Toronto based singer-songwriter Liam Barrack takes a unique approach to his debut single “Sick Kisses” — a song about a girlfriend who left him with a broken heart and a bad cold.

The song was written in response to a play that his ex-girlfriend wrote about the end of their relationship. It was Liam’s first serious relationship and the song can also be taken quite literally since he got sick from spending time with her during their last week together. 

Even though it marked the end of his relationship, Liam fell in love with pop music and wrote his first pop song. 

“Most of the time when I write a song it’s kind of like therapy for me – a good way of objectifying my problems so I can experience them as an entity separate from myself,” explains Liam. “In writing this song, I solidified what I want in love.”

Freak folk artist L.T. Leif (they/them) is rooted in the self-sufficient spirit of their hometown of Calgary, though they have carried their wandering curiosity all over the world. Now living in Glasgow, they are an adopted member of the Scottish DIY music scene whose life and art has been heavily shaped by northern landscapes and climes.

The first single, “Pass Back Through” is from their upcoming album, Come Back To Me, But Lightly (Jan 2023). 

Leif had just gone through a painful loss before writing this song, and it was dredging up their unresolved issues from the past. They were struck by the harsh way that lessons seem to repeat themselves ad nauseam, reformatting themselves but coming at you over and over. “Pass Back Through” is an image of endurance that is flexible and moving: you still have a life to live. That path you’re walking isn’t linear – sometimes it’s all circles, and that’s ok.

“There are a lot of images of the quiet night world – there’s a smallness I would feel when walking in the cold Finnish nights that brought a kind of clearness or release,” Leif explains about the song’s imagery. “There’s this feeling I sometimes got when a bird would fly low over my head from behind, like they were somehow a thought of mine that was bursting forth and flying off, fading out there into the distance… I can get really mired in my own thoughts, and there’s like a release, or a lift that comes when you can let the rich pain and pleasure of the world just be.” 

Founding member of rock bands The Ruby Spirit and The Nursery, Alex Pulec is now launching a solo project as Alex Exists. The Slavic-Canadian musician and producer writes music that sounds like a free wheeling explosion of the maximalist side rock, pop and neo glam music. Residing in Toronto, Alex owns a creative production studio where, in addition to recording his own music, he is involved in music composition, video production and mixed media.

This holiday season, Alex is making his first foray into writing a Christmas song. For him, the holiday season has always been melancholic as it coincides with bad memories. This song is inspired by the nostalgia of those memories and having the strength to move on from the pain associated with that loss.

“Never Christmas Without You” isn’t a “I miss you” Christmas song, but rather a message saying that even though you feel like the holiday season is ruined, it won’t feel like that forever. We must move on and find strength to rebuild and do it again. Alex wanted to write a Christmas song that evokes a bit of sass towards all those hurtful moments in life. So if you’re feeling a little lonely like he used to during this time, you might resonate with this song.

This is a song for anyone that feels crestfallen during the holiday season,” explains Alex. “Love it or hate it, the holidays bring out a lot of different and often complicated emotions in us all. This is a sentimental song that bites back and evokes a bit of sass towards all those hurtful moments in life. If you’re feeling lonely, like I used to during these times, you might resonate with this song. No matter how tragic life gets for you, there is always an extra seat at our table.”

Rozette (Jenn Beaupré) is a Calgary-based singer/songwriter and international vocal coach who has been sharing her big, powerful and technically masterful voice across North America for the past decade. During this time, she has appeared on Canadian Idol and Stampede City Sessions, performed at the Vancouver Olympics, opened for the Moscow Ballet, won the Calgary Stampede’s Most Promising Young Artist Award, and sang the national anthem at several NHL games.

“People are hard to hate close up. Move in.” This quote by Brené Brown resonated with Rozette, whose new single “Salt in the Water” conveys that we all want the same thing: To love and be loved. To feel safe. To see and be seen. Underneath all of the opinions, and the often divisive issues in our society, we are more the same than different. We are all doing our very best.

Jenn’s vocal style is bold, agile, and eclectic—think Bette Midler meets Norah Jones with a splash of Katy Perry. With the grit of Lady Gaga, the attitude of Pink and the old-soul maturity of Adele, Jenn is a captivating stage performer. She’s digging up her soulful, piano-laden roots with her forthcoming EP, Roze Coloured Glasses. 

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Evil Tongues has developed a gritty cinematic sound with soaring anthemic melodies and raw personal lyrics. The Toronto-based pair, Jennifer Di and Mike Allain, bonded over their eclectic range of musical tastes and saw an opportunity to take to the stage, inspired by a shared love of the sounds that defined the ‘80s and the UK music scene.

From a young age, Jennifer has always been pretty focused on going after her dreams, which comes with a lot of sacrifices. Time with family, friends, relationships, location, and as much as she doesn’t regret any of the decisions that she’s made to get here, every now and then a little voice inside her head questions has this all really been worth it?

And if everything falls apart, will anyone be there to catch you? Or have you sacrificed too much? The song “Catch Me” was written about one of those conversations that she had with herself.

“Catch Me” was mixed by Juno award-winning engineer Kevin Dietz (The Glorious Sons, Billy Talent, Alexisonfire) in Toronto and mastered by Grammy award-winning Emily Lazar and Chris Allgood at The Lodge Mastering in NYC.

“I think it’s easy to feel like you’re the only person that questions what you’re doing with your life, or feels like you have no idea what you’re doing with your life,” says Jennifer. “I wanted listeners to know that they’re not alone, and we all go through periods of questioning if everything we’ve risked is really worth it in the long run.”

Musician and poet Yoyo Comay, also known as Sufferin Mall, is releasing Crushed, an album which follows a somewhat tortured romantic connection and finds the artist writing pop hooks for the first time.

Crushed features “Latency,” co-produced with Casey Moon, a song which explores the feeling of one’s nervous system being overloaded with infatuation. It’s a pop track of tension and release, exploring feeling out of sync and delayed gratification. Stop-start energy mirrors the feeling of desire.

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