Jérémie & The Delicious Hounds are new-age fosterers of soul music with a uniquely Canadian twist. Hailing from St. Boniface, the old French quarter of Winnipeg, they have crafted their identity as bilingual artists with their first full-length album, Cruel. Infusing nine fun-loving songs about amour and heartbreak in a mixture of both English and French, the LP serves as an authentic representation of the languages they speak at home. With the support of seasoned producer Murray Pulver, Cruel was recorded “live off the floor” to capture their vintage soul aesthetic and vibrant live performance energy.

The record’s focus track, “We Haven’t Met Yet,” came about when lead singer/guitarist Jérémie came up with some lyrics for a chorus and shared them with lead guitarist Ryan Toupin, who found them inspiring and wrote several verses. The lyrics reminded Ryan of his single days when he would feel too shy to approach any of the beautiful girls he encountered, whether on the bus, at a bar, or in this case, at the library. He had always fantasized about meeting an intelligent girl who shared his love of books.

We caught up with Jérémie & The Delicious Hounds as they chat about the new video below!

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

We decided to bring this song to life through a visual representation as it holds a special place in our hearts. This was the result of the first-ever collaboration between Ryan, our lead guitarist, and Jérémie. While Jérémie shared a few lines and a chorus melody, Ryan crafted the verses and chord progression that truly breathed life into the song. The lyrics capture the universal feeling of being drawn to someone and the longing to form a connection that everyone can relate to.

2. What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)?  

We wanted to keep the storyline of the music video simple because the song, lyrics and instruments already take the listener on such a journey. So we decided to lean into natural looking lighting, with a light story focused on what the meaning of the song reflects — not meeting someone yet but knowing you’re destined for each other. The anamorphic lenses, lighting and light flares helped to make the video feel dreamy and ethereal.

3. What was the process of making this video? 

We granted complete creative autonomy to our director, Austin MacKay, from CoPilot Co. (https://www.copilotco.io/), who conceptualized every aspect of the music video. His vision aimed to accurately capture the essence of the song’s message while also delivering a visually appealing and stylistic video. 

The Delicious Hounds name is a play on words about their “delicious sound” of smooth melodies, juicy guitar riffs and tasty horn licks. Jérémie‘s smooth yet smoky voice is accented with a brilliant brass section to deliver round after round of phenomenal hits on golden platters. His staple friendliness, positive vibes and charismatic nature culminate into a profound presence that leaves listeners swooning for another bite of the eight-piece band’s modern twist on old-school rhythm and beats.

Your weekly dose of indie goodness! Dive into these epic tracks below!

Following the exciting beginning of his epic saga, “Out Of The Rain” featuring Shiah Maisel, gaming music legend TheFatRat, popularly known for his immense online following of over ten million fans, has released the next chapter of his epic saga, “Hunger.” The riveting new release delivers an epic narrative, a trap twist and a charitable cause attached, supporting the Purple Community Fund in the Philippines. “Hunger” is now available on all DSPs and streaming services, found HERE, and is free to use on Social Media like YouTube and Twitch, true to TheFatRat’s tradition of making his songs available for creators without the hassle of demonetization.

“I grew up listening almost exclusively to classical music until I was 10 years old. Works from Mozart and Beethoven are much more complex than today’s music, which I always found inspiring. And with “Hunger” I wanted to bring some of that complexity into a modern electronic song.” – TheFatRat

“Hunger” continues the story of two siblings living under dire circumstances in the slums of a futuristic city which began in TheFatRat’s last single, “Out Of The Rain.” The younger brother has the ability to dream, plan and create while the older sister is the protector with the ability to fight, kill, and destroy despite only wanting peace. You can view the trailer for the first single HERE. “While the first Chapter “Out Of The Rain” established the story’s setting, “Hunger” shows the main characters and their relationship,” explains TheFatRat. As time passed, they aged and continued to reside in the squalid shanties atop the garbage-strewn hills. The older sister fights valiantly to protect her brother and his robotic insects he creates out of trash, even if it means killing against her wishes. With his third release of the year, the go-to-artist for Esports brands like ESL and Dreamhack has expanded on “Out of the Rain” with a touching story of family protection in “Hunger,” giving us the strength to conquer life challenges. The narrative track goes beyond electronic music to create a real-world impact, and is a song that not only feeds the soul but also the poverty stricken families and communities in Manila through its collaboration with Purple Community Fund.

“We all know that the disparity between rich and poor is a huge problem,” says TheFatRat. “While we certainly need solutions on a political level, each and every one of us needs to help to solve that problem right now. Donating all revenue from “Hunger” to the Purple Community Fund is a start for me to better the lives of the poorest people in the world and to help as many children as possible to get education and improve their families’ lives.”

TheFatRat envisioned the artwork for this song with the main characters living in trash mountains and while looking for inspirational images he found the Manila trash mountains, where children and their families live in the fuming, malodorous and often poisonous trash. They live from picking and selling trash, eating the thrown away leftovers from fast food restaurants. “This really hit me hard,” TheFatRat said. “After seeing sad and helpless children and even babies crawling in the trash, I knew I wanted to help.”

TheFatRat paired up with the Purple Community Fund to help children in Manila to get education. Therefore, TheFatRat will be donating 100% of the revenue of “Hunger” to the PCF. He would be really happy to have his fans donate as well to make an even bigger impact. Each 50 Euro a month supports one child to go to school and the long term goal is to help every child in the landfills. You can make a contribution at this link: www.thefatrat.com/charity. 

Known for his production and leadership in the gaming music community, with his music being used in popular video games like the top-grossing Dota 2, Rocket League, Rolling Sky and Game For Peace, you can instantly hear the subtle influences of his tried and true sounds on the track. This production starts with a gentle symphoric sound of violins giving a nostalgic feel. A flute is added sounding like it comes from a fairy tale. The nice vocal matches the lyrics of the sister telling her brother not to worry and that she will do everything to protect him. As the song escalates, it gives a sense of hope and determination to achieve her goals. The driving bass drops with emphatic horns give a dramatic effect of how the girl is willing to fight to the end of the world for her brother. The song ends with her whispering to her brother to reassure their safety and the final drop to build anticipation and tease their upcoming journey. The lyrics for “Hunger” can be found HERE.

Following his first track of 2023, “Monkeys,” TheFatRat started his epic saga with “Out Of The Rain,” marking the extraordinary collaboration with the alternative electronic singer-songwriter Shiah Maisel. He capped 2022 with his December release of “Back One Day” with NEFFEX, the vocal version of his globally trending instrumental “Xenogenesis,” which had accumulated hundreds of millions of TikTok views and participation from celebrities such as Nick Kroll on The Tonight Show, Lil Nas X, and massively popular YouTuber Collins Key. Prior to that, TheFatRat released “Ghost Light,” the seductive and saxophone-heavy trap-leaning collaboration with award-winning K-Pop band EVERGLOW.

TheFatRat’s highly-anticipated lore-filled debut ten-track album PARALLAX was released in September 2021. As is still a tradition, each song from the album was premiered on YouTube followed by an interactive Discord chat hosted by TheFatRat with collaborators and thousands of his fans. The album, artwork, and lyrics from PARALLAX tell their own cohesive story filled with imaginative characters and fantasy settings that have been referenced in his past projects, with each single sharing new chapters of the story. This lore is a huge interest for his rabid fans, who speculated wildly on online forums about the meaning of each release and guessing what was coming next.

What started out as an experimentation with music in his parent’s basement turned into a constant project where he matured his sound for seven years. Matt Fasullo combines the familiar with the new, splicing together the warmth and rawness of folk music with the underbelly of alternative electronica.

His nostalgic song, “Video99,” mixes R&B with blues-y rock grooves. It’s an ode to a video store in Stouffville, Ontario where he used to rent movies and games because it represents an era that he misses greatly. He remembers walking into that dull beige 90s carpeted store to rent an N64 game to spend a fun weekend with friends.

We chatted with Matt below!

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

This song is me looking back at my early childhood, and for some reason, a little video store called ‘Video99’ on Main Street in Stouffville is what I feel represents my past the most vividly. There’s just something about the VHS era that makes me feel so nostalgic. I truly wish I could visit it again, but unfortunately it closed down a long time ago. That time in my life also holds a lot of trauma. Things that have stuck with me to this day.

On a brighter note, I felt this was a great song to visualize because… well… I plan on doing this for every upcoming release this year. I love to make music videos on a super low budget, and this song specifically was definitely asking to be made for zero dollars. Although I did buy new batteries for a camera, so maybe the budget was more like thirteen bucks. Anyways, making a video is just another opportunity to be creative, so why not?

2. What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)? 

It’s a pretty experimental music video. Not much in terms of a narrative, but more than anything I just want the video to compliment the vibe/energy that radiates from the song. I just wanted to enhance the song so that when a certain moment hits, it hits even harder if you’re viewing the video accompaniment.

The song has this relatively dry feel where the drums are punchy and driving in an almost anxiety inducing way which sparked the idea that each shot, we’re going to be constantly pushing into things, moving forward or zooming, and at the end of each bar we pull back momentarily to throw it all off. This was a loose rule, as I just played around with it in the edit, but it’s generally the same concept throughout.

3. What was the process of making this video?

Pretty hectic. I was scrambling a week before release trying to figure out what I wanted the video to be. I just couldn’t come up with an idea. But then my coworker had this little shitty camcorder with a ton of 15 year old photos and videos, which kind of sparked the idea of, “hey, all these videos look absolutely terrible, and that’s awesome”. So I borrowed the camera and walked around the Humber River in Toronto capturing 3 second clips of me zooming in on everything that caught my attention immediately. Everything single shot made it into the video.

When it came time to edit, I realized that the shots of random stuff just wasn’t enough, so I recorded myself singing along to the song with my webcam and just slapped that over top some of the shots. Sometimes, it all just works out.

Fasullo also brought on his good friend and collaborator Janel Rae to do some harmonies and write an outro. He didn’t give her much context and gave her creative freedom to interpret the song in her own way, and she delivered some rather unsettling but incredible lyrics.

Life can be bittersweet. Jesse Adams’ music captures that elusive state somewhere between defeat and resolve, misery and joy. After experiencing disparate moments of bliss and devastation, Jesse reached back into her childhood diary of songs, yanked them from their resting place, and revisited each from a more mature perspective.

Her fierce new song, “Gravity,” has been 16 years in the making. She started writing this song when she was seven years old with her friend Sara Bandkohal, and finished it later in adulthood after rewriting some lyrics and melodies. 

Jesse explains her inspiration for the song: “Life isn’t stagnant. Just when you think you’re winning, you lose and vice versa. It’s unpredictable. It’s out of our control like gravity.”

Jesse worked with music video director Saad Sheikh to envision a dark but shiny atmosphere with various imperfect and morally gray characters. It was also a great opportunity for Jesse to show off her skills as a trained dancer and actress. 

Emm Gryner’s album, Business & Pleasure is a celebration of the Detroit radio scene and the music that shaped her childhood. From Motown, jazz and pop, to Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and the Doobies, Business & Pleasure is infused with the sunshine soul and stellar playing of the late 70s and early 80s. 

This new collection of songs, produced by Fred Mollin and written with poet Michael Holmes, embody a take on yacht rock that sails deep into the 2020s and introduce the world to a bold new character: a powerful woman whose passion, presence, conviction, humor and grace serves to unite the world in music, joy and love, once again.

Focus track “Loose Wig” was inspired by a Rolling Stone article about Donald Fagen “keeping his sense of humour” in isolation. The song title was one of the phrases that Donald used in this particular article to describe a political figure. The groovy song is Emm’s way of staying positive amidst the hopelessness. 

“Each song on the album has a different story,” says Emm. “We are conveying the renewing feeling of the 70s and 80s, when life was not so on-demand – when musicianship and studio cats reigned supreme.”