Sunny days, furry friends, classic songs, and a whole lot of heart. Street Gang, an HBO original documentary about the most impactful children’s program in television history, Sesame Street, premieres December 13 on HBO Max.
Sonic Reducers: 2021’s Best Music Documentaries
Sonic Reducers. One topic. Two music nerds. Five minutes. Everything you need to know.
Listen up as we rewind some of our favourite music documentaries and concert videos of 2021, and wonder what 2022 holds in store.
Sonic Reducers: Anyone Can Make Music. But Should They?
Sonic Reducers. 1 topic. 2 music nerds. 5 minutes.
We talk about new gadgets that will let you make music with body movements, debate whether this is progress or not, and watch me go into an old-man snit about kids these days. Grrr.
Hayley Wallis Captures Plight of the Everyday Struggle with “Coffee Cup”
Singer/songwriter Hayley Wallis captures the plight of everyday struggles when it comes to mental health with this, the release of her emotional and captivating debut single, “Coffee Cup” — available now.
Relatable and moving start to finish, the multi-talented artist’s rich, textured tone soars across the soulful and poignant pop anthem that softly encourages and supports reaching out for help.
“I allowed myself to fall into a very vulnerable place with this song,” Wallis shares of the track’s origins. “I truly believe music is therapy, and I wrote ‘Coffee Cup’ while struggling with my own mental health during these trying times.
“I find it important to be honest with my songwriting so that it may resonate with — and hopefully help — others on their life’s journey.”
Now based in Vancouver, Hayley Wallis began her musical journey at a young age singing for her family and community in a small, isolated island known as Klemtu, located in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Being part of the Kitasoo/Xais’xais Nation has ultimately shaped who Hayley is today, and helped carve a path for where she is bravely steering her journey with her debut single and video; passionate about leaving a strong legacy, she sings for herself, her children, and her people, and hopes to set an example that will empower the young generation of her community to pursue their dreams.
“Coffee Cup” was produced by David Hodges, recorded by Nathan Turner, and mastered by Jon Tornblom; the video was directed by Drei Media, and filmed on unceded traditional and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
She recently performed at the 2021 Canned Salmon Music Festival, and is set to release a debut EP this Spring 2022.
R&B Powerhouse & Star Acadamie Contestant Annabel Oreste Reimagines Timeless Classic “Body And Soul”
Showcasing her powerhouse prowess for R&B, Montreal singer/songwriter Annabel Oreste and her inimitable soaring vocals channel Anita Baker’s classic with the release of new single and video for “Body And Soul” — available now.
While her music warrants adoration in and of itself, Oreste has captivated the hearts and support of Canadians during her participation on the popular reality TV series, Star Acadamie, in 2021. Showcasing her vocal talent and range via Sia’s “Bird Set Free” and Peggy Lee’s “Fever”, Oreste successfully demanded the attention and affection of an entire nation.
Riding the momentum from her success on Star Acadamie, Annabel Oreste was featured in a TedxWaterStreet talk, performing Ed Sheeran’s “Make it Rain”; she was then invited to the performance by Mike Jean, signed by MLife Music Group, and expanded her network to include industry legend Humberto Gatica, Kenn Hicks, who is now her vocal coach, The Fugees’ Jerry Wonda, with whom she’s soon to enter the studio with, and singer/songwriter Denise Rich, with whom she’s set to be collaborating with for songwriting.
All these fantastic performances highlight everything that Annabel Oreste stands for as a musician and performing artist: incredibly lush, immersive musical productions and vocal arrangements.
With a style that is both melodic and catchy, complementing her powerhouse vocals with a fresh modern edge, Oreste possesses an uncanny talent for conveying massive amounts of information via her body language and eye contact that is present through all her performances. Couple her dreamy and sultry vocal style with her governing stage presence, and you’ve got a powerful recipe for success.
Every bit of Annabel Oreste’s musical experience and prowess culminates itself in her newest release, “Body And Soul.” No stranger to performing cover songs with her own personal twist on the original arrangement, Oreste often finds her vocal style compared to R&B legends such as Celine Dion, Adele, and Whitney Houston, which makes sense when listening to her cover of “Body And Soul.”
However, it’s the unique modernized riffage and vocalization that Annabel Oreste throws into her performances that really re-sells this timeless arrangement, and helps her connect with her audience. When you pair her alluring and warm vocal performance with the ability to tell a story via body language, it is almost impossible to step away.
Annabel Oreste reflects on the production of “Body And Soul,” saying “My motto when making a video is: ‘Make me feel what you feel’. It always reminds me how important it is to find ways to evoke change in my viewers so they can relate and connect with my message. The video shows how I express myself through my eyes and ears while also attempting to reach a level of engagement that absorbs the listener.”
It is only a heavily anticipated matter of time before Annabel Oreste starts her own musical journey. While we keep our eyes peeled for original releases from the artist, there are plenty of soulful covers to enjoy in the meantime.
Sonic Reducers: Our Breakout Stars Of 2022
Sonic Reducers. 1 topic. 2 music nerds. 5 minutes.
We about some of our favourite breakout artists of 2021: Olivia Rodrigo, Mustafa The Poet, Wet Leg, and Geese, and which ones we’ll be leaving the house for to see live in 2022.
Steven Heighton Embraces Uncertain Days with Love in “New Year Song”
Through two years of pandemic-fuelled anxiety, political and social upheaval, and deepening social divides, maintaining hope and optimism has been a monumentally tall order. Having eagerly hoped 2021 would bring with it a cure for what ails us, enter award-winning Canadian author and rising singer/songwriter Steven Heighton and his new single, “New Year Song” — available now.
With the song poetically turning the page to what matters most on any and every day — the love we give — the profoundly moving single arrives from Heighton’s recent debut LP, The Devil’s Share, out now via Wolfe Island Records/CRS Europe.
Written near the end of 2020, “New Year Song” is Heighton’s defiantly hopeful, optimistic embrace of the year ahead, despite the pandemic and worsening political strife. With a steady acoustic strum behind his clear, confident vocal, Heighton keenly observes love’s enduring and paramount importance through examples of those on the precipice of death, under the weight of despair, questioning their purpose or steadfast in their faith and conviction. As each expository verse of “New Year Song” closes the singer finds himself answering the call to live a loving life in a more resolute and open way.
Now I understand the gospel choir
And the Muslim cantor’s singing
The chant of freedom marchers when
The bells of change are ringing
The sentenced one who greets the sun
Though he knows what dawn is bringing
Repeat the call, I swear that I’ll
Embrace this new beginning
Repeat the call, repeat the call
And I’ll come forward singing
The second single from Heighton’s highly praised debut album, The Devil’s Share, “New Year Song” follows “Don’t Remember Me.” In a short time, his music has made an impressive impact on reviewers and revered artist contemporaries alike; The Queen’s Journal calls the collection “a terrific blend of folk, rock, and blues built on the foundation of Heighton’s tender-yet-searing poetry,” and internationally-renowned Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith writes, “Steven Heighton’s songs and voice truly resonate with me. They give me a sort of ‘Where have you been all my life?’ feeling.”
In the tradition of “Let It Be,” “Let It Grow,” “Peace Train,” or Sexsmith’s own “Gold in Them Hills,” Heighton has created an anthem that celebrates surrendering to life despite all its dangers, divisions, and griefs. This is perhaps most beautifully encapsulated in the song’s bridge.
I once believed in love received
You’re saved by the love they gave you.
Now I see it the other way
Only love you give can save you.
The closing chorus of “New Year Song” hits an emotional apex when the great gospel and blues artist Sherman Holmes adds his voice to the choir, inviting both personal and collective healing while celebrating the potential aftermath of that change – a new year, truly.
Love, gratitude and a commitment to healing have already been hard at work in Heighton’s own life as he triumphantly overcame a tragic accident that almost took his voice away. In 2010, the Toronto-born, Kingston-based artist suffered a laryngeal fracture — a crushed voice box — while playing recreational hockey, and doctors told him he might never talk normally, and most certainly wouldn’t sing again. Heighton took that diagnosis as a challenge to rebuild rather than as a sentence of lifelong silence; he picked up his guitar again and returned to writing words to be sung in addition to the ones he was writing to be read.
As his voice gained strength, Heighton finished old songs, wrote new ones and felt compelled to record them. The Devil’s Share, Heighton’s first album of original songs, was recorded at Post Office Studio on Wolfe Island near Kingston with veteran producer Hugh Christopher Brown. It features Brown on keyboards (Barenaked Ladies, BB King, Tragically Hip, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir), bassist Jason Mercer (Ron Sexsmith, Ani DiFranco, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir), and lead guitarist Tony Scherr (Norah Jones, Keith Richards).
The album follows a prolific and celebrated writing career for Heighton, during which he has authored and published eighteen books of poetry, fiction and essays including the 2016 Governor General’s Award-winning The Waking Comes Late. Heighton’s novel Afterlands was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a best-of-year selection in several countries, and is in pre-production for film.
It’s truly a new year for Steven Heighton, and his artistry, as well. Thirty years ago, he began his career as a songwriter busking around Europe and Australia. Now, after a successful literary career and recovering from a life-altering accident, he views his return to music as coming home to his roots and “making good on the sort of promise you vow to yourself in your early years without knowing you’ve done it.”
“New Year Song” and The Devil’s Share are both available now.
Michelle Titian Brings Raw Beauty to Exploration of Addiction in “Drive (radio edit)”
Addiction can be such a devastating, destructive force in a person’s life, and their loved ones, as well. It’s with that in mind that Canadian singer-songwriter Michelle Titian soars with a beautiful, radical, coming-clean sense of honesty coming to terms with such destruction in her new single “Drive (radio edit)”.
“It takes a village to spread the word and help others struggling with addiction,” Titian shares. “This song has been a tremendous part of my healing, and my wish is that it inspires hope in anyone who is struggling, or simply needing a friend on the toughest of days.”
Working with Canadian producer Les Cooper (Jill Barber, The Good Lovelies ), “Drive (radio edit)” is an immersive example of Titian’s intrinsic songwriting that allows her to effortlessly arrange melodies and harmonies that tap into human emotions and share artful lyrics that speak to the soul.
With stirring, soaring vocals, lyrics full of hard-earned insight and clarity, and featuring elegant piano, strings, and deft guitar, “Drive (radio edit)” is the appropriately-titled ballad to play in your car when you’re in the mood for a good long think, or a cathartic cry.
Took me so long
to be honest with myself
my delusion, my perception,
my soul
came to believe a power
greater than all
addiction does not own me anymore
Paired with the simultaneous hope of making amends to a person she loves, putting the devastation in her rearview is the narrator’s stated goal: ‘Drive me away from it all/So we can be together/Once more.’ In the final verse, she humbly begs for forgiveness, and there’s the sense that she’s addressing both her lover and the higher power mentioned earlier in the song.
Newly signed to Roar Records, Michelle Titian is a singer-songwriter who brings raw emotion to her music — “Drive (radio edit)” being no exception. Her songs are an open and unashamed exposure of her battle with addiction and depression, her journey to recovery, and the love she feels for her life now; each recording serves as a testament to the strength that can manifest through vulnerability, and the wonderful connections that can be built through an honest soul.
“Every so often a talent comes along that speaks to our souls,” media icon Debbie Travis says of Titian. “Their stories inspire us to turn the page and start a new chapter. Michelle Titian is such an artist. Her music is heartwarming and exhilarating.”
In addition to creating inspiring music, Titian created The Drive Foundation, a charitable organization to inspire hope and ignite dreams for those who are afflicted by mental health and addiction.
“Drive (radio edit)” is available now.
Wavelength Music’s Co-Founder Jonny Dovercourt Releases Season 2 of Any Night of the Week: A Walking History of Toronto Music
Melophiles with a love for urban lore are in for a treat with this month’s Season 2 podcast launch of Any Night of the Week: A Walking History of Toronto Music now available through Apple Music Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify Podcasts.
With Episode 3 “Dundas West” newly available, Wavelength Music co-founder and Artistic / Executive Director Jonny Dovercourt is back hosting the ‘virtual walking tour,’ relaying stories about iconic venues and interviews with the influential artists and promoters that rocked them.
Initially a limited series based on Jonny’s book, Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music 1957-2001, Season 1’s episodes were commissioned by the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Those first five guide listeners through a well-stocked list of the city’s most musical neighbourhoods and stages — from Yonge Street, over and up to the Annex, Kensington, Queen West, Lee’s Palace, Massey Hall, the Horseshoe Tavern, and beyond.
With additional support from the City of Toronto’s Show Love T.O. program, Season 2 is set to lead legions of aural amblers beyond the downtown core. Think: Toronto’s East End and through Scarborough, with stops at The Opera House, Danforth Music Hall, Knob Hill Hotel, the Garrison, Lula Lounge, and more. The series will also address the City of Toronto’s recent decision to change the name of Dundas Street in recognition of its racist, colonial history.
Published in 2020 via Coach House Books, Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music 1957-2001 — and its accompanying podcast — is written and hosted by Jonathan Bunce — aka Jonny Dovercourt. As a writer, musician, and concert presenter active in the city’s local independent music community since the 90s, he is also the co-founder and Artistic / Executive Director of Wavelength Music Arts Projects — a groundbreaking non-profit Canadian indie music institution for the past 20+ years.
Jonny Dovercourt’s writing has appeared in Exclaim!, Eye Weekly, Huffington Post, Musicworks, Now Magazine, and Spacing. He has performed with numerous indie bands, including The Hidden Cameras, Republic of Safety, Secret Agent, Several Futures, and A Tuesday Weld.
Rounding out the podcast and book’s immersive experience, an exclusive series of map posters created by artist Daniel Rotsztain are also available.
Any Night of the Week: The History and Future of Toronto Music (podcast) and Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music 1957-2001 (book) are available now, with new episodes for Season 2 now available.
Ritalin Boy Explores Life & Death in Blistering New Single “Some Kind of Angel”
Toronto-based Ritalin Boy explores life and death with his blistering new single, “Some Kind of Angel” — available now.
The new video and single off the acclaimed studio album Adult Entertainment is a mammoth track with a sensational melody that cuts no corners. This anthemic single is dripping with all of the style and polish you find on the most significant rock records, and this larger-than-life sound meshes seamlessly with the contemplative writing style that has become seminal in Ritalin Boy’s art.
“Cross my heart and hope to die if you I did betray
Heart behind bars covered in scars as my demons held sway
And when the last trace of hope was gone
That’s when an angel came along.”
This brooding ballad navigates themes of love and salvation through intricate metaphors to paint a portrait of a forsaken lost soul on the brink of despair.
“Some Kind of Angel” not only communicates a message with its music but also with its visuals. Accompanying the single is a gritty video shot remotely on the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Channelling the German expressionist films from the silent era, the black and white music video features a mysterious figure known only as Mirror-Face. Using the video as an allegory for the framework of time, Ritalin Boy himself stars as Man in a Bowler Hat to round out the cast and create something uniquely eerie.
Adult Entertainment, the debut album by Ritalin Boy, is a candid look at his views on the twisted world as it is today and his place within it. “Some Kind of Angel” encapsulates Ritalin Boy’s overall aesthetic of hard rock laid atop meaningful lyrics that move listeners in more ways than one.
Originally from Manitoba, Ritalin Boy has been creating music for over two decades. Playing the underground music scene in Toronto further refined Ritalin Boy’s penchant for musical authenticity, citing Canadian music heroes like Gord Downie and Leonard Cohen as his inspiration. He is currently working on the sophomore follow-up album; called The Skeleton Army, the release is slated to come out in 2022.
“Some Kind of Angel” and Adult Entertainment are available now.