Ben Sures is a storyteller. On his poignant, natural-sounding acoustic tenth album, The Story That Lived Here, the Edmonton-based songwriter, guitarist and author sings stories told to him by friends and fans and songs written by his own heart – including “End Of The World.”
This track is an earnest folk song, buoyed by gentle mandolin and strings, which captures Sures’ acceptance of the new reality which we experienced at the onset of the pandemic.
Sures combines lighthearted nihilism with bemused empathy and a self-awareness that brings hope and comfort.
Ben Sures shares:
“When things started to shut down and everyone was washing their groceries spring before last and things felt very uncertain, I was hovering between the hell and the humour of it.
I started to consider what was important to me and if there was anything I really wanted if this was the end of the world – ooh I thought, a cinnamon bun would be nice and with a plague looming who’s thinking about calories?.
So began the writing of my new single, “End Of The World,” which charts the initial reaction of panic through to an acceptance of the new reality we have been experiencing throughout the last couple years.
This song is taken from The Story That Lived Here, a collection of stories collected from conversations with friends and strangers, as well as from my own heart and imagination..
I have tried to tap into those things we feel but don’t get off our chest, so by the concluding lines of “End Of The World,” I decide to ‘spill the beans’.
Talia Keys is a foot-stomping, jaw-dropping soul-funk-rock n’ roll heavy hitting artist. Advocating for human rights Talia uses her music to convey a message of growth, awareness, and love. Promoting compassion and respect for our Earth and one another. “Music is very healing. If I can inspire just one person a show, I feel I am doing something right!” The latest single “Ain’t Got Time For This,” is vibrant rock piece that is laced with a dash of soul. With bold and bright horns that surround Talia’s voice, the song comes together like a musical explosion that will have you craving more.
Talia shares of the single:”Ain’t Got Time For This” is my new single about the importance of living in the NOW! We can’t keep wasting our time with distractions while the world is burning. I also have personal elements as I always do in my songs, this time about addiction. Having lost my dad to an overdose, the opioid epidemic and general treatment of drug users in this country has got to change. It’s not fair that Billionaires rule and pay no consequences and struggling parents and children are left to survive. It’s a call to action. I also believe in the American dream and many immigrants come here to have a better life and let’s face it, our country isn’t kind to them. So the line “Built on Dreams, we are here to stay” is about the dreamers and their parents who suffered and struggled to get them a better life. My partner is an immigrant, and seeing how hard it was for her to get citizenship I can only imagine what many people go through.
Robbie Vonn’s “Hopeless Memories” is a remarkable collaboration that mixes the talent of artists from across the globe. Cinematic, evocative, and wickedly experimental, the three-song EP ranges from the most sonic elements of glitchy electronic textures to the purest sound of cellos and flamenco guitars. Profound and wistful reflections are evident in the lyrics of the bittersweet track “If I”, with an orchestral interlude that wouldn’t feel out of place at a theatrical performance.
Featuring yearning vocals soaring above layered melodies, the futuristic sonata “Sundown” is an aural phantasm that’ll have the listener conceptualizing a lone figure crossing a desert on Mars. Meanwhile, the melancholy Elven-like vocals in “Glowing Butterfly”, layered over a muted bass techno backbone, constructs a video game fantasy with unexpected turns throughout the song. “Hopeless Memories” and its powerful art it’s a magical ride throughout the experiences of life.
This EP not only blends electronica with the sound of smooth and sweeping strings with digital dreamscapes, but also futuristic compositions of fantasy with timeless ear candy. The EP combines the grace of the classical world with the infectiousness of the dream-pop landscape and it does so effortlessly in Hopeless Memories.
Juliet Lyons’ vocals transform this EP from a simple collection of songs by serenading the listener with such delicacy, to adding eloquence and elegance in such a particular way when she has industrial sonic sounds as her backdrop.
Vonn does a phenomenal job creating a feeling and allowing us to feel what he feels and see what he sees and does so in a way that brings us to a whole other world that we want to keep going to again and again.
Big Strong Man is the new single out by Courtney Cotter King and it is a playful tribute to masculinity. This song creates a lovely backdrop for femininity. “Light as a feather, when we’re together” is how she feels against his “gentle giant, nice grizzly bear” frame. Syncopated percussion, flirty echos and horns resembling early Fiona Apple, set the scene for Courtney’s vocal personality to come through in this jazzy number. Ultimately written for her tall, handsome husband; Courtney hopes it can boost a lot of guys out there and promote brands that serve the individual strengths of women and men.
The song keeps the same tone throughout which provides a whimsical feel of being next to this “big strong man” with a fireplace roaring in the background while sipping wine.
Courtney was born with the piano as an appendage, and is inevitably attached to the keys. Her artistry drives her blue-eyed soul, singer-songwriter genre. Courtney is a mom of 3 under the age of 5. She hopes to inspire moms that creativity doesn’t have to stop when kids are created. She humorously balances gigging with nursing and finger painting with songwriting. “Marriage and motherhood has opened me to songs I could have never written without these sweet souls in my life.”
We look forward to more inspiration from this indie artist.
In equal measures of melodic color and rhythmic flair, Christian’s dazzling collection of songs have been warming the hearts of listeners over the past 3 and a half decades. By pivoting his lyricism around emotion, tension, and hope, Parker has carved out a sound that constantly keeps the listener craving more, with songs that elegantly weave through a tapestry of pensive acoustic and chiming electric guitars with unforgettable hooks. Acting as a musically minded watchman on the wall, Christian Parker centers the themes and stories of his productions around the events and stories of others, while also honing in his wordplay around the human condition. He speaks to the trials, tribulations and victories we encounter in everyday life, and to the complexities of relationships, whether in the form of loss or appreciation.
Recently releasing his new single “Cast a Line,” this is the first in a series of releases for the artist this year,
In recent years he has worked with producer Louie Hurwitz; Woodstock Records who most notably performed in The Band with Levon Helm. Christian’s efforts as lead guitarist in the Waydown Wailers helped take their 2018 release of Backland Blues to number 42 on The Roots Music Report. The band has been a supporting act for Lady A, Charlie Daniels, Jarrod Niemann, and The New Riders of the Purple Sage – to name a few. Now an artist on SubCat Records, Christian is co-producing with engineer Ron Keck on his newest project Every Passing Mile and Best Kept Secret, a collection of previously unreleased material spanning the last two decades.
Temagami, Ontario’s The Electric Petals have returned with the second single from their upcoming album, Wild At Heart. “Cherry Red” is a laid back sax and bass driven ode to Iggy Pop which channels late 70s David Bowie.
As you listen, imagine finding a dingy alleyway door lit up with red light. Once stepping through the door, you feel energized and free, dancing in a dark room where you can only make out others’ silhouettes.
It’s an experience that is few and far between at the moment, so The Electric Petals wanted to bring that back: the exotic feeling of exploring an unknown city alone and stumbling into a hole in the wall that turns into a classic night. We had the honor of catching up with the group for an exclusive Video Voyageur below!
Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?
‘Cherry Red’ began as a feeling from a bass line that kept coming back, and I knew there was something in there that we could develop into a song to make its way onto the album. The bass gives me a dreamlike feeling of dark and mysterious nostalgia: an underground bar that feels dangerous and not entirely legal, where live music is playing and the band and other people moving around the dark space are silhouetted and you can’t make out their faces. I think we all agreed to make a video for Cherry Red because of that feeling. We always fall into writing songs that have a cinematic feel to them. There’s a bizarre feeling to the sound in Cherry Red that none of us can really put our finger on. There’s definitely a cinematic element to it, but it also sounds like it could have been recorded in several different decades. That element in itself sets it apart from the other songs on the album, and I think it’s what led us to make a video for it.
What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)?
We wanted to shoot something that has an 80s or 90s music video aesthetic. We also wanted to focus on the band and not formulate a short story idea to express a specific meaning behind the song. I love music videos that only show the band, because it leaves the imagination of the song meaning up to the audience. Sometimes that’s all a music video needs to be, and sometimes you just want to check the band out, and that allows you to put a face to the music. A lot of music videos are the interpretation of what a hired filmmaker feels when listening to a song, or what the song’s lyrics mean to a director or the band specifically. It’s like when you read a book, and go see the movie adaptation… The movie never amounts to what you created inside your head while reading the written word, and sometimes you feel like you would have been better off with your own interpretation.
What was the process of making this video?
We always have a camera laying around for behind-the-scenes footage while recording and other shenanigans. For this project we went to Mosha’s garage studio here in Toronto and shot in there for a day. He had these huge mirrors in there from a film set he worked on so that became a part of the backdrop, then we finished off the shoot in my living room. All of the footage is captured in-camera using my Red Komodo and a set of old vintage Baltar lenses. They were used for a lot of movies back in the 1930s like Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ and Orson Welles’ ‘Magnificent Ambersons.’ With that setup we got our hands on a bunch of shaped glass that you can use to place in front of the camera lens to get the distorted kaleidoscope effect that you see in the video. I think the best part was getting Nico and May playing sax together for the duelling solos. They’re both class acts and the one insert shot of Nico stroking his thigh mid-sax solo is just one of those beautiful miracles in cinema that don’t happen everyday. It’s always much more fun producing videos like this, literally in-house, with the band where we’re all contributing and getting involved throughout the process from start to finish. Once you get a big music video budget together you begin to simply throw money at the issues that arise instead of solving them creatively with the resources you have at your disposal. As of now we’ve produced 4 music videos for the debut album and haven’t spent a dime. We like to keep it run-n-gun and lots of fun.
Modern Mystery 
You must be logged in to post a comment.