Continuing his ongoing exploration of music as a pathway toward healing, peace, and connection, Gabriola Island-based composer, vocalist, and meditation leader Mark Fenster unveils his latest single, “Reflections.” A calming, neo-classical and world-infused composition, the track emerges from deep stillness and shared creative intention, offering listeners a gentle reminder of their inherent light, love, and presence.

“Reflections” began with daily meditative piano improvisations by longtime collaborator Claude Laflamme, who describes his creative process as sitting at the piano each morning before breakfast, settling into inner quiet, and allowing the music to unfold naturally. From this practice, the song’s chords and melody took shape. When Fenster received the piece, the lyrics arrived immediately: “I hear you now, I see you now, in the stars above, filled with Light, filled with Love, You.” Together, the music and words reveal the song’s purpose to help listeners feel seen, heard, and gently affirmed in their truth.

“This piece is about reflecting the truth of what we are, individually and collectively,” Fenster shares. “We are Light, Love, and free to be the unique presence we were brought here to share.” That message is carried through the song’s serene pacing and expansive emotional space, inviting quiet introspection without urgency or demand.

The collaboration itself is central to the song’s spirit. For Laflamme, “Reflections” marks both a joyful reunion and his first exploration within this genre. Fenster echoes that sentiment, noting the beauty that emerges when long-standing creative trust allows musical heart and mind to move together. After receiving Laflamme’s nearly complete arrangement, Fenster recalls calling him immediately, half-jokingly asking where he could possibly add anything, before discovering a new musical path that honoured both of their voices.

Stylistically, “Reflections” expands its emotional range through a rich palette of world instrumentation. Celtic harp, Shakuhachi, Duduk, Bansuri, French horn, strings, and guitars work in quiet harmony, widening the sonic bandwidth and deepening the song’s sense of calm, inspiration, and healing. Each element is chosen not for ornamentation, but for the emotional wisdom it carries.

Toronto alternative artist Teagan Johnston shares “My Luck,” an introspective, melancholic track that explores feelings of unluckiness, disconnection, and the strange dynamics we attract when life seems to stack the odds against us. Written during a period of creative pause, the song channels both heartache and observation, questioning whether feeling unlucky makes it easier to choose to lose.

“I wrote this song at a time when I didn’t feel very inspired, and really lacked a connection to believing in things working out,” Johnston explains. “I was struck by the storytelling in Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ‘Em,’ and felt re-inspired to share my own stories again.”

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? This song really just details times in my life of trauma and feeling unlucky as well as relationships I’ve cultivated with people who feel that same kind of unlucky. I really just had the idea for the music video and wanted to make it happen! I also usually make music videos for any single I put out, they are one of my favourite parts of releasing music. 2.What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)? 
I started writing this song mainly while I was visiting Niagara Falls so the visuals were really present in my mind while I was writing it. I also have a dream to make a twin peaks esque Can Con true crime inspired soap opera set in Niagara falls so that was quite present in my mind for the music video as well for some of the visuals and themes. 3.What was the process of making this video?Myself and my friend Dzesika Devic who filmed the video and Jessica Lahey who did set design and styling for the video all loaded up in my van and drove to niagara falls! We rented a hotel room, shot a little bit there, had dinner at hooters across the street and then wandered around niagara falls shooting in the casino and arcade and the falls. We then got back to filming in the hotel room untill 4 am, we all had stuff to be back for in the city that morning so we decided to just pack up and drive home at 4am! Overall a wonderful delirium of a shoot made possible only by wonderful friends. 

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The accompanying video, directed by Johnston herself and filmed by Dzesika Devic, was shot at Niagara Falls; a site Johnston describes as a perfect embodiment of the song’s emotional duality. “Niagara Falls is a place that simultaneously feels it has given up but is also trying harder than anywhere,” she notes. “It’s gritty, dirty darkness while also being shiny, bright, and over the top. The juxtaposition of gambling, drinking, and shiny lights with the unbelievable force of nature of the Falls smack in the middle of it creates a type of energy I will never tire of.”

The track’s production mirrors its themes: intimate and grounded, with alt-country and indie-pop textures that support Johnston’s heartfelt vocals and evocative storytelling. Rather than offering a tidy resolution, “My Luck” sits in the in-between to highlight the quiet, sometimes gritty spaces where life’s unpredictability meets human vulnerability.

Formerly known as Little Coyote, Teagan Johnston is a multidisciplinary artist and singer-songwriter who pushes genre boundaries with a raw emotional honesty that resonates across music, film, and writing. A seasoned live performer, she has toured Japan, North America, and Europe, including performing a private set at David Lynch’s Silencio nightclub in Paris. Johnston’s work in film (most notably her breakout acting role and original music composition in Canadian indie horror The Strings) has been praised as “commanding” and “magnetic” by The New York Times and The A.V. Club.

Scot “Little” Bihlman continues to shape the emotional arc of his forthcoming album Heavy Head with a two-track release through V13 Music that pairs the reflective single “Seems Like Yesterday” with the instrumental vignette “The Devil’s Cradle.” Together, the songs create a sense of movement within the album’s unfolding narrative, widening the landscape before turning inward toward something more personal and lived in.

“The Devil’s Cradle” opens with steel guitar and drifting harmonica, immediately placing the listener in a wide, open space. The track carries the feeling of a desert road at sunset, where the light fades slowly and the horizon stretches endlessly ahead. There is a cinematic quality to the sound, but it remains grounded and unadorned. Rather than pushing for attention, the piece relies on mood and atmosphere, allowing listeners to settle into the quiet solitude of the moment.

The instrumental was born from miles spent riding along the California coast, where long stretches of road create space for reflection. It captures the rhythm of travel and the steady flow of life moving past the window. Different journeys unfold side by side, each with its own destination, yet all share the same sky. As an interlude, “The Devil’s Cradle” acts as a bridge into the emotional center of Heavy Head, offering a pause before the album shifts toward more intimate territory.

“Seems Like Yesterday” picks up that thread and brings the focus closer to home. Built around a repetitive lead guitar riff and rooted in rhythm and blues, the song moves with an easy, natural momentum. It carries the warmth of classic rock and country storytelling while maintaining a voice that feels distinctly personal. The track centers on the memory of a relationship that once felt significant but gradually settled into distance. Two people move forward on separate paths, their lives occasionally crossing before drifting apart again.

Little Bihlman Expands the Story of Heavy Head with Reflective Single “Seems Like Yesterday”· Post

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There is a sense of familiarity in the details that fill the song’s world. Smoke lingers in the air. Coffee sits untouched on the table. Morning arrives, but the emotional weight of the night has not fully lifted. Bihlman allows these small moments to carry meaning, trusting the listener to recognize the quiet truth behind them. The repeated refrain of “Seems like yesterday” becomes less about nostalgia and more about the way memory holds its place, refusing to fade even as time continues to move forward.

As the horns rise into the final chorus, the song expands just enough to suggest perspective without offering a neat resolution. There is an outlaw country spirit beneath the surface, tempered by experience and acceptance. No grand conclusions are drawn. Instead, the song acknowledges that some lessons unfold slowly, shaped by repetition and reflection rather than sudden change.

With this release, Bihlman continues to develop Heavy Head into a record grounded in tradition while guided by personal history. Raised between industrial Indiana and the woods of Northern Michigan, he has spent more than two decades performing across stages ranging from small clubs to major venues, blending heartland rock, blues grit, and country soul into songs that focus on the realities of everyday life. His work has always carried a sense of honesty, drawing from lived experience rather than invention.

“Seems Like Yesterday” and “The Devil’s Cradle” deepen that approach, adding another layer to the evolving story of Heavy Head. Together, the tracks reflect on the passage of time and the quiet recognition that memory often lingers longer than expected. As the album continues to unfold, these songs stand as reminders that reflection is not always about looking back. Sometimes it is about learning how to carry the past forward.

Contemporary folk group Jon and Roy return with a brand new EP entitled I Can Dream. Anchoring the release is its lead single, “Maywell,” a song inspired by an annual winter pilgrimage deep into the mountains behind Victoria, British Columbia. 

Each year, Jon, Roy, and close friends snowshoe through heavy terrain to a remote, rustic cabin. It’s a journey that is as physically demanding as it is emotionally rewarding. “The hike in was incredibly challenging,” Jon recalls. “We didn’t think we’d make it at times because the snow was so heavy. But once we got there, we had the most incredible time. Lots of laughs, deep talks, deep thoughts, and inspiration.”

The cabin was built by a man named Maywell, with the help of his friends, and the song stands as a tribute to his spirit; one that continues to offer refuge, joy, and perspective. Warm, catchy, and gently nostalgic, “Maywell” reflects the sense of gratitude and awe that comes from pushing forward and arriving together.

What sets “Maywell” (and the EP as a whole) apart is its recording process. For the first time, Jon and Roy recorded entirely to tape, a decision made on the spot in collaboration with their friend and engineer, David Parry. 

“Recording digitally is just fine, but it does have a tendency to hinder you in the sense that you know you have an infinite ability to edit and can keep tracking as much as you want,” Jon explains. “Tape is not nearly as forgiving so it forces you to be more present and go for the performance of the song more so than anything else.” 

Vancouver, BC outfit Gay Nineties are sharing “Internet, Sex & Drugs,” a fast-paced, punchy new single that balances romantic tension with sharp observation. Blending indie rock urgency with flashes of new wave and power pop, the track explores emotional disconnection in a hyper-stimulated world, where distraction often replaces intimacy and self-awareness arrives just a little too late.

The song began with a guitar riff written by bandmate Pascal, which quickly sparked the musical foundation for the track. After recording an early instrumental demo in their rehearsal space, the chorus melody arrived long before the lyrics. “After a full week of bashing my head against the wall every day, the chorus fell out of my mouth and the song wrote itself very quickly,” explains lead vocalist/bassist Parker Bossley. Inspired in part by the emotional dynamic of Robert Palmer’s song “Johnny & Mary,” the narrative follows a relationship unfolding in real time where one person reaches for something genuine while the other remains consumed by hollow distractions.

Clocking in at just over two minutes, “Internet, Sex & Drugs” moves with restless momentum, each section introducing new melodic and compositional elements that build toward an ebullient climax. The track nearly didn’t happen at all; an early demo was initially dismissed as too “proggy” before Gay Nineties rediscovered its potential during rehearsal, where a cleaner, chorused guitar tone reframed the idea entirely and set the writing process in motion.

Stylistically, the band leaned into the emotional clarity and compositional instincts of artists like The Police, Tom Petty, and Kate Bush, aiming to capture the immediacy and melodic richness of classic 80s new wave while grounding the sound firmly in the present. The result feels both nostalgic and contemporary; bright, romantic, and rhythmically driven, while lyrically rooted in modern anxieties. A cheeky lyrical nod to The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up” adds a moment of humour that reflects Gay Nineties’ guiding philosophy: approaching darker subject matter from a place of joy.