Brayden Bell is an indie-folk producer/songwriter with ballroom gravitas and campfire-folk relatability. His considerate songwriting pulls truth in detail from the luminosity of everyday emotional directives, like dandelions growing through the sidewalk. The Calgarian’s soaring falsetto brings a sensitivity to a contemporary midwest-emo phrasebook, a Hozier filmstock captured through a Julien Baker lens.
Bell has written and produced dozens of songs for synchronization with his publishing project We Are Crickets in partnership with Bow Valley singer-songwriter Amelie Patterson. Bell‘s songs have been used by companies like McDonald’s, Lazada, Thor Industries, Sherwood and more, being seen by millions on TV and YouTube. Now, he’s releasing his first EP under his own name.
Box Office Bomb is the result of the first time Bell carved out time for his solo music. While it was a lot to try and capture everything without getting lost in the nuances of production, he learned so much along the way and had a really fun time doing so. With a good system set out now, it makes him really excited for what’s to come next.
I loved the idea of “everyone’s life is their own movie,” and although we may not be Zendaya or Leonardo Dicaprio, we still made it to the big screen. Our movie can be a “Box Office Bomb” and that’s okay. We’re still here telling our story. – Brayden Bell on the EP’s title track/lead single.
Following up on the release of Astral Swans’ catchy, nihilistic pop single, “The Coward,” Swans (also known as Matthew Swann) and garage legend Julie Doiron are releasing the entirety of their Split 2 7”.
Focus track, Doiron’s “Last Night I Saw My Love,” is a stripped down, melodic love song spontaneously composed in winter 2023. Julie recorded it at home with her friends and collaborators Dany Placard (bass, engineering, mixing), and Colleen Coco Collins (drums and background vocals).
Matthew Swann and Julie Doiron first crossed paths in 2006 when they were both signed to the same label with Swann’s then-band Hot Little Rocket. Since then, Julie and Matthew have been crossing paths all over their shared home country of Canada.
They have performed live together as well, with Julie contributing vocals to Astral Swans’ self-titled 2021 record as well.
Split 2 is a lesson in contrast, with Julie’s songs being joyful expressions of love, and Astral Swan’s contributions being absurdist slacker meditations on identity.
Odd Marshall is that strange guy in the backwoods. His songs speak of world travels, but with this impressive debut, it kind of feels like he’s come out of nowhere.
Odd Marshall’s forthcoming debut album, Sand & Glue, is a collection of songs both dark and bright. From start to finish, he takes listeners around the world with a strong back beat and infectious hooks, with production by Don Kerr, Mike O’Brien on lead guitar and Jason Haberman on bass. If they’re not known as Canada’s “Wrecking Crew,” they should be.
His song “Midsummer” is inspired by “a winter I spent in Karlstad, Sweden with three hours of sunlight. I kept dreaming of the well-advertised Midsomer festival on the island of Visby.”
In contrast to a lot of the darker material on Odd Marshall’s forthcoming debut album, Sand & Glue, this one is a respite from the globally-imploding century we live in. There’s a time to focus on serious realities of the world, and then there are times when you want to shut it all out for a moment and sing a happy song. Go ahead, sing this one.
Golden Feather of Hamilton, Ontario, are following up their recent yacht rock tune, “Awakenings,” with a bright and melodic new pop rock exploration of a long term relationship’s growing divide.
Written a few months before band member Bradley Germain separated from his wife of 15 years, “Anything, Anymore” explores complex feelings of ‘confusion and disorientation at every turn’ over upbeat and searching vocal and guitar lines whose major harmonies juxtapose the song’s subject matter.
“Anything, Anymore” is taken from Golden Feather‘s upcoming debut album, Release, which will be out globally on September 20th.
Montreal (Tiohtià:ke)’s Erik Lankin is sharing a new window into the world of his upcoming debut LP, The Icarus Album, a reinterpretation of the myth of Daedalus which Lankin has used to grapple with the loss of his father to suicide.
The tormented conceptual opening track, “Labyrinth,” is set on a stormy island as Daedalus is trapped inside the prison of his own making. Descending, harsh modal clusters of the album’s classical string ensemble are paired with electroacoustic elements including static speaker tearing (borrowed from hardcore) and a low register heartbeat, pulsing out an 8 bit binary message saying “I AM NOT OK.”
10-year-old Toronto artist Bianca Lily’s journey into music was both organic and deeply personal. She began crafting songs at her family home, their melodies evolving through experimentation on the piano. Recording these creations for her debut Too Much EP was a natural next step, transforming their home into a foundation for professional studio sessions. At Candle Studio, Bianca‘s youthful innocence met seasoned expertise, fostering an environment ripe for innovation and discovery. Her music, a blend of boundary-expanding hyper-pop, offers listeners a vibrant mix of beats and melodies that challenge conventional pop norms. Each song, a testament to her resilience and creativity, encapsulates themes of frustration, overcoming obstacles, and dreaming of better days.
Title track, “Too Much,” captures Bianca’s journey through the fragility of friendships and the pain of betrayal. The title now serves as a declaration of strength and self-assertion. Recording this track was a transformative experience, blending personal narrative with cultural commentary. Her favorite lyric, “Look in the mirror, you’ll see right through. Nothing there, only you,” reflects a maturity and depth that belie her age.
Henry Taylor is a Kitchener-Waterloo-based singer-songwriter with five studio albums, gearing up to release his sixth entitled Sweet Thunder on October 25th. For more than a decade, he has been working with songwriting partner Monique Montgomery, and recently with award-winning songwriters in Nashville, Tennessee including Cory Lee Barker, Mark Barnowski, and Ri’chard Trest.
His music is considered Americana with a mix of rock, blues, folk, and country. The uplifting single “Shoebox of Money” is a narrative about freedom and justice for a woman, delivered in country rock ‘n’ roll fashion.
“I wrote ‘Shoebox of Money’ song with Monique and Ri’chard. We were in Nashville pitching MC1 and playing shows at Johnny Cash’s Storytellers and The Bluebird Cafe when Ri’chard invited us to his home studio in Old Hickory. We came up with this beauty after homemade beignets in his kitchen. It was inspired by a Neil Young lyric off the Greendale album, from the song “Carmichael,” in which someone finds money in a shoebox.” —Henry Taylor
Nicky MacKenzie‘s forthcoming MORALS EP establishes the 23-year-old BC native as a gifted songwriter capable of both hauntingly poignant restraint and irresistibly catchy pop melodies. By focusing on the universalities that shape us – breakups, self-doubt, nights out – Nicky leaves space for her audience to unpack their own experiences. There is both grit and grandeur on MORALS, showcasing Nicky‘s indelible talent for crafting soul-moving songs that linger in the heart, body, and mind.
Following on the heels of previously released tracks “Comfortable” and “Morals,” Nicky is now sharing the chill “Come Back.” Following the themes of MORALS, “Come Back” is about knowing something is bad for you but still returning to it over and over again. The song expresses feelings of vulnerability and self awareness – when you know you’re doing something wrong but you’re stuck in a cycle of hunger and madness.
