Nominated for the 2024 ECMA’s Rock Recording of the Year for debut album Joy State of Mind, singer-songwriter Elyse Aeryn is known for her fiery and rebellious rock and roll. Her bluesy melodies paired with her bold, warm voice make for an authentic and ageless sound.
The winner of Music Nova Scotia’s 2023 Country Recording of the Year and The Coast’s Best of Halifax Readers’ Choice Award for Best New Artist has a fierce new single, “Cowboy.”
“I was imagining what it would be like to live so boldly,” Elyse offers. “As the chorus started flowing, it hit me that I am stepping into that energy. I don’t want or need anyone to save me. I am the cowboy.”
Hard knocks, dead ends, new beginnings – Elyse writes with heart about the stuff of life. You can practically taste the inner strength and resilience in her rich voice, soulful lyrics, and charismatic guitar riffs.
Balladeer and actor John Gogo hails from a musical family in Snuneymuxw (a.k.a. Nanaimo), on Vancouver Island. He’s best known for writing and performing his folk songs about the people & places, the true and the tall tales of the west coast – the islands in particular. From Haida Gwaii to St. John’s to Old Crow, John has played community halls & big houses, festivals & pubs, theatres and beer parlours.
John produced his 6th LP, Western Balladeer, which is slated for a summer release. Featured with him on his 10 song record are Duke & Goldie, daughter Jeri Gogo, Tyler Lieb, David Essig, Ed Peekeekoot, brother Paul Gogo, cousin Brent Gubbels, Alan Moberg, Tobin Stokes, Rick Scott, Daniel Lapp, Dazy Weymer & Valdy.
Lead single “Larry’s Grandad” is a true and personal story that tells of a time when life was both harder yet simpler. It was inspired by a family story told to John by Larry Glenwright in Riverport, Nova Scotia, who he met while he was on tour in the Maritimes in 2019. Larry told of how his Grandad was a coal miner as a young boy and how he met the love of his life. For John, he was immediately drawn to the charming story and knew it would fit right in with the songs he liked to write.
There are many places like home. On I Held the Shape While I Could, the 2023 sophomore record from Montreal duo Bodywash, home is a mutable thing; a location that is fixed until it isn’t. Over the album’s 12 tracks, Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter reflect on their separate and shared experiences of losing a sense of place, the way something once solid can slip between your fingers, and their attempts to build something new from the fallout.
Steward and Long Decter met in college in 2014, but didn’t immediately share a musical language. Working toward their own blend of airy vocals, intricate guitar work and atmospheric synths, Steward’s abstract guitars and Long Decter’s cascading vocals act as the album’s ambient throughlines: blurring the digital and organic, gesturing toward something intangible, just out of reach.
Release Spirit, by the electronic artist Khotin, was in heavy rotation while Bodywash were on the road last year, soundtracking everything from the craggy cliffs of the Pacific Northwest to the dreaded NJ Turnpike, so the duo were keen to have him remix their song, “Kind of Light.” His version takes the tension and catharsis of the original song and injects it with blissed-out euphoria. It’s a track that’s destined for a sunrise slot in the chill-out room, channeling the West Coast rave psychedelia of Pilgrims of the Mind along with the more ambient influences that informed Bodywash’s last record.
The trio, Mad Agnes, is well known for their captivating on-stage charisma and presence as well as their jaw-dropping musicianship. This unique blend has enchanted listeners worldwide for decades, and the group has built a reputation on their uniquely charming and intriguing sound.
Mad Agnes, (Margo Hennebach, Adrienne Jones, and Mark Saunders), combines elements of folk, Americana, and acoustic styles with intricate harmonies that entice the ear with lyricism and wit, pointing the listener towards internal introspection.
Their latest album release, “Likely Story” shows how each song carries a real intellectual depth, exploring universal themes like love, loss, change and reinvention in a very original way. The arrangements are rich with guitars, mandolin, ukulele, and piano alongside inventive three-part harmonies that infuse each track of this release.
Mad Agnes’ sophisticated vocal harmonies and impeccable musical arrangements have long enraptured music critics, garnering them comparisons to esteemed folk groups such as Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention.
We caught up with Mad Agnes to discuss the music video to accompany their new single release, “Beauty of this World,” written by Margo Hennebach.
Tell us the story of this song. Why did you choose to visualize it specifically in this way?
Because I wrote the song while hiking on the trails around our house in rural CT, I wanted to focus on the beauty I see around me everyday—a beauty that needs no fanfare, flowering trees, sunsets, or dramatic waterfalls. Mark filmed 95% of the video in our backyard on a misty day in early spring. The only scene away from our home is of a group of singers gathered from around the world blessing a table of food, captured from our time in Italy last June. It fit the song’s lyric too perfectly to ignore.
What inspired this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
When I take a moment to slow down, I’m inspired by living in such an extraordinary world.
I’m surrounded by beauty, wildlife and flora, and I hear music everywhere. I’m especially grateful for the humans I can share this with including my larger community, dear friends, and my special someone.
What was the process of making this video?
Originally I wanted the video to be artistically animated with watercolors or oils–colorful and lighthearted–but then we had a deadline! Looking out the window and seeing the misty rain, we both knew how great the light would be, so we sprang into action. I grabbed my red top, we went outside for some test videos and realized very quickly that we had what we wanted. For good measure, we brought out the piano and filmed the beginning and end of the song.
Mark moved the camera around me so I could interact with it more naturally and he could capture more of the setting. We worked quickly because of the threat of heavier rain, and we both knew what we wanted. The video was filmed and edited that day.
With grand piano, cello, double bass, acoustic guitar and unexpected background vocals, “Beauty of This World” is a wonderful introduction to spring and summer as nature blooms once again.
Having enchanted audiences across the globe and graced the stages of prestigious venues such as The Bitter End (NYC) and festivals like The Kerrville Folk Festival (TX) and Fairport’s Cropredy Convention (UK), Mad Agnes’ performances are nothing short of spectacular and leave an unforgettable impression wherever they go.
Loud, fast, and catchy, Perfect Strangers deliver modern hard rock with classic implementations. Their live shows are energetic and packed with roaring sounds, just like their brand new album, Social Decay. Focus track, “Tear Me Apart,” offers an adrenaline rush, spotlighting the band at their very best.
As a bystander, lead vocalist and guitarist Anthony Vitanza saw alcohol being abused and observed that “it’s all fun and games from their perspective but to everyone else it’s a real drag.” The ever-growing drinking problem of the song’s protagonist starts to tear them apart.
1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?
This song came about after a really long stint of writers block and lack of inspiration. I had been writing a lot of riffs and pretty much had a lot of the instrumentation for Tear Me Apart finished. I really loved how the instrumentation was coming along but the song was lacking in the lyrical department. After a night out with some friends I had noticed a lot of drinking going on and as the one person who wasn’t doing any drinking that night I had to deal with a lot of drunken antics that were just getting annoying as the night progressed and that inspired the lyrical premise of the song. The choice to visualize this song was mainly due to it being one of the main singles and one of the stronger songs on the new record but we wanted to keep the visuals somewhat away from the main concept of the song.
2.What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
The main inspiration for the video of this song was just using a bunch of footage we captured of ourselves recording this song as well as the rest of the record. We wanted to keep it fun and fresh!
3.What was the process of making this video?
The process of making this video was really simple but honestly a lot of fun. We were recording the record at Catherine North studios in Hamilton, ON and we wanted to record ourselves on video while making the record. At the end of the weeklong recording sessions we had about 25 minutes of video and we picked the best parts for the music video for Tear me apart! Perfect Strangers released their first EP, self-titled, in 2022, followed by their second EP, Running From A Nightmare, in 2023. Social Decay was inspired by hard rock music of the ’70s and ’80s, and indie rock music of the early 2000s. Produced and arranged by Anthony Vitanza, it was mixed at Catherine North Studios by Will Crann.
Energetic, hard hitting and hooks for days, Royal Castles make nostalgic but contemporary garage-power-pop. Hailing from Guelph, Ontario, the three-piece blend riffy guitar licks, wooly bass and ear-candified harmonies. They have partnered again with Zane Whitfield (The Glorious Sons, The Blue Stones, Luella) who produced their sophomore album, Just The Hits (2021), on five new songs for their EP called Singles Night.
“I Don’t Think I Like You” is their summer vibe song. It’s the focus track from Singles Night. Put it on and go for a long drive!
“There was a friend who had been around for years; someone we all thought we liked, because we were supposed to like him,” songwriter Jordan Gabriel explains. “He was a part of the crew. But as time went on, that little nagging feeling became clearer and clearer. We just didn’t like him.”
In the era of streaming where every song is its own piece of content, the idea was to release each of the five tracks as singles. So why not call it out in the name? Lyrically, these songs mark a shift towards storytelling and allegory. Royal Castles have also upped the production level to craft poppier, catchier tunes.
“Our fascination with pop has continued to influence us lyrically, thematically and from a crafted production standpoint,” says Jordan Gabriel. “We are chasing the elusive earworm. And we simply want to bring our audiences a little bit of head-bobbing happiness.”
Modern Mystery 