Train Room craft music that breathes. “Turn Off Everything,” the lead single from their sophomore album ‘Station Road,’ is out now, and it’s the kind of track that earns repeated listens.
Recorded by songwriter Joe Monaghan in the West of Ireland, the track is entirely self-produced and features a rich arrangement of real instruments, accordion, violin, piano, and live vocals woven together into something ambient and expansive. The production gives the composition genuine room to move.
The melody is layered and purposeful, wrapping around lyrics that carry real weight. Train Room have built a sound that feels independent in the truest sense, ambitious without chasing trends, and “Turn Off Everything” captures that quality with confidence.
‘Station Road’ is out now. With a lead single this assured, the full record is well worth your time.
Myriad have a gift for finding the emotional core of a moment, and “Cowboys” is proof. The Southampton indie 4-piece have released their most intimate single to date, a track built around intricate guitars and lyricism that gets right to the heart of falling in love for the first time.
The band describe it well: “Cowboys” is about the excitement of young love, not knowing what comes next, and the vulnerability of revealing yourself to someone you want to spend your life with. That emotional honesty comes through in every layer of the song.
“Cowboys” is the second single from ‘Notes She Never Read,’ which is out now. It follows support slots with The Hunna and The Summer Set, plus a festival appearance at Isle of Wight Festival. Myriad have been building toward something, and the new material reflects that growth.
The sound is bigger and more confident than before. Myriad are leaning into high-energy indie anthems without losing the intimacy that makes their writing connect. “Cowboys” sits right in that space, melodic and emotionally direct.
Vendetta Bloom arrived in 2026 swinging. The Richmond-based alternative metal rockers have released “Neurotic Psychosis,” a new single that lands on the heavier end of their catalog and makes a strong case for where they’re headed.
The track is a studio collaboration between Davy C Jr, Nate Williams, and producer-engineer Mikey Canoy of Set for Tomorrow. The influence of Bad Omens, Chevelle, and Deftones is audible, but Vendetta Bloom filters those touchstones through their own lens, coming out with something that feels distinctly theirs.
“Neurotic Psychosis” is a dense, dynamic track. Crushing guitars meet massive hooks, and the whole thing holds together with a sharp sense of control that keeps the intensity focused rather than scattered. It’s accessible and uncompromising at the same time, a combination that’s harder to pull off than it sounds.
The official music video, directed by Brendan McGlathery with PretaPath Productions, is a strong visual companion. High-contrast performance footage, bold imagery, and urgent cutting mirror the song’s dark emotional landscape without overshadowing the music itself.
“Neurotic Psychosis” follows the band’s debut EP ‘Decay Theory,’ released in September 2025. With this single, Vendetta Bloom is building real momentum and showing no signs of slowing down.
Maybe not the whole weekend. Maybe just for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon right when your favourite act walks onstage. But at some point, at some festival, the sky is going to do what it wants and you are going to have to decide what to do about it.
Here’s some friendly advice from someone who has stood in a lot of fields in a lot of weather: stay for the music. It’s almost always worth it. And with a little preparation, rain goes from a problem to just part of the story.
Pack Like You Already Know
The easiest thing you can do is pack for the worst case instead of the forecast. Throw in a poncho rather than an umbrella because umbrellas block the view of whoever is standing behind you and nobody loves that person. Grab some waterproof boots or wellies if you have them. Toss a couple of dry pairs of socks in your bag because dry socks at a festival on day two feel genuinely wonderful. A small dry bag or even some ziplock bags for your phone and wallet will save you a headache later. None of this is expensive and all of it makes a real difference.
Know Where the Cover Is Before You Need It
Before the music starts on day one, take a little walk around the site. Find the covered stages, the food vendors with overhangs, the spots where you can duck in for ten minutes and warm up without losing too much ground. When it starts pouring and everyone starts moving at once, it helps a lot to already know where you’re going.
Let Yourself Enjoy It
This one might sound a little strange but some of the most legendary festival moments have happened in the rain. Woodstock was mud. Glastonbury has built an entire identity around it. Something genuinely interesting happens when a crowd stops worrying about getting wet and just gives in to the music together. The energy in those moments can be pretty special. Artists notice it too. Playing to a soaking crowd that refused to leave tends to bring out something extra in a performance.
Stay Warm and Stay Fed
Being wet and cold is what actually ruins the experience so bring a light fleece or base layer to go under your poncho. Temperatures drop at night even in summer and a cold wet body makes even great music feel less great. Also remember to eat and drink water even when it’s raining because people tend to skip both when the weather turns and it catches up with them by evening. A hot drink or a warm bowl of something from a vendor in the rain is honestly one of the underrated pleasures of festival life.
Give Your Phone a Break
Keep it dry, absolutely, but also consider that rainy festivals are a pretty good excuse to put it away and just be present. Some moments are better felt than filmed and a field full of people singing in the rain is usually one of them.
The best festival stories almost never start with perfect weather. They start with a little chaos, a decision to stay anyway, and a set that nobody who was there will ever forget. Pack the poncho, find your spot, and enjoy every minute of it.
Most artists stop there. They finish the song, upload it, post once on Instagram, and then wait. And wait. And wonder why nobody’s listening.
Here’s the thing: the music is only half the job. The other half is making sure people actually find it. And for that, you need a plan.
Don’t panic. A music marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to exist.
What Is a Music Marketing Plan?
It’s a simple document — even one page works — that answers five questions:
What am I releasing?
When am I releasing it?
Who is it for?
How am I going to reach those people?
What does success look like to me?
That’s it. Answer those five things honestly and you already have more than most artists ever put together.
Step 1: Get Specific About What You’re Releasing
“New music” is not a plan. “A single called ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ dropping October 10th on all platforms” is a plan. The more specific you are, the easier everything else becomes. Know your release. Name it. Date it. Own it.
Step 2: Build Your Timeline and Work Backwards
Most artists give themselves two weeks to promote a release. That’s not enough. The ones getting real traction start two to three months out. Here’s a simple timeline to follow:
8 weeks out: Reach out to music blogs, playlist curators, and media contacts
6 weeks out: Start teasing on social media — behind the scenes, snippets, the story
4 weeks out: Drop your first piece of content tied to the release
2 weeks out: Ramp everything up — posting, pitching, sharing
Release week: All hands on deck across every platform
2 weeks after: Keep going. This is where most artists stop. Don’t.
Step 3: Know Exactly Who You’re Talking To
This is the step everyone skips and it’s the most important one. Who is your listener? Not “everyone.” Everyone is no one. Think about three artists who sound like you and imagine their fanbase. That’s your audience. Talk directly to those people in everything you post, pitch, and share.
Step 4: Choose Your Platforms and Commit
You do not need to be everywhere. You need to be somewhere consistently. Pick two or three platforms where your audience actually lives and show up there regularly. Instagram and TikTok work well for most artists right now. YouTube is long game but worth it. Twitter/X is great for music industry conversation. Pick your spots and be present.
Step 5: Know What Success Looks Like
Before you release anything, decide what winning looks like for this particular release. Is it 1,000 streams? A review in a blog you respect? Ten new email subscribers? One playlist placement? Define it in advance so you can actually measure it and learn from it, whatever happens.
One Last Thing
The artists who build real careers are not always the most talented ones in the room. They are the most consistent ones. A simple plan you actually follow beats a perfect plan that lives in your head forever.
Recognized as one of Canada’s greatest voices, Molly Johnson releases her new three-song EP Long Time Running, a powerful and deeply collaborative project that brings her together with a new generation of artists. Included on the EP is “Talk To Me,” a striking new collaboration with acclaimed rapper Haviah Mighty, produced by rising talent Jonathan “CUBE” Renaud, alongside a reimagined take on The Tragically Hip’s “Long Time Running” with Jim Cuddy and the original composition “Slipped Away,” written by Molly Johnson and Davide Di Renzo.
“Talk To Me” marks a bold new direction for Johnson, pairing her signature vocal style with the sharp lyricism of JUNO Award-winning rapper Haviah Mighty. Structured as a call and response, the track becomes a compelling exchange between two distinct voices, reflecting a meaningful dialogue between generations.
“Such joy to work with Haviah Mighty, a brilliant, collaborative woman. The idea that we need to really listen to younger voices is what ‘Talk To Me’ is all about,” says Molly Johnson.
The Long Time Running EP is available now via Universal Music Canada. Listen HERE.
The EP features Johnson’s stirring interpretation of The Tragically Hip’s “Long Time Running,” recorded with Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, produced by Davide Di Renzo. First released in 1991, the song remains a defining piece of the Canadian musical canon, and here is reimagined with a sense of intimacy and reverence that honours its enduring legacy.
Across the project, Johnson is joined by her long-time collaborators, including Davide Di Renzo, Mike Downes and Robi Botos, whose enduring musical partnership remains central to her sound.
Also included is “Slipped Away,” an original composition written by Johnson and Di Renzo that reflects on love, memory, and the lingering question of what might have been. Anchored by her unmistakable vocal, the track further showcases her strength as both a storyteller and songwriter.
More new music from Molly Johnson will be announced in the coming months.
Photo credit: Chris Nicholls
ABOUT MOLLY JOHNSON: Recognized as one of Canada’s greatest voices, jazz vocalist Molly Johnson is a mother, singer-songwriter, artist, and philanthropist. Throughout her life-spanning career, she has captivated audiences in Canada and Europe with her original pieces and interpretations of jazz standards. Unsurprisingly, Molly is a laureate of multiple notable awards, including two JUNO Awards, the Governor General’s Award, the Order of Canada, and the Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Outside her musical endeavors, Molly is also an avid supporter and patron of the arts. She launched the Kumbaya Festival in 1993 benefitting AIDS hospices and Canadians living with AIDS, contributing directly to the birth of Toronto’s Casey House. Kumbaya remains the largest music fundraiser in Canadian history. As the founding artistic director of Toronto’s Kensington Market Jazz Festival, Molly has introduced hundreds of performers and, in her own words, built a “local jazz festival that reflects the cultural depth” of the immediate music community.
Asthma Kids are angry. They have always been angry. But on their ferocious new single “The People United and Strong,” that anger has been alchemised into something even more dangerous: hope. This is not a soft pivot. This is a band that has looked at billionaires hoarding the planet’s resources, looked at the boot on the neck of the working class, looked at a world on fire, and decided that the most radical thing they can do right now is demand that we stand together. “The union united and strong / the people united and strong / all the genders united and strong / the poor united and strong.” Go ahead and try to get that out of your head.
The song was born in the studio on the day Trevor Hutchinson became a grandfather. His twenty-year-old daughter gave birth while the band were mid-session, and that eruption of new life cracked something open in the writing. “We had a musical structure and I was working on lyrics that matched the anger of our recent releases,” Hutchinson says. “But that life news got me to frame our message in a positive light that promotes unity.” Make no mistake, the fury is still there and fully intact. “I’m still beyond angry,” he adds. “It’s time for us to tax billionaires out of existence and end the psychopathic distribution of wealth. But that is going to take unity, harmony and love.” A grandchild entered the world. A punk anthem came out with him.
The lyrics do not flinch. “The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer / Now I know what I’m fighting for” sits alongside “I believe in welfare, but I prefer taxes / Or any other measure that evens out the classes.” This is not protest music that hedges. Asthma Kids, composed of Trevor Hutchinson and JP Gill, have never heard a genre they won’t gleefully subvert, repurpose, and rebuild from the wreckage, and “The People United and Strong” is a punk earworm that refuses to stay inside any lines at all. They are famously genre-agnostic, stating plainly that they leave labels for soup cans. Adjacent to punk, freak folk, country, and power pop, they are ultimately something else altogether: seemingly nice neighbours living next door to musical convention, until they burn down every house on the street.
The production matches the ambition. Hutchinson produced the track himself at Jack Cade Studios in Lindsay, Ontario. Adam Haggart mixed it at the Reverie Recording Studio in Peterborough. Then it went to Abbey Road in London, where mastering engineer Alex Wharton put the finishing edge on it. A punk song about taxing billionaires out of existence, mastered at the most storied studio on the planet. That is exactly the kind of move Asthma Kids make.
The single arrives on the heels of their 2025 EP ‘The Meek Are Getting Ready,’ named one of the best EPs of 2025 by PunkNews.org and distributed via Dammit Distro across the EU and UK, and 2 Bar Town Records across North America. The track has already been added to both WARM and Earshot. A summer tour launches in Toronto in late August and pushes westward from there. Asthma Kids are not waiting for permission to be heard, and they are not asking nicely. The people are united. The people are strong. The song says so.
Silka Weil, one of Montréal’s most compelling emerging voices in folk-rock and alt-pop, today releases “Make Me Lose Control,” a charged and urgent new single that announces the arrival of her second EP, ‘Midnight Blue,’ due July 3, 2026. Seductive, confrontational, and alive with tension, the track is the fullest expression yet of the sonic territory Weil has been carving out since her celebrated 2023 debut – and the most immediate proof that her ambitions have only grown.
The song was born from a simple and deeply practical impulse: Weil wanted something fun and electrifying to play live. What emerged was something richer – a moody, propulsive love song that she describes as “done my own way.” “I sometimes enjoy being confrontational in my writing and performance,” she explains, “so for the most part it’s a little more direct than subtle.” That directness is everywhere in the lyrics: “Tear through your heart and soul / You’re everything I want and more / Reduced down to our flesh and bone / You’re gonna make me lose control.” It’s a love song with its teeth in.
What makes “Make Me Lose Control” particularly striking is the dynamic range Weil and producer Jean-Sébastien Brault-Labbé have built into it. The verses and chorus hit hard and rock-heavy, while the bridge opens into something softer and more intimate – a contrast Weil describes as “a real pleasure to work with.” The track also carries the energy of a song written in motion: Weil finished the third verse on the spot in the studio – and also sings backup – with the freedom of that process is audible in every moment. A last-minute decision to swap electronic drums for real drums after the bridge gave the recording a final surge of physicality that pushes the track into another gear entirely.
Recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered at Studio de la Ruelle, “Make Me Lose Control” marks another chapter in Weil’s ongoing collaboration with Brault-Labbé, who also produced her EP ‘Midnight Blue’ and whose broader credits include Gabrielle Papillon, Samuele, Matt Stern, Erika Lamon, Vamoise, Le Husky, and the Blue Seeds. The single arrives with a lyric video designed by Weil herself, whose hands-on approach to her visual identity is as considered as her approach to the music. The result is a track that already has a strong live response from her audience and is set to reach a significantly wider one.
Weil earned Musi-Flo’s Artist of the Year for 2023 and appeared on the July 2025 cover of radiodowntown.ca, with radio play and interviews across Canada and internationally – including a live interview with Mexico-based media organisation Ella Suena. Her music has been compared to PJ Harvey and Lana Del Rey for its ability to hold boldness and intimacy in the same breath, and “Make Me Lose Control” does exactly that – a song that leans into desire, plays cat and mouse with vulnerability, and arrives at something genuinely thrilling. “I would stay up all night / I would walk over fire / To stand in your light,” she sings in the bridge – and you believe every word.
Cowessess First Nation singer-songwriter (Uncle) Trent Agecoutay releases his deeply personal new single “The Foundation,” out now. Written with his late father Jim Agecoutay in the days following the funeral of their Kokum Agnes, it is the first song Trent ever co-wrote with his dad – making it one of the most intimate and significant recordings of his career. “The Foundation” serves as the lead single from Uncle Trent and Friends – Legacy Deluxe edition, the acclaimed project Trent created alongside his brother Bryce to honour their father’s musical gifts after his passing.
The song carries the full emotional weight of its origins. Born in grief and shaped by gratitude, it opens with a scene of devastating tenderness: “Kokum started her journey on a rainy day in May / I’ve never felt so helpless, don’t like to feel that way / A wave of lonely, it tore me up inside / I kissed her on the cheek, I held her one last time.” From that place of loss, the song builds toward something enduring – a chorus that names the thing that holds us when everything else gives way: “The Foundation of who I am, it runs strong and deep / Generations surround me while my soul weeps / They light the path when darkness follows me / The Foundation of who I am – it’s my family.”
“Family is the Foundation of who we are as musicians, and men,” Trent reflects. “The gift of music our father gave us, along with the strong influence of our Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Grandparents, truly shaped us into the men we are today. The song will connect to any listener – people with a strong bond with family, and those longing for that family connection.” It is a song built for both.
The legacy that gives this project its name stretches back to a kitchen table in Western Canada, where a young Trent and Bryce would slip into the next room to listen as their father Jim composed songs – always with a pot of coffee, a lit cigarette, and an old tape recorder close at hand. All the songs on Legacy were written or co-written by Jim Agecoutay, and the album, funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Calgary Arts Development, stands as a testament to everything he left behind.
Legacy has already made a significant mark since its April 2025 release – earning a number-one single on the Indigenous Music Countdown with “Burn a Smudge,” placing “You’re the Reason” in full rotation on Sirius XM Indigiverse for much of 2025, and charting in the top ten of the Earshot National Folk, Roots and Blues chart. “The Foundation” opens the album’s next chapter with the song that perhaps best captures its entire purpose.
Since joining his father’s band in 1993 and performing in Alberta honky-tonks across Western Canada, Trent has grown into a respected artist and community voice. His previous albums – I Don’t Regret a Thing, Now…And Then, and A Place to Call Home – established a sound that is deeply personal yet broadly resonant, earning him a Native American Music Award nomination for Best Blues Recording. Alongside Curt and Chelsie Young, he co-created Do You Hear Me Now…Amplifying Indigenous Voices, and his podcast The Deadly Uncle Podcast continues to provide a culturally grounded space for Indigenous men and boys to connect and heal.
Martin Larose and Anaïs Vanessa today release “Breathe In Breathe Out,” the luminous and searching new single from their forthcoming collaborative album ‘The Solivagant Tales,’ both out now. Where their partnership has already demonstrated its capacity for politically charged progressive rock, this new track turns the lens inward – a visceral, emotionally precise meditation on anxiety, the need for stillness, and the courage it takes to find space in an overwhelming world.
The song arrives as both a musical statement and an act of permission. “Inhale the fear, exhale the pain / The only door that still remains / Is deep inside a quiet space / Where I can breathe and find my place,” Vanessa sings in the opening lines, establishing at once the track’s emotional terrain and its central invitation: to turn toward discomfort rather than away from it. Her lyrics have always carried what admirers describe as a therapeutic quality, and “Breathe In Breathe Out” distils that gift into something urgent and immediate – the kind of song that feels like it was written specifically for the moment you needed it most.
Vanessa’s writing on the track is unflinching in its honesty. “The race goes on I can’t keep pace / They call it life I call it chase,” she reflects, before arriving at the song’s galvanising core: “Breathe in the ache / Breathe out the sin / The only way out / Is deeper in.” It is a lyrical turn of genuine force – reframing the instinct to escape as an invitation to descend, to trust the interior landscape rather than flee it. The daughter of a chansonnier who grew up filling notebooks with poems before she ever called herself a songwriter, Vanessa brings that lifelong intimacy with language to every line.
For Larose, the track presented a compositional challenge that suited his instincts perfectly: building a soundscape capacious enough to hold Vanessa’s emotional range while retaining the progressive architecture and guitar-driven depth that have defined his eight-album catalogue. Trained at the Chicoutimi Conservatory and recognised by Guitar World in the early 1990s, Larose has long been drawn to music that rewards patient listening. The multi-layered production of “Breathe In Breathe Out,” recorded and mixed at his state-of-the-art Le Studio Septentrio in Saguenay, is no exception – it breathes with the song, expanding and contracting alongside Vanessa’s vocal, as though the music itself is practising what the lyrics preach.
The single is the second to be drawn from ‘The Solivagant Tales’ – a title Larose chose to reflect his long-held sense of occupying an unusual position in the Canadian and Québec music landscape: prolific, distinctive, and deliberately his own. The album, co-written almost entirely by Larose and Vanessa, represents the full flowering of a creative relationship that began more than two decades ago, when Vanessa was his student. “At 15, she delivered a rendition of The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ in front of a packed audience,” Larose has recalled, “and I was completely floored.” That early astonishment has matured into one of the most compelling partnerships in contemporary Québec rock.
Vanessa’s own path to this moment has been as unconventional as it is inspiring. She spent years as a backing vocalist and performer across various projects, worked as a counsellor at a drug addiction treatment centre, and at 31 made the bold decision to enrol at the École nationale de la chanson – presenting her original compositions that same year on the stage of the Festival de la Chanson de Saint-Ambroise. Her short bio puts it well: “the road may be winding – but don’t worry… she’s used to crossing the lines.” “Breathe In Breathe Out” is, in many ways, the most nakedly personal expression of that resilience to date.
‘The Solivagant Tales’ features the duo’s cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” – a song both artists feel carries renewed and urgent relevance – as well as a bonus track, Bob Dylan’s “Down in the Flood,” which Larose describes as concluding the album “in a fun yet darker mood.” Together, these choices signal a project alive to history, to the weight of the present moment, and to the enduring power of a song to say what ordinary language cannot.
