Toronto-based Next Week’s Washing captures the moody resolve of today’s youth in “To Carry On,” their dreamy new single. The track blends richly layered vocal harmonies with the band’s signature guitar ambiance and forthright lyrics, creating an experience that is both atmospheric and assertive, reflecting the best of indie band culture and looking boldly to the future. Summoning the confidence to face life’s challenges both thematically and through its driving, straight-to-the-soul sound, “To Carry On” flies high. 

Written as part of their breakout EP, “To Carry On” showcases the band’s nuanced creativity and expansive musicianship. “The song has more vocal layering than any other song on the EP, and we spent a lot of time perfecting it,” they explain. “There’s a tempo change at the end that takes the song in a different direction, giving it a completely new vibe from what’s come before.” 

Engineered by Dylan Frankland (Tallies) and mastered by Noah Mintz, the song features backing vocals by Julian Duffy and Rhys Newman, the band’s two guitarists, adding to its depth and distinctiveness on the EP. 

Hamilton, Ontario punk rock lifers The Penske File return with Reprieve, a cathartic, high-energy collection of songs about aging, change, and clinging to the light. The album captures the trio’s sharpened bond and renewed creative spark, with lead single “Almost Young” serving as both a thematic and emotional centerpiece.

While “Almost Young” offers one of the record’s most personal and reflective moments, Reprieve is far from one-note. Written in the wake of renewed touring energy after 2023’s Half Glow, the album swings between blistering punk catharsis, brooding rock anthems, and spacious, melodic reflections. The Penske File set out to capture the communal fire of their live show on record, tracking drums, guitar, and bass live-off-the-floor at Halo Studios before layering vocals and guitar overdubs at their longtime best friend and producer, Adam Michael’s Shrimp Studios.

“This record taught me that creating a body of work with my best friends feels like home in a unique and pronounced way that can’t be replicated,” says frontman Travis Miles. “When I can bring something to the rehearsal space that excites both [bass/vocals] James [Hall] and [drums/vocals] Alex [Standen], after all these years, it feels like I’ve struck gold.”

At its core, the record’s focus track, “Almost Young,” is about holding on to the tenacity and glow of youth as it begins to slip away. Written in the midst of conversations about having children, Miles reflects on fear, change, and self-discovery before arriving at a hopeful realization: growing older doesn’t mean losing what’s beautiful about youth. “It’s like saying, we’re not getting old … we’re almost young,” he says.

The track evolved through intense collaboration. Standen and Hall shaped the vocal hooks and harmonies, while the band’s friend Chuck Coles penned the killer guitar lick that runs throughout. Michael encouraged restraint in producing the arrangement, keeping the focus on the song’s most resonant parts. The result is a soaring punk rock anthem that Miles first sketched out in fear and later listened back to with joy as his daughter crawled on the floor beneath the speakers. 

Toronto alternative mainstay JEEN makes her return with “Look What You Did,” the entrancing new single from her upcoming For the Romance EP, set for release on October 30th. Blending a light, infectious sing-along chorus with just enough teeth to bite, the track embodies JEEN’s ability to turn hardship into hook-heavy perseverance.

Originally recorded in January 2025, the song almost didn’t make it to release. “A couple months after recording, I had some unexpected music business trouble that completely derailed me and the whole release came to a full stop,” JEEN shares. “I was crushed, so I was about to trash the whole EP and just start again, but I had a change of heart over the summer. I ended up using three of the original January recordings and one of them was ‘Look What You Did.’”

At its heart, the song captures the feeling of surrendering to something irresistible. “At the end of the day, it’s a pop song so I just wanted it to be light and easy to sing along with but hopefully still have some teeth/grit,” JEEN reflects. “It’s about being entranced by someone or something and following that feeling all the way, even though you can’t see where it will lead yet. I’ve had to learn a lot of hard lessons in this industry and 2025 tested me more than ever on that front, but for the first time in a while, I’m happy I’m still here, even if I have to follow a bit blindly for now.”

Experimental indie-electronic duo Allegories return with “Baker’s Lung,” another entry in their ongoing series of transforming barebones ukulele sketches into idiosyncratic electronic sound sculptures. Plush, spacey, and nuanced, the track blends introspection with layered textures, expanding a simple progression into something cinematic, immersive, and otherworldly.

With “Baker’s Lung,” Allegories ruminate on mortality, meaning, and the elusive pursuit of fulfillment. As you imagine the future, how do you build when the foundation of what you thought mattered no longer fills that space? What do you do when your time is consumed by the hours of a career? Can you just contemplate and die? Or can you follow the breadcrumbs to fulfillment, maybe even enlightenment? Probably not, but worth asking. And worth trying.

“Baker’s Lung” started from a ukulele sketch with vocals. Allegories took that progression, moved it in new directions, and abandoned the original – a fun exercise where you have a map, but you have to burn it to get to the right location. It’s an existential meditation wrapped in the duo’s lush, genre-warped sound design.

Japan-born, Canada-raised artist Justin Maki is making his boldest statement yet. On “Technicolor Dreams,” the FCLMA-winning singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer unleashes a vibrant, groove-forward protest song – a defiant embrace of authenticity and individuality in the face of doubt.

Written originally with Canadian producer Drew Shalka (Mute Choir) during a snowstorm-stranded writing session in Nashville, “Technicolor Dreams” captures the thrill and uncertainty of chasing an unconventional path. “To others, our dreams are unattainable – naive, even,” says Maki. “To us, our dreams explode with colourful possibilities of what could be. Our lives, while unconventional, fill us with so much joy, passion, and purpose.”

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

Technicolor Dreams is a statement song. A protest song. It’s a song that is a decisive response to all of my haters, doubters, and detractors. My entire life, from the moment I picked up a guitar for the first time at 11 years old, friends, family, and strangers alike had warned me of the dangers of pursuing a career in music. “It’s too risky”, they said. “Have a backup plan”, they said. During my high-school and university days, I was hooked on music, focused on the task at hand, and didn’t let their comments affect me. As I grew into an adult, however, their voices became the voices in my head, like a plague, infecting my morale and my motivation. I hesitated to really commit myself to the craft after the structure of school had made way for a wide open road. Soon, I had one foot in the door of a day job and one foot in the door of a music career. In essence, I was half-assing a shot at the conventional life I didn’t want and half-assing a shot at the conventional life I did want. When the pandemic hit, I was laid off from my day job and I was nudged into making a decision: “I’m going to build a career in music, no matter what it takes, how long it takes, and no matter what anyone says”, I thought. Looking at my life now, I do music full time, make a good living doing so, and I’m happy with the life I’m building and the change I’m affecting in the world. As such, Technicolor Dreams is a song that asserts… “Everyone thinks they know what’s right for me I live my life in Technicolor Dreams In the kaleidoscope, that’s where I’ll be I’ll be alright in Technicolor Dreams”

Regarding the visualizer, this answer isn’t going to be sexy, but it’s the truth: my content team and I decided to visualize this song specifically because it aligns with our plan and with our strategy. When charting out the content strategy for this record, we felt it most efficient to create a visualizer for every song on the record, so as to ensure a long form visual asset of some sort could pair with the song up on YouTube. While full fledged music videos are fun, they are also extensive and expensive and I first wanted to see how the song would do first on the streaming and downloading front before seeing if it “qualified” for a music video. For now, all songs (including Technicolor Dreams) will get a visualizer (the music video’s simpler and more efficient long form video cousin). If the song’s metrics do exceedingly well, my content team and I will make the effort to create and release a music video. Essentially, we want to make sure there’s demand first before committing to a big video project for this album.

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

The main reference/model Brad (my main content guy) and I used when brainstorming an idea for a visualizer was Shaboozy’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”. This video was very simple – it consisted of Shaboozy singing the song into a camera with a few friends dancing and singing along with him around a truck. The same scene persisted for the entirety of the video. It accomplished the (arguably essential) task of a video asset to support the song without an extensive storyline; an expensive budget for props, location, people, and the like; or multiple interlacing scenes. The video is very simple. And yet, said video has almost 300 Million views. This is the perfect example of work smart, not hard. 

Along the same lines, I didn’t want an extensive or expensive music video for Technicolor Dreams. We wanted to work fast, cheap, and effective. The whole video took us all of 3-4 hours to film and it truthfully began with a random spark of inspiration. You see, Brad and I have regular content brainstorming meetings, and during one of these meetings, I organically had the concept of this video pop into my head. This was my thought process: “Technicolor Dreams” has a prominent “colour” theme; churches have stained glass windows with plentiful vibrant colours; what if we used a bright light to project a coloured hue through to the inside of a church, which would shine on me as I lipsync to the song? From there, I tracked down a church, booked a date, paid the booking fee, and we filmed the video. There isn’t much more to it than that. PS: The different “attitudes” paired with each colour and the dancing you see interspersed through the video were completely improvised and thought of on the day of the shoot. 

3. What was the process of making this video?

I already pretty well answered this question above, but to elaborate, the making of this video involved 4 parties: Brad; his assistant Brandon Grubb; my contact at the church, Laurence Williams; and I. I cold called a number of churches to pitch the idea and Laurence got back to me promptly and enthusiastically. We discussed the details of the arrangement and we locked in a date shortly thereafter. I will admit, it was a slight challenge finding a church that was willing to facilitate a secular music shoot, but a little persistence got us over the finish line. The main character in this video-shoot was definitely Brad’s cinema-grade light. I couldn’t tell you what the model or make is, but boy is it ever bright. The strength of the beam from this light made cutting through thick stained glass possible. I will also note that I had originally envisioned patterns being projected on my face, but arriving at the church and testing the beam through the stained glass quickly revealed that we would have to commit to one colour at a time. Finally, a quick Chat GPT session the night prior to the shoot revealed that the coloured light beams’ effects would be amplified if we were to use a haze machine. As such, on the day of the shoot, I dropped by Long & McQuade on the way to the church and rented a haze machine. I’m so glad that I did.

Do you struggle with self-sabotage? Are you addicted to the drama of personal turmoil? In her buoyant yet bittersweet new single, “Make It Up to You,” Hamilton-based indie rock artist Lisa SQ wrestles with the inner saboteur, the irresistible urge to blow things up, and the hope that there’s still time to repair the mess left behind.

“Make It Up to You” is duking it out with your inner saboteur. “Make It Up to You” is resisting the urge to push the red button. “Make It Up to You” is touching the hot stove, even when you know better. “Make It Up to You” is groveling. “Make It Up to You” is digging out of a deep hole. “Make It Up to You” is one final shot. Recorded live at Toronto’s Dwaynespace with a trusted circle of collaborators, the track begins with the sunniest of guitar riffs from Dave Dalrymple (Wax Atlantic) and a playful body-percussion loop by Adam Hindle (Dwayne Gretzky) – created from couch slaps and self-smacks – before erupting into a full-band groove driven by Michael Brushy‘s (Dwayne Gretzky) explosive drums. Nintendo-like keyboards (Simeon Abbott) and shimmering autoharp (Adam Hindle) add whimsy, while producer Ian Docherty (July Talk) ran everything through tape for just the right touch of drunken floatiness.

The inspiration? Lisa SQ‘s porch-sitting neighbour, whose stories of drama, missteps, and resilience sparked musings on why some people seem to thrive in the chaos of their own undoing. “Tyler Kyte (Dwayne Gretzky) and I were talking about people who always invite drama into their lives, and I kept picturing these classic tragic heroes, doomed but relatable,” Lisa explains. “The song grew out of that and my own pacing, daydreaming, and writing in the attic.”

Her forthcoming debut full-length album – recorded at both Toronto’s Dwaynespace with Tyler Kyte and Ian Docherty, and at Chale Abbey Studios on the Isle of Wight with producer David Granshaw – captures the warmth, laughter, and collaborative spirit of her creative community. “Make It Up to You” offers an early glimpse: bouncy, beachy, a little bruised, and impossible not to move to.

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

The temptation to touch a hot stove, or self sabotage your chances at happiness is a weird human tendency we all have to grapple with. Inevitably things get messy even with the best of intentions. In my observation, people are attracted to friction. Obviously there is a sliding scale of the amount/type of personal drama people invite into their lives, but I think the feeling of losing your grip on things and cracking under pressure is familiar to everyone. The song, “Make It Up to You” tries to capture that moment, when shit hits the fan and life blows up in your face a little bit. So, when it came to choosing a song to make a video to, I asked myself: Who doesn’t enjoy watching a buffoon being put through their paces, trying to make amends for some dumb thing they did? At points, we have all been that same buffoon trying to make it up to somebody, or oftentimes ourselves… no?

The song production on “Make It Up to You” is very playful, including butt, back and couch slaps, autoharp and nintendo-esque keyboard sounds. The recording process was so free and fun, I knew I wanted that scrappy spirit to come through in the video as well. Therefore, I thought the classic storyline of a tragic hero type character (me), on a journey to prove themselves, while navigating some comical chaos; not only seemed hilarious to make, but lent itself well to the lyrics of the song and most importantly, seemed achievable in its simplicity.

The “Make It Up to You” video is definitely not trying to reinvent the wheel by any means. In fact it purposefully embraces lots of classic tropes like, sleeping through your alarm, or falling on your face during a triumphant moment…  The hope was that even though it’s a story we’ve seen a million times the familiarity would be relatable, allowing for viewers to connect their own experiences to the song. I think the quirky, DIY execution is where the creativity and charm really kick into action. Obviously not having a budget beyond some extra pocket money can seem limiting, but I love the challenge of having to think outside the box, it forces you to be crafty and resourceful which I find very satisfying. In fact, the idea of using the projector screen as a background for all of the biking shots was born out of necessity. In my mind, I pictured actually biking around outside but the logistics of filming something like that, on my i-phone, by myself or with a couple of buds seemed daunting (and dangerous!)… In the end I think leaning into using the screen for a good chunk of the video, was like embracing the humbleness of the project by making it a stylistic choice. 

Pre-production was mainly gathering/making props and brainstorming scenarios in which I could be a total fool. My favourite prop was the fake recipe book I made, all about how flan can miraculously save your relationships. Not sure how many people notice that detail in the video but it was “important” to the plot line and I think it looks pretty legit. 

The video was filmed in two parts. The first day we did all of the studio content: shots of Adam Hindle and I goofing around with caution tape, playing instruments, biking and singing in front of the projector screen. I had created some 2D “arcade” style background videos to project behind us, hoping the retro vibe would tie into some of the sounds in the “Make It Up to You” track. I didn’t really know how the screen stuff would end up looking but I trusted that with some creative problem solving and experimentation we could gather enough footage to intersperse with the storyline portion of the video. Lighting was a bit of an issue but c’est la vie… I had packed a bunch of props to play around with including some rhythmic gymnastics style ribbons I MacGyver’ed together, using caution tape, paperclips and old chopsticks. Over a few hours we worked through a shot-list I had prepared with some specifics I wanted to capture, plus a few silly scenarios for Adam and I to improvise around. I also planned to leave space for some good old fashioned tomfoolery as those spontaneous interactions generally become some of the best moments to edit in. 

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

The storyline part was filmed piece meal, a few shots here and there whenever I had some spare time. I did a lot of inserts by myself with a tripod or by propping my phone up precariously somehow. My partner Tyler Kyte (Dwayne Gretzky), the main camera (iPhone) operator for most of the video, was crucial in helping with certain action shots. For example: I was attached to the idea of a long, meandering shot for the opening sequence. I thought this would be the easiest way to set the scene, establish my character and get the plot rolling quickly. I needed this shot to reveal important details for the story to make sense and wanted it to be somewhat timed to the intro of the song, having a similar buoyancy to the track. Every other shot in the video could be puzzled in, but this shot we needed to nail. Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out, I especially love the colourful, sticker-ed up calendar and the “Make It Up to You” post-it note at the very beginning. Also, Arthur the dog swooping in to eat popcorn as the panic begins always makes me chuckle. 

3. What was the process of making this video?

Once we had all of the footage I began editing the video using Final Cut Pro, and luckily because I had a pretty clear idea of the flow in my head, it came together fairly quickly. Some fun things like Adam’s rhythmic gymnastics routine to the song at 2X the speed, or Arthur the dog’s judgmental reactions to my shenanigans mostly ended up on the “editing room floor” as they say in the biz, but overall bits of everything we filmed got used in the final edit. I enjoyed affecting certain shots with distortion, or a bleached out treatment to again lean into the lo-fi production quality. With music videos, finding lots of camera movement and quick cuts I think adds a lot of personality and energy to the finished product. I think the balance between the studio and storyline shots ended up working out well and overall I’m super happy with how the concept came to life!