Toronto-based singer-songwriter and magical girl Sia Shells is back again with fellow Toronto multi-genre artist, Ekelle for another dream pop collaboration!
After the successful release of their first group collaboration “Magic Girl,” Ekelle and Sia wanted to create a part 2 that worked as an inclusive dancing mantra for girls everywhere. You can blast this whenever you’re feeling down or alone and get an instant serotonin boost with a sprinkle of divine female energy.
The video is a compilation of Sia and Ekelle’s IRL girl gang adventures this past summer, and it’s a perfect way to keep the momentum and high vibrations going through the colder and long year ahead. It’s filmed by the different women in their lives, and captures authentic moments from their girl gang adventures.
Grant Boyer is embarking on his career as a solo artist, giving voice to edgy alt-rock with a dash of humour. After years of success as a founding member of Canadian rock group Golden Gate Graves, Grant took time to enjoy the downtime and to also start his family – though he never stopped writing music.
Agreeing to disagree doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. The online arguments go nowhere. Boyer searches for a solution to social media discourse and phone addiction in “De-Evolution,” his twangy new single. He’s not not trying to change the world, but if he can inspire a pause to think, maybe that’s okay.
Lesley Pike’s upcoming album, Wild, focuses on the resilience that comes after pain. Ahead of its October 28th release, she is sharing “Paper Thin,” written with folk duo The Dunwells, a fragile yet hopeful reflection on a couple’s fight that Pike overheard while staying at a hotel one night in Leeds, England.
‘Oh god, have I ever sounded like this?’ Pike asked herself as she tried to catch some sleep. The next morning, her and The Dunwells set out to write a song which feels tender but also quite optimistic and hopeful.
Delicate lap steel guitar and Pike’s vocal at the forefront tell a story of comparison and the shifting perceptions of conflict that come from overhearing such a personal row between strangers.
We still have now what we had then, but it feels a little cold.
What got underneath our skin that keeps us from living in the full?
Like a magic gramophone found during a stay at a desert compound, the dusk-tinged songs of Kue Varo & the Only Hopes are ethereal yet immediate, shrouded in mist but immediately distinct. The titular Varo leads the group with lyrics, vocals, guitar and more, but her trusty Only Hopes help bring to life the music that carries her grit-marked, dramatic vocals through your ears and into your soul.
“Feelin’ Lucky” paints a picture of the ebbs and flows of a really good day, all leading to a climactic release and repeat. There’s motivation and liberation through fearless fun and pleasure, pulling the threads of fortune a little closer, weaving them into reality. The song ends with a cathartic scream of “Nothing can stop me now!” at the top of Varo’s lungs, leading to a psychedelic climax.
Russel Broom produced this track along with the two others that the band will be releasing. Each track will be released in alignment with the next three new moons – a time of resetting when the veils between realities are at their thinnest.
Jackson Welchner is an up-and-coming vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger/producer based out of Toronto. Singer of jazz, classical, folk, and improvised genres, Jackson always strives to “serve the music.”
“When UR” is an ode to all the friendships that drift apart for months, sometimes years, but when you eventually reconnect it’s as if things had never changed. That joy is what Jackson aims to share in this song.
The original song was written in 2016 as a piece for Jazz Choir, and it was his first attempt at writing something pop-y and catchy. His goal with this song was to write a pop song that wove together three equidistant key centres as seamlessly as possible. The song ended up being in A♭ major, with the verse starting in C and then halfway pivoting to E major.
The saxophone solo was improvised by the masterful Patrick Smith, one of Toronto’s best young sax players. The solo you hear on the track was done in one take!
“Writing this song taught me that I can infuse nerdy jazz ideas into a fun, accessible pop-like song,” says Jackson. “Sometimes that’s hard to do, but it’s a reminder that it CAN be done. Melody is key to all of it!”
Our most fundamental questions—about how to exist in this world we share, and how best to love the people we love—so often keep us awake at the end of the day, at a loss for answers. From the plaintive opening notes of David Myles’ new album, It’s Only a Little Loneliness, the New Brunswick-based songwriter testifies that he’s no exception.
Myles puts together a mesmerizing take on one of country music’s greatest songs—Jimmy Work’s 1955 heartbreaker “Making Believe”—which addresses those feelings that bubble up when you just can’t get over a lover leaving, even though you know it’s the end.
Myles drifts straight into a daydream with the help of Joshua Van Tassel’s intricate rhythms and Asa Brosius’ sweeping pedal steel. Halifax-based songwriter Rose Cousins’ harmonies envelop Myles’ vocals as both singers descend deeper into the reverie, confessing: “I’ll spend my lifetime loving you and making believe.”
Watch and share the video for the song here:
The collaboration of dear friends are featured all over the album—driving home that important sentiment: we need each other to get through, even if it’s just a little loneliness. In a way, It’s Only a Little Loneliness is a follow-up to the instrumental album That Tall Distance (2021). He asks questions about religion, the mystery of relationships, love and confusion and loneliness.
“It’s the kind of thing you say to yourself when you’re feeling a bit down: ‘It’s only a little loneliness,’” says Myles. “But then at the same time, you know—it’s actually quite a big thing. It’s overwhelming. You try to tell yourself it’s not a big deal but it feels quite fundamental. And you realize, ‘I need people. I need a community. I need my friends. I need my family.”
Modern Mystery 
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