Matías Roden is a Peruvian-Canadian singer-songwriter living in Vancouver, BC. Signed to Light Organ Records, his first single, “Snow Angel,” was released in November 2023 and followed by two more singles in 2024. Roden has performed at Music Waste and Khastahlano festivals since, as well as the upcoming Summerlight Festival, and his full-length debut album is set for release in early 2025.
Debut EP, The Plea, was recorded at Vancouver’s 604 Studios and serves as Roden’s formal introduction to this world; the official start of his journey as an artist. The Plea symbolizes a mixture of helplessness and resilience – it’s what happens when you’re young and you lose hope in the things that you thought mattered in your life.
“I think the classic ‘quarter life crisis’ for a lot of young people feels like you’re being put on trial by your own hopes and dreams and others’ expectations for your life,” Roden explains. “It can feel overwhelming to realize that maybe your life isn’t going in exactly the direction you wanted it to go. So The Plea is a play on words of a plea deal at a trial where you’re both at the mercy of forces beyond your control but also wanting to defiantly assert yourself. It’s like I’m saying ‘I will get my life back together, I will get over this heartbreak or over this failure to live out my hopes and dreams, I will make them happen.’”
Focus track, “Glowing,” is the moment where things start to turn a bit more hopeful. After a devastating heartbreak, Roden starts to learn to trust someone else and open up a bit more. Produced by Louise Burns, the song combines two very different elements of British pop music from the 80s and 90s – jazzy sophisti-pop and breakbeat.
Erik Lankin of Montreal (Tiohtià:ke) is sharing a contemplative and soaring new release from his forthcoming debut full-length, The Icarus Album.
The Icarus Album reinterprets the myth of Daedalus as a metaphor for the loss of Erik‘s father to suicide. In the tracks leading up to “Legacy,” Icarus has overcome his grief and torment, having learned new ways to fly on the broken wings which his father left him. During this piece, he reflects on and laments his father’s life and legacy.
The soaring violin melody over reversed piano is suddenly and repeatedly interrupted to mirror the way that our lives are interrupted by death and grief. Nevertheless, Icarus finds a place of profound acceptance, expressed with a grand orchestral swell as he invites his father, flaws and all, to take his place among the honoured ancestors.
Pip contributed to the ‘first wave’ of music activity on Toronto’s Queen Street West and has lived and played extensively in Europe and Asia. He currently lives in Hamilton, ON, writing, recording, performing and selling original art-pop with world and jazz elements. Running the blog metroPhilmusic since 2008, Pip‘s own music is influenced by world rhythms and the lute. Brand new album, Every City, is Pip‘s 30th LP release.
On Every City, Pip wants the listener to feel uplifted. There is a long arc throughout the 16 songs; a few melodic tunes, a couple of ballads, a rock-steady tune, a couple of rockier numbers, then a novelty song leading to the final two contemplative songs that take out the album’s journey. The double bass and nylon stringed guitar of focus track, “Everybody’s Sayin’,” is gentle and profound, asking the listener to step back from civil tensions.
