Keira Gray is a new pop artist from Faust, Alberta. She draws from her life experiences in love and heartbreak to create music that speaks to young hearts. 

“Summer Lovin’ With You” is about a whirlwind summer romance Keira had. Although her connection was very strong, it fell apart when they let the little things get in the way of their relationship. Though it was brief, the relationship was still worth having. 

In All Good Hope, the forthcoming debut album from singer, songwriter, and musician José Lobo, is a masterclass in intimacy. From the highly personal lyrical themes and sparse, delicate instrumentation, to the singing, which sounds like a friend whispering a secret into your ear, the experience of listening to In All Good Hope is akin to entering an inner sanctum, or what Lobo aptly refers to as “a reverie of the quotidian.” Originally hailing from Venezuela, Lobo has spent the better part of the last decade in a somewhat nomadic mode, splitting his time between his current homebase of Montreal, San Francisco’s Mission District, Paris, and also Hamilton, Ontario, where much of the album was recorded.

The title is a phrase he said a lot as a reply when someone asked him how he was doing, which literally translates to “All good, all good, nothing bad” from “todo bien todo bien nada mal.” It’s one of those phrases where depending where the comma is placed or the way that it is said, it can mean “Just pushing through” or “I’m thriving.” The lyrics really speak to those two corners of Lobo’s emotional landscape.

“I wanted to say that sometimes I feel like a third party of my own story,” says Lobo. “Sometimes I am the friend, sometimes I am bound to it like a tenant, and only sometimes do I feel like I know what it is that I came to the world to do.”

Combining the natural beauty of West Coast Canada with London, England’s urban forest, Connor Roff‘s luminous music embraces and showcases his dual nationality. With his deep and soulful voice, classical piano background and self-taught guitar skills, Roff has developed a distinctive style strongly influenced by artists such as Jeff Buckley, Maggie Rogers and James Blake. His songs and melodies reflect and celebrate his yoga teaching practice and passionate advocacy for the LGBT+ community.

“Sunlight” is a song inspired by a gay relationship and the healing power of the natural world – specifically that warm and euphoric feeling you get at the beginning of a new relationship, and also that sense of connection and presence experienced while surrounded by nature. 

Roff also brings his experience as a core member of the London Contemporary Voices Choir, using a layering technique with over 50 vocal tracks of his voice and that of Ilā Kamalagharan’s to create fullness on the song. It created this beautiful swirling texture of sound and the middle 8 section which sounds reminiscent of whale calls in the ocean.

The Beach Bats are two parts rock n’ roll, a weak shot of jazz fusion, fill the rest with punk rock and cheap margarita mix. Rim with rockabilly residue and garnish with fresh lime and cocktail umbrella. This Hamilton, ON, trio offer music that will put you in poor health and add years to your complexion like that sizzlin’ Florida sun.

The first lyrics of their song “Knockdown” feel as though they came to frontman Tony Doni out of a dream – one of those where you wake up sweating, unsure if what just happened was real or not. Through the metaphor of a rotting, dilapidated house, the song chronicles the erosion of a relationship from the inside out. The haze of indifference hangs around like dust. Portraits of better days adorn the walls, distant memories trapped in time. The song laments the loss of what could have been and reflects the pain of losing a love slowly, without the tools to fix what is left.

Limbo is the state in between life and death. A purgatory. Limbo is also about seeing just how low you can go. The double entendre was something that The Beach Bats wanted to explore lyrically over the course of the record with a mixture of lighter songs and others that were very personal. Hence, this seven track EP is titled Limbo. 

Some songs deal with the difficult psychological dances people do together. Others deal with the violences that lay on the outer edges of our imaginations. Others still question why we trap ourselves in our personal Limbo’s to begin with. Ultimately, The Beach Bats have created a collection of music that they hope provides the listener musical variety and a chance to reflect and relate.

Based in Montreal, Maze is a singer, songwriter, producer and sound engineer who started music driven by an old passion for videography. She aspires to fuse many of her favorite genres, from the alternative rock her parents listened to when she grew up to the music she danced to in her teenage years, creating a mix of alternative, electronic, hip-hop and afrobeats.

Her unique sound and hypnotizing universe have landed her placements on Samsung, Netflix, BBC, as well as working as a music producer for the latest SOCAN and Universal Music camps

Her latest single for the summer “show me to your bed” was written about an unexpected romantic relationship with her friend.  The single highlights her dynamic and stand out minimal yet gripping production style. “ I wrote this song when I was starting to fall for someone I never thought I’d date. We were friends for years and we had seemingly different lives but we got closer and I felt like I was falling for him.”

Jiants is a three piece indie/pop band from Toronto led by the songwriting of ex-professional skateboarder Jesse Landen. Jiants performs a unique blend of nostalgic sounding low-fi indie pop songs complete with great hooks and soaring leads. The band has just finished their fourth album, Tall Tales. The record was engineered and produced by Gavin Gardiner and is set to be released late 2023.

“Real Easy” is about learning to be comfortable alone, making time to heal before you attempt to move into a new phase of yourself. Living your true self is extremely difficult and it’s something that usually takes many attempts. This song is for the first morning you wake up after deciding “your new life starts today” for the third time this week and choosing to just keep trying instead of beating yourself up about it.

Watch the official “Real Easy” music video which was shot on 16mm colour film on a farm in Caledon: 

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

Real Easy is about learning to be comfortable alone. It’s for that first morning after deciding “your new life starts today” for the 3rd time this week.

I thought the song was a bit of a cruiser to listen to so it seemed like a great fit for some cool imagery. The song was written during a sort of forced period of self reflection.

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

Well that would technically be a question for the director of the video Nathan Brown. But he mentioned that the storyline was meant to imitate the way a song was created for Jiants. Something I usually start alone and then pick up the band in order to bring it to life. It sort of starts like an old 1940 film but ends like a modern day music video.

3.What was the process of making this video?

We shot this video on 16mm film on a friend’s farm in Caledon Ontario. In order to keep the video within budget we had to try to shoot each scene on the first take or so in order to use the rolls of film as sparingly as possible. But it actually made the whole thing more fun. Just rehearsing the scenes a few times then only shooting them once was kind of a cool limitation compared to shooting hours of footage.