Favours is made up of Jacq Andrade, Alexander Zen and Mark Andrade. Their debut album, Made to Wait, was released in 2020 and the song “Stowaway” has been featured on Netflix and CBC Gem shows. Recently, Favours built a home recording studio in a former halfway house in Mimico. The studio serves as a practice space and home to Alex, as well as their central creative hub for all music videos and photography projects.  

Favours’ Left Behind EP, which was released on November 12th, and features a fresh dream pop, new wave sound inspired by the trio’s shared love of 80’s new wave and DIY post-punk. The band collaborated with a strong team for Left Behind, enlisting the talents of Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning to play bass, the engineering chops of Tallies’ Dylan Franklin, and the mixing prowess of Alexandre Bonenfont. 

The EP’s newest single, “Escaping,” is a song about the secrets that you keep inside. All of those hidden thoughts. Starting with a heavily affected guitar loop, it evolved into a track that makes you move. A bop where you can feel the mystery while also wanting to put on your dancing shoes.

The three friends at the heart of VHS Collection – James Bohannon, Conor Cook, and Nils Vanderlip (multi-instrumentalist and producer) – grew up together in New York City and formed the band in 2015 as a side project while working other jobs, merging modern and nostalgic aesthetics to create their now-signature heart-pumping, arena-ready synth rock and alt-pop. 

Night Drive, the trio’s upcoming album, captures the spirit of that titular activity: its liminality, its kinetic excitement, its intoxicating potential and power, its hope and mystery. “Space Between Us,” the latest single to be shared from the LP, is about longing for true connection. It’s about the desire to put aside the trivial things in life and be at peace with the one you love. 

With a slice of U2-style guitars and pop-goes-new wave groove, VHS Collection evoke the vibes of a classic love song.

Following her recent single, “Dark,” SHEAL is revealing a new, melodic piano-led ballad.

“‘Gravity’ is about what it’s like when you choose to love someone in spite of hurt and difference,” the artist explains. “Rather than running away from tenuous relationships, holding space for the other person to be themselves with all their flaws and beauty.” 

While her previous single explores the experience of fear shrinking one’s inner world, “Gravity” charts its expansion through love.

Lilting clarinet and strings elevate the grace of this song’s gentle beauty, which is one of SHEAL’s most ambitious pieces, both lyrically and production-wise. It conveys the feeling of weightlessness at the centre of “Gravity.”

The name Bealby Point derives from the band’s favorite beachside vacation spot in the British Columbian interior, an important beacon of inspiration when putting the final touches on their songwriting, among being a place of solitude from everyday life.

Groove to the bouncy, surf-rock vibe of their latest single, “Mermaid From L.A.” Inspired by love at first sight, the mermaid is a metaphor for this idealized version of the person crafted in fantasy and your own self-interest, without having even met them.

Dilettante, meaning “amateur of the arts,” is the semi-deadly-serious moniker of a quintet that reflects like a seasoned collective, only to laugh like absolute beginners. 

The five piece’s aptly-titled new single “Bonnie” was inspired by a fleeting romantic interest of bandleader Natalie Panacci, who unknowingly wrote the opening lines when revealing, “Bonnie, you’re a work of art. You’re a wild card. You’re a dreamboat into my heart.” 

Their self-titled debut effort arrives May 2022, a modulated cabaret that tests how wryly powerful pop can be. Bittersweet throwback bops create technicolour characters that shake and glimmer like the last sequin clinging to an attic-bound jumpsuit; then, thumping ballads croon and cry like dancing slowly, alone in the spotlight with all of your closest friends. Expect fantastic double harmonies, pulsing bongos, rolling low-end, and show-thieving synth leads. 

Junko Daydream is a heavy band from Canada, encompassing elements of post-hardcore, emo, shoegaze and nu-metal.

Their latest single, “A House That God Built,” recorded with Scott Middleton of Cancer Bats, is a distinctly honest exploration of the feelings of guilt and shame that can come with disability. 

Melodic verses are juxtaposed by a heavy, cathartic chorus. A full-out wall of sound engulfs the listener to represent the overwhelm of the song’s lyrics through the electrified closing section.