As Child Actress, Rena Kozak toes the line between a tangible reality and an infinite universe. While Calgary was her initial foundation, her move to Montreal in 2017 solidified her work not just as a performer and songwriter, but as a sought-out producer and mixing engineer. Having released her latest full-length, Ancestor Worship, last year, Kozak is now sharing the last of the songs she wrote after her boyfriend died in 2012 in the form of an EP entitled Just Fine Never Better.

This year, it became important to Kozak to finish and release the final remaining songs so she can cleanse herself of that phase and see what might happen next. The first two tracks are from early on in her grief phase, while the second two were written in the last couple of years. She wanted to include them on Just Fine Never Better as a way to symbolize forward motion and growth. The EP’s title track was originally written by Kozak’s late boyfriend, Chris Reimer of Women and The Dodos. It’s one that the couple both really liked, and after Reimer’s death, his parents gave Kozak permission to use it with Child Actress.

The official “Just Fine Never Better” music video was filmed in Montreal, QC at Studio Saint Zo and in San Francisco at Musée Mechanique. For a song about staying in, staying sober and taking a night off from the party, this video takes us to a surreal soirée in a psychedelic dream state. Mechanical alter-egos waltz and sing our subconscious thoughts to us while the only thing grounding us to the reality of the human world is a single wind turbine on the horizon. A reminder that even when we let ourselves get swirled away by substances and revelry by night, the wind is always there in the morning as the world turns around us – whether we like it or not.

I struggled to understand what Chris was saying in the lyrics on the cell phone recording of us jamming together – beyond the phrase “we could have a regular time tonight,” I couldn’t make out much else. I had never asked him what he was singing, I was always delicate with Chris and his creative output. He was shy about his songwriting and was just starting to develop lyrics and I didn’t want to push or influence him by prying. I figured he would make the words clear when he was sure of himself. 

I took the one phrase I could hear to be an implication of his desire to slow down on drinking and partying – a concept we had been talking about a lot. His lifestyle on tour was full of alcohol, and we were having a lot of conversations about how when we moved in together we would slow down on the drinking, we would have more “regular nights.” I built a little on the idea that he was musing on this with the song – what would it be like to fall asleep sober and wake up feeling fine… and then, for me, I inserted my own self into the theme of what would it be like to wake up with him still alive that day instead of waking up to find he had passed while I slept. In the end that’s what I made the song about – what if we just went to bed that night and woke up to another day instead? – Rena Kozak of Child Actress on “Just Fine Never Better”

The Boneheads have kept true to their roots while emerging from the Toronto music scene. They deliver a refreshment of blues-tinged rock ‘n’ roll, combining old school and modern influences that brings a familiarity of the golden age of the blues with contemporary expression.

The band have explored an Americana and roots inflected direction on new single, the infectious and rollicking “Feel The Light.” This highly melodic track finds the band blending bright vocals, driving guitars, and tumbling drums as the song gradually builds into a collective message of positivity.

“Feel The Light” came into being earlier this year when The Boneheads’ producer, Jon Savard, got married. The band traveled to Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania to attend his wedding and rented an Airbnb together to stay the weekend. 

Having a cabin full of musicians can be either a recipe for disaster, or a good time. Naturally, we brought our guitars with us and jammed a lot in our free time. Next thing we knew we had “Feel The Light” written in about twenty minutes. – The Boneheads

Vancouver’s Petunia & The Vipers’ genre- transcendental sound is an eclectic and engrossing bar room mix of style and innovation. As described by Saving Country Music, “Petunia & The Vipers are one of these creative generators and innovators, and their music and moxy can be found defining the cutting edge of what is considered creative in country and roots today, while still keeping alive what made country music great in the past.”

Inspired by the sting of unreciprocated love, latest single, “Loved in Vain,” is a unique and swaggered blend of yodel, folk, western and bold Latin horns, fitting of a sun-soaked cantina with a psychedelic-infused patronage.

I played “Loved in Vain” for the first time down there to a crowd of 200 Argentines. The audience started clapping a latin rhythm in time after about three seconds! I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I had written a song that galloped along in traditional Argentine folk time. I had written a Chacarera. The applause after the song was stupendous. I felt like finally, I had found a home for this song. – Petunia & The Vipers

The greatest music goes beyond merely entertaining us; instead, it conjures deep and varied emotions by evoking the universal hopes, fears, and experiences of humanity. Few modern artists embody that sentiment as wonderfully as Canadian progressive/post-rock troupe Versa. Founded in 2007, the group has spent over 15 years perfecting their superb chemistry of serene vocals; eloquent songwriting; and majestically ornate, diverse, and engrossing instrumentation across their first four collections (2007’s Versa, 2010’s The Decline & Fall of…, 2012’s Common Things EP, and 2022’s A Voyage / A Destination).

Regarding the decision to split A Voyage / A Destination into two parts (and two releases), the first came in April 2022. Although “the bulk of the material was recorded at the same time,” bandleader Matthew Dolmage confesses, “ultimately, we knew that it’d take a while to finish the remaining songs. As difficult as it was, we knew that delaying the second part would prove to be the right choice for us and our listeners.”

Indeed, A Voyage / A Destination Part 2 is truly a tour-de-force of everything Versa has achieved thus far. From the Big Big Train-like symphonic warmth of “Breaking and Entering” and dramatic complexity of “The Seething Bay,” to the Devin Townsend and The Decemberists-esque acoustic contemplation of “Bury Me at Sea” (inspired by the 1992 burial of Dolmage‘s grandfather), the sequence is breathtakingly exploratory, touching, ambitious, and impactful. That it ends with both a robust prog rock epic (“Artemis,” which Dolmage sees as “Jethro Tull meets Moon Safari… in space!”) and a stirring “medley/summary of everything Versa has been thus far” (closer “Destination”) is only further proof of why A Voyage / A Destination, Part 2 is a musically, thematically, and spiritually rich journey listeners will never forget.

Highlighted single, “Flew the Coop,” features Haken vocalist Ross Jennings and is written by Dolmage who aimed to invoke a nostalgic feeling that mixes elements of indie folk, progressive rock, and post-rock.

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

We felt that Flew the Coop was the best song on the album to introduce new listeners to who we are and what we do.  Our music combines elements of progressive rock, post rock, and indie rock, and on Flew the Coop we’ve blended all of those elements in a single five-minute song.  We also have the amazing Ross Jennings of Haken singing lead vocals, which we want to showcase front and centre!  

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

I make most of our videos myself (though we did have a couple of wonderful animated videos in support of our last album, “A Voyage / A Destination”) and they often start at a similar place, namely “What kind of story can I tell that’s within our very limited budget and my limited abilities as a filmmaker?”.  

“Flew the Coop” is a song about nostalgia, about remembering being a child in summertime, playing in the woods, swimming in the lake, and how that feeling of nostalgia can sometimes be a positive thing, but also can be problematic, trapping you in an impossible desire to revisit moments and memories that can never be recreated.  The video is pretty directly that – our protagonist goes for a hike and a swim in the mountains and is literally captured by those darker elements which try to drive her mad.

3.What was the process of making this video?

The video was filmed in a couple of parts over an extended period.  In early September, 2022, I drove out to Squamish, BC, a smaller community about an hour north of Vancouver, and met up with Lindsay McDonald, the star of the video.  She lives in Squamish and is an avid hiker and I’d asked her to do some location scouting. We filmed at her home, and then drove about 20 minutes out of town to a lake up in the mountains and filmed the rest of her scenes there.  In May of 2023, Haken were touring and playing Vancouver, and I picked Ross Jennings up at the Rickshaw, the venue Haken was performing at, around lunch time, drove him out to my parents’ place in North Van, and we filmed his scenes in my parents’ basement, which was incredibly cool and generous of Ross.  I did something similar a year later with Steph Boutet, the pianist on the song, and then I filmed the rest of the band’s shots in August at my home, and edited it all together.  Rob Birnholz, a video editor and SFX guy in Florida, did the transition shots between the “real” world and the “psychedelic” world, and I did the rest of the visual effects using Runway, an online AI-driven video editor.

Marzzhia Janine (MJ) Ancheta, mononymously known as MARZIA, has gained global recognition for her live performances and vocal range. Following up on her debut single, “SHE IS HER,” released this past January, MARZIA is now sharing the Ariana Grande-inspired track, “Supermodel.”

Inspired by Grande’s “Jason’s Song,” the feel, vibe and overall aura of “Supermodel” evokes pop, R&B and soul sounds with a little dabbling into funk. Growing up on stage, MARZIA has always loved live instruments and live bands, and  really wanted to incorporate that for her future shows. 

The idea stemmed from a keyboard line that one of my closest friends, SANHA KIM, played. It was upbeat and peppy, which I asked him to produce a beat to. The song started off very electronic and midi and eventually it grew to become a full live instrument band track. – MARZIA

Ekelle is an artist and songwriter from Toronto, ON who rhymes about what she knows best – her real-life experience. Key music themes include money, sex, drama, and identity through a black feminist lens. Her genre of choice is a style that she created called Hood Pop – popular music with a street edge. Hood Pop combines elements of hip-hop, pop music, and R&B. Ekelle’s previously released 2023 track, “Flo,” produced by Andre Kaden Black and Jon Karkar, currently sits as her most streamed song on Spotify. It received acclaim as one of Complex’s Best Canadian Tracks of the Week and received radio play on Vibe 105 and Flow 98.7.

Ervin Mitchell is a songwriter and rap artist from Memphis, Tennessee who is currently based out of the hotbed of urban culture – Atlanta, GA. He has quickly gained over 4,000,000 monetized streams and hundreds of thousands of Shazams of his songs. Ervin’s overarching theme is the power of the mind to manifest our reality. He internalizes the philosophy that the job of a true artist is to convey meaningful messages and emotions in the simplest way. 

On “Games,” Ekelle & Ervin Mitchell team up to deliver a sexy single that’s inspired by the swipe culture of online dating. Although we usually have an idea of who we’d like to be with, there’s this energy nowadays where everyone thinks they’re going to find someone better so they keep looking. The song’s protagonist (Ekelle) doesn’t necessarily want to be in the streets anymore, but is forced to because of the current culture.

Fun fact: I’ve known Ervin Mitchell for about 10 years! I met him when I was in Atlanta for work. I was just getting started with music so it was amazing to meet another down to Earth artist who had a lot of the experience I wanted to have as well. It’s such a great full circle moment to finally collaborate together. I probably could have asked earlier but I wanted to wait for that right song. – Ekelle