Filipina woman: assimilating to achieve validation, feeling alienated amongst her peers, and the anxieties of editing or censoring herself to blend in. 

Her playful follow-up single, “Five-Year Plan,” is inspired by the often toxic 9-to-5 work culture and looking at it through a critical lens. 

“Not to be facetious, but when I was writing this song, I felt pop-ish and playful with it in a ‘fuck capitalism’ and ‘fuck the corporate machine’ kind of way,” explains Nucum. “It’s a mix of being nonchalant but still very much annoyed with capitalist-hierarchical-bureaucratic bullshit.”

“In my corporate career, I went through severe burnout and stress that led me to come home from work crying almost every night for several weeks,” said Nucum. “I eventually developed anxiety and had to go to therapy in order to be able to function as a human being. Anxiety is something I’m still managing to this day and I recognize it may never go away. This is reality for countless people working in the corporate world, where employers prioritize profits and their “five-year plan” over the health and wellbeing of their workers.”

At the age of 20, Avery Raquel isn’t new to songwriting, and has won numerous awards including as a Finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest three times. In late 2018, Avery released her third solo album, My Heart Away, which was composed of all original music, written by the accomplished and maturing artist. 

Above all her other projects, Avery’s fourth album is a true representation of who she is as an artist. She’s found her voice, her sound, the style of music she loves to create and perform. That’s why this album is self-titled – it’s like re-introducing Avery Raquel to the world.

Stream + share the LP in full: https://ffm.to/averyraquel

Punchy new single, “You Said,” evokes a moment of new love and how exciting that feeling can be. After so much depression and isolation, it’s refreshing to feel awake again.: https://soundcloud.com/averyraquelmusic/you-said

Melted Wings is the multi-genre musical project of Michael Wynn, guitarist and founding member of bands Trains of Winter and Vicky von Vicky. His ‘80s synth pop-inspired new single, “Deep Scars,” follows the success of “Capture Love,” both from his upcoming LP, Cheer For The Deer.

“This album was a labour of love, over the course of the early part of the pandemic,” said Wynn. “The process was similar to a painter painting a picture – adding colours (in this case sounds) with deliberate and improvised paint brush strokes until the sought after mood was found.”
The record was self-produced and self-recorded at Wynn’s home over the course of the last few years, and mixed by Nixon Boyd (Hollerado, Anyway Gang, TV Sets). Cheer For The Deer is out now.

The new Victory Chimes record, When The Fog Rolls In, is the new project from Montreal rocker, Jeff Louch. Their first full-length album follows the release of two previous EPs. 

In 2020 Louch was awarded a scholarship to the International Songwriter’s program at the Banff Centre of the Arts as well as the Quebec Council of Arts Research and Development grant which facilitated the writing of a new Victory Chimes record. The band recorded through the fall/ winter of the pandemic 2020-21.

“Conductor,” the second single from the upcoming album, was one the songs from the record written in a small studio room with only a grand piano at the base of Sleeping Buffalo Mountain at the Banff Centre of the Arts. The song’s backdrop was inspired by this immense and powerful landscape where the Earth meets the Heavens. 

Louch explains, “The main character believes they occupy and control this realm making ridiculous claims – a personification of some of the modern egoism we’ve seen lately in politics and culture.  The twist comes at the end when we find out our character is only a child caught up in an absurd fantasy.”

The new album, When the Fog Rolls In, arrives on May 20.

Dive into more music here: https://victorychimes.hearnow.com/

Vancouver alt-rock duo Dear Rouge have released Spirit, their third full-length album. Spirit is a call to live a freer, more courageous life. It’s a battle cry, and the cover art reflects the traces of the fight on lead singer Danielle McTaggart’s face. Spirit is an inspiration to its listeners to be bold and brave; to foster, to create, to encourage and to celebrate ourselves and others.

They plead outwardly for the energy to continue onward and upwards on new single “Gimme Spirit.” This is an especially important plea given that the song title is the defining essence of both the band and of Danielle herself.

Listen to “Gimme Spirit”: https://dear-rouge.bandcamp.com/track/gimme-spirit

“We wrote this song in a time of uncertainty and fear of the future. The lyric that stuck

was “take me back to why we started in the first place”. We felt this sense that if we could remember the whole reason and core desire to make this record, then the heart and passion would just come. We just knew it was special; this song brings us hope, and ended up being the title track for the album.”

The band recorded Spirit secluded away from busy cityscapes. Drew and Danielle took up residence in a lakeside cabin shortly after the release of PHASES, their sophomore record. The duo found themselves spending their days alone together, and Spirit began to take form over the winter months. “This album is a capsule of the space we’ve been in over the past few years.” Danielle shared, “Our hearts are in this album more than any other. It’s intimidating to release an album so personal to us but so worth it. Life is meant to be shared and we get to do it through our music. It’s such a huge honour we don’t take for granted. We hope this album brings others the same sense of healing and hope as it does for us.”.

Jozem is a Toronto-based artist via Kenya and Rwanda, who establishes his artistry through meaningful, expressive music that’s thought-provoking, sincere and relatable. Still something of a best-kept secret, Jozem has impressed audiences with his intimate and expressive performances, anchored by a voice rich in emotion and texture. 

His nostalgic new song “Youth,” is the second single to be released from his sophomore project, it came to me in a dream (out May 20th). The song is written in thanks to the kindred spirits you encounter in your life that live unapologetically, and help mold you into the person you become. 

https://fanlink.to/youthh

“I have felt like an outsider my entire life, whether it was because of my introversion, being a refugee/foreign, at times because of my blackness or my queerness or any combination thereof,” said Jozem. “‘Youth’ is about walking in one’s own truth, a celebration of being different, of marching to the beat of your own drum in a world that oftentimes will not acknowledge or understand you. It is about struggling to, but ultimately finding one’s voice and choosing to use it whether it falls on deaf ears or not.”