Yutao never quite felt complete in his home country of China. He always longed for ideals he felt were embodied by Western culture. When he came to the United States as a student, he tried to stay true to his Eastern culture by fusing it with the Western traditions he was adopting. Slowly, the pair of seemingly very different ideals melded into a personal outlook for Yutao reflected in his delicately gorgeous, electro-pop.

Yutao felt music in his body before he created it. He came up as a break-dancer, but was sidelined for two years after an injury. Upon healing, he realized his moves weren’t as on-point as they were before the injury, and he longed for a fresh creative outlet. During this time, he started hearing and feeling hip-hop, R&B, and EDM in a new way. “The rhythms of this music gave me a rush—like the same sensation I had when I first started breakdancing,” he says.

He recently released his lo-fi bedroom pop single “Sensation.” The song is soft, delicate, and chill. His voice is hypnotic and mystical. When the chorus hits and the beat becomes pronounced, you physically sink into the song. Lyrically, he sings about embracing new love while being fully aware that it won’t last. It swirls and dazzles upon each listen.

Listen here:

“I live and create in a limbo state. Both Eastern and Western perspectives have shaped me, and, while I see the value in both outlooks, I feel a dissonance inside,” Yutao shares. “If I draw a circle between East and West, I live in the center, but, through creating music, I have found a home.”

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Alex Mason is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. His songs are dark, anthemic, quiet and dynamic, like dredging up the bones of things that sit at the bottom of lakes. Raised in rural Ontario, he moved to Toronto after completing his degree in English Literature and decided he’d rather put his words in songs than essays.

Whether solo or with his full band, his voice and songs bring a fresh energy and lyricism to Canadian music. After 3 EPs, he is currently preparing his first full length LP, Ghost of the Great Lakes, inspired in part by Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel “To The Lighthouse” and the life lived that has brought him here.

“In mid 2016 not long after having moved to Toronto, I was really struggling in my career and trying to write songs about genuine hope,” said Mason. “I had a conversation with a friend at work about what it meant to overcome failure and she told me that many people pursue something, whether it be a passion or a career, and get to a middle point where they give up, and are doomed to keep finding new fixations and repeating the process, always giving up in this middle period where they plateau.

“It takes working through this ‘desert,’ sitting with the pain, being stranded alone, to come out on the other side. I ran home with words in my head, picked up the guitar and wrote this song almost immediately.”

During the making of “Dark Days” and the rest of the songs for this upcoming record, a big part of the sound of the album involved a delay pedal called the Deluxe Memory Man by Electro-Harmonix. For “Dark Days” in particular, a lot of guitar parts have this analog echo on them, creating an ethereal wash. 

The older units in particular are really sought after, as popularized by so many bands such as Radiohead and many others. After losing his Mom mid-way through the recording process for this album, Mason’s old bandmates and producer banded together to purchase one of these units for him and it’s the same sound you hear on the delayed guitar parts in this song. The pedal given to Mason was also used on the record “Suffer Summer” by Chastity, recorded at the same studio.

The critically acclaimed Toronto blues-rock singer Jake Chisholm is back with a love song. “Keep Me Warm” is a sultry strut through the nightlights of love. Sweet and lowdown, cool and confident, it finds it and keeps it. Something is going on and it feels good.

“Keep Me Warm” is about that beautiful, sweet and warm feeling you get when you surrender to love. It’s a wish that the person you give your heart to will honour and repay the love given with love in return.

Sonically, Jake Chisholm and his crew tried to recreate the tingly feelings of anticipation, and the trailing feeling of lasting euphoria after a love connection by using sounds to mimic the layers of emotion rising and falling during these sensual moments.

Emerging singer-songwriter Madison Galloway has built a reputation as a road warrior, performing at acclaimed festivals across her home province of Ontario, including Mariposa Folk Festival, Riverfest Elora, and RBC Bluesfest. 

One of three winners of CBC Toyota Searchlight 2022’s Fan Choice, Madison is sharing “Open Your Eyes,” a 70s inspired rock song which reflects on the issues facing the world today and calls on the need for community and society-wide change.

Produced by Ross Hayes Citrullo, Galloway’s assertive vocals and melodic guitar playing is framed by interlocking organ and drums, creating a rollicking call to action.

Taking sounds from across near and distant times, metal band Generations is cultivating a sound like no other. Their sound projects an aestheticism for the listener, leaving a lasting impression upon one’s ear. To explore, discover, create, and manifest otherworldly sounds for us and our listeners is Generations‘ only doctrine.

Written by guitarist/songwriter Gerren Hunter in his early 20’s, new single “DreamBound,” tackles coming to terms with life changing when all you want is for everything to stay the same. Imagine waking up in a dream world where everything is perfect and exactly how it “should be.” As the song goes through the movements, it’s emphasized how that way of living is simply not realistic. In order to really face life, you must take a plunge and muster up the courage to stand up to it.

A true Renaissance man, Lyle Kam has spent the past four years bridging the gap between creativity and engineering – writing, producing, and mixing his music, while also studying engineering at the University of Waterloo. Now as he turns his attention full time to creativity, he hopes to shine a light on Asian-Canadian artists and inspire others with his message that nothing is out of reach with enough passion and hard work. He also hopes to never actually have to use his engineering degree.

His sentimental song, “isn’t it funny” was the outcome of conflicting feelings he had with being a musician: having to travel but also the anxiety of traveling alone, and unraveling the reasons and meaning behind that apparent dichotomy.

Lyle envisioned this song as really air-y and dreamlike, similar to how you would imagine it feels being on a plane since the song was all about traveling. He played around with different elements to really give that feeling of elevation by adding plane noises such as the sound of the engine that comes in briefly during the third verse, and a recurring beep motif that happens throughout the song. Altogether, he focused on making the emotional aspect of the song come through, since at the heart of the song, it’s about not being able to see someone that you miss.