BYE PARULA SHARES “I DON’T KNOW” FROM UPCOMING ALBUM

BYE PARULA’S NEW ALBUM, SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING, OUT JUNE 5, 2026 VIA SECRET CITY RECORDS

WATCH / SHARE “I DON’T KNOW” HERE
BUY / STREAM “I DON’T KNOW” HERE

PRE-SAVE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING HERE

ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW JUNE 11 AT SALA ROSSA IN MONTREAL
TICKETS ON SALE
HERE

SUPPORTING SAID THE WHALE IN TORONTO APRIL 18
AT LEE’S PALACE

SUMMER FESTIVAL DATES NOW ANNOUNCED 

Photo Credit: Marc-André Dupaul // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Montreal trio Bye Parula share their sparkling, dancefloor-ready new single “I don’t know”, the second from their new album Something Out Of Nothing, out June 5 via Secret City Records. The song is thematically linked to lead single “KISSBURN”, another undeniable earworm that’s seen over 300,000 plays on Spotify (and over 1 millions views on TikTok) in only four weeks. About the pair, singer/bassist Loïc Calatayud-Sola shares: “These were written in the same period, at the beginning of the process, and they go together. ‘KISSBURN’ is told from the point of view of someone pursuing someone they’re obsessed with. They’re confident—maybe sexy, maybe ridiculous, maybe both. ‘I don’t know’ is from the other person’s point of view. They find the attention a little ridiculous—but they’re just as obsessed in return.” 

WATCH / SHARE “I DON’T KNOW” HERE
BUY / STREAM “I DON’T KNOW” HERE

Produced by Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson) and mixed by Warren Spicer (Plants and Animals), Something Out Of Nothing features a team of collaborators alongside Loïc Calatayud-Sola, guitarist Sebastián Riquelme, and drummer Sergio D'Isanto - including Inuk singer/songwriter Elisapie, Bibi Club’s Adèle Trottier-Rivard, Morgan Moore and Karkwa keyboardist François Lafontaine.

Bye Parula are confirmed for multiple Canadian festivals this summer, including Northern Lights Festival (Sudbury, ON), Festival d'été de Québec (Quebec City, QC), and Hillside Festival (Guelph, ON). The band will perform next at a sold-out show on April 18 in Toronto at Lee’s Palace, opening for Said the Whale, and will celebrate Something Out Of Nothing with a hometown album release show on June 11 in Montreal at La Sala Rossa. Tickets are on sale here.

Each weekday morning at around 10am, Bye Parula became the most popular band in Canada—if only for about 20 seconds. That’s when their 2023 single, “Still Got the Spirit”, is broadcast across the country on CBC Radio One as the opening theme to the network’s flagship arts-and-culture talk show, Q with Tom Power. The song’s smooth, supple groove and jabbing disco strings made it an outlier amid the ornate prog-pop vignettes that otherwise filled up their DIY 2023 debut album, I (also produced by Kuster and mixed by Spicer), and the placement not only exposed these Montreal indie-scene newcomers to a wider national audience, it also catalyzed them to innovate and expand their sound. Where their earliest recordings captured a group of newly acquainted players still getting to know each other through musical communication, Something Out of Nothing is a testament to their deepening friendships and increasingly intuitive interplay. The result is Something Out Of Nothing: a mercurial mix that draws from the orchestral groove of Serge Gainsbourg, the wounded melodies of Elliott Smith, the cosmopolitan rhythms of the Talking Heads, and the artisanal R&B of Dijon, all imbued with a 1970s cinematic sensibility that blurs the line between sunny, fuzzy fantasy and urbane sophistication. 

While most bands form out of friendships, in this case, the friendships in Bye Parula formed through the band. When the members first met at the dawn of the decade, the only thing they really had in common was the fact that they were all strangers in a strange town: Loïc Calatayud-Sola was a recent arrival from southern France; Sebastián Riquelme hailed from Chile; and Sergio D'Isanto had immigrated from Italy. During the first wave of lockdowns, the band essentially existed as a demo file-swap exercise, but once restrictions were lifted to allow for a rehearsal retreat to a studio near Trois-Rivières, a common language was quickly forged among the trio. From there, Bye Parula cultivated an ornate art-pop aesthetic that followed in the footsteps of Montreal eccentrics like Watson or Plants and Animals, and it wasn’t long before those inspirations became peers in Kuster and Spicer, who helped this trio of immigrants find their footing in the local scene in addition to working on I.

WATCH / SHARE “KISSBURN” HERE
BUY / STREAM “KISSBURN” HERE

The album’s pleasure-seeking sounds can’t obscure the distress lurking under the surface—this is a record that massages your shoulders musically while punching you in the gut lyrically.  “English is not my first language, so on our first record, I was shy, and I was trying to over-complicate stuff, to feel intelligent in a way,” Calatayud says. “And Robbie encouraged me to be simpler and just go for the emotion. I think it helped me a lot: to know that I can just write simple lyrics that are really honest.” Naturally, Something Out of Nothing’s most dramatic moments are also the most nakedly personal: on “Orange Blossom” (featuring guest vocals from Adèle Trottier-Rivard), Loïc Calatayud-Sola pays tribute to his great-grandmother, who lived to 101 and whose spirit of perseverance continues to guide him through his own darkest hours—like the one chronicled on “Burning Down the House”, a visceral and heartbreaking post-breakup elegy. Meanwhile, the eerie-meets-Future Islands atmosphere atmosphere of “Home” draws us into the moment where Calatayud’s soul-crushing morning commute to his day job—a total of 1.5 hours on the Metro combined with an hour of walking, to be exact—led to a full-blown existential crisis, as a creeping homesickness had him questioning whether he wanted to stay in Canada. 

Something Out of Nothing is divided into two parts for the listener’s experience: ‘Songs to Listen to in a Standing Position’ and ‘Songs to Listen to in a Sitting Position.’ Two atmospheres that seem diametrically opposed yet are ultimately and intimately connected. Whether racing through the night or settling into dawn’s light, each track is woven from the same thread: love made alive by care. In this way, the album unfolds as a complete story. Its standing-position songs celebrate how love moves us, while its sitting-position songs reveal how love holds us. Together, they remind us of the necessity of both movement and stillness, of brightness and depth embracing the joy that lifts us and the pain that grounds us. Urging us to dance. Urging us to pause.

PRE-SAVE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING HERE

BYE PARULA LIVE
April 18 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace (w/Said the Whale) – SOLD OUT
June 2 – London, UK – The Lower Third (Upstairs) 
June 11 – Montreal, QC – Sala Rossa (LP release show)
July 10-12 - Sudbury, ON - Northern Lights Festival
July 17 - Quebec City, QC - Festival d'été de Québec\
July 18 - Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival

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SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING TRACKLIST
Side A - Songs to Listen to in a Standing Position
01 I don’t know
02 KISSBURN
03 I’m getting ready
04 Something Out Of Nothing
05 Home

Side B - Songs to Listen to in a Sitting Position
06 Orange Blossom (There’s a million reasons)
07 Miedo de olvidar (featuring Elisapie)
08 Quand vient le soir
09 Needed
10 Burning down the house

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MAGI MERLIN ANNOUNCES DEBUT ALBUM, SHARES NEW SINGLE & VIDEO

MAGI MERLIN’S DEBUT ALBUM, POWER HOUSE, DUE OUT JULY 10, 2026

WATCH / SHARE “SPICEKICK” HERE
BUY / STREAM “SPICEKICK” HERE

PRE-SAVE POWER HOUSE HERE

Photo Credit : Sophia Perras // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Magi Merlin swings big on her new single and propulsive video for “SpiceKick”, compressing all her eclectic tastes into a high-stakes tune that reconfigures alt-R&B on her own terms. The single arrives alongside the announcement of her debut album POWER HOUSE, due July 10, 2026. The video directed by Félicie Diaz & Noshirt is punk, corporeal and choreography-forward, as relentless as the track itself.

“I wanted to open the project with something loud, flashy, and seemingly arrogant,” says Magi. “The track, though, is a kind of façade. I’ve felt as confident as ‘SpiceKick’ sounds, but that feeling can’t last forever, perhaps it shouldn't. Sometimes arrogance becomes a cover for fear and inadequacy. The mask slips at the end when I tell the listener to save themselves from me. SpiceKick is an ode to ego and self-confidence, something that can curdle into self-loathing if left unchecked.”

Screw the soft launch. Magi’s target audience is her fellow obsessives, she sings directly to the listener pressed up against the other side of the screen’s glass. She coined her own genre for it: Broken R&B, less a marketing term than an honest account of how she works, co-writing and co-producing with long-time collaborator Funkywhat, leading on her own art direction, shaping a visual world as self-defined and infectious as the music.

WATCH / SHARE “SPICEKICK” HERE
BUY / STREAM “SPICEKICK” HERE

BTS image credit: Yasmine Cloutier Maalouf

“SpiceKick” follows “POPSTAR” – our first taste from her debut full-length – which premiered on Huw Stephens’ BBC Radio 6 Music show, picked up a B-list placement and had repeat plays on New Music Fix, with London its number one city on streaming platforms and a place on Spotify’s Fresh Finds Favorites in March 2026. The single arrived as Magi was wrapping a European support run with Yaya Bey, the latest in a string of momentum that’s been building steadily across both sides of the Atlantic.

The music is only part of it. This spring Magi makes her acting debut in Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks, which screened at TIFF 2025 and SXSW alongside Barbie Ferreira, Devon Bostick and Juliette Gariépy, with the US cinema release landing April 17. 

WATCH / SHARE “POPSTAR” (VISUALIZER) HERE
BUY / STREAM “POPSTAR” HERE

Magi [pronounced Mahd-j-eye] grew up in Montreal. Her 2022 EP Gone Girl earned praise from Bandcamp Daily, The FADER, The Line of Best Fit and Nylon, leading to tours with Noga Erez and a LATAM date with Omar Apollo. A surprise EP, A Weird Little Dog, arrived as she opened a US tour for Nubya Garcia, followed by festival appearances at Osheaga, Festival d’été de Québec (opening for Ty Dolla $ign), Treefort, Reeperbahn and the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

With her debut album POWER HOUSE out July 10, Magi is about to reveal a big, sparkling new chamber of her craft. The title alone tells you she’s not playing it safe.

PRE-SAVE POWER HOUSE HERE

PERFORMANCE DATES
04/01/2026 - Toronto, ON - The Baby G 
06/26/2026 - Mayenne, FR - Un singe en été
17/07/2026 - Dour, BE - Dour Music Festival

LP Artwork Credit: Sophia Perras // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

POWER HOUSE TRACKLIST
01 Welcome Home 
02 SpiceKick 
03 EAT!ME!OUT! 
04 So Smart
05 Thank You!!!
06 WHIP
07 Crawl
08 pixxxie
09 Workout
10 Salt
11 POPSTAR
12 Wtvr

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VIVEK SHRAYA RELEASES DELUXE VERSION OF NEW MODELS, SHARES “MORAL PANIC” FT. JEREMY DUTCHER

VIVEK SHRAYA CELEBRATES TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY WITH THE DELUXE VERSION OF HER NEW RECORD, NEW MODELS

LISTEN / SHARE “MORAL PANIC” FT. JEREMY DUTCHER

BUY / STREAM NEW MODELS DELUXE VERSION HERE

Photo Credit : Paul Mpagi Sepuya // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, multi-hyphenate artist Vivek Shraya is celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility by releasing the deluxe version of her latest album, New Models. The deluxe version includes reimaginings of two album tracks which feature Jeremy Dutcher (On “Moral Panic”), and Tanya Tagaq (on “Apathy Crisis”). 

“New Models was written in the past four years, during a time when trans rights around the world have been slowly and systematically chipped away,” explains Shraya. “I wanted to make something that pushed back against the hateful political rhetoric (“Groomer”) but also could be cathartic to queer and trans listeners (“When I’m Overcome”). I wanted to make something that could rally allies (“Apathy Crisis”) but I also wanted listeners to discover new perspectives and motivations on their own (“Moral Panic”). Often, I wasn’t even sure what I was making (“I Don’t Know Where I’m Going”) or if any of it mattered (“Am I Doing Enough?”).

“My relationship to International Transgender Day Of Visibility is similarly ambivalent. What I personally want for my communities is not necessarily visibility but safety and dignity. I also know that it’s seeing trans people that empowers me to keep existing and, crucially, to keep challenging my own assumptions about gender. 

“I offer this deluxe version of New Models, recharged by two artists I admire very much, Tanya Tagaq and Jeremy Dutcher, on this day, with the hopes that it acts as a reminder of the importance of collaboration and community during this time. I don’t believe visibility is the end goal, but I do think many of us are searching for the light and clarity right now and this can only come from working together, across our differences.

On the collaboration with Shraya on “Moral Panic”, Jeremy Dutcher says, “I’ve loved Vivek for a LONG time. Since first hearing her collaboration with the queer songbook orchestra in 2017, I’ve been eager for an opportunity to work together. In 2023, she joined me on stage in Calgary during the motewolonuwok tour and we dueted a song called ‘take my hand’. From then, I knew our voices would dance together in-step.  So when she asked me to be part of this upcoming project, it was an instant yes.

“The message in these lyrics are, for me, speaking of the hope and resilience of all the rainbow children in this world. It is an anthem to our strength; In the face of fear & hatred, our joy, love and kinship networks persist. This message is both timely and timeless when considering queer, embodied experiences.

“My approach to this song was to create an army of voices (a chorus) to be a bed on which Vivek can lay and share her truth.”

LISTEN / SHARE “MORAL PANIC” FT. JEREMY DUTCHER

MORE ABOUT VIVEK SHRAYA AND NEW MODELS
‘When I’m overcome with feeling / I have to break free from words and just sing.’ An inveterate writer, Vivek Shraya knows that fewer words can carry more weight. These first lines of her album, New Models, serve as both a thesis to the transcendent sonic experience to come, as well as an invitation to leave the burden of self-assuredness at the door. Don’t overthink—just listen. Just feel.

New Models is “me grappling with the state of the world over the past four years and eventually realizing that language, particularly English, had become so contorted and weaponized that the only way I could grieve, rage, and find comfort was to let go of it,” says Shraya. “How do you express the horror and helplessness of witnessing progress being rapidly undone—in words—when all you want to do is scream or cry?”

WATCH / SHARE “AM I DOING ENOUGH?” VIDEO

WATCH / SHARE “I DON’T KNOW WHERE I’M GOING” HERE

Shraya has dedicated much of her impressive artistic career to incisively articulating culturally loaded issues. Whether through her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men (which Vanity Fair called “cultural rocket fuel”), her award-winning play-turned-CBC show, How To Fail As A Popstar, or her provocative visual art and installation work, Shraya has challenged the status quo by transcending her personal experiences into daring artworks. But it is music that first drew Shraya into the arts, and it’s on her 11th solo album, New Models, that Shraya redefines her musical trajectory with a bold display of boundary pushing done right.

This collection of hypnotically textured songs allows each listener to come to their own conclusions about the heavy subjects she conjures. Dread, disconnection, uncertainty—all are invoked through Shraya’s sparse, cutting lyrics, but it is her wordless vocal chanting that cuts the deepest. “How do you express—in words—the horror and helplessness of witnessing progress being rapidly undone,” Shraya explains, “when all you want to do is scream or cry?”

WATCH / SHARE “WHEN I’M OVERCOME” LYRIC VIDEO

For New Models, Shraya joined forces with long-time producer-engineer James Bunton (Donovan Woods, Celeigh Cardinal, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson). Shraya and Bunton connected a decade ago, when Shraya realized the notion of the self-producing “solo genius” was profoundly flawed, and her and Bunton have grown to share a deep bond and a common language, with Bunton producing most of Shraya’s recent music, from Part-Time Woman, her album with Queer Songbook Orchestra (2017) to her previous full-length album Baby, You’re Projecting (2023, Mint Records) and the subsequent duet versions of songs from that album with Jann Arden and Donovan Woods.

WATCH / SHARE “MORAL PANIC” (VISUALIZER) HERE

Vivek Shraya’s artistic practice has long been unrelentingly honest. She has never shied away from difficult feelings, whether harassment – her graphic novel with Ness Lee, Death Threat –  professional jealousy – as she explores on her podcast, I Won’t Envy –  or chronic pain – as in her new short film, Bodyrebuilding. What’s special about New Models is its insistence on moving through all the feelings possible. While no answers are uncovered, a deep desire for reconstruction and reconstitution glimmers. As Shraya intones, “everything works, until it doesn’t”—but just as crucially, “Everything hurts, until it doesn’t.” - Sam Boer

MORE ABOUT JEREMY DUTCHER
Jeremy Dutcher is a classically trained tenor, Two-Spirit song carrier, polymuse, activist, ethnomusicologist, and member of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in Eastern Canada. Dedicated to language revitalization, Jeremy’s debut album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa unearthed century-old archival recordings of his ancestors, turning them into collaborative compositions on the grand piano. Sung entirely in Wolastoqey, his endangered mother tongue, it would go on to win the 2018 Polaris Music Prize and lead to collaborations with such iconic artists as Yo-Yo Ma and Leslie Feist. His sophomore album Motewolonuwok ᒣᑌᐧᐁᓓᓄᐧᐁᒃ was awarded the 2024 Polaris Music Prize, making Jeremy the first ever two-time winner. Jeremy’s music transcends boundaries: unapologetically playful in its incorporation of classical and jazz influences, full of reverence for the traditional songs of his home, and teeming with the urgency of modern-day resistance. He is regularly sought out for his perspectives on queerness, Indigeneity, language revitalization, and fashion.

BUY / STREAM NEW MODELS DELUXE VERSION HERE

NEW MODELS DELUXE TRACKLIST
01 When I’m Overcome
02 Apathy Crisis
03 We’re In Pain
04 Groomer
05 Breaking Our Pattern
06 Moral Panic
07 Am I Doing Enough?
08 I Don’t Know Where I’m Going
09 Apathy Crisis ft. Tanya Tagaq
10 Moral Panic ft. Jeremy Dutcher

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