Night Wilds is rolling out their debut album, All That Should Have Been, one single at a time. Comprising 17 meticulously crafted tracks, this isn’t just an album; it’s a full-fledged concept project. The narrative arc follows the harrowing journey of a young boy raised in a suffocating environment where the stakes are as high as they come: perform or perish.

All That Should Have Been is an album of healing. Much like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, along with modern epics by Tool, Radiohead, and even Rage Against The Machine, it blurs the line between entertainment and enlightenment. The record’s thrilling narrative is viscerally enhanced by the project’s strictly analog ethos. No corners were cut on All That Should Have Been—even the string arrangements are real—and the songs feature world-class musicians recorded on vintage recording gear at storied studios in the band’s Seattle hometown.

But this album goes beyond mere storytelling. It delves into the complex psychology of addiction, exploring how these destructive patterns take root and, eventually, begin to loosen their stranglehold on the soul. It’s a transformative tale that takes the listener from the depths of self-loathing to the heights of self-acceptance. Along the way, it tackles the thorny issue of religious upbringing, ultimately leading to the discovery of a more authentic spiritual path.

With their first full production video “New Jerusalem” we get a glimpse into just how harrowing it is.

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

this way?

The song is about the suffering that can be created in certain religious places where the image people protect is far more important than who they are and children and family become mirrors to reflect something vs humans. The song tells a story of a little boy in that world trying to find himself first by fitting in as children so often will do no matter what environment they are placed in. Yet, the violence which is hidden in this world can be seen in clues like the blood stains on his collar or the bruises on his wrist and that violence must go somewhere so it comes out in little places like a violent picture of two pirates killing each other and wherever it leaks out he is served more suffering as a reminder to seal the gap and never let it come out. This, of course, has severe consequences for the child who attempts to lock those parts of himself away in a cage in a very dark room where he is only a mirror for others to see what they wish to see in themselves in his face. His hope is to keep it all locked deep within but in the darkness, it festers and grows. This seems hopeless but at the very end of the video there is a ray of light that reaches through all the blackness and holds his heart, this is hope, and the story of God beyond man or religion and finding true connection after trauma.

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

I covered some of this in the first question, but the visuals I choose to set in the period of WW2, to tie to the overall story of the generational trauma that leads to these places and forms of systems. Both my grandparents were veterans of wars and my Jewish lineage also has been touched by historical trauma which makes its way down through the ages and settles where it does like a rock rolling downhill. The story then is set back in time to showcase a feeling of the war and the world as it was then but as a metaphor for the hidden war that the boy is trying to hide now. These images are seen in his excitement to see a young girl playing who he thinks is cute but then the image behind her turns suddenly dark and like a battlefield. He begins to see battle and war and the scars of it across everything now as his worldview is formed.

3. What was the process of making this video?

We shot this video in LA working with Zane Productions. I chose the cast carefully to find the exact right people to tell the story and then coached them on the back stories they have. We shot at a few locations and then I was heavily involved in the editing to tell a very specific story with a lot of nuance. That being said, Zane did a fantastic job with the setup and coaching to ensure we got every shot we needed. It was a thrilling experience and one I hope to repeat.

Watch The Video Here:

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The Lightning Struck is an indie rock band from Toronto. To watch the Lightning Struck is to be transported to New York’s Lower East Side, sometime between ’69 and ’91. Listen carefully – you can hear the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, the Ramones and Television. Of course, this careful curation of sound didn’t happen by accident. In 2000, Loren Davie moved to New York City after listening to the Velvet Underground and Nico one too many times. After 20 years of making music there, he returned to Toronto, bringing that New York sound with him. 

One night while he was walking home from an open mic, Davie became fascinated with the unknown stories of everyone passing around him, and he got to thinking how much of life is spent in transitional moments between events. In some way it’s the “real” life we fail to acknowledge.

Their song “Inbetweening” is about those moments that happen between what we think of as events – walking from one place to the next, waiting for something. Generally these happen when you’re alone, and it’s in these moments that self-reflection happens – when we give ourselves permission to think about what things actually mean.

Maya Blue have been together since 2019, playing festivals, bars, and venues across the Greater Toronto Area. Their debut, self-titled EP was released in 2021.Now, they’re sharing their first LP, Trouble in Mind—stream it here. Pulling from rock, blues, indie and Canadian music, Nick DePaul (guitar/vocals), Tyler Pasta (drums), and Derek Osborne (bass) tie these influences together with unique grooves and classic guitar tones.Produced by Aidan Robson at the legendary Catherine North Studios (City and Colour, Practically Hip), this rock ‘n roll record kicks off with “Hey,” a punchy track straight out of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s with a heavy blues rock riff. 

Sarah Segal-Lazar has been making music since before she could talk. Folks say she took her first steps in ¾ time. By the time she was nine, she was sending songs into the local radio station. These days, the Femme Fatale of Folk splits her time between the busy streets of Montreal and the red shores of PEI–sharing her own special blend of folk and country, wherever the wind may take her. 

Her latest album Valleys is produced by Canadian folk luminary Matthew Barber. After putting off making it for years, always waiting for the right time in her career, Sarah decided to finally let it out. “I’d say to myself, I’m not wasting these songs. I’m not going to record them until I move to Nashville and get signed, until I move to New York and get signed. And then one day I woke up and realized, I don’t want to get to be fifty and be resentful that I never recorded this album. So I reached out to Matt and just went for it.”

Valleys is inspired by a lyric from the track “Still Waters” that goes “On that uphill climb there are valleys on the way.”  The album is a collection of tracks about struggle. “Each of the songs tell a story and within each story is a struggle. And most of the time, we make it through to the other side,” says Sarah.

Highlight single “Earlier” is a bittersweet and wistful track on the perils of a relationship destined to not be, and the struggle within that realization.

Canadian singer-songwriter Hunter Sheridan unveils a new single titled “The Moment’s in a Hurry” (feat. Mattie Leon) about the moment you realize you are truly falling in love. Next, you’re trying to capture and preserve every detail so you can enjoy it as much as possible. 

Through self-recording and producing, the message of the song is highlighted by simple instrumentation and storytelling lyrics that are strengthened by catchy melodies and a nostalgic atmosphere.

Hunter adds, “Mattie started playing this awesome picking pattern on the acoustic guitar, and then we started building the song lyrically while not getting over complicated with the arrangement to highlight that daydreamy, romantic style.”

Folk singer-songwriter Dan Pallotta has a new release to share from his upcoming record, Winnebago Dreams (November 17th). “Couldn’t Make It Rhyme” took Pallotta 40 years to write and reflects on very personal themes. 

Narrative finger picked acoustic guitar is underscored by gentle accordion playing from Bryan Mitchell as Pallotta speaks of chasing an unavailable partner during his time spent in Los Angeles where he first pursued a career in music several decades ago.

The song further cements Pallotta’s collaboration with album contributors Soozie Tyrell of E Street Band fame on fiddle and bassist Tony Garnier, music director for Bob Dylan.

“Martin Luther King borrowed from a Unitarian minister when he said that, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.’ In the same way, the arc of recovery is long, but it bends toward fulfillment. Conversely, the arc of addiction can be short or long, but it bends toward tragedy,” the artist explains. 

“‘Couldn’t Make It Rhyme’ is about both arcs. It took me 40 years to write, and it could never have taken any less, because it took the story 40 years to play out. And much as we want our stories to play out more quickly—for the highway to wisdom to be short and fast—you cannot short cut it. It’s a song about someone with whom I was involved when I was very young. 

I used to be attracted to people who weren’t interested in me and would reject people who were. It wasn’t healthy and it took me a long time to learn another way of being in a relationship. It’s about what happened to me and what happened to him in my perspective on it all four decades later.“