BEGONIA SHARES NEW SINGLE / VIDEO FOR “HEAVEN”, ANNOUNCES 2022 TOUR DATES

WATCH AND SHARE “HEAVEN” HERE

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2022 TOUR DATES BEGIN MARCH 2, 2022 - MORE DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED

Photo Credit : Calvin Lee Joseph // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Begonia (Alexa Dirks) is announcing her long-awaited upcoming tour dates for 2022 and is also sharing the new single “Heaven”, a track that finds beauty in the unknown. “When I was a kid I thought I knew a lot about everything,” says Dirks. “I was taught to believe that there was always a right or wrong and beyond that, that there was a heaven and hell waiting for us after we die and we just had to live our lives accordingly to end up in either place. I had a lot of fear of screwing up and a lot of fear of the unknown. As I've grown, all of those binary ways of thinking have more or less been shattered. I've come to understand that I'll always be searching and that there's a lot of beauty to that. I still think about what happens after we die but I feel more curious about it than I feel afraid or certain of it. I think this song speaks to that doubt and curiosity: thoughts I used to struggle with but now fully embrace”

“Heaven” arrives complete with a video from director Gwen Truntau and videographer Mike Maryniuk. “We filmed the video in rural Manitoba on the same property where we wrote the song years earlier,” Dirks continues. “I had asked Gwen to meet with me to talk about video ideas and I had mentioned that I wanted to be in the back of a truck. She said ‘why don't we make the back of the truck your bedroom?’ and then we just kept riffing from there. The property we filmed on had so much space to work with and sweet animals to film. I truly hope there are regal donkeys and fluffy chickens in the afterlife. 

We filmed in the midst of changing covid restrictions about a year ago, working with a wonderful small crew to make it happen. Mike shot it and Gwen directed. They are partners in real life and my real life partner Seth Woodyard also worked on this with us to build the set pieces. So it was kind of like a giant fucked up double date, haha. We basically just tried to embrace the trance-like dreaminess that the song invokes.”

WATCH AND SHARE “HEAVEN” HERE

BUY / STREAM “HEAVEN” HERE

“Heaven” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MORE ABOUT BEGONIA
As Begonia, Alexa Dirks is bold, brazen with her florid, surprising pop that is tempered with sensitivity and wisdom. In her music, Begonia leans hard into a sense of arrival. Whether it’s learning to come into her own or processing a brutal heartbreak, Dirks’ intimate lyrics and audacious sound allows for her audience to relate to the messiness of life with an honesty that is refreshing. 

Her debut LP, Fear, was nominated for a JUNO Award for Adult Alternative Album Of The Year and was longlisted for The Polaris Music Prize. It was one of Exclaim!’s Most Underrated Albums of the Year, made end of the year lists from CBC Music and Dominionated, and saw both “Beats” and “Hanging On A Line” named as CBC Music Top 20 Fan Favourites of the year. Fear also spent 10 straight weeks as the #1 album in Canada on Earshot’s Top 50 chart. 

Fear was written and co-produced with a familiar team of Matt Schellenberg (Royal Canoe) and Matt Peters (Royal Canoe) along with Marcus Paquin (The National, Arcade Fire, Local Natives).

Dirks' first solo EP, Lady in Mind, was well-received, being listed on NPR’s 10 Artists You Need To Know in 2017 and single “Juniper” reached #1 on the CBC Radio 2 Top 20. Noisey wrote that, “Begonia has one of Canada’s most extraordinary voices, and thankfully she uses it to obliterate the misery from this world one live performance at a time.” NPR wrote that Begonia is “the place where synth-pop meets old soul and scrappy meets sexy."

WATCH AND SHARE “FEAR” HERE

PRAISE FOR FEAR

“With its twin-helix bind of sharp pop and warm soul, Fear positions Winnipeg's Begonia (Alexa Dirks) as a powerhouse on the Prairies.” - Exclaim!

“Fear is the opposite of all its name implies: confident, bold, and blossoming with subtlety and intelligence.” - Dominionated

“...Fear still manages to make you feel like you've been let in on pop's best-kept secret. But, not for long. 2019 might have refreshed our memory of Dirks' vast capabilities, but 2020 will hopefully deliver her the global recognition she deserves.” - CBC Music

“...searing and dignified” - NPR Music

"...a complex, powerhouse synth-soul that hangs on one of Canada’s most
extraordinary voices." - Line Of Best Fit

"an audacious adventure in modern soul, with gospel inspirations and updated takes on finger-snapping Motown pop and late 20th-century R&B.‎" - Globe & Mail

WATCH CBC’S FIRST PLAY LIVE HERE

BUY / STREAM FEAR HERE

2022 TOUR DATES
Mar 2 - Fargo, ND @ The Hall at Fargo Brewing Co
Mar 3 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Mar 6 - Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s
Mar 10 - New York, NY @ Elsewhere Zone One
Mar 11 - Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
Mar 12 - Washington, DC @ Pie Shop
Mar 14 - Nashville, TN @ Drkmttr
Mar 15 - New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
Mar 20 - Hot Springs, AR @ Valley of the Vapors Festival

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KILLBEAT MUSIC’S 2021 YEAR IN REVIEW

We closed our 2020 year-end round up with a “See you at a show in the future. Fingers crossed.” And while 2021 wasn’t exactly a good time for everyone, we are, slowly, starting to see each other again in dark, basement bars and in the padded seats of ornate theatres, celebrating music in person once again.

2021 began with The Weather Station’s new album, Ignorance, which found itself not only shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, but also garnered an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series, and accolades from press across the country. The Polaris long-list also included celebrated albums from Allison Russell (Outside Child) and Bernice (Eau de bonjorno). Recently, Allison’s Russell’s Outside Child was also nominated for 3 awards at the 2022 GRAMMY’s as was Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites.

Both The Weather Station and Allison Russell were invited to join Tom Power on CBC’s q along with Vancouver comedian Seán Devlin (叶 世民) with his album Animals, Airports., the first comedy release on Arts & Crafts.

LISTEN TO KILLBEAT MUSIC’S SINGLES OF 2021 PLAYLIST

CBC Music kept the airwaves vibrating with tracks from Charlotte Day Wilson’s Alpha, Kiwi Jr.’s Cooler Returns, Ariel Posen’s Headways, and the debut single from Charlie Houston, “Calls”, all ending up in the Top 20.

Charlotte Day Wilson and Kiwi Jr. both ended up with #1 records on Canadian College campuses for a few weeks this year along with Andy Shauf’s Wilds, Ada Lea’s one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, and Chad Van Gaalen’s World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener (which wins the most aptly titled lock down record title in our list).

This year also saw the re-emergence of Whoop-SZO as Status / Non-Status, with their EP 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years; watched Yves Jarvis unite with Romy Lightman (Tasseomancy) to form Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band and release their debut album Banned; and got to listen in as Helena Deland and Ouri combined their divergent songwriting styles into Hildegard and shared their self-titled debut album. All of those records ended up this year in the Top 10 on Earshot’s National Charts, as did Aasiva’s Niriunniq, Homeshake’s Under The Weather, Cots’ Disturbing Body, and Charles Spearin’s My City Of Starlings. 

The Earshot Hip-Hop charts saw Top 10 placements from two Peanuts and Corn Records releases this year : Bazooka Joe 204’s Prairie Nilsson, detailing a life well-wasted in Winnipeg’s drinking holes and dark alleys, and bigmcenroe’s trip down memory lane - the Brandon LP.

Ouri’s solo record Frame Of A Fauna also topped Earshot’s Electronic Top 10 list together with Absolutely Free’s most recent LP, Aftertouch, who’s single “How To Paint Clouds” also wound up on CBC Radio 3’s Top 10. Previously in the year, the R3 Top 10 also included Touching’s “Tony Called The Muscle”, Astral Swans’ “Flood”, Debra-Jean Creelman’s “Muse Needs A Wife”, and Jason Collett’s collaboration with Andy Shauf, “Crab Walking Home In The Rain”.

You may have also caught Jason’s single on SiriusXM’s North Americana channel as featured on their Sunday Service program along with tracks from Charlotte Cornfield’s newly released record Highs In The Minuses and Megan Nash’s Soft Focus Futures. On North Americana you would also hear the musical stylings of Toronto’s Alyson McNamara and her track “Shutting Down” (from Let Me Sleep), a song which Odario also added to his playlist at CBC Afterdark. That playlist also includes entries from Dana Sipos’ album The Astral Plane, Silver Pools Chroma, and Jasper Sloan Yip’s double EP, Strange Calm / Blushing Autumn.

And should you forget to turn off the radio / phone after dark, you’d encounter tracks from Julie Stone’s Sixty Summers and Treephones’ Pink Objects on CBC Overnight. Now, should you have left the stream of music on until Sunday’s cornerstone, The Strombo Show, you would have also caught the premiere of new music from Nick Ferrio’s Television Of Roses and Joseph Shabason’s The Fellowship. And you’d hear new music for the first time in 10 years from Strippers Union, the duo of The Tragically Hip’s Rob Baker and The Odds’ Craig Northey.

LISTEN TO KILLBEAT MUSIC’S SINGLES OF 2021 PLAYLIST

2021 marked 20 years since the release of Gord Downie’s astonishing solo record, Coke Machine Glow. Arts and Crafts released a special expanded reissue that posthumously revisits the songs and poetry of this prolific period of Downie’s career entitled Coke Machine Glow : The Songwriter’s Cabal.

It’s coming to the end of 2021 and while we don’t have to cross our fingers as tightly as last year, it sure is nice to see you all again, even if somehow some of the venues still smell like lukewarm beer and frozen burritos through a mask. Oh and hey, buy a record or two while you’re there.

SAM WEBER SHARES “ALREADY KNOW” FROM UPCOMING LP

NEW ALBUM, GET FREE, OUT FEBRUARY 4, 2022 VIA SONIC UNYON

LISTEN AND SHARE “ALREADY KNOW” HERE

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Press Photo : Jacob Boll // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Having just wrapped a run of successful tour dates supporting Bahamas, Sam Weber is ready to share another new track from his upcoming LP, Get Free, due out February 4, 2022 via Sonic Unyon. "Already Know” started as “a very traditional song, kind of a waltz acoustic guitar thing that wasn’t really much of anything,” says Weber. “But, I liked the lyrics a lot and when I played it for co-producer Mallory Hauser, her instinct was to stretch it out into straight time with these free time sections. Once I figured out a new way to sing it, the song came together in a really beautiful way. It’s not a total Paul Simon diss-track, but the last verse does discuss the rumour of him stealing the idea for 'The Myth of Fingerprints' from Los Lobos."

LISTEN AND SHARE “ALREADY KNOW” HERE

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“Already Know” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MORE ABOUT GET FREE
Sam Weber's storied exodus from his homeland of Canada to find new footing and opportunity in America resonates like a classic story of pain, loss, and rebirth. That narrative thread is woven throughout his new record, Get Free, offering a warm, intimate, and multidimensional portrait of the 28-year-old singer-songwriter. With this new collection of material, Weber reaches fresh emotional depths, commanding more expressive personal moments than ever before — at times within the margins of a single verse.

Sam Weber has already logged more miles as a gigging musician than most of his peers will in a lifetime, earning enviable accolades along the way (he was featured in Guitar Player a decade ago, by some accounts the youngest artist ever to grace those pages). He first picked up the guitar at age 12 to form a rock ’n’ roll band with his father and brother in the living room of their family home. 

LISTEN AND SHARE “MONEY” HERE

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Sixteen years later, having collaborated with Grammy Award winners and with extensive international tours under his belt, the Canadian-born Los Angeleno goes forth with the same intention and mantra as when he began: “Music is an emotional conduit between people and allows us the opportunity to share moments of truth and unity. In an age where the ritual of music-making can be a solitary exercise, I want to live my life to remind everyone that playing music as a communal and spontaneous practice can be healing and powerful.”

After recording what Weber calls his “only real studio album,” Everything Comes True, which was cut live-off-the-floor in the iconic B room at Hollywood’s Ocean Way Studios, things began to move steadily for Sam. More frequent visits to Los Angeles had allowed him to make a name for himself, and he began to form friendships in the music community. He was tapped to contribute to a compilation album alongside Andrew Bird, Blake Mills, Jim James, Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Tim Heidecker, Tony Bennett, Kurt Vile, Jackson Browne, and Matt Berninger (The National). 

WATCH AND SHARE “HERE’S TO THE FUTURE” HERE

BUY / STREAM “HERE’S TO THE FUTURE” HERE 

“Initially, it was the music scene here that drew me in,” Sam notes. “So many of the albums that meant so much to me growing up came from this place, but when I finally set my feet in town, I was spellbound by everything I saw — especially the architecture. There’s an incredible variety of style and materials. The passage of time is so evident here and it can feel like a ruin. It’s not an old place as far as cities go, but the energy of the people who’ve passed through is enchanting.”

Charmed by the city of angels, Weber began the process of formally moving to Los Angeles and writing what would become Get Free. When COVID-19 rendered touring prospects inert and much of his initial recording plans impossible, he sought a new approach. 

“I wrote most of this music before the lockdown happened,” he says. “We wanted to go into another beautiful L.A. studio with another super band to record these new songs, but when all the plugs got pulled, we were sort of left holding nothing but the material. My partner Mallory Hauser (Mal, was keen to rally and share production duties with me to make the most of what we had, which was liberating somehow: to have this logistical ceiling on how we could record or approach these songs in our living room. We were forced to be as creative as possible with what we had. I think it was the best thing that could have happened to us.” 

Coming face-to-face with the realities of record making in the pandemic age, Sam and Malllory called upon their friend Danny Austin-Manning to join their pod and the trio began meeting up weekly for recording sessions in their Hollywood apartment. “Danny would come over and the three of us would turn on the microphones and give these wild, unchained performances of the material,” Weber recalls. “The songs became as much about the experience and ritual of spending time together as the content in the lyrics. I called the record Get Free because each performance of each song was a moment of transcendence and an escape for us from an otherwise odd, restrictive time.” 

Weber and Hauser tapped Grammy-nominated engineer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas) to mix the album, having collaborated with him on the JUNO Award-nominated Bahamas album Sad Hunk. “I really love [Get Free], don’t get me wrong… but it sort of sounds janky…in a good way! Because our only option was to make it in our house, it gave us permission to let it be what was going to be and not get wrapped up in the details, and in turn I think that allowed the veil between the performances and the hearts of each song to be very thin. Robbie [Lackritz] sort of saved the record fidelity-wise; we gave him some questionable rough mixes with the room mics cranked up so loud. What we got back sounded way rad.”

A particular sense of grandness is felt in certain songs across Weber’s recorded catalogue. Moments that feel lofty, yet devoid of pretentiousness. With more of these moments present and tangible on Get Free than any other of his releases, the listener can effectively observe Sam’s emancipation. With this record he assumes a creative identity unique only to him. 


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GET FREE TRACKLIST
01 Truth Or Lie
02 Already Know
03 Get Out Of The Game
04 Don’t Cry For Me
05 Survival
06 Nowhere Bound
07 Here’s To The Future
08 Money
09 Everyone
10 Streets Of LA

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