ARIEL POSEN SHARES NEW SINGLE, “DOWNTOWN”

WATCH / SHARE “DOWNTOWN” LYRIC VIDEO TODAY HERE
BUY / STREAM “DOWNTOWN” TOMORROW HERE

EAST COAST TOUR DATES BEGIN APRIL 5

“One of my favourite guitarists has a new album out. Great songs with great changes and great playing” John Mayer

"He cannot be stopped. ...showing off not only his guitar playing but his songwriting" - Talia Schlanger (On CBC q)

“smooth, soulful... The expertly self-produced sound is a nice mixture of slide guitar, bass, and that popping percussion, with Ariel’s creamy vocals on top.” - Great Dark Wonder

Photo Credit : Nate Forest // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, accomplished guitarist and songwriter Ariel Posen is sharing his first new music of 2022 with the new single, “Downtown”, a love song to all the metropolitan areas in the world. “The song itself makes it sound like a love letter to New York City, and while that would stand true, it refers to every place I've been to that resembles the energy that a city brings,” says Posen. “A place can make you feel many things and it's okay to feel love for places that are not just where you're from."

WATCH / SHARE “DOWNTOWN” LYRIC VIDEO TODAY HERE

BUY / STREAM “DOWNTOWN” TOMORROW HERE

“Downtown” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Last year, Posen released his new album Headway and went on the road supporting Bahamas. He returns to the road in April with a string of dates on Canada’s East Coast. Full tour dates can be found below.

BUY / STREAM HEADWAY HERE

MORE ABOUT ARIEL POSEN

Ariel Posen's music occupies the space between genres. It's a rootsy sound that nods to his influences — heartland rock & roll, electrified Americana, blue-eyed soul, R&B, Beatles-inspired pop — while still moving forward, pushing Posen into territory that's uniquely his own.

Posen began recording his last album, Headway, in December 2019, one week after wrapping up an international tour in support of his acclaimed debut, How Long. He'd been on the road for a year and a half, playing shows across the U.K., Europe, America, and his native Canada. Along the way, Posen had received standing ovations not only from his audiences, but also from outlets like Rolling Stone, who dubbed him "a modern-day guitar hero," Music Radar listing him as a fan voted top 10 rock guitarist of the year and the Western Canadian Music Awards who nominated him for Breakout Artist of the Year." 

Coming back home to Winnipeg, he began sifting through the new songs he'd written between tour dates. Many of them had already been tested on the road, their arrangements whittled into shape by a group of road warriors at the top of their game. Practically all of them were about the process of evolution — of making progress in life, love, and all points in between. Those themes were reflected in the music itself, which presented a crisper, clearer picture of Posen as a songwriter.

TOUR DATES
Apr 5 - St. John’s, NL - Arts And Culture Centre
Apr 6 - St. John’s, NL - Arts And Culture Centre
Apr 8 - Charlottetown, PE - Confederation Centre of the Arts
Apr 9 - Wolfville, NS - University Hall
Apr 10 - Moncton, NB - Capitol Theatre
Apr 12 - Saint John, NB - Imperial Theatre
Apr 13 - Fredericton, NB - Fredericton Playhouse
Apr 14 - Halifax, NS - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
Apr 15 - Halifax, NS - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
Apr 16 - Halifax, NS - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
Apr 29 - Portland, OR - McMenamins White Eagle Saloon
Apr 30 - Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
May 1 - Bend, OR - Volcanic Theatre Pub
May 3 - Sacramento, OR - Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub
May 5 - Mill Valley, CA - Sweetwater Music Hall
May 6 - Los Angeles, CA - The Moroccan Lounge
May 7 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy & Harriet’s
May 11 - Boston, MA - Cafe 939
May 12 - Bridgeport, CT - Park City Music Hall
May 13 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
May 14 - Washington, DC - Pearl Street Warehouse
May 16 - Chicago, IL - City Winery Chicago
May 17 - Louisville, KY - Zanzibar
May 18 - Nashville, TN - The Basement
May 20 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
July 3 - Montreal, QC - MTELUS
Sep 27 - Glasgow, UK - Broadcast
Sep 28 - Ashington, UK - White House Unique Social Club
Sep 29 - Derby, UK - Flower Pot
Sep 30 - London, UK - O2 Academy Islington
Oct 1 - Birmingham, UK - O2 Institute
Oct 3 - Bristol, UK - Thekla
Oct 4 - Guildford, UK - Boileroom
Oct 5 - Nijmegen, NL - Doornroosje
Oct 6 - Eindhoven, NL - Effenaar
Oct 7 - Rotterdam, NL - Rotown Rotterdam
Oct 8 - Utrecht, NL - Tivoli Vredenburg
Oct 9 - Da Groningen, NL - De Oosterpoort
Oct 11 - Köln, DE - Jaki
Oct 12 - Copenhagen, DK - Amager Bio
Oct 13 - Odense, DK - Dexter
Oct 14 - Hamburg, DE - NoCHTWACHE
Oct 15 - Berline, DE - Privatclub

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LYDIA PERSAUD SHARES NEW SINGLE / VIDEO, “I GOT YOU”

WATCH / SHARE “I GOT YOU” HERE
BUY / STREAM “I GOT YOU” HERE

NEW ALBUM, MOODY31, OUT APRIL 29, 2022 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS

PRE-SAVE MOODY31 HERE

Photo Credit : Joshua C. Rille // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Next month, Toronto’s Lydia Persaud (Per-sAHd) will introduce us to the full spectrum of emotion with her new album, Moody31, due out April 29 via Next Door Records. Shimmery runs fall alongside precise enunciations that slightly quiver on pitch. A singer with daring range, she stretches words – subtly melismatic, smooth, slantly gospel – to their full emotional capacity. Her sophomore record remodels a multitude of influences into a dynamic and harmonious original. Described by producer Scott McCannell as “Roberta Flack sitting in with Bill Withers' band at a folk festival,” Moody31 recombines jazz, R&B, and folk stylings to create soul music in its most literal sense. 

Today, the celebrated songwriter is sharing the album’s second single, “I Got You”, a track which is one her favourites to play live. “It’s got a bounce to it and was also strangely written with no one specific in mind,” says Persaud. “A song about rekindling a long standing love, written while happily single. Around the time I wrote ‘I Got You’, Anderson.Paak had released his tune with Smokey Robinson called ‘Make It Better.’ The first time I heard it, I immediately thought ‘holy shit this song is amazing, this feels like something I would write.’ ‘I Got You’ was in no way an attempt at writing my own ‘Make It Better’, but there is definitely an essence there. 

“While recording this tune with Scott, Chino de Villa, and Ben McDonald, the tempo started to slip back and ‘I Got You’ started to become a slow jam. I always had this slightly Motown dream for it, like a low-key Supremes moment, but the guys joked and said that they didn’t play tunes faster than 94 bpm, haha. When Christine and I would play it live, we liked to keep it bouncy and knew that’s where it sat best. After a couple attempts at convincing the guys to take their 94 bpm limits ever so slightly up to 104 bpm, which is where it sits now, we’ve found its home. I was working on a video concept for this tune and Josh C. Rille my director and dear friend brought to my attention how this song sounds like a love letter to myself, asking for another shot at this relationship, a rekindling of self love after a whole lot of changes, ‘I Got You’ finally made sense.  

WATCH / SHARE “I GOT YOU” HERE
BUY / STREAM “I GOT YOU” HERE

 “I Got You” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MORE ABOUT MOODY31
It’s tempting to want to deconstruct her amalgam into its distinct parts, tracing each track’s reference points and divergencies. On “Let Me Be There For You” homage is paid to the beautifully haunting background vocals of Motown legend Mavin Gaye, while the ukelele fingerpicking on “Think Of Me” is approached with the lyrical sensitivities of a storyteller. Without fidelity to a single source of inspiration, Persaud’s arrangements are kaleidoscopic: layered sounds that mimic the prismatic moods of the album. It’s here that brokenness, loss of identity, and glorified independence commingle with self-assurance, acceptance and new beginnings. 

“I Got You” is a bouncy love-letter to oneself, while “Words For Her” is fraught with the anticipation of saying ‘I love you’ for the first time in a blossoming romance. This is a summer album, with Persaud’s honeyed tone warming each track, but one that complicates the expected feel-good nature of the season. Imagine riding your bike through the city on a near-perfect July day, on the heels of a recent heartbreak. 

WATCH / SHARE “GOOD FOR US” HERE
BUY / STREAM “GOOD FOR US” HERE

The title track “Moody31” is a surprising instrumental strip-down: diminished and major 7-chords fall alongside lush yet anguished vocals. The effect is a deep vulnerability crossed with absolute self-possession. It’s these antithetical desires that cut to the core of Moody31: to love and be loved without losing oneself in the process. 

Persaud met producer and bassist Scott McCannell of Safe Spaceship Music in 2019. “Scott and I shared the same desire to create something new while preserving the classic warmth of the 70s soul and jazz sounds we love.” The two began compiling a collection of demos that eventually became Moody31. “The baritone ukulele was the foundational instrument I used to write the record,” Persaud says. “I would teach Scott a new song, and, to avoid  perfectionism, we would record a rough demo while the song was loose and fresh.” With all the bed-tracks recorded in one room, the songs have a live, jazz-combo quality. Kyla Charter and James Baley’s backing vocals are full of disco-esque call-and-response, while Chino de Villa’s steady drums lend heartbeat from start to finish. 

PRE-SAVE MOODY31 HERE

MORE ABOUT LYDIA PERSAUD
A fixture of Toronto’s music community and a sought-after collaborator, Persaud has had a colourful decade performing to small clubs with her jazz project (2012 - 2016), to crate diggers with The Soul Motivators (2011-2015), to folkies at festivals with The O’Pears (2013-2019), and to rock nostalgics with Dwayne Gretzky (2017-present). She’s shared the stage with Lee Fields, Richard Bona, David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot, Jackie Richardson, Divine Brown, and Justin Nozuka, among many others. She’s also a member of the Queer Songbook Orchestra, and host of the upcoming docuseries, New World Beat.

“After ten years of playing music, I’m beginning to bring my multiple experiences into what I’m doing. I make music to honestly connect with others who might feel the same way. I hope Moody31 celebrates and validates the human experience in all its contradictions: how new love can be experienced alongside deep loss, how one can crave solitude and connection, simultaneously. It’s beautiful to embrace all of our moods - it’s living.”

MOODY31 TRACKLIST
01 Good For Us
02 I Got You
03 Think Of Me
04 Moody31
05 Unsung
06 Words For Her
07 Let Me Be There For You 
08 Outro 

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COLYN CAMERON RETURNS WITH NEW ALBUM, FREEHAND

JUNO AWARD NOMINATED SONGWRITER COLYN CAMERON RETURNS WITH FREEHAND, DUE OUT AUGUST 5, 2022

WATCH / SHARE “FAULT LINES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “FAULT LINES” HERE

Photo Credit : Cody Briggs // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

After almost four years since Sad & Easy, JUNO Award nominated songwriter Colyn Cameron (Wake Owl) is excited to be sharing a new album, Freehand. While living in Vancouver, BC, the new material emerged within the paradoxical spaces of experimenting with dispersed and concentrated rhythms. He used the material to explore themes of technology, adventure, self-worth, and love with mild nods to worldly trepidation. 

Today, he shares the album track “Fault Lines” which arrives accompanied by a video. “In honor of the Canby Ferry, a slow cable raft that brings cars across the Willamette River just west of the Walnut Eddy, we tried to make our 8 and 16 mm mixed format film as small and humble as the ride,” says Cameron. “Discovered while scouting outside of Portland for another project, we immediately felt within a metaphoric space connected to the song and certain themes from the album. Warmly welcomed by the ferry operators to roll film, we tried to capture the peaceful lull of crossing, and then crossing back.”

WATCH / SHARE “FAULT LINES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “FAULT LINES” HERE

“Fault Lines” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MORE ABOUT FREEHAND
The first Merriam-Webster definition of ‘freehand’ is “done without mechanical aids or devices.” “Obviously we are indebted to the invaluable nature of how advanced our civilization is, but at times it can be worrisome as to the limitless ways this advancement almost precedes us and answers to nothing really.” There are plenty of moments on this record referencing the wide scoped and overbearing nature of the current times in relation to technology, philosophical concern, and almost apocalyptic anxiety. But, without sounding outright pessimistic and bleak, there are also cues to simple things like good friendships, love, adventure, substance abuse, and cheap talk. “I wanted to make something romantic and nostalgic, but freely allowing the calamitous to have its place. I love gadgets and sophistication, being connected, and knowledge but I also find it curious how much is dictated by the obsession with technology, ‘progress’, and prosperity.” 

It has now been ten years since the release of Wake Owl’s first album. In the years since, Colyn has also composed original music for 2 feature films, numerous different independent projects, and formed new musical and broader artististic collaborations. Colyn has also spent much of these ten years learning to carve out ways to continue being creative and writing music, or more simply put, to change pace and make time. But it's not always easy. “I have at times, without a doubt, been a pure cog in the machine. Only hustling. A slave to minimum wage and other vices. But in short spurts it never lasts before I crave dissolution again in something authentic and meaningful, whether that is an experience of a single night, or lifestyle change.” 

In a bittersweet move, Colyn relocated from LA to Vancvouer a few months before the pandemic began. The songs of Freehand started to trickle in no later. Shrouded with time and a quietish room, he began recording demos and further, final versions of both instrumentals and songs. Once written and having laid a scratch track down, Josh Contant, a long time collaborator, would come track ‘one take’ drums. The rest of each song's parts would be delicately performed atop this foundation, including additional instrumentation by another former Wake Owl member and current collaborator, Aiden Ayers. The process was at times independent and at other times quite collaborative. He wanted the band to sound close and exposed, and in particular Colyn wanted to try performing the vocals in a way that was more upfront and intimate than ever. “I wanted the listener to really be able to hear my voice, the words, the pronunciations, the rhythm, etc.”. In general the vibe is less ‘effected’ and loose than earlier releases. The instrumentation is sometimes raw, sparse, and gentle, but often compact and concise. “Perhaps because the songs sometimes feel lyrically dense, I also decided to add a few short instrumentals that appeared in playful moments between recordings. These are brief guitar motifs that I used to create a pause and vibe.”

“In one way,” Colyn reflects, “Sad & Easy and now Freehand both have felt to be similar artistic processes. Musically they were kept quite intimate, and in the process of bringing the visual elements (Videos, Artwork) to life, I went on good forays with inspiring collaborators. The video experiments connected to the record do feel like an extension of the music in a complimentary and organic way.”

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FREEHAND TRACKLIST
01 Deepfakes
02 Sweet Relief
03 Rille
04 Fault Lines
05 Wedding Rings
06 Stream
07 Dead Ends
08 Locarno Beach
09 Pick Me Up
10 Gila Bend

COLYN CAMERON ONLINE
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