Tara Van is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter who was born to pour her heart out into music. Her genre-eluding sound finds roots in her first loves: soul, folk, pop, and jazz. Tara Van’s life has been steeped in music. Her life sounds like: choral baroque music over breakfast, loitering in the parking lot when the song hits too hard to deny belting out the last notes, or firelit open-mics where guitars seem to appear out of nowhere as loved one’s take turns bearing their soul.
Tara’s new tune “Sunshine’s Callin’” is centered around the importance of getting outside to air out and sun soak your problems. Sometimes when we aren’t out looking for answers, they come to us. This release, like last year’s single “Fucked-up-ness,” points to Tara’s exploration of her neurodivergence. It also paints a universal picture that urges us all to value simple outdoor pleasures and those “aha!” moments of realization that so often follow. The song is the first collaboration produced with Mark Calderone.
Ryan Wayne is a Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He first came to recognition as a founding member and songwriter in the critically acclaimed, award-winning band, The Warped 45s. In early 2022, after several years away from touring and recording, Ryan suffered two strokes. As part of the healing process, Ryan was drawn back to the music world and began the final production and mixing of a series of self-produced songs with Grammy Award winning producer and mixing engineer, Malcolm Burn (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Patti Smith, Daniel Lanois). The record, Crow Amongst the Sparrows, was released in September 2023 to critical acclaim.
Ryan’s new single, “Ready My Love,” explores themes of regret and escapism in somewhat abstract terms, juxtaposed with a chorus that offers a simple commitment to growth. The song began when his longtime friend and collaborator, Alex Needleman, sent him this hypnotic synth drone that sparked the whole song.
Around the same time, Ryan was jamming with some friends on his co-ed arts league hockey team, learning some ‘70s funk songs. He noticed how few chords were used in the songs they were learning – it was all about the hooks and groove. Ryan wondered how far he could take a two-chord folk song by focusing on instrumental layers, counterpoint, groove and dynamics. He and Alex went back and forth on the music (as well as a few contributions from friends and bandmates) to complete “Ready My Love.”
Cross Dog is a noisy, experimental, bass-driven hardcore punk band from Peterborough, Ontario. Their music is played at ear-splitting volumes, but the band’s socially conscious messaging cuts through the noise loud and clear.
Formed in 2013, the intentional omission of a guitarist from the lineup leaves Cross Dog lacking absolutely nothing. Affirming the power in the rule of three, Tracy A (vocals), Mark Rand (bass), and Mikey Reid (drums) explode with a multiplicative force that betrays the finite bounds of their instrumental limitations.
Their second release from their upcoming LP is the politically-charged “Jane Roe.” The moniker of “Jane Roe” is used here to represent every single person who is forced to fight for their reproductive rights and access to abortions — a fight that is taking place not only in the US, but here in Canada despite its legal status since 1988.
Winnipeg’s Tyler Del Pino truly challenges the concept of genre to deliver his one-of-a-kind brand of “Canadiana.” Del Pino has a pure passion for songwriting and an honest sound infused with starry-eyed narratives; a hybrid of rock-pop, Americana, and East Coast folk-rock that stays true to the roots of timeless tunes.
His new single, “The Drugs Still Work,” was written as social commentary – an observation of the world as we collectively move through it. There are a barrage of issues that we, societally, need to begin tackling – from climate change’s ominous grip to the rise of authoritarianism, the surge in homelessness, and the enduring specter of conflict and suffering. Amidst this disarray, the song provocatively explores society’s coping mechanisms, whether through literal sedation or subtler distractions like social media and binge-watching.
Balladeer and actor John Gogo hails from a musical family in Snuneymuxw (a.k.a. Nanaimo) on Vancouver Island. Though Gogo is from British Columbia, “Tom Three Persons (Indian Cowboy)” is a song about Alberta’s most famous cowboy. John Gogo recently toured in Southern Alberta, coinciding with Tom Three Persons’ posthumous induction into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. Gogo performed this homage at the ceremony, composed with songwriter and guitarist Ed Peekeekoot as a tribute to the rodeo star.
Brayden Bell is an indie-folk producer/songwriter with ballroom gravitas and campfire-folk relatability, gearing up to release his EP, Box Office Bomb, on June 21st. Bell’s considerate songwriting pulls truth in detail from the luminosity of everyday emotional directives, like dandelions growing through the sidewalk. The Canadian’s soaring falsetto brings a sensitivity to a contemporary midwest-emo phrasebook, a Hozier filmstock captured through a Julien Baker lens.
We’ve all experienced those dream-like relationships that felt almost too good to be true. And oftentimes, they turned out to be just that. But what if things were different? What if this time, you finally got it right?
New single “What If” featuring Amelie Patterson is about holding onto hope and not over-complicating a good thing. After all, everyone deserves to find genuine happiness in love. Bell co-wrote it with Patterson, Michaela Slinger and Cassidy Mann.
Matías Roden is a Peruvian-Canadian singer-songwriter drawing from classic British synth-pop and combining it with modern sample-based production. His unflinchingly personal lyrics delve into struggles with mental health, referencing his unique childhood of growing up between vastly different cultures (the UK and Peru), as well as experiences as a gay and queer youth.
Gearing up to release his debut EP on Light Organ Records, produced by acclaimed singer-songwriter Louise Burns, the latest single “Close Your Eyes” juxtaposes anupbeat synth-pop melody with melancholic lyrics. It’s about feeling guilt and regret after breaking someone’s heart. “I wanted the lyrics to be a little creepy to mirror how this character singing thinks of himself, like a monster for hurting someone else emotionally,” Roden explains. “It’s about what keeps you up at night when you go to sleep, what’s inside your mind that is torturing you.”
