Dany Horovitz is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for delighting audiences with his memorable melodies and beautiful storytelling through vivid lyrics of love, loss, and life, drawing inspiration from ancient poets, modern philosophers, and personal experiences. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Montreal and raised outside Toronto, Dany’s music is infused with modern takes on familiar sounds: melodic guitar and piano chords, popping bass licks, and toe-tapping percussion. 

“Roads and Roses” is about more than a break-up, it’s about making peace with breaking promises. The new single features an all-star cast of collaborators: The Strumbellas’ Izzy Ritchie on fiddle, The OBGMs’ Colanthony Humphrey on drums, Shade’s Sean Royle on bass, guitar, and keys.

Buried deep in Montreal’s lingering winters, a trio of musicians sat in a room together. Used to the crazy pace of working in the city’s hyperactive music industry, they might have been unconsciously looking to do something slower, calmer, and free from commercial constraints. Looking at the snow battering the wide windows by the train tracks, they spent the afternoon playing around with what was in the room: a slide whistle, a Juno, and some guitar pedals. The table was set for what would become Caméra. They eventually spent more time together, finding sounds, exploring bizarre ideas, but always seeking beauty. 

The song “Carrousel” from new album, Caméra, was composed in one snowy afternoon; it’s a picture of a moment that the trio spent together. It was actually the first song written together as Caméra. The band sat in a room not really expecting anything to happen. After a fun afternoon of playing around with bits and pieces of melody, this song came to life. It felt like they were digging up something that has always been there. 

The three musicians had collaborated before in different contexts, but they wanted to try and see what would happen if they pooled their visions together. The Caméra LP was the result of meeting sporadically over the course of three years, when time allowed, and simply playing around with some ideas. Everything was self-recorded and happened on the spot when the idea arrived. It makes this work “imperfect,” but the band felt that there was no other way to capture the vibe.

FKB is a high-energy, four-piece, indie pop band based in Nashville, influenced by the mystique, glamour, and excess of the 1960s-1980s entertainment business. Formed in Bonnyville, Alberta, the band is fronted by JUNO Award-nominated songwriter (2019) Drew Shalka and features Travis Topylki (lead guitar), Derek Chalut (drums), and Alex Fedorouk (rhythm guitar). 

FKB’s nostalgic, reflective single, “Mirror on the Ceiling” is co-written and produced by Shaun Frank (The Chainsmokers, Dua Lipa, Liam Payne). “‘Mirror on the Ceiling’ is about the innocence of youth and wanting to live in those moments forever,” says Shalka. “Sonically, we wanted to express a feeling of longing by combining a variety of influences from different eras like Prince, The Killers, and Bruce Springsteen.” 

“Mirror on the Ceiling” tells the story of a summertime road trip and a relationship that is intense but short-lived. The song reflects on being able to go back to relive that moment in time with the mirror being the object that brings back those memories. The song title came from old nostalgic motels and the feelings of adventure and longing they bring up. There is something about seeing something seemingly frozen in time like those old roadside motels that makes you relive memories and think about your life and where it has come from.

“The song was written and recorded in 15 hours over two days at Noble Street Studios during Canadian Music Week in June 2023,” explains Shalka. “We had just won the Jim Beam National Talent Search and the winner would be writing and recording a song the next day as part of the week’s itinerary. So the way it played out was that we performed our Jim Beam show at 9pm, found out we won at 11pm, then had another show down the street at 1am so we immediately got into an Uber to get there. Then the next morning at 10am we met Shaun and wrote and recorded the whole song from scratch.”

Born to a French/Vietnamese mother and a German father, singer-songwriter Nathalie King‘s music is noted for its cinematic electro pop and trip hop style, while her sound expresses deeply rooted themes like mental health and emotional life experiences. The Toronto-based artist is known for her sultry smooth low voice reminiscent of the true artists of the vintage jazz era and an upper range that is soft and melodic.

Her new song, “More,” is about the sentiment that there is always more expected from a person, more from that crazy intoxicating feeling at the beginning of dating, and nothing is ever enough. Ironically, Nathalie explains that the feeling of filling your own heart with love can not be provided by another person except yourself. So whatever “more” you want from someone else, it will never be satisfying.

“We are not our emotions and thoughts,” Nathalie says about the inspiration behind the song. “To strive for a healthy mind is to not get addicted to our feelings and thoughts.”

Erik Lankin of Montreal (Tiohtià:ke) is revealing the second classical composition taken from his forthcoming debut album, The Icarus Album, a reinterpretation of the myth of Daedalus which Lankin has used to grapple with the death of his father, who he lost to suicide.

In both the original myth and Lankin’s reinterpretation, Daedalus constructs the wings used in his failed lift off out of feathers and wax. 

The composition “Feathers and Wax” unfurls with rich anagrammatic piano melodies and guiding strings, growing into tormented sound design which flows into the beginning of previously released first single, “Daedalus Requiem.”

“We had to choose between recording the track on a half million dollar Fazioli piano or my dad’s baby grand Yamaha which he left me when he died. In the end we made the sentimental choice,” Lankin explains.

Jason Bhattacharya is a multi-dimensional creative whose main focus is production, songwriting and recording. Bhattacharya has been featured on umpteen records as a session musician and producer, and creates solo works under the pseudonym Granny Smith. The past 3 years Bhattacharya has also worked in the music department for Netflix, Sony Pictures and Paramount Television Studios. 

Originally, the songs from his new EP, River of Memory, like “River of Memory ii” were recorded as a score to the Dylan Mitro short film, Ripples. In the end, Dylan used music not from these sessions for the film, so Bhattacharya wanted to find a way to share this soundtrack with the world. 

This is the first instrumental piano music he’s released, and it was all improvised while watching the film – inspired by the way a river flows naturally. The only instruments heard on the recording are an acoustic piano & a Juno Synthesizer.

The titles represent the natural flow of time and space. “Ripples” are the ebbs and flows of life and the “River of Memory” is the continuous looking back on an ever-changing self. “Pastel” is the many colors that we have in our palette to decorate the shifts as well as the way we remember them. The album concludes with “River of Memory ii” where all systems are a go and the flow is fully in motion. 

“I’m trying to make the most organic music I can make,” says Jason Bhattacharya of Granny Smith. “I don’t like to edit very much & I’m trying to put out the most honest versions of the expressions I’m creating.”