At over 130,000+ streams, Canadian producer Mellow Fields is back to haunt your dreams with this, his new single, “Gemini Rising” — available now.
The track starts with electronic beats rising to a swell before making way for sweet, ethereal vocals from featured artist, Jenny Palacios, that light up the song’s compelling poetry. Mellow Fields — aka Michael David’s — rhythms are irresistible and, together with Palacios’ lead and harmony vocals in a mesmerizing stream of lyrics, her singing floats above them like a butterfly.
It’s a track that goes from soft to insistent, kinetic to moody, still to emotional, and back.
Like any true Gemini, the lyrics blend diverse elements — sweet sensuality and a hint of danger, with a trippy sensibility that puts you in a dream world. Mellow Fields weaves it all into a rich sonic texture, and “Gemini Rising” wraps with an ecstatic high of music and emotion.
From a sleepy suburb in the Greater Toronto Area to the airwaves, Mellow Fields is an indie Progressive House/Electro producer working from home during the pandemic. He’s adept at switching moods over the 4:31 minute track, developing the rhythms and sounds with a judicious ear and without a hint of self-indulgence. He’s always got a new surprise up his sleeve, and a new direction to keep things interesting and add replay appeal.
He counts the greats of EDM among the influences in his work, and in “Gemini Rising” audiences hear the same focus on persistent beats plus a play on rising and falling tension. It’s trance music with a nod to synthwave, a song that’s sonically intriguing but also accessible — and danceable, too.
The track is a mild departure from Mellow Fields’ previous work, including the song “Wage of Destruction” — the first track from his 2017 self-titled debut EP that was licenced for use in a Nissan commercial, and received widespread airplay across playlist and gaming channels.
That said, it’s “the most authentic music” he’s written since starting as a producer, he shares.
Canadian rockers Cigar Club are storming the scene with this brooding, bone-chilling, goosebump-inducing new single, “Like White Flats in Winter” — available now.
The song lands ahead of the Toronto-based band’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated debut album, Day, Now, and serves as yet another pitch-perfect introduction to the crew, offering you a little bit of everything and more.
“Like White Flats in Winter” is the third and latest single from the upcoming record, and quite possibly the band’s most unique to date. It kicks off with a simple, yet catchy, chord progression, which is accompanied by the longing vocal phrases of frontman Trev Coughlin — which instills a powerful feeling of sadness and doom within the listener.
Coughlin’s voice, no matter how buttery, carries so much weight and emotion in this song, it begs the question: ‘Who hurt this man?’
“I feel like we really got it right with this song,” Coughlin says. “It’s like that first line: ‘Walking off pavement into stars’… I hear that like walking off the edge and then gradually falling, while getting louder and louder.”
Lead guitarist Dan Amato adds that it’s an “emotionally” powerful song for them. “It feels really good to really love the music you had a part in creating … I suppose that’s why we do this.”
“We were initially going to save this song for our next album,” Coughlin reveals of the song, “but COVID-19 hit and pushed everything back, and we were too excited to wait with it.”
“This song was influenced by the new Ontario rock scene on the rise, and the energy associated with it,” drummer Tyler Booth says of the track’s sound. “It’s my favourite to play by far.”
Booth’s performance on this number, in particular, is much different from a typical Cigar Club song as it incorporates a number of different percussion styles — including double bass drumming and clavés, and was influenced heavily by Latin dance music.
In agreement with his bandmates, bassist Jeff LeFort muses that “Like White Flats in Winter” came out of nowhere, at first. “It started out just as this simple instrumental chord progression, and turned into one of our favourite originals.”
Cigar Club kicked off their career in 2016 after bonding over their mutual love for John Mayer’s music. Though soft rock and blues (with a hint of soul) was once their game — and will forever be a part of their playing styles — it wasn’t until Booth joined that they mastered their iconic and alternative, punk rock sound heard today.
After the release of their first-ever EP, Cigar Club — and a year of consistent touring across Ontario, pre-COVID-19 pandemic, of course — the four-piece began garnering a mass of positive attention and developed a gigantic local fanbase, along with the fierce demand for more original music.
Along with “Like White Flats in Winter’, Cigar Club’s two previous singles, “Swimmin’ in Gold” and “…Aliens” single are now available through all major streaming platforms.
Join renowned Canadian songwriter, artist, and much-loved TV personality Christopher Ward for a live and interactive YouTube take-over event with Long & McQuade Musical Instruments.
Tune in Thursday, April 29 at 7pm EDT for Through the Creative Lens: A Songwriter’s Masterclass with Christopher Ward! Watch the livestream on YouTube here: youtu.be/ivyXy1hx1RM.
Following the April release of the award-winning single, “Black Velvet” as reimagined by the songwriter himself, featured on his new autobiographical album Same River Twice launching May 28, 2021, on Wardworks/Warner Music Canada. The session will include the story of the creation of the international hit and #1 Billboard Top 100 single, “Black Velvet” and discussion on the song writing process, including:
– opening lines, deadlines, inspiration and collaboration
– how to recognize a good idea and take it to the next level
– the joy of experimentation and the importance of daydreaming
Plus, personal anecdotes including highlights from Christopher’s interviews with some of the greatest songwriters in history and a live post-session Q&A.
In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten-until now. SUMMER OF SOUL shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach and more.
Watch the brand-new teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, in theatres this December. It’s been 60 years since the original and was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including George Chakiris for Supporting Actor, Rita Moreno for Supporting Actress, and Best Picture.
Twenty years ago, Frances McDormand starred in Almost Famous as Elaine Miller, a college professor who frequently told her budding music journalist son that rock & roll was about “drugs and promiscuous sex.” In this deleted scene from Cameron Crowe’s film, she is asked to endure all eight minutes and two seconds of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Cameron Crowe has said that if he knew this scene would not have been in the movie, he wouldn’t have made it. They couldn’t secure the rights to the song and so it was cut.
JUNO Award-winning Canadian songwriter, artist, author and MuchMusic original VJ Christopher Ward has recorded a new take on his most recognizable song, the Billboard #1 hit “Black Velvet” — available now.
The writers who have achieved a #1 single number in the hundreds. This songwriter’s take on the classic comes 31 years after this achievement. It is worthy of your attention.
As far as resumes go, Ward’s is among the nation’s most prolific: To leap by decades, he was a recording artist throughout the 70s, a television icon and founding VJ through the 80s, and a hit songwriter in the 90s. He’s written songs for many — including Diana Ross, Amanda Marshall, Colin James, and the Backstreet Boys — as well as for CTV’s Instant Star, the Degrassi franchise, Cirque du Soleil, and more. His songs have been performed on Idol shows around the world, and he’s won a JUNO Award for Songwriter of the Year. Ward has also authored three novels, Is This Live?, and co-hosts a podcast, Famous Lost Words.
Now, Ward’s take on “Black Velvet” is one of many; the song precedes his forthcoming album, Same River Twice — set for release on May 28, 2021.
Produced by Ward, Arun Chaturvedi, and Luke McMaster, the album signals a homecoming, or a return, if you will. After a career of writing songs for others, Same River Twice tells his own tale as an artist and writer. “It’s a testimony, of sorts, from someone who’s been ‘working life out’ on a guitar and in a notebook for half a century — and counting, and as times change, and we all age, we still have new stories to tell.
“The ground I cover in Same River Twice is personal, and the telling is honest and hopeful. These are songs that say it was all worth it, that our choices matter, and that we need dreams to live for.”
A deep faith in the creative process led to the making of Same River Twice this past summer. “A group of brilliant players and singers gathered in the legendary Orange Lounge studio,” Ward recalls. “We recorded in a way that harkened back to the classic Motown and Muscle Shoals style of working; I’d play the song on acoustic guitar for the band, then they’d run it down a few times, making notes and talking about the shape of the song.
“We’d press record,” he continues, “and once everyone was happy, on to the next!
“It was my belief that capturing a performance of the song, live off the floor and while the players were still discovering it themselves, would lead to the ‘loose and live’ feeling that’s so elusive in recording sessions.”
And capture it, they did. The result is a 13-track LP, along with Ward’s reinvention of “Black Velvet,” that will “take you to the places where the song was born.”
“The creation of Same River Twice was a process of rediscovery, like falling in love again,” Ward explains. “I started to write songs that reflect my own life experiences, which I hadn’t done in decades and it led me to value what I have and what life’s about a whole lot more. I wanted to share that to empower people to listen to their own inner voices, as I came to terms with mine.”
Ward talks about the process of making Same River Twice, “How to get those songs recorded was going to be a challenge, but together, my collaborators and I found a way to work safely and still explore the intimacy of playing as a group, bouncing ideas back and forth as we went along. For the players, who had been working exclusively at home for a while, it was like coming out of hibernation, and for me there’s nothing like the joy of playing together and seeing a song evolve before your eyes.”
With inspiration drawn from the greatest songwriters of all time including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Willie Dixon, Laura Nyro and Hank Williams, Ward embraces the possibilities of limitless artistic self-expression and a continued and ongoing drive to create. A lover of the process of collaboration, he believes it ultimately makes for a better song — like travelling down a river to discover something new as the ultimate reward.
“I’m happy with the work I’ve done, but will always want to write another song,” Ward explains, when asked about who else he would like to write for, or with, next. “I can’t imagine retiring, it’s a terrifying prospect for me. I’m a storyteller with a restless imagination, and with this new album, I want to connect with the listener by trying to make the most out of who I am, how I’ve evolved, and by sharing the process of rediscovery. If I write something true, that touches someone, that’s where the real gratification is.
“I found something meaningful during the process of making Same River Twice, that I thought I had lost. I believe I’ve just made the best music of my life,” he adds. “And I’m not done yet.”
“Black Velvet” is available now. Same River Twice is available May 28, 2021.
There’s a ‘beauty in tragedy’ and ‘dreaminess to heartache’ that Canadian multi-instrumentalist Esther Spiegelman — and group Let’s Be Giants — weave into their encapsulating new single, “I Don’t Mind” — available now.
Landing ahead of the Montreal-based band’s forthcoming album, Fade In / Fade Out, the song features simple lyrics with a profound message; Spiegelman both implores you to listen, and also hear what she’s feeling, what she’s wishing, and what she’s needing.
Drawing on the nostalgia of 90s soundscapes — think Liz Phair asking Dolores O’Riordan to the dance, only to find out that Mazzy Starr was the opening band — “I Don’t Mind” lulls you into memories of heartbreak, but with an air of hope that you’ll survive this, too.
Having fronted several outfits over her tenure as a singer/songwriter, it was Spiegelman’s assembly of Let’s Be Giants where she found her niche. After recruiting Jeremie Dallaire on guitar, Matt Wozniak on bass, and Simon Pesant on drums, songs Spiegelman had started penning began to take a life form all their own.
“Esther often writes songs about being in her own head, and in her own world, where she can view things the way she wants to,” says the band. “As an introvert, she writes a lot about what goes on in her mind, and often references not wanting to go out into the real world.
“‘I Don’t Mind’ is the perfect example of that,” they continue. “It’s especially the ‘I don’t mind, change my mind’ lyrics that provide listeners with the possibility of change and hope.”
As a song that delves into the core of ‘human spirit,’ and challenges it to leave it all on the dance floor, the subsequent music video is another brainchild of Spiegelman where she found her creativity not only in song and on screen, but also behind the lens.
The ‘walk, sing, think, speak, cry, cringe, beg, plead, play it out, dance it out, figure it out’ nature of the video is immersive, and its cleverly drawn animated features keep audiences’ interest piqued. Hand-crafted by Spiegelman and her co-director, Dominic Levert, the pair had mere days to assemble the crayon drawings, storyboard the set, determine the appropriate shots, and see their concept through to translate to video.
Citing, and albeit jokingly, they recall never having “worked that much” in a three-day period, the effort pays off in fastidious ways. The detail in post-production with live and animated elements, mingling with the ingenuity of the whimsical indie rock melody of the song, produces a snapshot in time — from losing it all, but clinging to the aspiration of winning one day again.
“The post production that came after the filming was even more time consuming than everything we had done so far,” the band explains. “Esther took the lead in post production, and literally learned how to animate to make this video possible. Because of the learning curve of it all, it ended up taking about 100 hours longer than anticipated.
“But she was determined,” they continue. “She got it looking how she originally envisioned it, bringing all her crayon-coloured illustrations to life frame by frame — of course, with the help of Dominic, who showed her the ropes and prepped mostly everything for post production.”
The results are a transcendent and brightly coloured visual for a contrastingly melancholy song.
But that’s exactly what Let’s Be Giants does so well: they move you to tears, while giving you permission to feel okay about it.
Like they say, “we give the extroverts the opportunity to be introverted, for even just a few minutes.”
“I Don’t Mind” is available now. Fade In / Fade Out is available June 1st, 2021.
Reggae rock-pop duo Black Creek Reign continue to ride the wave of recent critical acclaim with this, the release of their newest single, “Run Away.”
Echoing calls to a lover to pick up and take off for a night, and teeming with sweet thoughts and island vibes, the track features Black Creek Reign members Darren Armoogam and Lex Stultz alongside collaborations with fellow Toronto-based crossover group, The Band Destiny, and Caribbean artist, Logun.
“Reggae is a genre that’s been near and dear to our hearts since our inception,” Armoogam shares. “It’s energetic, vibrant, calming, and can even be political at the same time.
“We’re all about creating within a very fluid genre-bending experience, and are influenced by a variety of styles — rock, pop, funk, and everything in between,” he continues. “But with reggae, there’s a sense of authenticity in it with us, too, considering half the band has an origin story there.”
“Our friends The Band Destiny and Logun really hit a home run with their parts, and this song would not be the same without them,” Stultz says, citing the contributions from Trinidad & Tobago’s Logun (Kevin Ramlogan), and Toronto and Trinidad & Tobago’s The Band Destiny’s Stephen Nanan, Celine Nanan, Dylan Harpal, Curtis Bernard, Kamela Singh, Vijai Ramdath, Vikash Ramdath, Kiran Dhindlal, Shrija Srivastava, and Armoogam, who is also a member.
“The Band Destiny have been our friends for years now, and skillfully blend reggae, soca, chutney, and Bollywood-style music in a way that makes it no surprise they’ve won ‘Top Soca Band’ in Toronto three years in a row.
“Logun has shared the stage with the likes of Wayne Wonder and Ludacris, to name a few, and brings his own unique, Island-rooted flair into the genres of hip hop, reggae, roasting, and soca,” Stultz continues. “We’ve also known him for quite some time, and saw this collaboration as the perfect opportunity to incorporate a vibe that only he can execute. Really, we couldn’t have done it without him, he crushed it.”
“In all,” Armoogam adds, “this song is a rare blend of authentic Caribbean vibes that’s edgy and exotic — perfect for Summer!”
Penned and produced by Armoogam and Stultz, Logun joins on songwriting credits, while The Band Destiny’s Stephen Nanan and Global Music Entertainment’s Jovan Jovanov join on production.
Dubbed “a band with a great blend of funk, rock, reggae, and blues” by Canadian Beats, “Run Away” follows close on the heels of Black Creek Reign’s recent release, “You & I” featuring multi-Platinum, multi-award winning and SiriusXM Artist of the Year Danny Fernandes.
These tracks and collaborations are the latest in the band’s steady stacking of successes: Winners of Raising the Roof / Revival Bar’s Battle of the Bands, and runner up in the following year’s Ultimate Champion rematch, songs from their debut EP Excommunicado — not to mention recent singles “All I Ever Wanted (This Year)” and “The Rain” — have been heard across radio stations and playlists nationwide, and heralded by the likes of Canadian Beats, Indie Pulse, Buzz Music, and more.
“(Black Creek Reign) will immediately cause involuntary movement from the waist down,” Bucket List Music Reviews writes. “It doesn’t matter where you are, what mood you are in, or if you possess any dancing abilities, these groovy tunes will have you bouncing around the entire time. Don’t fight it. Just let go and have yourself a grand old time.”
With hundreds of live performances under their belt — including the final show at Toronto’s Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood’s infamous Pig N’ Whistle, Pearson Airport’s YYZ Live, and the Los Angeles Songwriters Association — the duo has taken the stage from Nashville, to Los Angeles, and back to their hometown of Toronto.
NPR Music is proud to present the keynote panel conversation for the 2021 Pop Conference, hosted by New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. The keynote is titled “Fluxed: Making Popular Music in the Midst of Change and Transition.”
To kick off a four-day special “Convergence” version of the annual Pop Conference, the keynote conversation invites a panel of four artists thriving within the highly volatile environment of contemporary popular music to discuss how the spirit and realities of change both challenge and inspire them. From taking on the themes of transformation and precariousness in their own music, to fully exploring what new technologies can communicate, to coping with a radically altered social and economic landscape, musicians must act at the forefront of new 21st-century modes of being. This open-ended conversation connects the transforming craft and business of music-making to the art of capturing musical meanings in a highly turbulent world.
The panel’s participants are leaders in reimagining what music and its cultures can be: singer-songwriter-auteur Devonté Hynes, whose work under many different names (Blood Orange, Lightspeed Champion) exemplifies the refusal to adhere to outdated categories; producer and musician Rostam, who has been instrumental in defining the anti-genre sound of 21st century pop; singer, songwriter and producer Roísín Murphy, whose dance-inspired music finds the point where past meets future, and Tamara Lindeman, who records as the Weather Station and models how the singer-songwriter role is changing in response to both exploding musical categories and a world in crisis. Ann Powers, NPR Music Critic and author of many books, most recently Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul, moderates. The event is produced by Jason King.
