TORONTO INDIE POP DUO RELEASE DELUXE VERSION OF RECENT ALBUM, STAY HERE WHERE IT’S WARM(ER), OUT TODAY VIA ARTS & CRAFTS
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"Its reimagined version on the band's upcoming deluxe album brings the full vision to life. Kiki Frances and Rob Laska's voices beautifully layer over each other.”
CBC Music, ‘Songs You Need To Hear’ on “You Don’t Need A Reason To Call” Ft. Valley
“Downright dreamy music” - Rolling Stone
“The chorus soars out from the shadows of nostalgia of melancholic recollections of moments with someone who redefined what love can be and into the bright burst of luminosity that saturates the single's accompanying artwork, with open chords and twinkling synths swirling like dust in a sunbeam: "Caught me in your headlights, I forgot to move." Exclaim! on "After You"
“While their nostalgic sound recalls the warm malaise of ’90s alternative rock, the band’s lyrics strike a contemporary chord, blending sad, solitary images with moments of crystalline clarity and emotional weight.” CONSEQUENCE
"Bandmates Kiki Frances and Cameron Bright layer on the melancholic yearning, jangling guitars, and haze ‘90s vibes, hitting on a deft balance of earnest pop melody and indie rock malaise.” Under The Radar
Photo Credit : Ryan Faist // HI-RES DOWNLOAD
Babygirl are breathing effervescent life into a new definition of pop music. The Toronto duo, comprised of Kiki Frances and Cameron Bright, are placing a refreshing spin on youth nostalgia with a contemporary edge, thanks to fuzzy guitar riffs and sincere lyrics.
Following the release of their debut album, Stay Here Where It's Warm, last October, Babygirl return with their deluxe, Stay Here Where It's Warm(er). Expanding on the characteristic warmth and wistfulness of the original record, the release features reimagined versions of fan favorites through remixes with Valley, ELIO, and Maddie Jay.
Anchored by the energetic focus track "Dancing With Her (feat. ELIO)", Stay Here Where It's Warm(er) offers a fresh perspective on Babygirl's dream-like world; one that feels brighter & bigger, but just as comforting as the album that came before it.
On the focus track, the band says, "ELIO is an amazing artist and we love what she brought to this remix. Both her verse and her approach to the production shaped the record in a new way that feels like you’re at the party in the song."
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MORE ABOUT BABYGIRL AND STAY HERE WHERE IT’S WARM
What if a song could feel like a moment you never want to end—even though you know it must? Like being snuggled up in bed in the morning with the knowledge you’re going to have to start your day any moment now. The duality between the place of comfort and the loss of it is at the emotional core of Stay Here Where It’s Warm, the long-awaited debut album from Toronto band Babygirl.
Kiki and Cameron met in a jazz program and bonded over a shared love of Katy Perry, The Beach Boys, and the art of a good pop song. They were “kindred pop spirits,” as though fated to be a songwriting team. A pair of pop music philosophers, the two connected over dissecting the math of Max Martin and Swedish-penned Top 40 hits. “It was nice to find someone else there that was super passionate about pop music and took it seriously in the same way,” they say. It didn’t take long for collaboration to spark.
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The plan, at first, was to write for other artists, Tin Pan Alley-style. They stockpiled demos and imagined their songs in the hands of pop stars. “And then we were sitting there with the pile of demos like, now what? How do we get [REDACTED]’s phone number?” They never did get in the studio with [REDACTED]—they haven’t yet, anyhow. In the process, they stumbled onto something singular: a distinct sound and voice that didn’t feel like it belonged to anyone else. So they started a band, named it Babygirl, and began putting their own songs out into the world.
That was almost ten years ago now; since Babygirl’s origin they’ve been releasing singles and EPs, like 2018’s Lovers Fevers, with the serenely melancholic indie hit “I Wish I Never Met You.” It set the stage for what they’ve been gradually, meticulously working on ever since: ‘I wish I knew forever would end so soon’, Frances sang—but she doesn’t sound sad, she sounds composed, cerebral, like she is contemplating a logic problem from a sunkissed future vantage point.
WATCH / SHARE “AFTER YOU” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “ALL IS WELL” HERE
This is the project of Babygirl: they are perfectionists whose music has been marinating since they met. 2000s pop-rock, ‘90s slacker rock, shoegaze, jangle and dream-pop stirred together with the comforting energy of two artists committed to their craft, and aren’t hiding behind a wall of nonchalance. “We’re often using our influences and then doing it in the most pop way possible,” they say. Their approach is part homage, part deconstruction. “We like to Trojan Horse our songs,” they say—sneaking huge pop choruses into an indie sound by filtering them through a lens of softness and heartache.
The oldest song on Stay Here Where It’s Warm dates back to the time of their initial EPs. “Take Me Back” started as an attempt to enter the “pantheon of apology songs”—inspired by classics “I Want You Back,” “Sorry,” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”—before evolving into a bittersweet dream-pop gem. Another, “You Don’t Need a Reason to Call,” spent years in the vault before the band figured out how to camouflage its stadium-sized pop chorus.
Across Stay Here Where It’s Warm, each song puts a slightly different lens on what it means to stay, or leave, or want to. “All Is Well” floats on a quiet existentialism, its lyrics reaching for comfort in the cosmos: And when it’s not enough for me / I’ll turn my head and see infinity, Frances sings, endlessness contained in that refrain. “Give Up With Me” leans harder into ‘90s shoegaze—heavy, gorgeous, distorted—in service of surrender. On “Buzzed,” the haze lifts, if only for a second. A sticky, dizzy love song with the feel of a sugar rush, it’s all color and motion: It’s like somebody spiked the punch.
WATCH / SHARE “TAKE ME BACK” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “DANCING WITH HER” HERE
Then there’s the sparkly “Dancing With Her,” emotionally raw but dappled in bright light. You don’t know how bad the bruise is til you’re pressing down, Frances sings. A reminder that joy and pain live in the same place. That the ache of something lost doesn’t cancel out the beauty of having had it.
The new album’s title track captures their ethos: that ache to freeze a moment in time, even as you know it’s already slipping away. “You can’t stay in these perfect moments forever,” Frances explains. It’s all late-night phone calls, half-remembered dreams, tipsy romance, and the strange comfort of surrendering to the moment, then looking at it, whole, from the outside.
Stay Here Where It’s Warm is full of songs that have followed Babygirl, stayed percolating, or, as they put it, “keep tapping on our shoulders.” It’s a record that’s been simmering quietly while the band wrote, scrapped, rewrote, pored over every tiny detail. “Sometimes it feels like you’re making a pointillist painting and you’re just seeing the dots,” they say, “and then at the end you stand back” to see the world they’ve built. They call themselves “studio rats”—this album marks a step into the light.
PRE-SAVE STAY HERE WHERE IT’S WARM(ER)
STAY HERE WHERE IT’S WARM(ER) TRACKLIST
01 Take Me Back
02 All Is Well
03 Dancing With Her
04 You Don’t Need A Reason To Call
05 You’re The Difference
06 Buzzed
07 Give Up With Me
08 Can’t Be Friends
09 Take Me To Heaven
10 After You
11 Stay Here Where It’s Warm
12. Take Me To Heaven (ft. Maddie Jay)
13. Dancing With Her (ft. ELIO)
14 You Don’t Need A Reason To Call (ft. Valley)
15 Stay Here Where It’s Warm (Instrumental)
