New York’s indie music festival The New Colossus took over lower Manhattan earlier this month. Spread over eight venues across the city’s East Village and Lower East Side, the lineup featured more than 150 independent artists. That’s in addition to daytime panels from music distribution platform Ditto Music on publishing, touring, Spotify for Artists, Chartmetric, and more.

Its fifth edition had everything from psych rock to electronic punk. We connected with some of our favorite performers to talk songwriting, gear, and festival highlights.