This Mad Desire is Mackenzie Kristjon’s rock and roll brand, specializing in indie rock that has been described as “like Neil Young on David Bowie drugs.” Kristjon is Icelandic-Canadian songwriter and author who operates in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton area. 

“Ready For The Weekend” is a collaboration between Kristjon and Marcus Manderson a.k.a. Da Fingaz. The two met at an online music industry event and discussed a collaboration. Manderson provided instrumentals for a real swinging R&B/disco vibe so Kristjon wanted to accentuate that party atmosphere. To get there, he added a dreamlike, almost psychedelic bridge where we could hear our various participants musing about their future weekend plans before we launch into the final choruses. He also added some really upfront, funky bass to increase the “Shake Your Booty” quotient.

The collaboration goes further, connecting musicians all over North America. Dan Konopka from OK Go played drums for this track in Hollywood, Kristen Prince played sax in Toronto, and the background singers come from the following cities: Calgary, Guelph, Hamilton, and Toronto in Canada; Detroit, Oakland, Philadelphia, and more in the USA. Their voices are featured in the bridge; Kristjon encouraged everyone to say a line describing what they were going to do for their dream weekend whether that be “going to the beach” or “holding a seance.” The goal was to make it seem like the listener was dropped into a party of dreamers, eavesdropping on their conversations.

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

I wrote Ready For The Weekend here in Toronto in collaboration with my friend Marcus Manderson aka Da Fingaz in Washington, DC. He had sent me an instrumental titled Ready For The Weekend. I thought, “Hey! Great title!” and ran with it. The lyrics are about having fun and enjoying new experiences. Let your mind go and let the body groove!

By the time, I added my own instrumental parts and had Dan Konopka from OK Go play drums and my friend Kristen Prince play sax and all sorts of other cool people across Canada and the USA contribute backing vocals and spoken bits, I knew we had something fun that would lend itself to an exciting visual treatment.

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

First of all, I make videos for most of my releases and this current cycle of songs has all been animations. Second, I work with Dan Konopka whose mothership band OK Go is (cough cough, ahem) pretty well-known for their videos so there’s a certain level of Quality Control in my brain from the outset!

There are several scenes and each uses a real image from my home (or the single cover for the first scene) as a starting point.

Verse one shows workers at an amusement park beyond happy it’s the weekend. Prechorus one starts with a painting by Canadian artist Arthur Horsfall and takes us into a fantasy in the mountains. The first chorus then starts with a collage I made during the pandemic but with a movement towards Fellini and Italy.

In verse two, we go back to work and this is represented by finance people in New York (nose to the grindstone but with a glass of wine thinking about the weekend). The second prechorus starts with another painting by Arthur Horsfall depicting a lady on the beach and takes us into a surreal beach scene.

One thing I have always liked about Arthur Horsfall’s work is that every painting has one element that is philosophically or perspectively jarring. In this case, the ship in the distance overlaps part of the lady’s leg. When I was little, I used to sit in my Afi’s study and stare at this painting for long periods trying to make sense of it!

That leads us into a chorus starting image of me, my brother, and my dad all dressed up for an epic party on the lake (that also included dozens of women dressed in pink flooding the dock to the sound of the Pink Panther theme over loudspeakers), but I digress…

The breakdown section where we hear all the secret dreams of what people want to do for their weekend starts with a painting of a shoe amidst pebbles painted by my mother Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns (author of The Cuinary Saga of New Iceland and the Mermaids …For Real!! books) and quickly takes us to 1920s Paris (which also ties in with my twin songs Paris of Love and Paris Amoureux). Dreamy and elegant!

And then we bring it back to a real party in New York. Wild! Abstract! Picasso meets Andy Warhol on acid. This final section starts with Club Barella, an image by my father Mark Jenkyns, which includes a diverse crew of characters who are definitely Ready For The Weekend!

3. What was the process of making this video?

As mentioned, I’ve been making animations for this cycle of songs from forthcoming full-length Passing Lanes of Fate. The main AI tool I use I actually learned about from my friend Jessica Magoch in Philly. She’s a frequent collaborator and actually won the PHL Live! Music Award for Jazz just pre-pandemic. Definitely check her out!

The general process is I divide the song into its various musical sections and then find imagery that fits or takes the viewer/listener somewhere new and interesting.

Afterwards, I make various AI animations using personally curated images as starting points for the AI, and then I edit and sequence everything.

Using AI in some ways is like how I work with the musicians. I give them some direction (just like the AI tools via “prompts”) but ultimately what comes back is always surprising and additive (and occasionally addictive)!

That’s part of the magic. I do a lot of work in the film industry in various capacities but one thing that’s true about film and music is you’re looking for that special unexpected something that happens in the work. Could be a casual glance, a lighting effect that’s slightly unexpected, or almost anything.

It’s the pursuit of going somewhere you’ve never been and seeing something you’ve never seen, as we sing in the song, that drives us all to get Ready For The Weekend!

Join Calgary-based blues/Americana/rock artist Ollee Owens as she takes you on an emotionally charged journey into the heart of a caregiver in her version of Bob Dylan’s “Lord Protect My Child.” Those holding responsibility for a vulnerable dependent know the yearning to see them safe from harm. As a mother of three daughters, one of whom has special needs, thoughts of protection and security strike deep for Ollee.

The dynamic arrangement of “Lord Protect My Child” leads with familiar tones – laying a somber foundation for an earnest delivery of angst genuinely sensed. As worry turns to hope, organ and choir unite to form a new footing to support the soaring voicing of the guitar and saxophone spurring onward the hallowed invocation. Recorded to mirror a live performance, closing one’s eyes while listening will transport you to a place away from your concern…to experience renewed faith in greater forces to undertake for those thinly held in one’s care.

We are emotional creatures. One of my goals as an artist is to create and record music that captures various elements of the human experience, holding space for all manner of emotions associated with our lives. Any song I write or choose to record will always have this element within it. – Ollee Owens

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

I’ve performed this song in my live shows for years now – and have always found others impacted by my unique arrangement of this Bob Dylan classic. As a mother of three daughters, one of whom has a cognitive delay resulting in life-long vulnerability, this song resonates deeply for me. Whenever I sing it live, I visualize each of my daughters at different points in the song and sing from a place of genuine care and concern for each.

I wanted to visualize this song to increase its’ impact for the listener.  In creating a small window into my private life – my hope was to bring-to-life the authentic nature of my feelings attached to this song.

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

We had a few storylines on the table when we started – but none really grabbed onto our long-term imaginations. In the end, we adopted a very simple concept depicting a day in my life where family and artistry converge. You will see a thread depicting my personal time alone and then with my family – and then a thread depicting a rehearsal with band members. At points the threads converge – just like the song does for me in that it straddles both of my worlds: It is something I perform and, at the same time, the nature of it is lived out in my private life. Though incredibly emotional and expressive throughout, the whole ordeal is sandwiched between me being depicted alone with a full range of emotions being felt as I think about my girls.

I also wanted to immortalize this moment in time – a time when all three of my daughters have perched themselves at the “edge of the nest” in their own development. Having them altogether for this video shoot was memorable and having them altogether in this video forever has given me a living photo album which captures wonderfully this precious moment in time.  

1. What was the process of making this video?

Most of my other music videos have been shot in a variety of spacious and scenic locations – from the Foothills and Badlands of Alberta, Canada to the Valley of Fire State Park and the city of Las Vegas in Nevada, USA. We chose to shoot this video in a quirky little studio space in Edmonton, Alberta. We did this to compress the surroundings and draw the viewer closer in – providing an opportunity to observe subtle shades of meaning and expression. 

The process in making this video was straight forward and simple – we simply set aside an afternoon where I ran through the song several times on the big pink chair by myself and then altogether with the band afterwards. All the coming and going of the band and my family were taken as everyone came and went from the shoot. The interactions captured between all were a result of us just doing what we normally do when getting together to rehearse for a show. It was truly just a depiction of an afternoon in my life doing what I do…except with a few moments of punctuated angst being captured!

For the past four years, the award-winning, JUNO-nominated, SOCAN #1 bilingual Canadian songwriter, recording artist and producer Maïa Davies has been on a stubbornly unwavering mission of deep musical and self-discovery.

Born in Montreal, Davies has devoted the vast majority of her life to the craft of music. Getting her start in the Warner Music signed folk band Ladies of the Canyon, she has released two solo albums in French and penned over 12 top ten commercial radio hits for Canadian music artists, including Mother Mother and Serena Ryder.

The Lovers’ Gothic LP is a chronological storyboard of the artist’s emotional journey in song. The new full-length by Davies is a compilation of compositions that best encompass the visceral throughline of her euphoria, heartache, abuse, self-actualization and acceptance—a concept she jokingly now refers to as the stages of relationship grief. She recorded the album in 12 different studios across the country, with the help of a large cast of co-producers and star musicians including drummers Jimmy Paxson (Stevie Nicks) and Glenn Milchem (Blue Rodeo), as well as new producer collaborators Marcus Paquin (Begonia, The National) and Erin Costelo (Kaïa Kater).

After cycling through many stages of grief and mourning after a toxic relationship, Davies had a moment—whether you call it weakness or strength—of remembering and honoring the love that had been. In the focus track, “Isn’t Love Everything,” Davies honours her immense capacity to love, with her whole person, knowing that no matter how it ended, she was true to herself and giving with her heart.

Born and raised in South-Central Trinidad, John Orpheus is a multi-cultural musician, author and performance artist. Between writing two children’s books and a forthcoming debut novel called BLACK CHEROKEE, he also found the time to write and produce a new EP: GET RIGHT! It combines John Orpheus‘ playfulness, fluency and affection for the past. The EP demonstrates an evolving set of tastes in funk, punk and pop that maintains the artist’s vibe of welcoming in the whole diaspora: from dancehall to hip hop to funk to Afrobeats. 

The title of his new single, “90’s Fool,” is really three titles in one: pride, hilariousness and nostalgia. It’s like:

• “I came up in the 90s, you fool.”  
• “I came up in the 90s acting a damn fool.”
• “I’m a fool for the 90s, where I came up.” 

They all bring a different vibe and add up to how John feels about his adolescence and life in general. It’s a song about the 90s but don’t call it a throwback.

“There are no eras. There were no 90s or 2010s,” says John Orpheus. “We are people living lives that are much more fluid than that. So I want to make music that’s neither trying to be old school or new school but is a place where all ourselves can hang out: THE WHOLE SCHOOL.”