Marcus Lowry is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer based in Montreal. Since earning his Bachelor’s degree in jazz performance from the University of Montreal in 2017, Marcus has worked with a wide array of Canadian and international jazz, folk and pop artists. His debut solo album, Time, Time, Time, produced by Juno-nominated musician Joe Grass, is set to be released this coming fall. 

After reading Mary Oliver’s poetry collection, Devotions, Marcus felt inspired by how in tune she was with nature and embraced death with such calm and acceptance. In Marcus’s own life, he struggles with anxiety and Hurry Sickness, which means the inevitable passing of time is a recurring fear for him. These songs, and the journeys depicted in their lyrics, act as his personal reminder that this kind of fear can threaten one’s ability to explore all of life’s richness and beauty.

His debut single, “One Million Lights,” speaks directly to the beauty of life, and the painful acceptance of its ephemerality. The song draws us in immediately with a very gratifying groove that ebbs and flows and then slowly blooms into a liquid, lush soundscape of flickering pianos and crystalline effects over a rich bed of strings.

With a Tarantino-esque flair, HADEE. portrays the desire to risk everything going up in flames for what he wants, and he does so with a signature cool in his new single “KEROSENE.” The 80s synthpop-inspired track explores the reckless themes of romance and its evanescent nature. It expands on this theme through its chosen soundscape, each detail adding to the overall cinematic atmosphere. 

Straight from the start, we’re met with an almost haunting instrumentation that paints the visual of desert-glaring heat raining down. “KEROSENE” cements HADEE. as an upcoming artist with a versatility that leaves his listeners longing to explore.

The loud, naive sound of 90’s garage rock, beneath earnest vocals from the days of third wave emo, tell the story of da nang. “To be born in paradise,” the band takes its name after Đà Nẵng, a picturesque coastal beach town in Vietnam. Fronted by queer Viet lead singer John Thai —a first-generation Canadian, born to refugees in small-town Ontario—da nang is an intentional revisit to 90’s adolescence; a time when queer voices were never heard, or at least never this loudly. 

Thai prefaces their new single, “don’t hate me,” explaining that “social anxieties and fear of being my authentic self made it near impossible for me to feel comfortable making music. There were no out and open musicians at the time who I could relate to, certainly not Asian ones. ‘don’t hate me’ is a retrospective anthem for that queer adolescent kid who so desperately wanted out.”

Distorted guitars, a driving bass and drum beat and aggressive vocals come together to create a feeling of anxiety and excitement, the kind that comes from getting bullied, or giving the bully the middle finger.

Montreal’s provocatively-entitled Your ex and I captures the sounds of the original British invasion and later post-punk artists in their eagerly-awaited EP to be released early in 2023.

A hidden gem from the frozen heart of Toronto, ON, art school dropout and Sony Music Publishing artist La Faute (aka Peggy Messing) is releasing her lead single and music video, “Blue Girl Nice Day,” from the forthcoming debut album of the same name. La Faute is Messing’s dark, dreamy solo project. A visual artist, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter originally from Winnipeg, MB, she explores themes of surface vs. depth, longing, betrayal, mourning and desire.

“Blue Girl Nice Day” was inspired by the Milgram Experiments of the 60s, in which subjects were told to give ever-increasing electric shocks to a “learner” who had to repeat word pairs: Blue/Girl, Nice/Day, Slow/Dance, Sweet/Taste etc. Subjects were shaken to find that they would obey an authority figure and give lethal shocks to the learner, following orders even against their own conscience. The song reflects on how easily we can betray and hurt each other, and how we don’t necessarily know ourselves and what we are capable of. 

Over the past few years, Toronto electroacoustic harpist and film composer Grace Scheele has emerged as a distinct voice within the Canadian landscape, interweaving an eclectic mix of cassette sampling and electronic effects with a thinly-veiled irreverence towards the pedal harp’s traditional sound.

The landings EP was originally conceived as a live performance for the Aga Khan Museum’s Moon Landing Festival in July 2019, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.

The second track on her seven song EP, “pomposity,” is an invitation to be curious, to wonder. To reflect on our spaceward ambitions and explorative nature as humans. Within the context of the Space Age, the moon landing was presented as a final frontier for innovation and exploration. “pomposity” taps into the American cultural narrative of the pioneering nature of manifest destiny as expressed in 1962 with President John F. Kennedy’s speech “Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort,” sampled halfway through the track.

Hot on the heels of her cross-country tour with Virginia to Vegas & Ria Mae, iHeartRadio’s Future Star noelle delivers self-proclaimed ‘sappy’ love song “Mars”. It’s “about finding your soul person,” she explains. “Someone that makes you want to be a better version of yourself. I hope everyone can relate to this feeling ‘cause it’s one of the best.”

| JAZZELLA |

AUSTRALIAN INDIE POP QUEEN RELEASES NEW SINGLE CALLED ‘TUESDAY’ (HE KISSED ME)  

Indie Pop queen JaZZella has just released the Pop anthem of 2023 called Tuesday (He Kissed Me). 

The single was recorded with ARIA award winning producer Jay Bovino, one of the writers responsible for the smash hit ‘Geronimo’ by Sheppard.

Tuesday (He Kissed Me) tells the story of running away from home in the name of love. 

“At seventeen, I fell in love with a boy who lived thousands of kilometres away. I jumped on a train, plane, bus and a taxi to make my way from Sydney to Cairns without my mum knowing and this is the song I wrote about my runaway adventure.” 

Inspired by artists such as Amy Winehouse, BENEE and Mac Miller, JaZZella’s bubbly brand of Indie Pop comes alive with vivid story-telling, original flair and catchy melodies. Taking to the stage with an explosion of personality, JaZZella connects with listeners on an intimate level through songs about her life, self-reflections and big dreams. JaZZella has performed over 2,000 live shows across Australia and in 2022 she independently booked over 10 major festival slots, including mainstage performances at Caloundra Music Festival, Island Vibes Festival, Sunshine Sounds Festival, Summer Escape Festival and The Great Barrier Reef Festival.

New single Tuesday (He Kissed Me) is available on all major online stores and streaming services.