On Wednesday’s Afternoon Shift, The Break Room features soul-singer Allen Stone with the song “Sleep” off of his most recent self-titled independent album. Drawing comparisons to Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, Stone began singing at 13 in his father’s church in small-town Chewelah, Washington and never looked back. Even though his album reached the #2 spot on the iTunes R&B/Soul charts, Stone maintains his down-to-earth image in his music, such as recording a live performance in his mother’s living room.

The Break Room also features Australian pop-singer Kate Miller Heidke with her song “Ride the Feeling” off of her new album Nightflight. Originally a classical singer, she began focusing on pop music after one of her singles, “Space They Cannot Touch,” received considerable radio airplay in her home town. Heidke received mainstream and critical success with her 2008 album, Curiouser, which Sasha-Frere Jones of The New Yorker called “a gem.”