Snez is the artist name of Ezra Mendel, a hip hop artist from the Annapolis Valley, NS. Snez’s versatile fusion of elements from rock and pop with hip hop and rap are key aspects of his style. As a young teen, he dropped his first two singles which immediately garnered attention in his home town and would be asked to freestyle at parties, leading to being referred to as the “Jewish kid who can actually rap.” He is currently building his local and online audience and working on his first full-length release. 

The inspiration for new single, “Never Enough,” comes from Snez’s regular inner back-and-forth dialogue about his struggle with substance abuse, pride, overthinking and self-worth. He also opted out of working with a professional producer to record, mix and master the track themselves to add a personal and unpolished feel to the raw lyrics.

The music video for “Never Enough” by Snez is a visual representation of the fight for control between a man struggling with substance abuse and the temptations that follow him. The video begins with the man seeing a daunting woman with black eyes in the bushes, representing these self-deprecating impulses. The man returns from the pool as a blue, more erratic version of himself. The unnamed woman is seen lurking in the background throughout the video and providing substances to the man, who has been entirely consumed by this blue alter-ego. 

The lyrics feature a fight for control between my two conflicting personalities, Ezra and Snez; a desperate man trying to keep his head above water, and the drugged up alter ego pulling him under. For the last several years I have been struggling with substance abuse, and in trying to better my lifestyle, stay sober and make better decisions I noticed something always compels me to do otherwise. – Snez

In this era of bottomless content consumption, pssyclwz is committed to creating campy content for outsiders who can’t relate to songs written by popular girls. After a year of imagination and production, the pssyclwz EP dropped May 2024 and was very well received. pssyclwz can’t stop/won’t stop writing bangers to turn bad days into dope tracks, and will continue to release singles while she works on her debut album.

pssyclwz and self-proclaimed “goddess in progress hermaphrodite” Delilah Jolie have spent over a decade collaborating, spirituality bonding through their worship of Lana Del Rey, and supporting their respective creative pursuits. The duo teamed up on the brand new single, “party animalz,” an acoustic sad girl song turned party bop. Reminiscent of Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch,” this summer jam oozes 90s nostalgia.

I’m all about the alter ego when it comes to art and wish everyone embraced this perfect medium to understand their “shadow side.” The hypersexualization of pssyclwz that seems like a direct contradiction to healing is very much in gest and a commentary on being misunderstood in my pursuit of validation, but thankfully writing music has filled that void. For all the times I haven’t been able to say what I mean, it’s very satisfying to find the perfectly sassy words and to share them as intended without stuttering or defecating. – pssyclwz

Opeongo is the moniker of Keegan Trumpour and an ever-rotating cast of musicians. Keegan is from Midland, Ontario. Opeongo has released two full length albums (2019’s Miasma and 2021’s we’ll all go with the will-o’-the-wisp); fall 2024’s Eventual Mt. Lee marks their third release, with a fourth underway in the near future.

Like everything you’ll hear on Eventual Mt. Lee, the mournful single, “Ceiling Rats,” was inspired by the passing of Keegan’s best friend, Liam Steffler; inspired, too, by the beautiful, albeit short, existence he blessed those around him with. At the time of his passing, they were living together in a basement unit on Westmount Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. There was a problem with rats or mice or rodents of some sort in the ceiling in between their unit and the folks on the main floor. 

After Liam passed, Keegan was sorting through all of his stuff in the apartment, and he liked to imagine that it was his late pal’s ghost that he was hearing, rather than a bunch of rats roaming around. Not too great at humour amidst intense grief, the song’s title is Keegan’s self-described “sad attempt” at such.