SAYA GRAY RELEASES BRAND NEW SINGLE “H.B.W”, FROM UPCOMING DEBUT ALBUM

SAYA GRAY’S HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED DEBUT ALBUM SAYA OUT ON FEBRUARY 21, 2025 VIA DIRTY HIT

WATCH / SHARE “H.B.W” HERE
BUY / STREAM “H.B.W” HERE

PRE-SAVE SAYA HERE

“a new self-sufficient artistic voice that’s bound to push, jolt and reinvent” - Dazed

“her production is alert, hyper-detailed and surreally unpredictable, segueing among ticking electronics, syncopated indie-rock, spacey vocal chorales, distorted guitars and what might be a koto.” - The New York Times

“collaging R&B and alt-rock into interdimensional pop” - Pitchfork

Photo Credit : Jennifer Cheng // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Having already made such an indelible mark on the current music climate, it’s hard to believe that Saya Gray has never released an album. Across her three previous EPs—2022’s 19 MASTERS, 2023’s QWERTY I, and 2024’s QWERTY II—she’s introduced the world to a sound that’s as vivid as it is vulnerable, seamlessly weaving genres with a bold originality. On February 21, 2025, Gray will release SAYA, an album that seeks to draw a line in the sand between what came before and what the future holds.

Today, she offers a further glimpse of what’s to come with the release of a brand new track “H.B.W” - a spellbinding blend of pop and the avant-garde. Following the release of the country music-tinged “SHELL (OF A MAN)” last month, “H.B.W” finds Gray in a fever-dream state, her vocals flowing with quiet grace underpinned by a deep, trembling bassline. Confronting feelings of grief and the loss of control, her confessional lyrics lay bare her vulnerability and strength in the face of uncertainty, combined with her meticulous approach to music production, it’s clear that Saya Gray is an artist that unquestionably occupies her own, very distinct lane. Not wanting to give too much away about “H.B.W” (an acronym of the chorus lyric ‘Heartbreak Wake’) and the personal themes it contains, Gray simply states; "H.B.W is the pain of nightmares". 

WATCH / SHARE “H.B.W” HERE
BUY / STREAM “H.B.W” HERE

Gray began work on SAYA following the dissolution of a troubled romantic entanglement; she booked a flight to Japan in Autumn of 2023, and like a feel-good movie protagonist, detangled herself from the outstanding psychic ties by journeying solo on a cross-country road trip. Moved by the vastness of albums by the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, as well as her Canadian folk forebear, Joni Mitchell, Gray kept an acoustic guitar in the passenger’s seat, just in case inspiration would strike. In recording SAYA, Gray sanded and fine tuned the rough edges of records past into more cohesive works of melodic folk songcraft. 

Born out of the large periods of 2023 she spent in studious isolation and her healthy fear of the ever encroaching digital world, the 10 tracks perfectly demonstrate her stunningly detailed compositions. 

MORE ABOUT SAYA GRAY
She first introduced herself to the world as a solo artist in 2022 with 19 MASTERS. Recorded in large part through her iPhone’s Voice Notes app, her dissonant electro-rock sketches aptly met the moment of global post-pandemic disarray. It was dubbed one of the best albums of the year by TIME and her work has generally received accolades from The New York Times, Pitchfork, NPR, and more. She also began unveiling her own kaleidoscopic inventions to such major festivals as the Montreal Jazz Fest, Pitchfork Music’s Paris festival, and Primavera Sound in Spain.

Gray was born in Toronto, Canada, to a Japanese mother and Scottish-Canadian father. She first got her start playing in a house band at a Jamaican Pentecostal church; by 16, she was recruited for gigs at open mics, nightclubs and jazz festivals alongside adults. Soon, Gray began entertaining bigger offers to tour internationally as a bass player for Grammy-winning neo-soul singer Daniel Caesar and musical director alt royalty Willow Smith.

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SAYA TRACKLIST
01 ..THUS IS WHY ( I DON'T SPRING 4 LOVE)
02 SHELL ( OF A MAN )
03 LINE BACK 22
04 PUDDLE ( OF ME )
05 HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP A LIE?
06 CATS CRADLE!
07 10 WAYS ( TO LOSE A CROWN )
08 H.B.W
09 EXHAUST THE TOPIC
10 LIE DOWN..

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LEIF VOLLEBEKK SHARES NEW VERSION OF SINGLE, “PEACE OF MIND (MORNING)”

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Today, Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Leif Vollebekk reveals an acoustic version of “Peace of Mind” off his critically acclaimed new record Revelation. “Peace of Mind (Morning),” is a captivating acoustic take. “‘Peace of Mind (Morning)’ felt like it wanted its own space, separate from the album version,” says Vollebekk. He adds: “there’s something about a mountain that always makes you feel at ease. It can inspire the stillness you need to find yourself. In the I Ching, Keeping Still (symbolized by a mountain) is the way to peace of mind. Considering the title, it’s rather ironic that I’ve spent more time recording this song than any other. I’ve recorded 4 or 5 different versions of this song.”

“Peace of Mind (Morning)” arrives alongside an official visualizer directed by Andy Mann, offering fans a sensory journey that pairs perfectly with the song's immersive tones. Vollebekk is currently performing across the United States on a nationwide tour supporting Revelation. The tour continues with stops in major cities, bringing his intimate yet electrifying live experience to fans coast-to-coast. In the new year, the tour will progress to Canada, with stops in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and more.

WATCH / SHARE “PEACE OF MIND (MORNING)” HERE
BUY / STREAM “PEACE OF MIND (MORNING)” HERE

Revelation has been raved by critics and fans alike since its release on September 27th. Bedroom Disco calls it “by far the best work by this talented singer-songwriter to date,” a sentiment echoed by Musikreview in Germany. In England, Americana UK offered a 9/10 and shared that “[Vollebekk] has delivered a superb piece of work. ‘Revelation’ is an apt a title as any for an album that deserves a place on those end-of-year lists so beloved by, well, everyone.” Le Devoir gave it ★★★★, while Exclaim! shares an 8/10, stating, “The image shimmers, a mirage in crystal clear water that sparkles before it disappears in a crash of waves. It's in these images that Vollebekk's subconscious is both amplified and reconstructed. Rolling Stone wants everyone to discover “Rock and Roll” and included it in their “Songs You Need To Know” feature, while Atwood Magazine cherishes another favorite; “A dreamy reverie basking in the glow of intimate connection, Leif Vollebekk’s “Peace of Mind (Evening)” is sweet bliss channeled into soul-stirring sound.” – In addition, Leif's music was synced in last night's episode of Shrinking on Apple TV+, bringing his signature sound to viewers worldwide.

An artist’s artist with many colleagues as admirers, Vollebekk – who self-produced and played piano, guitar, bass, B3 organ, harmonica, accordion and Moog synthesizer on Revelation – compiled an impressive supporting cast that speaks to the caliber of musicianship and feel of the recordings, including legendary drummer Jim Keltner, notable steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar (Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Rod Stewart), and revered bassist Shahzad Ismaily. His other album collaborators included artists Angie McMahon and Anaïs Mitchell on background vocals. The album was mixed by Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Arctic Monkeys, Tracy Chapman) and mastered by Greg Calbi.

WATCH / SHARE “ROCK AND ROLL” HERE

MORE ABOUT LEIF VOLLEBEKK
Leif Vollebekk is an acclaimed singer-songwriter originally from Ottawa who now resides in Montreal, Canada. The artist has sold-out headlining tours across North America, Europe and Australia. His first Secret City Records release, Twin Solitude, was a breakthrough album, landing a spot on the Polaris Music Prize 2017 shortlist, a JUNO Award nomination and gathering over 60 million streams. His follow-up, New Ways, confirmed his undeniable talent and surpassed Twin Solitude in streaming. “[His] songs […] are pensive and restless, blossoming with stream-of-consciousness verses that bear the marks of long nights spent alone on the road.” (The New York Times). Previous media supporters include The New York Times, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Pitchfork, Uncut, NPR Music, The Fader, BBC, The Sunday Times Culture, The Line of Best Fit, Paste, Brooklyn Vegan, WXPN, KCRW, Exclaim! and many more. Music from Leif has been heard in TV shows such as Netflix’s Feel Good and Lovesick, HBO’s The New Pope, The Bold Type, Wisdom of the Crowd and more.

PRAISE FOR REVELATION

★★★★ ½  - Liverpool Sound and Vision

★★★★ ½  - Americana UK

★★★★ - Le Devoir

★★★★ - Exclaim!

★★★★ - Plattentests-de

BUY / STREAM REVELATION HERE

BUY REVELATION PHYSICAL ALBUM HERE

TOUR DATES
November 23 – Boulder, CO | Fox Theatre
November 24 – Denver, CO | The Bluebird Theater
February 13 - Vancouver, BC | The Pearl
February 14 – Vancouver, BC | The Pearl
February 15 – Victoria, BC | McPherson Playhouse
February 18 - Calgary, AB | Palace Theatre
February 19 – Edmonton, AB | Midway
February 20 – Saskatoon, SK | Broadway Theatre
February 21 – Regina, SK | The Exchange
February 22 – Winnipeg, MB | Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain
February 27 – Ottawa, ON | The Bronson Centre
February 28 – Montreal, QC | M Telus
March 1 – Toronto, ON | Massey Hall

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CHARLIE HOUSTON ANNOUNCES DEBUT LP, SHARES NEW SINGLE “LEWPS”

WATCH / SHARE “LEWPS” LIVE PERFORMANCE HERE
BUY / STREAM “LEWPS” HERE

CHARLIE HOUSTON’S DEBUT LP, BIG AFTER I DIE, SET FOR RELEASE JANUARY 31, 2025 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

PRE-SAVE BIG AFTER I DIE HERE

Photo Credit : Matt Barnes // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Fresh off a US tour supporting viral rock stars The Beaches, Charlie Houston announces her debut record, Big After I Die, a 9-song exploration of the precarious and often surreal experience of learning who you are while transitioning between phases of life.

Growing up around Toronto, Houston was the youngest of four siblings. When she was eight years old, her dad, a fellow musician who used to play in local garage punk bands, gifted her a guitar. Whereas many singer-songwriters got their start performing covers, Houston remained focused on “making something that didn’t exist before.” She also began learning how to produce for herself on GarageBand, which felt like “unlocking a whole other world.” Houston’s music has always felt technical in its nuance and attention to detail, where melody and topline interlace themselves seamlessly, and the dreamy sonic exterior almost makes you forget what’s lurking underneath. Her songs are rife with nostalgia: the ghosts of people and places far gone but still fresh with emotional impact. Big After I Die rises from the ashes of these past experiences: Houston scrapped an entire hypothetical album after going through an intense break up. The songs she had written during a period of domestic bliss were now reminders of life’s many paths. “I didn't really know who I was or who I wanted to be outside of her,” explains Houston. That searching would soon become the focus of her debut album.

Today, she shares another single from the album, "Lewps", a riff-heavy alternative pop single that evokes the genre-shifting vibes of Tame Impala and Yves Tumor. The album's lead single about overthinking embarrassing moments to a point of insanity features Houston's signature humour and honesty.

“I often find myself reliving my most embarrassing moments months or years later for absolutely no reason,” says Houston. “I think this is a very relatable problem. I find it hard to be present, I’m always thinking about the past and things I wish I could have done differently. Such as one time while playing baseball with my ex-girlfriend and her friends I tried to run to first base and ate it before I even got there.”

WATCH / SHARE “LEWPS” LIVE PERFORMANCE HERE
BUY / STREAM “LEWPS” HERE

MORE ABOUT BIG AFTER I DIE
Houston’s break-up wasn’t the first time she had to pick up the pieces: after high school, she was accepted to New York’s prestigious Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and attended for one semester before dropping out after a bad experience with psychedelics left her with paralyzing, existential anxiety about her greater purpose. Moving back to Ontario to attend Queen's University, she reconnected with an old friend who encouraged her to start writing her own original material again. 

“Since I had gone to NYU for music, leaving felt like a failure.” explains Houston. “But I began to see a new path in music as an artist that I don’t think I would have discovered had I stayed at NYU.”

Working with producer Chris Yonge, Houston signed to storied indie label Arts & Crafts to release her debut 5-song EP I Hate Spring in 2021. Her naturally inviting, plainspoken voice over downtempo electronic production caught the attention of popular electronic duo ODESZA. The resulting collaboration landed her a spot on their Grammy Award-nominated album, The Last Goodbye, and North American stadium tour. Houston then joined rising pop star Charlotte Cardin as a support act on her cross-country Canadian tour before releasing her sophomore EP 2022’s Bad Posture. By 2023, Houston had racked up millions of streams, landed a Spotify billboard in New York’s Times Square, and earned the praise of tastemakers like Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, all before she finished her undergraduate degree. Yet while she had begun to rebuild faith in herself, she continued to struggle to find purpose in the milestones that she’d accomplished.

WATCH / SHARE “SLUT FOR EXCEL” HERE
BUY / STREAM “SLUT FOR EXCEL” HERE

“I think the philosophical anxiety I developed at NYU towards not just my own purpose, but the purpose of humans generally was something that I felt like I had to get rid of. I went to therapy and started taking medication to try and stop these thoughts. But I’ve started to realize that these thoughts and that experience in New York has made me who I am. I’m weirded out and confused by my own existence and I’m okay with that”

Houston’s longstanding creative partnership with her producer had always been reassuringly comfortable: “Chris [Yonge] and I had such a formula we knew worked, but it was really focused on writing to the beat. I was interested in challenging myself and putting my songwriting first as opposed to production.” For Big After I Die, Houston leaned into more dynamic songwriting, inspired by musicians like Courtney Barnett that made “music that is thrown in front of you”.  For the first time, “the songs were all written without touching a computer,” with no plan of connecting the tracks to a greater concept album. It was only after returning to the collection of songs that she was able to connect the dots and realize there was an overarching story to the music. “Lighter,” a breakthrough track that sparked many of the other songs on the album, intones: “I’ll be lost / if I’m not right for you,” pinpointing the intense anxiety she continues to navigate around being alone. Houston’s struggles with mental health permeate the album: on the frenetic “Lewps” she decries the “loops inside my head” over and over. The record is a documentation of Houston’s attachment issues of finding herself through others, an idea she continues to return to. Initially written from the vantage point of a romance, the downtempo “Spiral” explores the tendency to seek solace in other people, and being scared to lose someone to a personal fault. “I think I’ve always been terrified to lose people because I have a habit of centering my life and happiness around one person. So losing them can feel like losing everything” she explains.

WATCH / SHARE “PINK CHEETAH PRINT SLIP” HERE
BUY / STREAM “PINK CHEETAH PRINT SLIP” HERE

While Big After I Die grapples with the intense emotions and heavy themes of codependency, sonically Houston takes a much more playful approach, and sounds the most comfortable she's ever been. Working alongside new creative partner Duncan Hood, all the tracks were recorded as slow indie folk songs with acoustic guitar and piano, while being infused with Houston’s trademark quirky realism and attention to joyful experimentation. Initially, many of the songs on the project were written through the lens of love songs, but in hindsight they transformed into greater contemplations about who she is meant to be, and how she continues to grow.  "Experiencing life alone for the first time,” Houston feels at home and settled into her body, including her queerness: “it’s very evident one song is about a girl (rollicking, upbeat highlight “Pink Cheetah Print Slip”)”.

The title Big After I Die is taken less as a literal idea and more about “this desire that I feel to keep developing and growing after the ending,” whether the end of a specific relationship or a period of time in her life. Although she just graduated with a degree in philosophy, the record is her own personal thesis examining her search to find greater meaning in life: the omnipresent, existential questions that she had been fixated on for so long. It also signifies a rebirth, of faith in herself and her intuition. Houston went back and forth on whether she should write a song that felt triumphant, an optimistic conclusion to the end of one transitional period, but ultimately decided against it. For Houston, it’s not the end that needs to be celebrated: life is just beginning.

PRE-SAVE BIG AFTER I DIE HERE

Tour Dates:   
Nov 21: Montreal, QC / M for Montreal

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BIG AFTER I DIE TRACKLIST
01 Pink Cheetah Slip
02 Lighter
03 Salt
04 Stupid Love
05 Spiral
06 Slut For Excel
07 The Descent
08 Lewps
09 I Need U 

PRAISE FOR CHARLIE HOUSTON

“Sometimes the words don't come immediately — after all, asking someone to be that vulnerable isn't easy — and it can take all night before you feel ready. But when that moment happens, let's hope that it can sound and feel as sweet as this indie-pop ode to young love. CBC Music on “All Night”

“... casts back to timeless memories of fumbling early romance—first kisses, messy breakups, and short-lived flirtations are all soundtracked by weightless indie pop and R&B stylings”
 – Under The Radar

“It’s a striking debut, an unguarded, ultra-personal tapestry—stories of heartbreak and struggle, sung in her soothing, signature voice” 
– SPIN

“‘Things’ is an unadulterated look at youthful insecurities and unrequited affection. Over a somber but punchy backdrop, she delivers an evocative performance that is ripe with honesty” – EARMILK



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