Sarah Swire is a multi-disciplinary artist with work spanning across stage, screen and television. As an actor, Swire is known for The Boys, Anna and the Apocalypse, Murdoch Mysteries, the upcoming Apple TV+ thriller The Last Frontier and Hallmark’s new drama Ripple (the latter two both set for release in 2025). Swire is an art-rock songwriter and storyteller who often incorporates original monologues and word art into their live performance.

Their 2023 debut album, Sister Swire, was produced by Joel Plaskett in Dartmouth, NS. Swire has also toured and performed theatre internationally and has arranged and composed original music for the BBC, Avalon Arts and The National Theatre of Scotland. After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, they toured with the band Belle and Sebastian and choreographed shows at Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Scotland’s Olympic Hydro Stadium and Glastonbury Music Festival.

“Tight!” and “The Fish Song” are Swire‘s newest singles following Sister Swire. Full of beefheart-ian lyricism and Burroughs-esque word art, these songs mark a shift in their songwriting and build off the fiction driven narratives heard on Sister Swire‘s “I Shot The President” or “She’s Screaming.” Reminiscent of early Nick Cave records, they are inspired by strange fiction from authors like Joy Williams, Tom Robbins, Lewis Carroll and Ishmeal Reed.

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

Tight is a stream-of-consciousness poem I wrote in my parent’s kitchen ages ago. It’s the final installment of a larger piece of writing, a 3 part EP called “That Time I Took Too Much Acid And Saw Josh Tillman” which is a musical retelling of literally just that. I felt ‘Tight!’ had legs as a solo piece and wanted to pitch it to the ether while keeping the full three-song cycle for live performances only. I make music to make movies or to explore visual ideas. I feel they are two sides of the coin/expressive process. For ‘Tight!’ I was keen on DIY animation. It’s B-Side, ‘The Fish Song’, I desperately wanted to build a giant kaleidoscope. Link to The Fish Song Here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRpqZfz0szo)

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

I love Eric Stephen Martin’s illustrations and wanted to incorporate them somehow. Eric plays electric guitar and synth with me, and having him animate over the video felt like a complimentary collaboration to go along with the tunage. I’m hell-bent on keeping our live performances as a duo, not only for practical purposes but because I think it’s an interesting limitation: how can 2 people make as much noise as possible with as little equipment as possible?

3.What was the process of making this video?

Suuuuper simple: we booked a couple of hours in a local venue and called up our pals Nicole Cecile Holland and Autumn Cox to help film. I then did five takes of improvised movement. I knew the bulk of the work would be in editing. I didn’t want it to feel too polished, and the inconsistencies in the footage created interesting offerings to edit with. Eric nailed it with the animation. Nicole and Autumn nailed it with the lighting. A SPLENDID ORDEAL INDEED.

Both “Tight!” and “The Fish Song” are in the vein of a style Swire has been exploring, performing original monologues to a live underscore by Eric Stephen Martin and recorded at Fang Recording Studios. Martin plays guitar on “Tight!” along with Joel Plaskett stepping in for an afternoon, playing the mellotron and helping shape the growing madness in both the tracks.

I wanted to make as much noise as possible with an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and a kick drum. I don’t know what the genre of “Tight!” is, or “The Fish Song.” They exist somewhere in the uncanny valley. Anti-Genre? Singer-Songwriter, Art Rock? Spaghetti-Doom-Folk? – Sarah Swire

With a story stretching back to the 70’s San Francisco punk scene, Jean Caffeine made the scene, made a zine, and played drums in an all-female band called the Urge, sharing stages with The Zeros, The Avengers, The Dils, X. In the 80’s, Jean moved to NYC and hit the underground scene dj-ing in clubs and drumming in Pulsallama, a 7-13 piece all-female percussion ensemble who opened shows for The Clash. In 2016, the group was sampled by rapper Danny Brown on his song, “Dance in the Water.” Sundaze Records released a Pulallama record in 2020. 

A move to Austin put her centre stage in Jean Caffeine’s All-Nite Truckstop where she leaned heavily into cowpunk and Americana. She shifted from drummer to songwriter/front person and played roadhouses and coffee houses, sharing stages with Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Brian Jonestown Massacre and Mojo Nixon.

(Sub)-genre fluid, Jean Caffeine blends indie, retro-pop, punk, folk, rock and roots, served up with big smiles and the occasional growl. “Mammogram,” is a shift from much of Jean’s music. “It’s moodier and spookier because mammograms are a nightmare,” she explains. That’s why Jean is releasing this single in time for Halloween. But “Mammogram” is also funny: part humorous novelty song, part PSA for breast health.

Listen to “Mammogram” HERE. Watch the official music video HERE.

Jean calls her band, featured on the track, Male Order Brides. It’s Jon Nottarthomas (Ian McGlagan) on guitar, Zack Humphrey (Megafauna) on drums, Josh Robins (Invincible Czars) on bass with Jean on electrified acoustic guitar and vocals. Much of the video is borrowed from a silent film called Häxan by Benjamin Christensen, a hybrid documentary and live action picture about witchcraft in the Middle Ages. The film of the woman on the trapeze is by the inventor, Thomas Edison. 

Jean is also a visual artist and educator.  This winter, Jean participated in an art residency and pop-up exhibition, Excesso de Grasas, at El Sur in Mexico City.If  you look carefully, you can see Jean as “Roadkill” in Slacker. As a visual artist, she contributed animation to the film Waking Life, both films by Rick Linklater.
But seriously, mammograms save lives and women need them. With toxins in our air, food and water, breast cancer is no longer only a middle-aged woman’s issue. More young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. So if you have breasts – get one! – Jean Caffeine

Havelin, also known as Alex Zaichkowski, is an acclaimed (unofficially) singer-songwriter (allegedly) whose passion for music began at a young age and will continue until his untimely demise (which will likely come at the hands of some great warrior or foul beast…or, more likely, slipping on a banana peel). The Edmonton-born, Toronto-based Zaichkowski was once described as “a real pleasure” to listen to by Shania Twain (a thing which actually happened, there’s proof). His songs weave rich narratives into pleasant melodies, while his storytelling strives to unpack complex emotions in a way that is both uniquely personal and heart-wrenchingly universal. 

His upcoming record Who Among Us… (release date TBA) deals with themes of life, death, love, heartbreak, and identity. It’s a tribute to feeling intensely and embracing the strangeness and beauty this world has to offer. Havelin’s latest single, the blithely “Dancing At My Funeral,” is all about recontextualizing death. It’s about taking that deep-seated fear that we all have and laughing in its face. We’re all gonna die someday – it’s the most human thing there is.

Every funeral I’ve ever been to has been a profoundly sad experience, and I don’t want it to be that way when I go. I want the people I love to remember the good times and to know how lucky I was to have them in my life. It’s about putting the ‘celebration’ in ‘celebration of life.’ – Havelin

Opeongo is the moniker of Midland, Ontario’s Keegan Trumpour and an ever-rotating cast of musicians. Opeongo has released two full length albums (2019’s Miasma and 2021’s we’ll all go with the will-o’-the-wisp); the brand new Eventual Mt. Lee marks their third release, with a fourth underway in the near future. 

The songs on Eventual Mt. Lee were informed by the sudden loss of Keegan’s best friend Liam Steffler, with whom they were living at the time of his passing. He considered this album as needing to be written to honour Liam, as well as offer healing to listeners experiencing loss.

This album has taught me that the beauty in this world can help make sense of loss and grief and pain, and that though the joy and love and happiness that is abundant in living can never and should never supersede tragedy and devastation, the two can mutually coexist and help contextualize one another. – Keegan Trumpour

Eventual Mt. Lee’s highlighted single, “H,” found new meaning to Keegan as part of this collection of tribute songs. Speaking on its origin, he says:

I wrote the first line of this song years ago when I was still in highschool after reading about the 1930’s Hollywood actress Peg Entwistle who took her own life by jumping off of the “H” of the Hollywood(land) sign – Holy hell, Peg, Hollywood is haunting me. I never had an idea beyond the alliteration until I truly knew what grief was; that it looks you in the eye at every stop and start of the day; that it can be a friend, but mostly a menace; that it might get muted in moments but is always present, clear as day. I imagined being someone who loved Peg and was loved by her, and constantly seeing this “H” taunting and haunting like the sore thumb that grief was. Once I had truly lost someone this deeply I understood what this silly line I had started writing in highschool was all about.

Since 2020’s Party of One EP, Toronto’s Alannah Kavanagh has grown tremendously as an artist. When she started Grizzly Coast at 22, she was playing confessional songwriter-style acoustic shows. Over time, Alannah got a band and they were scrappy – playing gigs and music they thought were fun without overthinking things. 

Recorded in just under two weeks, Alannah and her band meticulously explored ideas and made deliberate musical choices to create Grizzly Coast’s transformative debut album, Staying Power. By contrast, Party of One was recorded in one weekend without so much as creating a demo beforehand. 

The result of bucking down and taking things more seriously? An album that Alannah is incredibly proud of, one that sounds exactly how she envisioned it. Staying Power is a testament to growth, commitment, and the power of trusting oneself in the face of life’s uncertainties.

“Two Balloons” was inspired by Alannah’s relationship with her husband, Kyle, and features a video of gorgeous footage shot at the couple’s wedding. 

I liked the idea of calling us “Two Balloons.” I thought about kids at a carnival who get so excited to get a balloon, and then just forget about it and let it fly off into the skies, forgotten. The lyric “we are two lost balloons at heights they never knew” uses that imagery to portray how we were left behind by others, but in finding each other we reached new and unexpected heights. – Alannah Kavanagh

JUNO and Polaris Prize-nominated Haliburton, Ontario singer-songwriter Terra Lightfoot is sharing a rich, acoustic new version of the thesis track from her most recent album, Healing Power, entitled “Out of Time.”

Performed with best friend and touring band member, Elijah “Eli” Abrams, this acoustic rendition of “Out Of Time” finds Lightfoot and Abrams leaning into their live harmonies on the track.