Well, that escalated quickly. After a couple of sleepy days earlier in the week, Canadian musicians (or at least their publicists) suddenly sprang to life, got busy and inundated me with new singles and videos just in time for the weekend. So now it’s my turn to get busy sharing them — and your turn to get busy soaking them all in. Crack a cold one and TCB, baby:
Ark Identity | Screens
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Noah Mroueh of Ark Identity returns with his atmospheric and melancholic indie-pop release Screens. It reflects on digital isolation and is taken from the upcoming debut EP Anndale, out Nov. 8. Pulling influences from Bon Iver as well as Coldplay’s Parachutes, Screens features plaintive vocals, acoustic guitar, and shimmering synthesizers. Ark Identity uses pedal effects to give the song an otherworldly feel, layering twinkling guitar onto the track which lends a dreamy quality to the feelings of loss communicated in Mroueh’s lyrics. As he explains: “The lyrics paint a vivid picture of drifting through euphoric highs and nostalgic memories, all while being anchored to the screens that define our modern existence.”
Busty & The Bass | No Self Control (Breakglass Version)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “No Self Control (The Breakglass Version) is the third and final piece from Montreal indie collective Busty & The Bass’s live-off-the-floor video series, recorded at Breakglass Studio. The lush and explorative jazz track steps even further into the realm of improvisation and pushes the boundaries of the band’s musical influences. Now as a 10-piece arrangement, featuring trading solos between trumpet and saxophone, along with dream-like lyrics, the track is a deep, meditative soundscape. “The song originated as an instrumental piece written and arranged by Chris Vincent,” the band say. “The lush chords and constantly changing harmonies inspired the abstract, dream-like lyrics Alistair Blu eventually added for the track. The original version, from our album Forever Never Cares, concludes the LP with a deep, meditative solo by L.A.-based saxophonist/producer Terrace Martin.”
Ways In Waves | Death Of Others
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ways In Waves is the brainchild of Brian Raine, a multi-instrumentalist and producer in Edmonton. With malleable form and experimentation at the core, the group began as a duo, eventually expanding to a quintet with Raine handling vocals, guitar and keys. Their album, due in September, combines rock, art-pop and electronic music into a mixture that propels the listener through controlled chaos. Their latest single Death of Others was written in the midst of Raine losing several platonic relationships. “There’s a lot of breakup songs out there, but most of those are about romantic relationships,” he says. “The feelings that came out of feeling this distance growing between myself and people I used to love was very painful, and made me contemplate just… starting over, imagining leaving everything and everyone behind and beginning life again as a new person, with no ties to anyone or anything.”
Meko Brain | New Low
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Meko Brain is the fantastic new solo project from Mike O’Brien. Keen observers will know his long-running pop outfit Zeus, who have amassed a pile of much-loved albums. And you’ve likely seen him as a sideman with Dan Mangan, Bahamas and Jason Collett. Today, he announced his debut LP Wonderment — due Oct. 9 — and shared the second single New Low. “Many of my other songs have a more acoustic folk sound, so I wanted to bridge the more acoustic, organic folky sounds with this slinky pop song,” he says. “I ended up layering the vocal several times to get a wide yet intimate sound. It all culminates with a satisfying fuzzed-out guitar riff to bring it home! As for the lyrical idea, I started to form this idea of a guy who knows his partner is being unfaithful but doesn’t want it rubbed in his face. If it’s not stated out loud then he can continue to carry on the charade that he doesn’t know what’s going on. So in a sense, it became a dance song about self-pity.”
Andie Loren | Hearts Grow Wide
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Andie Loren is a Toronto singer-songwriter whose music is a mix of dream-pop and rock. Her lyrics focus on love, loss and the rollercoaster of emotions and questions we have in relationships while her songs are characterized by the desire to understand human nature, and how love can consume us in positive and negative ways. Loren’s rich, warm vocals are heartfelt and her approach to writing is honest, straightforward and open. Her upcoming EP Some Special Light is a concept piece that looks into our desperate need to matter to someone, and the highs and lows that come along with it. Her passionate guitar-driven single Hearts Grow Wide is filled out with dreamy synth, melodic bass and energetic pop rock drumming. The inspiration for the track derives from modern dating culture and the longing to connect with someone romantically.”
Maddie Jay | I’m The Leader
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Maddie Jay follows up her recent single Name Your Price with I’m The Leader, a song written when “I was trying to convince someone to be in love with me,” she says. “I was listening to a song by the artist Lewis Taylor where he described his love interest as ‘the leader of the band’ and I imagined myself as the woman in the song. A lot of the time the societal powers men have can leave me feeling really helpless, and one of the few times I can sense my leverage is when I know someone is attracted to me. Sometimes it feels like I am trying to heal all of the pain men have caused me in my life by winning over one specific guy. I feel a similar sort of leverage when I am making my own music and have full creative control and those feelings are both really intoxicating. I produced the song to feel really gentle and seductive and warm but then once you are invested I threw in these really extreme moments of distortion and screaming to represent the extreme emotional fallout of these situations.”
Kroy | Satin Satan
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Montreal’s Kroy — the stage name of Milk & Bone’s Camille Poliquin — just released Militia, an album teeming with dark pop melodies inspired by love, sadness and depression. The body of work is as old as it is new, some songs rooted in late teen years, others from the dawn of one’s 30s. Every single one of them drenched in sadness and despair, from different perspectives of mania and depression. A portrait of a girl’s evolution through her twenties, gathering confidence, losing it entirely, testing out different personalities, just to come back closer to who she really is. In this case, a sad sad girl who loves alot and may be obsessed with the idea of death and cars and robots. On album track Satin Satan, Kroy embraces a cards-on-the-table approach in describing a toxic relationship. Her bubblegum vocals and cheery drum machine contrast with the matter at hand, an easy feat for an artist accustomed to the liminal spaces between mania and depression.”
OurGlassZoo | Shut Up
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The latest single from Vancouver alt-rock band OurGlassZoo’s new album Horizons (out Sept. 13), Shut Up follows previous singles Home and Burn. The radio-ready, electro-tinged alt-rock track pulses with energy and rebellion, leaving the listener with an empowering message. “Shut Up is a rallying cry for anyone who’s ever faced doubters, manipulators, and energy-drainers — those who seek to control and diminish others for their own gain,” says lead vocalist and lyricist Josias Tschanz. “Whether it’s an educator telling you you’re not enough, a boss questioning your capabilities, an industry professional trying to crush your dreams, or a politician peddling hate, we’re here to say: Enough is enough. The lyrics boldly declare, ‘Shut up… I’ll dance around you… in unison and in my own way.’ It’s a powerful reminder that you don’t need to be defined or confined by someone who doesn’t truly know you or who unfairly judges you. Instead, ‘dance around them’ — let them be nothing more than minor roadblocks on your journey, not the obstacles that stop you.”
Short Walk To Pluto | Outcast
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Though much of Toronto rock band A Short Walk to Pluto’s success is owed to their social media engagement, it is their genre-defying original music and energetic live performances that have generated a loyal, consistent and far-reaching following. This young and professional-sounding foursome are prepared to deliver a show that fans will remember for a lifetime. Unique and cathartic, their new single Outcast is a tribute to Canadian rock heroes like Rush, The Tragically Hip, Alanis Morissette and Big Wreck. Lyrically, it has undergone many iterations, with the final version being an expression of depression due to social ostracization and the feeling of loneliness in a relationship. Outcast has no silver lining, no positive message, and no inspiring ending. It is simply an expression of pain through loneliness.”
Craig Robertson | New Brunswick By Noon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It’s been a decade since Craig Robertson released his debut solo album, and during that time the Canadian singer-songwriter has made five more recordings and grown into one of the most compelling voices within the roots music community. His latest LP Running The Other Way (due Sept. 20), is another major step forward — 10 new songs that explore complex personal territory, set against the backdrop of Canada’s vast landscape. That feeling is captured beautifully on New Brunswick By Noon, a quietly intense travelogue with deep personal meaning. “My family’s roots are in New Brunswick and I’ve done a lot of driving to the East Coast,” he says. “I tried to convey a sense of traveling in that part of the country in the overall vibe.”
Henry Taylor | I’ve Got The Guns
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Henry Taylor is a Kitchener-Waterloo singer-songwriter with five studio albums under his belt. His music is mostly considered Americana — a mix of rock, blues, folk, and country. He’s currently working on his sixth album between Kitchener-Waterloo and Nashville, where he and decades-long songwriting partner Monique Montgomery are co-writing with Cory Lee Barker, Mark Barnowski and Ri’chard Trest. His latest single I’ve Got The Guns is an upbeat and playful romantic track. “This song is clearly about Henry,” says Montgomery. “He’s often trying to impress me with his manly physique, and he is quite a manly specimen. I thought I would poke a little fun, since he’s also very tender and gentlemanly. I guess we all want to be appreciated for more than just ‘the guns’ — but, in the end, you’ve got to show off your most impressive assets.”
Emmett Jerome | Coquihalla Prayer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Emmett Jerome is a breed of musician not often encountered in this day and age. Raised on the blues, educated on country and cutting his teeth in the rock scene, he’s always taken the road less traveled. Making his recording debut earlier this year, the 24-year-old Alberta native has quickly proven himself to be one of the most exciting young musicians to emerge from Western Canada in recent years. His debut EP, Rocky Mountain Son, will be out on Sept. 15. Today he shares his vintage-sounding single Coquihalla Prayer, a song that pays homage to the culture of working and traveling in his part of the country. B.C.’s Coquihalla Pass is a nasty stretch of highway familiar not only to truckers but musicians as well, as both find themselves navigating dangerous highways. “Almost all the songs on this EP are traveling tales taken from a period in my life where I was spending a lot of time on the open road,” Jerome explains. “The adventure, loneliness, and hard work that went into this period come out in the music, and this includes Coquihalla Prayer.”
El Balcón | Enredada
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Since long before its conception, traditional music has been at the center of the priorities of the musicians who formed the group El Balcón in 2018. Josh (requinto and oud), Valeria (vocals and foot percussion), Charles (vocals and jarana), Alex (double bass) and Nicolas (cajón and other percussion) initially made up the ensemble. Shortly after, Nominoë joined on violin and vocals. Drawing on learnings from travels across several continents, El Balcón blend folk music from Mexico, with rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic concepts from Eastern Europe. The single Enredada (translation: Tangled) is about being from different places at the same time and getting to know yourself through culture. The song is a blend of stylesthat the group love: Son jarocho, rumba flamenca, samba, Balkan music, gnawa. It was written in Veracruz and recorded in Québec.”
Nia Nadurata | Can We Not!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ascendant indie-pop vocalist Nia Nadurata returns with the single Can We Not! It took a heart-wrenching argument with a cherished friend for Nia to uncover all that we experience when emotions run deep and friendships are tested. Nia’s evocative vocals and introspective lyrics paint a vivid picture of vulnerability and growth, capturing the raw essence of navigating conflict when both sides want what’s best for the other. A testament to the enduring power of forgiveness and understanding in relationships built on love and friendship, the soul-stirring ballad balances the melodic tension and tenderness of Linger by The Cranberries with the lyrical witt and impact of Complicated by Avril Lavigne to become a Nia original.”
Fleece | Where’s My Beach Hat
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Glammed-up and blissed-out in the sun, Montreal’s Fleece are an eccentric band doing it their way. As they tell stories about being queer and dancing through life’s troubles, they feel a dire need to bring play and fantasy to the forefront (or at least back into the world). Where’s My Beach Hat is the second single from the band’s forthcoming LP, kicking off their 2024-25 album cycle. A fresh, fun summer pop song, it follows 2023 hits It’s The Life and Do You Wanna Party. Produced by Gus Van Go (Beaches, Metric) in Toronto, Where’s My Beach Hat was written live in the band’s jam space. They say: “It’s a nostalgic, bittersweet one, about making the same mistakes over time — the mistake of overconsumption, the things that might be bad for you, working too hard, and trying to escape from reality. This song showcases our softer side, with a beachy, sweet, and soft vibe.”
Neighbourhood Watch | Spoke Like Summer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto group The Neighbourhood Watch’s story-driven blend of folk and indie-rock clearly touched a nerve when they released their album Community Protected (2017). The album was a kind of anthology: A collection of songs about the dissolution of family, the philosophical angst of turning 17, and what it feels like to get a bit too high for your own good. Without any sort of label or industry support, the album racked up 10 million-plus streams and became the main soundtrack for the indie film Midnight At The Paradise (2022). The DIY release laid the groundwork for the band’s future success. They followed it with the albums Goodbye Childhood (2019) and Lost in Bloom (2021). The records both honed in on the fear that often accompanies growing up, with songs about heartbreak, lost friendships, and the forced solitude of the pandemic. Now, the band are readying their forthcoming fourth album: A meditation on family, illness, and loving what life gives you regardless.”
Ryan Wayne | Grand Illusions
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Wayne first came to recognition in the acclaimed, award-winning band The Warped 45s. In early 2022, after years away from touring and recording, he suffered two strokes. As part of the healing process, he was drawn back to music and completed self-produced songs with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Malcolm Burn (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris). The record, Crow Amongst the Sparrows, was released in 2023 to critical acclaim. The new single Grand Illusions, featuring Felicity Williams of Bahamas, is the third release from his yet-to-be-titled new album. This dreamy and psychedelic release melds winding and ethereal guitar and vocal harmonies as Ryan seeks to convey the emotional push and pull between a couple whose story he discovered in a typewritten letter nestled between the pages of a used book of Rilke poems. “The letter, written in the 1950s, details a father and husband’s concerns about his wife leaving the family to donate her time and inheritance to the Communist party in New York City,” he explains. “The song attempts to tell that story by stitching together facts and inferences from the letter.”
Rose Cousins | Borrowed Light
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Recently, Nova Scotia’s Rose Cousins released the single Forget Me Not. Today she returns with Borrowed Light, which Cousins says is a “communion with the moon, a reflection on childhood wonder and the less blemished connection to one’s inner world. It’s a meditation on memory, time, acceptance and the mystery of it all, in the divine stillness of night. The hiding quality of night is my favourite, away from the bustling obligations of the day. I feel the calmest and dig the deepest at night. I bet I’m most myself. This song was written after a particular night walk and is certainly a culmination of much night walk thinking.”
Victoria Staff | Better
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Born and raised in Toronto, Victoria Staff was an anxious child. The string that connected much of her young life was using music to communicate with family, friends, teachers and even therapists. Over time, this coping mechanism developed into a passion that would lead to her career as an indie-pop artist. Her debut EP Records & Honesty was released in 2023, under the guidance of producer Dan Hosh. The heavy undertones of her music are offset by her light-hearted personality. Staff continues to use the written word to communicate. Her new music keeps its focus on story-telling and connecting. Staff has always tried to be honest about her struggle with mental health and the moody new single Better is one of those moments. “When I wrote this song, I was really struggling and I was mad about it,” she says. “I had worked so hard and so long to be in a better place, but it really felt in vain. Am I not better? It really means, “I thought I was better than this, I feel like I should be better than this.”
