Ekelle, a self-managed artist and songwriter from Toronto, ON, loves to candidly rap out her real lived experience and/or play with metaphor and simile as she sings. In creating her own genre of Hood Pop – popular music with a street edge – Ekelle doesn’t limit herself to rigid categories and more so embraces the mood, allowing for a dynamic experience where some songs are different from each other, but still represent and distinguish her from others.

After releasing two EP’s, Ekelle is celebrating a milestone with Let’s Get It, her debut full-length album. Intentionally numbered in an order that takes the listener on a journey, some of the LP’s songs are flirtatious, some provide social commentary, and some are just about bigging yourself up and having a good time. 

Let’s Get It’s focus track, “Be Free” (feat. Maia Davies), is about radical self-acceptance. A song for anyone who has gone on the quest or journey to find themselves and stands firm in who they are.

Toronto and Prince Edward Island-based trio, Shaye, are inviting listeners on a journey of longing with them as they mark twenty years as a band with a lush rendition of Charlotte Cornfield’s “Silver Civic.” 

Downtempo pop folk embellished with soft horns, Shaye’s deft harmonies elevate this track that the group says they wish they had written. Its poignant heartbreak is captured in the experience of seeing the person you love everywhere, in each moment.

Kitt is an indie soul artist in the midst of a creative rebirth. Formerly known professionally as Katherine Penfold, Kitt is ready to present her new musical persona. She creates intimate and soulful music anchored by a deep sense of self-discovery.

Her new single, “State of Mind” is a song about Kitt and her journey through depression. Even when she was young, she was very aware of her inner feelings and how different I was to the people around her. Last year, she was hearing a lot about the idea of working with one’s inner child, and Kitt almost felt like her inner child wrote this tune. You can hear her in the chorus – she’s talking to the adults around her, wishing they could help her understand her state of mind.

“State of Mind” comes from Kitt’s upcoming sophomore LP of the same name. The self-produced album was created in her little one bedroom apartment in Vancouver, writing minimal music with the goal of presenting herself as an artist, in the purest form. She hopes that her music reaches her audience and can inspire them to take time for themselves and self reflect on your own presence and the impact you have on the people around you. 

The 26-year-old Dutch musician, Dread Pitt has discovered his true sound in world music. Receiving inspiration from traditional music from all over the world while being mindful of its cultures, Dread Pitt aims to broaden your musical horizon by blending the traditional with the modern, the organic with the electronic, and the obscure with the familiar. 

For his single, “Whoa,” Dread Pitt was inspired by the tropical sounds of the Caribbean, with the iconic lush steel drums and rhythmic sounds of the bongo. He worked together with singer Emillienne to collaborate on the song. Within days after sending over the instrumental version, she had turned it into a fully finished recording. 

“Whoa” comes from Dread Pitt’s self-produced EP, Melting Pot (May 26). The album is a combination of tracks you wouldn’t necessarily expect together in an album. However, it’s important to release music that is made so that people can get to experience it and decide if they like it. 

Dread Pitt and his collaborators just created what felt right and what they thought would feel relatable. In the end, it’s a collection of songs from different angles and with different vibes, but still packaged together as one, hence the name, Melting Pot.

Of our many time-worn idioms, few are as consistently on-the-money as “opposites attract.” Recognizing something unrecognizable in another human being pulls us toward them, spurring us to plumb their depths—to an extent. David Myles’ swooning new single, “Mystery,” finds him unpacking his own mesmerization as he comes face-to-face with a potential lover whose otherworldliness piques his curiosity. 

Over a smooth, swinging beat and plaintive pedal steel, Myles makes the case for leaving some stones unturned, letting “Friday night, cheap wine, and neon lights” set the scene for embracing the magnetic tension—between a country boy and a city girl—that’s developing. As backup singers chime alongside the dreamy crescendo, and the night in question drifts out of focus, Myles’ love story reminds us that we never forget the ones who challenge and expand our perspectives.

In the making of his Juno Award winning instrumental record, That Tall Distance, Myles caught on to a really sweet sound. He wanted to push it further and see if he could incorporate his songs with words into this approach—working on instinct alone. And he approached the lyrics the same way. That’s how the making of his upcoming album, It’s Only A Little Loneliness, came about. Myles went with honesty and immediacy rather than heavily edited and second guessed. What came of it is a project that reflects his inner world more than any other he’s ever made.  

Based in Toronto, Rosanne Baker Thornley is an internationally recognized, award-winning singer/ songwriter who writes with an impressive and growing number of international emerging and established artists.  RBT has been evolving and expanding her relationship with music (and writing) for quite some time. With her new album, Sorry I’m Late, to be released September 2022, she further delves into her craft, cultivating songs from an intensely personal space. 

Like all the songs on Sorry I’m Late, “Because of Me,” is inspired by personal experience. This song is about someone who always arrived tangled, who willingly succumbed to a vulnerable version of themselves, and who left less tangled. It’s about changing that someone to their benefit and how those changes in them, while to the betterment of others in their life, challenges those same people. It’s about the realization and the risk to the person who is the impetus to their changing – and to the realization they’re working against themselves. That every heartfelt moment shared can’t change the inevitable outcome.