to make the event go off without a hitch.

That’s the bartenders, the security guards, the folks running the stages, keeping the sound sharp, making sure the grounds are clean and safe for patrons. And everybody else in between.

During this year’s Detroit Jazz Fest, take a moment to thank these people as you go out about your day.

So, what does it take to make four days of jazz go off without a hitch? And programmed as well as it is?

Behind the scenes of the Detroit Jazz Festival is artistic director Christopher Collins and his incredible team, who blend the next generation of performers with the legends of jazz each year. 

The 2025 edition of the festival is no different, with rising saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin alongside iconic Detroit bassist Marion Hayden and 83-year-old Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés.

I got the chance to chat with Christopher Collins ahead of this year’s Detroit Jazz Festival to talk about the programming and also the importance of keeping the event free and open to the public. Click the audio above to hear that full interview.