Brotherly love is the basis for everything that Bealby Point does, and their recent sessions are no exception. Produced by their trusted sound engineer JJ Heath, the Vancouver quartet’s new material was recorded at the small but stylish studio, Phony Records. Situated across the inlet from where they grew up riding bikes and sneaking beers, the new material, recorded in early 2024, bridges the gap between fantasy and nostalgia, with lead vocalist Jack Armstrong offering a cinematic perspective on the passing of time.

Their single, “For Your Time,” is inspired by every music lover and concert goer around the world. It’s an homage to anyone who cares to spend their evening with an artist they care about, and commit their time and money to experience something special that they can remember for the rest of their lives. 

Artists have a responsibility to take care of their audience and deliver upon their expectations. There is a weight that comes with that and this song takes the approach that the artist understands and respects this expectation willingly and wishes to answer the call, delivering an unforgettable night for anyone who walks through the door into their world.

Formed in early 2008, Nok Novum is an instrumental band from Canada. The band was originally conceived as a two-piece, with guitarist Grant Cooper and drummer Brady Mason. With the addition of Scott Giffin on guitar and Cam Dougall on bass in late 2013, Nok Novum proved themselves to be one of the top live acts in the Calgary metal scene. Seamlessly combining mesmerizing video with music, Nok Novum’s goal is to create a stimulating auditory and visual experience for the audience. 

Since 2016 the band has taken a step back to focus on their individual careers, raise families, as well as taking time to patiently record their highly anticipated sophomore release, Nok Novum II. This new album has recently been completed and is set to be released within 2024.

Grant wrote most of the riffs on the new single “Dad Problems” in his dad’s basement when he was about 25 years old (12 years ago now!) and living with Brady. The two would spend hours just freeform jamming on ideas, with lots of improvisation, collaborating to construct the core of the song in the most organic way possible, as Nok Novum does to start any of their compositions. It’s incredible how songs transform over time and get to the finish line with a new perspective.

Hamiltonians Steven Kiely and Bradley Germain started Golden Feather as an ode to their shared love of bands who like to jam and take their listeners on a musical journey. Following a string of releases since 2020, the Feather have an inspired new yacht rock track to share entitled “Awakenings.”

Coupling jaunty keys with 70s guitars and lush harmonies performed by saxophonist Murray Heaton, “Awakenings” couples pop inclinations with jamming that stretches out into the new freedom and feelings of love which inspired the song’s writing.

“Awakenings is a shedding of skin,” the band explains.

“In life we are faced with crises in many forms. Death, loss, abandonment, trauma from childhood and beyond. I had some therapy sessions that opened me up to doorways which used to be walls. Opening up completely, to me, means becoming love – to keep your mind in a state of openness and access.  

This song is my attempt at that. To ‘dance on an island in the sun.’ That was the image I wanted to imbue upon the listener. To feel truly free – like nothing could ever pierce the veil of connection with oneself. As frail and soft as it may look, it has strength to endure.”

ARK IDENTITY is the dream pop solo project of Toronto’s Noah Mroueh. A singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Noah creates immersive soundscapes praised for their “addictively good” melodies. His music weaves dream pop with the boundless realms of psychedelia, offering listeners a passage into spaces of reflection and discovery.

“Eyes,” Noah’s first release under the ARK IDENTITY moniker, was born out of a past relationship. “I fell in love with someone for who they were at a certain point in time, and when I went to later revisit that same relationship, I realized they were no longer the person they once were. It’s a song about letting go, and surrendering to the universe,” explains Noah.

The downtempo and laidback indie pop track is carried by a prominent bassline, shimmering guitars, and psychedelic flourishes which unfurl in the latter half of the song.

The Dream Eaters have evolved from a dream pop band into a full-on video art project with an extensive catalogue of weird and darkly humorous music videos of their catchy pop songs. The duo started working together after vocalist Elizabeth LeBaron, originally from Calgary, started working at the same bar as singer/songwriter Jake Zavracky, originally from Boston, in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.

“‘Oh Tanya!’ is a very good example of our songwriting style,” says Zavracky about their new single. “It’s a melodramatic parody of pop music that, at the same time, says something that is meaningful to us. Tanya is not a person, the name is a proxy for anything that can be lost.” LeBaron adds, “There’s a lot of vibrato and longing in it, like a wet 80s New Wave love song.”

Out of the ashes of seclusion and addiction, Mike Repic rises up through desperation to bring a unique, honest and modern sound. Blending pop and rock sensibilities, while not shying away from acoustic, electronic and orchestral nuances, Repic’s songs spark a modern, yet classic approach into the medium. 

Creating dark, thoughtful, sensitive, but ultimately hopeful music with an optimistic narrative, “Alive” is Repic’s triumphant new release. “It’s about walking through hell, only to come out the other side and realize you’re still living in fear. After getting off of drugs I’ve had to give my head a shake and tell myself ‘look at what you’ve gone through in your life, this shouldn’t scare you.’ It’s ultimately an uplifting song to give myself a kick in the ass to not be afraid to go after the things I want in life.”

Vicky von Vicky delves into themes of love, loss, and life experiences, expressing themselves with candidness, vulnerability and a big serving of humour. Their distinctive sound draws inspiration from punk, grunge, classic rock, as well as soul and hip-hop.

Following the release of two albums in 1998 (self-titled) and 2000 (Farmers & Artists), the band took a hiatus in 2001. The band reunited in 2019, and now they are eager to unveil their Broken Chairs EP on June 14th.

They offer a taste with the new alt rock single, “Freak Me Out,” which follows a person through a traumatic event as they begin to feel the effects of it.

Toronto indie pop singer-songwriter Liam Barrack is following up his January single release (“Empty Spaces”), continuing a string of releases which embrace pop production while mining the complexities of Barrack’s inner world.

With only a handful of releases under his belt, Barrack has already amassed over 500k streams, fueled by organic Spotify discovery/playlists and fan-created YouTube content from his dedicated followers.

His angsty yet upbeat new single “Lucky” is an introspective blend of indie pop rock which grapples with themes of uncertainty.

“‘Lucky’ is about feeling simultaneously very fortunate but also very scared of when your luck might run out, and the process of living in fear of the future; making it hard to live in the present,” explains Barrack.

Following 2023’s Split with Chad VanGaalen, discordant art-pop songwriter Astral Swans (Calgary’s Matthew Swann) is back with Split 2 – a 7’’ with garage legend Julie Doiron to be released on June 14th via Swann’s own Stoner Bird Records and on lathe cut vinyl via Red Spade Records. Ahead of that, Astral Swans is sharing “The Coward,” one of his two experimental tracks on the EP. 

“The Coward” is a “weird one” for Swann, playing on different valences of what the word means, contrasting synthesized and live recorded instruments in a rumination on – among other things – suicide; how those that go through with it are often labelled with the term.

For over 15 years, with his heart on his sleeve, Mike Evin has been writing immediate and disarming piano pop songs with adventurous melodies that live inside you. Joyful new single, “Dancing To Sir Duke,” encapsulates the wide-eyed spirit of his music and comes in tandem with the announcement of his 7th album, Something Stirs When You Sing, out August 23rd. 

Produced by Chris Stringer (Timber Timbre, Abigail Lapell), “Dancing To Sir Duke” is vibrant, soul-infused and chock full of handclaps and doo-wop vocals. The song is inspired by his childhood days discovering music on his Fisher Price record player. 

Edmonton singer-songwriter Billie Zizi is sharing her first new music since 2016, the dreamy and transcendent “A Picture of a Picture,” a song which Zizi wrote early on in the pandemic as she pondered the “ephemeral nature of existence.”

Co-produced with close friend Austin Parachoniak, “A Picture of a Picture” couples pedal steel guitar careening high to exemplify the searching nature of Zizi’s gentle vocals, along with emotional and experimental guitar playing by Parachoniak.

“It’s about searching for the lost memory of love and finding it only in fragmented shadows,” Zizi explains of the song’s themes. 

“Like a ghost, longing paces the imprint of the heart and lives in the recesses of one’s mind, dull and intractable, a diffused grief – AKA when you break up and you can barely remember their smile but you’re longing for that ecstasy in the sunshine, that young love feeling, oblivion.”