“Changing,” the latest single from Emily Jean Flack, is a vulnerable and yearning love letter, ensconced in piano, sweeping guitars, and percussion which frame an honest and open vocal melody.
Don’t go changing for the world
Your heart is where I’m home
“The world is a beautifully broken place. It’s easy to stumble,” explains Emily of this track’s context. “The song also stands to encourage us as people to persevere when we feel the pressures of the world weighing us down.”
Captivating audiences with her soaring voice, genre defying sound and honest words,
Emily Jean Flack is an emerging artist on the Canadian music scene.
“Growing up playing Celtic music gave me the fire. Listening to country and folk gave me the soul. Inspired by vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Celine Dion, Enya and Allison Krauss — I started to dream. Then I began to write and from there, things started to collide.”
Fourteen years on from their debut album, Hamilton, Ontario’s Allegories have crafted Endless, a dynamic and searching record that pulls inspiration from the entire history of electronic music and across the over/underground spectrum.
The record features “Funny Way,” which the band refers to as the album’s “beating heart.” The song holds a unique place in the duo’s catalogue as an ever evolving ballad undergirded by elegiac synths and steady beats.
“The two of us made this album in a vacuum, without anyone hearing a note of it for over five years,” the duo explains.
“That approach takes an almost arrogant level of belief but with a remove that allows you to make ruthless decisions. Nothing can be precious. You have to trust your ears after you’ve followed your heart.”
The brainchild of front woman Iulia Ciobanu, Cherry Blaster is a three-piece Toronto indie pop band that explores longing and uncertainty while striking the perfect balance of closeness and detachment.
“I don’t wanna” is a party ballad about being done with dating. Lush, soft, and sad verses are overswept by an exacerbated and exuberant wall of sound chorus. A mirage of a connection is dispelled in the blink of an eye and one is left to party alone again.
“I’d had yet another disappointing dating experience that left me wanting more,” said Iulia. “I was frustrated and hurt even though I knew that I had been trying to see more in it than was really there. When things don’t work out, I zero in on little moments and blame myself, even though it’s a two way street.”
Megan Dawson’s newest release, “Kissed Me Like That,” brings an exciting new sound for the pop-country artist. The song brings hooky lyrics and an energetic melody embodying the feelings of happiness when falling in love. Mixed with the combination of Megan’s bright vocals, this song brings an exciting sound to the pop-country space.
“As we head into Spring and Summer, I wanted a song that represented and embodied that feeling of something so beautiful that you can’t explain it but it makes you feel so good and optimistic,” said Megan.
“I want my listeners to be able to find themselves within my songs,” Megan said. “To be able to be a part of the soundtrack of the current chapter in their lives no matter if it’s happy, sad or somewhere in between. I hope to inspire my listeners in the same way that my favorite artists inspire me.”
Dan Hartman and Charles Ingram began making music together at age 15 united by a bold desire to explore the outer limits of alternately tuned guitars. The pair had an immediate intuitive connection, and hunkered down in a storage shed to home in on its avant-garde aesthetic. They emerged as Phantom Zell, a weird indie-punk band that specialized in curious guitar tunings and abstract and abrasive musicality. “We played punk shows, but we were the only band in the scene that broke the punk rules by not playing that typically fast and aggressive sound,” says Charles. By age 17, Dan and Charles’s songs were earning placements on compilations alongside diversely popular acts such as Of Montreal, Fugazi, Jawbreaker, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Converge.
Eventually, the band drifted apart, the scene changed, and Dan and Charles began to also go their separate ways. Though not actively creating together, the guys set out on parallel artistic paths finding inspiration in the synergy with films and soundtracks. And there were other uncanny connections. Over the years, they were bonded by unique correlating circumstances, including near death experiences such as near fatal car accidents, dying in a house fire, being struck by lightning, and escaping armed robberies.
“I had a 10-year relationship end, and, out of the blue, after a few years of not being in touch, Charles called me and said his marriage had ended at the same time,” Dan recalls. “At the time, I had completely stopped playing and creating music.”
The eerily similar life circumstances, the guys’ parallel creative paths, and the telepathic musicality they once shared made a powerful case to continue the musical dialogue. Inevitably, Dan envisioned a cohesive project and sent Charles that fateful text to start the impliers.
They just released their 3rd single, “Lightning,” which features their iconic experimental music with atonal sensibilities and playful nature. Their vocals provide a Beach Boys harmonic quality to it while their music provides a David Bowie meets Pink Floyd sound.
“Lightning” is chaotic in nature, with an ever changing tempo and a melody that’s just out of grasp. The music shares a story of the chaotic mind. They share yet another story with this song as they both were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. The song is a beautiful reflection of that experience through their atonal music and gripping lyrics. “While ‘Lightning’ constantly shape-shifts in mood and genre, it has its roots in a part of a song Charles made in 2005,” shares Dan. “While writing the concept for our upcoming record ‘cocoon,’ the lyric from that old riff came to mind and surprisingly; the entire idea for the rest of the song came as if it was always there. In about an hour, the bones of the song were written and recorded (the verses recorded that day are in the final version). By sending recordings back and forth, we traded disarming forks in the creative road, sending the song down a meandering but distinct path and arriving at the final version in the following weeks.”
Wurmy Wormfield (also known as Charles Herman-Wurmfield) is an artist, musician, filmmaker, teacher, gardener, beekeeper, parent and partner creating since the age of 13. This Silverlake, CA based entertainer helped overturn a Los Angeles public school parking lot and transform it into a community garden and educational center. This call to action inspired a transformative personal journey that brought forth a lifelong love of music which led to Wurmy Wormfield being formed and culminated in the opulent folk-pop album, For You, the Garden
Chances are, For You, The Garden is not your first experience with Wurmy’s artistry. As a director, his work includes D’Arcy Drollinger’s award-winning rock operas, Cereal Killers and Possession of Mrs. Jones, seminal collaborations with Tony-nominated cabaret singer and actor Justin Vivian Bond; and the feature films Fancy’s Persuasion, Legally Blonde 2, and Kissing Jessica Stein.
For You, The Garden is a compilation of Wurmy’s previously released EPs and singles into one convenient place. The 18 songs bring to life the community garden he helped put together in Silver Lake, CA.
Charles speaks from his heart stating, “Let’s dream for a moment as long as we are singing and dancing. Let’s imagine there might be a community garden here one day! Let’s see, I’ve got these pumpkin seeds here in my pocket, we could write our intentions on them, add water and see what sprouts up! So grab a pumpkin seed and let’s imagine a community garden. Shall we…” (Garden Song)
While the album was made for kids, specifically dedicated to his own, For You, The Garden is really for all ages. There is always something to be learned, especially when it comes to our Earth and empathy. There is no defines genre and no topic not sung about. Adults can enjoy the music from Wurmy too.
As an older dad, and a pandemic dad, he states he is aware of the time passing, and wanted to make sure and set nature / love of nature to a song so the kids could always know how he felt about it, and even share that joy with their own children, one day. The light hearted music dances on the breath of a dream and spins its web into the garden of the future.
Modern Mystery 