On his third solo album, the self-produced Papercut—armed with a couple lifetimes of songwriting and touring in his rear view mirror—Carleton Stone gets honest about the toll of devotion to craft while illustrating his mastery of it. Through sax-blasted Americana, power-pop laced with ‘80s synth, and dreamy, sophisticated pop melodies, the Nova Scotia songwriter blurs genres to explore a tumultuous few years and some of the scariest questions someone can ask: “What the hell have I done? What if I’d gone down some other path?”

His new song, “House in the Hills” encapsulates the feeling of accepting that we are enough with what we have in our lives. It feels like the media or internet is always trying to sell us something to help improve our lives or make us feel like we aren’t enough, and Carleton Stone is trying to counterbalance that feeling with this song. 

With this song, Carleton really wanted the lyrics and the message of the song to stand out so he kept the production as simple as possible with just enough to help support the story. When the song was written in early 2020, the pandemic wasn’t even a thing that was on most people’s radar at that point. The pandemic only highlighted the feelings in the chorus of this song and reminded us what is truly essential in our lives.

“We wrote this song in the first few days of 2020,” says Carleton. “I remember waking up and checking Instagram and seeing that the U.S. had assassinated a general in Iran and thought ‘Oh wow, this doesn’t seem good,’ and then scrolled down and saw the next piece of news was that Post Malone had got a new face tattoo. I thought the juxtaposition of these two stories encapsulated so much of what is wrong with the ‘click-bait’ world we live in.”

For the band, writing music is a very therapeutic experience. They try to write songs about the things they are struggling with, and mix them with fun upbeat melodies as a good way to blow off some steam and gain some perspective. 

Their reflective song, “Devils Working Late,” was inspired by singer Greg Chomut (a.k.a. Luke Warm) and his experience with becoming a father. It was a major transition for him to have everything revolve around caring for somewhere else. 

It’s a common feeling to miss going out with your friends and just having fun, especially in the early days of being a parent. Even though Greg loves his children and family deeply, he found that on the rare occasion that he got a chance to go out with friends, he would try to make it last as long as possible – staying out way too late and usually not getting home until the next morning. He would feel really bad about it after, thinking that there was something wrong with him, but he realized it’s probably a pretty normal feeling after such a big change. 

The song is basically saying to listeners, “So this wasn’t your best day. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s just part of life.” Hopefully people can associate with the lyrics and if they know the feeling it can give them a little comfort.

Jazz vocalist and songwriter Eva Schubert is a fresh new voice, whose sound blends seamlessly with the classic style of jazz greats like Helen Mirrell, Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole.  

Her fourth album, The Feel of Your Love, is a sultry, hypnotic collection of songs that effortlessly shift the colour of your mood. Beautiful piano stylings, guitar riffs and saxophone grooves mix classic jazz sounds with a distinctly modern sonic palette. 

Eva was inspired to write the wistful and haunting “Dark Star” one summer evening when she was walking in the park and heard a man singing in a distinctly Latin style. As she walked on, a few of those notes began echoing in her mind, and she started adding to them. 

However, when she brought this song to her producer, he wasn’t really sure how to arrange it. They ended up heading into the studio without any rough arrangement prepared, though they had sketches of all the other songs on the album. Eva just walked up to the mic and sang the lyrics a capella in the studio, for the other musicians. There was complete silence. 

Then, when she sang it again, they started to play along… And right there the song blossomed in front of them, like a flower emerging from the soil and maturing in mere minutes.

Cross-genre music powerhouse NGHTMRE, best known for his jaw dropping live performances and fan favorites tracks like “REDLIGHT” with A$AP Ferg and “GUD VIBRATIONS” with SLANDER, has recruited Maryland rapper IDKfor his hype new trap single, “Trials,” which is available now on all digital streaming platforms HERE. The high energy track is the third single of NGHTMRE’s highly-anticipated forthcoming debut album, DRMVRSE, which is due out September 9.

NGHTMRE’s whirlwind of a career is all culminating with his debut full-length album,‘DRMVRSE,’ which was announced last week and is set to be released on September 9. Created during the COVID pandemic, DRMVRSE tells a cohesive fantasy story filled with characters and plots, which are being revealed through his artwork and music videos. The album’s first single, “Fall Into Me” with SLANDER featuring Dylan Matthew, was released in March and its second single, “The One ”  with KLAXX, was released in May.

“The instrumental for ‘Trials’ is something I actually wrote a while ago. It took a long time to find someone I felt could match the energy of the record. Once I listened to IDK’s music for the first time I knew he would be amazing on it. He’s not only an impressive lyricist, but an incredible singer/vocalist as well. He really nailed the vibe perfectly on this one!” – NGHTMRE

Baltimore-raised British-American rapper, producer, and director IDK began his career in 2012 and released his debut studio album, Is He Real, in September 2019 featuring standout singles “24” and “Digital.” He followed it with his second, USEE4YOURSELF, in July of 2021 with major collaborations such as “Shoot My Shot” with Offset and “PradadaBang” with Young Thug, which have over 45 million streams combined on their own. In May of this year, IDK released his third studio album, Simple, with its standout single “Dog Food” with Denzel Curry and produced by longtime friend and collaborator, KAYTRANADA. IDK has also collaborated with The Neptunes, Pusha T, A$AP Ferg, Joey Bada$$, Russ, J.I.D, T-Pain, Swae Lee, the late MF DOOM, and more.