JUNO Award-winning reggae singer, songwriter, producer and social activist Kirk Diamond offers messages of unity and hope in this, his new single and video “Let It Be Done.”
“‘Let It Be Done’ was written in light of the political climate and social unrest that has affected so many worldwide, myself included,” Diamond shares. “That’s directly, indirectly, or psychologically.”
The video was filmed in Uganda, a directive reflective of his creative works influenced by the philosophies of Haile Selassie and Marcus Garvey. “As a student of Garveyism, believing in the unification and empowerment of African-American men, women, and children under the banner of their collective African descent — and the repatriation of African slave descendants and profits to the African continent — I felt it was befitting to take it back to the motherland for the video.
“As demonstrations continue across the world as an expression of frustration over longstanding issues of police brutality and inequality, all while facing a pandemic, the world just seems a bit dark and gloomy right now,” he continues. “This song is meant to give the world hope of the change that will come, to encourage people to shine amidst the darkness, and remind them we are stronger united.”
This is among what he’s known for: spreading musical messages of inclusion, unity, and love for all walks of life.
Holding multiple #1 spots on the Canadian Reggae Chart for over 25 collective weeks, it’s no surprise Kirk Diamond has been named one of CBC’s 10 Canadian Reggae Artists You Need To hear. A multi-JUNO nominee, he won for his debut EP, Greater, in 2018. Kirk Diamond and his band The Movement Of Ahryel deliver reggae and dancehall en masse — including opening for Maxi Priest, Third World, Luciano and Etana, and more.
Motown-inspired surf-punksters Bad Buddy unleash the “Hunters” with the release of their newest single to land from this year’s self-titled breakthrough album.
“At the time of Bad Buddy’s inception, we were all thoroughly fermented in folk music,” Bad Buddy vocalist and guitarist Emily Bachynski recalls, most especially of their Edmonton, Alberta base. “The scene was dripping with it.
“I bought into this,” she continues. “I had been convinced that, if you were going to be a solo artist — especially a female artist — you just sort of had to play acoustic folk tunes until you choked.
“I didn’t even listen to folk music, but I sure wrote and played a lot of it through my shitty solo project that I weakly tried to pound into something remotely palatable. It was so unnatural for me, and Bad Buddy is the polar opposite. Nothing against folk music, it’s just not meant for me.
“Bringing ‘Hunters’ to our first rehearsal felt like a big stretch after a long, cramped car ride. We all met up in my basement as ‘not exactly strangers’ but also ‘not quite friends.’ I think I played the song once through for everyone before we all looked at each other as if to say, ‘alright, let’s fire this baby up and see what she can do.’”
“That first rehearsal I was kind of nervous, wondering what I had gotten myself into,” guitarist and vocalist Andi Vissia adds. “I had never played electric guitar, and any acoustic performances were reserved for campfires and at kitchen parties. Playing in Bad Buddy really gave me the room and confidence to be creative on a brand new instrument, in a brand new genre, and “Hunters” was the kickstart of it all.”
“Hunters”, much like the rest of the release, is gritty, primal, dissonant, and unsettling, a stark juxtaposition to the tight-as-can-be three-part harmonic explosions. It is the song Bachynski, along with bandmates Andi Vissia, drummer Geoffrey Hamdon-O’Brien, and bassist and vocalist Alex Vissia credit as Bad Buddy’s inaugural foundation.
“‘Hunters’ seriously captures the long-lost spirit of The Pixies, and just has this menacing, predatory, ‘evil grin in the dark’ (thing) going for it,” the Edmonton Journal says. “To be honest, Bad Buddy scares the hell out of me, they’re so electrifying; comical and fierce, a total confidence machine with thrash-y pop songs so infectious, you’re still banging your head to them six months later. Easily one of the most exciting bands (right now).”
“The song definitely holds a place near and dear in my heart,” Bachynski says. “It’s simple, but it unleashed a fury in each of us. It was so satisfying to not have to sing ‘pretty’ or be ‘pretty’ or be… Anything for anyone but ourselves.”
Hitting #1 on Earshot!, their eponymous debut 13-track LP was released earlier this year, and was preceded by EP, The Sneakie Peakie.
Hamilton, ON’s artists Bubl T’s continue to push the boundaries of pop and limits of love with the release of their newest single, “Intimacy.”
“We’re exploring that certain subtle but very telling details of a close romantic relationship,” Bubl T’s hint of the progressive pop song’s content. “There are metaphors that reach places beyond Earth to truly imply the scope and beauty inherent in such a relationship.
“This is a pure and straightforward love song.”
That said, not all is light in its love; the final line in both verses, ‘even on Earth throughout all the most wonderful years,’ has a slightly haunting quality to it, despite its upbeat delivery. “We wanted to usher the listener to a somewhat safer and warmer place than the one implied by our present situation on Earth,” composer and producer Robert Bruce says.
Featuring Alex Whorms on vocals — and with other tracks including esteemed musicians in their own rights, such as Martina Aswani, Mark Shannon and Ruth Chan — Hamilton, Ontario’s Bubl T’s embrace a wide spectrum of genres and influences while creating their own unique brand of sound: catchy, fun and danceable pop songs with solid melodies, engaging structure, and great production.
With over 25,000+ streams across Spotify and counting, Bubl T’s have released four additional singles since stepping onto the scene earlier this year: “Strange Reaction,” “Ready for Love,” “Loser,” and “Dance In The Moment.”
Canadian synth-pop post-punk art-rocker Deep Covers ushers you into their Dark World with the release of their new album and single “Repeater.”
“There are albums in the annals of music history that are tied to and influenced by certain geographical locations,” Calgary, Alberta-based multi-instrumentalist (and man behind Deep Covers) Daniel Wilson says. “This is one of those albums.
“In September 2019, shortly after experiencing the beautiful and foreboding volcanic landscapes of Iceland, I returned home and began writing Dark World,” he continues, explaining the backstory behind the sophomore release. “The imagery of geological contrasts and alien terrain translated directly into my frothing organic analogue synthesizers.”
There was more to the experience of both the trip and creative output that resulted from it, however. From its first opening, Dark World dives deep into themes of sustainability while travelling expansive sonic landscapes brought forth by Deep Covers’ icy guitars and mechanical percussion.
“I experienced the effects of global warming in real time while I was there,” Wilson recalls. “I watched pieces of ice fall off a glacier and float out into the sea. I thought it to be a good metaphor for a life lived unsustainably, both in the physical and mental realms.”
Deep Covers has previously released their eight-track self-titled debut, Deep Covers, in 2019.
Winnipeg’s James Cohen and the Prairie Roots Rockers have dipped into their archives once again to release a new video for their critically acclaimed single, “Dreaming My Life Away.”
A pull from their self-titled 2011 12-track LP, the song follows the album’s master missive, along with this year’s earlier re-release, “These Long Nights.”
“The origins of these songs go back several years,” frontman and band namesake James Cohen considers. “The general themes are one of loneliness and isolation which, unfortunately, are sentiments many of us can relate to during these difficult times currently.”
First on the scene for their 2011 self-titled debut via Soccermom Records / Warner Music Canada, the album’s banner single “So Long Sweet Deception” charted for 16 weeks, hitting the Rock Top 50 along the way.
An alumnus of Hollywood, California’s prestigious Guitar Institute of Technology, Cohen and co have performed at Canadian Music Week, the Grey Cup Festival, and more. A forthcoming album in the works, James Cohen and the Prairie Roots Rockers are also set to perform with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2021.
At over 100,000+ streams and climbing, Ottawa’s classic folk rockers Terrence & The High Flyers are groovin’ at their Butterfly Window wondering if “This Could Be The One” with the release of their newest album and single.
“Butterfly Window started with a surplus of songs I’d been writing for another project,” Terrence says of the 12-track release. “I had this collection of tunes I was happy with, but didn’t quite fit the current band I was a part of.
“One day I decided I would try recording a number of them just for fun, and that I’d take the offcuts to my good friend Jasen Colson who lived just down the hill and across the highway from me here in the east end of Ottawa. We’d jam them out a couple of times and he would lay down some tracks on the kit, but ultimately these demos would go in a folder on my laptop and only see the light of day once in a blue moon.”
“Sometime in the Fall of 2019 I began feeling like I wanted to do something with them, though,” Terrence continues. “I just didn’t know what. I had been feeling pretty down about the state of things in my life and, for the first time in a while, I felt this surge of excitement. Jasen was immediately on board and we got to work tracking enough songs to fill out an LP just before COVID-19 hit and the world ground to a halt; miraculously, Jasen and I had finished tracking all of the drums before the lockdown began.
“When I look back at the idea for the album, the timeline just seems too perfect,” he muses. “Like things lined up just the way they needed to for it to work, and I feel good knowing I decided to go for it. It was a huge period of learning and growth for me, and I’m happy I was able to use the time for something creative and meaningful.
“The title refers to the songs and how they all went through a period of metamorphosis before they found their way out through the window that is the album. They all have their unique stories but, at the same time, they were born out of a time of trial and uncertainty.
“It’s a nod to the saving grace and universal language that is music.”
“This Could Be The One” and Butterfly Window are available now.
Multi-award nominated Canadian folk singer/songwriter Craig Cardiff details the special kind of unabashed bliss that accompanies summer romance with the release of his new single and video, Emm & May.
Calling on inspiration for everything from those first kisses to late-night bonfires, to lean-close hand holding and gazing up endlessly at the stars, Emm & May is a rambunctious, enveloping folk refrain about a budding love observed through the eyes of someone who loves to share a good story.
The song — the second to arrive ahead of his forthcoming album, All This Time Running — is instantly in keeping with Cardiff’s signature style of songwriting inspired by the sights and souls around him; for almost a decade, the Arnprior, Ontario-based artist has passed around a notebook titled ‘Book of Truths’ during shows, encouraging the audience to write and share something — a story, a confession, a hope or a secret — they might be too afraid to say out loud.
As a result, Cardiff — dubbed by Gordon Lightfoot as a “songwriter who needs to be heard” — often finds himself responding by writing songs that offer glimmers of hope for people to hold onto.
The video for Emm & May features songwriter and actor Lane Webber and is directed by Jennifer Besworth. Cardiff is notably absent from the video, a decision the songwriter says was obvious. “The song might be from my brain, but I wanted to capture it from a completely different perspective,” Cardiff shares. “The song isn’t about me, it’s about this beautiful, sweet, short love story, so it was important for me to let them — the actors and the director — tell it.”
Craig Cardiff is a certified Gold-selling artist for his single Dirty Old Town, as well as a JUNO Award (Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo) and Canadian Folk Music Award (Contemporary Singer of the Year) nominee. His growing library of releases have been streamed more than 100 million times, including on NBC’s award-winning television series, This Is Us.
All This Time Running is set to be Cardiff’s 19th album release; previous in his extensive archive are Cut to Ribbons (2019), Love is Louder (Than All the Noise) Pt. 1 & 2 (2019), Winter! Winter! Winter! (2018), This is Craig Cardiff: Collected Works (2018), Auberge Blacksheep (2018), An AntiFragile Christmas (2018), Upstream Fishing All the Words He Is – Birthday Cards to Bob Dylan (2018), Floods & Fires (2011), Songs For Lucy (2011), Mothers & Daughters (2010), Kissing Songs (Mistletoe) (2008), Judy Garland (You’re Never Home…) (2008), Easter Eggs (2007), Goodnight (Go Home) (2007), Happy (2007), Live at the Boehmer Box Company (2006), Fistful Of Flowers (2005), Soda (2003), and Great American White Trash Novel (1997).
He has played with and opened for artists such as Justin Nozuka, Glen Phillips, Lucy Kaplansky, Dan Bern, Natalia Zukerman, Andy Stochansky, Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards, Blue Rodeo, Gordon Downie, Hawksley Workman, Sarah Slean, Skydiggers, 54-40, and more, helmed a growing list of workshops and talks at schools, camps, festivals, and churches throughout North America and Hong Kong, as well as TED x University of Western Ontario, TED x Kanata and TED x KitchenerED.
Craig Cardiff is signed to True North Records, and represented by APA Agency, and Tom Sarig and his Esther Creative Group in New York City.
Multi-GRAMMY and JUNO Award-winning artist Chin Injeti processes grief and healing in this, his new single release, “Falling” — available now.
Featuring Esthero on accompanying vocals and Delhi 2 Dublin’s Tarun Nayer on tabla, “‘Falling’ was a cathartic experience for me,” he says. “It was my way of dealing with my Father’s passing, and is a bird’s eye view of the whole experience — both good and bad.”
On reflection, harnessing the power of collaboration and healing power of music as part of processing grief is in line with Injeti’s inimitably successful lifelong path. Music has always been something of a balm for the Toronto-bred, now-Vancouver based artist; born in Hyderabad, India and having to survive polio from birth, music therapy treatments helped facilitate his motor skills, ultimately changing his life.
“My father was a classical vocalist who ensured the family was always surrounded by music,” he shares. “It ranged from classical to folk, ragas to Stevie Wonder, to my parents favourite, ABBA. At every turn there was a rhythm or melody that would draw me in — footsteps down the hall, heart monitors, the sound of passing cars… It was everywhere.
“Then, it was more than just something I heard day to day; it became a healing force that started to transform my body and help it realize its full capacity.
“With this embodied renewal came a clarity of purpose.”
His purpose, indeed, became crystal clear when Injeti teamed up with then-partner DJ Khalil with whom he made multi-GRAMMY and JUNO Award-winning music with and for the likes of Dr Dre, Eminem, Drake, Pink, Aloe Blacc, The Clipse, Lecrae, K’Naan, and more. Getting his official start in an in-home studio built by his father and brother, he also fronted the JUNO and Much Music Video Award-winning band Bass is Base, won SOCAN’s Songwriter of the Year Award, and enjoyed years of creating, touring and performing with the likes of The Fugees, The Roots, Jamiroquoi, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and more.
Further, Injeti has created and taught curriculum for Vancouver’s NIMBUS, been a featured speaker at TEDx discussing the healing properties of music, and long recognized for his life’s work as an inspiration, teacher, mentor, leader, innovator, singer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, collaborator, student, and yes, icon, with a star on Vancouver’s prestigious Walk of Fame.
With the onset of COVID-19, he found himself self-isolating in Toronto with his mother for three months, during which “Falling” came to be. “Tarun was on Gambier Island in British Columbia, and Esthero was in Los Angeles,” he explains. “The video is simple and authentic to the moment, just each of us in our respective locations recording our parts.
“This version of the song was such a pleasure and honour to record,” Injeti continues of the song’s acoustic version. “To have my friend Tarun bless the track with his tabla, and my favourite singer ever, Esthero, sing on it…
Multi-award winning soul and blues singer/songwriter Miss Emily has released a live version of her beloved 2014 single release, ”The Sellout.”
It’s not a one-off; the song lands ahead of the Kingston-based artist Emily Fennell’s forthcoming and first-ever live album release, Live at The Isabel — available October 30th, 2020.
An enthralling compilation of songs, stories, and captivating moments, the live LP is a sonic snapshot spanning two+ years of record-setting sold-out performances at one of Ontario’s most prestigious venues, the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.
As the first preview for what’s to come, “The Sellout” soars thanks to Miss Emily’s signature breathtaking vocals and Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair’s stellar accompaniments — guitar and bass, respectively.
From there, Live at The Isabel mines Miss Emily’s most noted archives, documenting two extraordinary periods and cross-sections in her award-winning career, including 2014’s Rise and 2017’s In Between.
The backing band for Live at The Isabel is the same crew of road-tested musicians who supported her throughout 2019’s Maple Blues Award-winning festival circuit; guest appearances by Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip, and CCMA-nominated artists Kelly Prescott and Chad Murphy add what Fennell dubs as “musical muscle” on many of the tracks.
“I’ve worked with many of these musicians for more than a decade and, when I’m on stage with them, it’s like easing back into your favourite armchair…
“Except,” she adds,” that armchair is an incredible group of talented musicians.”
Miss Emily has won 2019’s Maple Blues Female Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and the Sapphire Video Award. A frequent favourite on festival and venue stages nationwide, KISS’ Gene Simmons describes her pipes as “the best we have ever heard in an unsigned artist!”
It’s all par for the course for the multi-talented artist; “being on stage is the most confident version of me,” Fennell shares. “Performing transports me to another place… A place best described as ‘Neverland.’”
While the live performances are where Miss Emily feels most fearless, her production credits — especially as they relate to Live at The Isabel — are striking in and of themselves. To set the scene, Fennell released her most recent album, In Between, in the Fall of 2017. For touring, she felt it “only made sense,” she recalls, to produce the shows herself.
The result was back-to-back sellout shows at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts — a benchmark that has yet to be equaled, and one that prompted a second set of sold-out shows at the same venue, six in total.
“They were thrilling to perform and, when I reviewed the recordings from each show recently, I realized they had the makings of a live album that could help those nights live on forever.”
“The Sellout” is available now. Miss Emily — Live at The Isabel is available October 30th, 2020.
Canadian rockers Dali Van Gogh have released a high-energy and poignant ode to our times in “Boneyard” — their new single produced by JUNO-nominated songwriter Rob Laidlaw (Platinum Blonde, Honeymoon Suite) available now.
The song is the latest instalment into The Testimony, a story being delivered through both music and a digitally-issued tie-in novel unveiled in parts every Friday by the Halifax-based band — Isaac Kent, John Scotto, Johnny Moore, Rachelle Moreau, and Lance Hicks — as part of their intricate and innovative concept release.
“‘Boneyard’ is a special song for us,” Kent considers. “It was created entirely during the pandemic; from sitting at home and mucking about with the first guitar riff during the shutdown, through to the finished product and video. It’s very reflective of where the band is emotionally during such a strange time.”
“The song is heavily inspired by the world and times we live in,” Scotto agrees. “That, and music that came from other times of turmoil in our history.”
“The interior of the building we shot in was dark and foreboding, and conveyed this deep sense of history and tragedy that perfectly fit the tone of the song,” he adds of the video’s location — an abandoned cold-war era radar base in Beaverbank, Nova Scotia. In it, Scotto resurrects a character from Dali Van Gogh’s previous album — a sermon-conducting preacher who’s plot line very much evolves through The Testimony.
Featuring a lone survivor and mysterious stranger from times past, The Testimony delivers accounts of those who have come into contact with ‘The Preacher’ — an enigmatic figure whose very presence alters the world around him. At 30+ pages so far, the novel-in-progress, delivered as a first person journal of sorts, ventures to ask who the authors are and what happened to the world they live in, all through weekly page releases and intermittent singles that piece it all together.
“Sure, there have been lots of concept records over the years, but what we’ve created with The Testimony is fairly unique,” Hicks explains. “We are building the story across various media; songs, the novel and art, videos, even cryptic posts on our website and social media. We’re engaging people every way that we can.”
“It’s definitely something a bit different for us,” Scotto adds. “It’s challenging in some ways because we didn’t go into this saying, ‘hey, let’s make a graphic novel, concept album,’ or anything like that, but one of the great things about working on a creative endeavour of any kind is that it sometimes takes you places you aren’t expecting to go.”
“The story is unfolding slowly, which gives people something to look forward to, as well as eventually to look back on as a finished project when we eventually reach the end,” says Moore. “You could compare it to long-form art similar to a regular YouTube series.”
“You don’t stand out from the pack unless you do things differently than everyone around you,” Kent squares up. “I get that from my grandmother, a champion 100 meter runner in her youth who trained with all the boys during a time when that was incredibly frowned upon. I’ve always taken a lot of inspiration from her story, right from the day I started the band 10 years ago.
“She always broke with the norm, and I think that’s what we’re doing here.”
“We were determined to not let COVID-19 put us at a standstill,” Moreau shares. “I think, if anything, it motivated us even more to put something super special out once our other opportunities had to be cancelled or rescheduled due to the circumstances.”
Evolving from Kent’s previous project — the pop rock band Eight Days To Saturday which also featured Moreau on keyboard — Dali Van Gogh was first formed in 2008. In 2015, his house and recording studio caught fire: every instrument, computer, and master disk, not to mention the contents from the rest of his family’s home, were lost. “Almost nothing was recovered,” he recalls. “Needless to say, it was a major roadblock.”
Just over a year later, however, and with renewed drive and focus, the band returned to the stage. With a sound best described as “infectious, gritty, and surprising” by Recording Artists Guild founder Byron Booker, Dali Van Gogh have received international radio play and charting status, over 500,000+ streams across platforms, were named semi-finalists in the SOCAN Canadian Songwriting Competition, and have released five records — Verbal Warning (2010), Mask Identity (2012), Wild Blue City (2012), From Ashes (2017), and Under Her Spell (2019) — the latter two of which were recorded at Kent’s newly minted HouseFire Studio One after the fire.
This was “a band that had found its way home,” said Brian Lush of RockWired Magazine.
“‘Boneyard’ is hook-laden with new rock energy,” producer and JUNO Award-nominated songwriter Rob Laidlaw (Platinum Blonde, Honeymoon Suite) says of the track. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of Canada’s best enduring bands, and this outfit is perched to make a major impact on the universal rock scene.”
