New Music
The Manic Boys And Girls Club is a Toronto indie pop/rock duo consisting of siblings Bela and Fernando Ferreira. Raised strict Catholics, children of immigrant parents, sent away to live in rural Portugal with their grandmother (who had previously been a nun); The Manic Boys And Girls Club is more than a band. It is an escape from the submissive existence that was their reality and open to any misfit looking to join the club.
We all live with the mistakes we’ve made. Maybe the tattoo you regret, the relationship you should have never been in, the words you should have said, what you should have not said, or maybe the time we’ve wasted. Their new single, “We’ll Be Fine,” is about letting go of all of those things. “…even when nothing around us makes sense, and as much of a mess as life may seem at times, for whatever reason, we are exactly where we are meant to be. There is a plan for us all,” they affirm.
THE 12th MAN’s songs are unapologetic, often brutally honest and take the listener on a journey through a shifting soundscape of musical patterns and dynamic form.
Aptly-titled single “End of the World” is about being betrayed by the last person you would expect betrayal to come from. It’s an open account of how being wronged can feel, carrying the heaviness of the situation.
The music video takes you into the mind of the singer-songwriter Jason Woodhams, accessing the nightmare that would play through his head night after night.
Jason moved from his native England to Toronto, Canada in the mid-1990s where he met local guitarist Paul Habert and formed a band. However, the stars at that time were not aligned, and they eventually went their separate ways. Over the next few years, Paul played in various musical projects but always seemed to come back to the work that he had done with Jason. For twenty years, he trolled the internet unsuccessfully searching for him. Then one day, unexpectedly at the time, someone who fit his description showed up on a Linkedin search. Could this be the person he was looking for? He reached out. The timing could not have been better. Jason described a complicated life full of drama and mishap, of many highs and lows, but now found himself at the beginning of a new chapter in life, launching himself back into music and thinking about putting a new album out. They got together and the reunion was complete.
Canadian singer/songwriter Tara MacLean has been an internationally renowned and award winning recording and touring artist for over 25 years. She’s written and recorded six solo albums and two with her band Shaye. A playwright, author, public speaker, poet and a mother, Tara resides in her home province of PEI and spends time on Salt Spring Island, BC.
She released her debut memoir, Song of the Sparrow, with HarperCollins on March 14th – a brutally honest look back at the obstacles she overcame over her life and lengthy musical career so far. Now she has unveiled the corresponding album, Sparrow, which serves as the soundtrack to the book.
Some artists move past songs and never look back. By contrast, Tara mines them for fresh inspiration to put her life in perspective and, more importantly, to find ways to inspire, help, and heal others. At the core, that’s the commonality between 10 songs on Sparrow, a beautiful reimagining of songs drawn from MacLean‘s extensive catalogue. But this is far more than a retrospective; put bluntly, it’s music as medicine. The LP finds Tara looking forward with optimism and dwelling on the transformative power of music rather than the pain and loss that inspired some of the songs she revisits.
“Lay Here in the Dark” is a track she hopes will offer solace to anyone who has experienced a struggle that requires a one day, one hour, one moment at a time approach to get through. A stripped-down offering featuring understated strings, delicate acoustic guitar and piano, “Lay Here In The Dark” is an earnest call to find gratitude and strength in the depths of pain that MacLean hopes will leave listeners with the sense that no matter how desperately isolated they may feel, they’re never alone.
“Can’t Just Walk Away” was written about the emotional hardships following the fallout of a previous relationship; specifically, between band members Nick and Abby. It was a uniquely honest process writing and recording the single as they directly confronted the traumas. Oddly healing, it gave space to address and work through past issues, broaching subjects rarely discussed by ex romantic partners.
Powered by three classically trained vocalists and a former punk rock drummer, The Pairs offer a unique blend of music that will hug your eardrums and inspire you to dance. Following their inception in 2016, The Pairs were warmly welcomed by their home community in London, ON. The group was named Folk Music Ontario’s Songwriter of the Year in 2020 and took home the 2021 Forest City London Music Award in the Folk/Roots category.
New single, “Easier to Leave,” was inspired by all the challenges that are inevitably faced within long term relationships. Written in response to the many fears and anxieties that trickle into day-to-day interactions causing inevitable arguments that seem to have no rational foundation, it’s a song about those moments when all of our kind, compassionate communication skills fly out the window and we adopt a more self protective, argumentative stance.
Their debut album, End of History Illusion, features the focus track “Subtle Tribute” which is a song about wanting to be wanted, and how important that simple fact can be to people’s self-worth. Frontman Jeff van Helvoort spent a lot of time throughout his teens and twenties trying to deal with unrequited love and he wrote this song while he was in search of that.
The title comes from one of the song lyrics which references “Hold My Life” by The Replacements, hence the “Subtle Tribute” to those much-admired songwriters.
