CJ WILEY SHARES “PET” FROM UPCOMING EP

CJ WILEY RETURNS WITH THE NEW EP, JUST CAN’T QUIT, OUT SEPTEMBER 9, 2026

LISTEN / SHARE “pet” HERE
BUY / STREAM “pet” HERE

PRE-SAVE JUST CAN’T QUIT HERE

PRE-ORDER JUST CAN’T QUIT EP VIA BANDCAMP HERE

“backporch” is a snapshot of what it feels like to fall in love with a brand new to you person. Sonically, the song feels like it belongs under twinkling lights at twilight in an era overrun with Delia’s catalogues and Bonne Bell Dr. Pepper Lipsmackers. The chorus swells and breaks like the tide on the beach with its sharp infusion of ’90s alt rock and pop. CJ Wiley’s “backporch” is gooey and bright in all of the ways you want a love song like this to be, and, honestly, may make you put butterfly clips in your hair. SOCAN Magazine, ‘Song of the Week, “backporch”

Photo Credit: Stella Gigliotti // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, CJ Wiley is sharing another track from their upcoming EP, Just Can’t Quit. “Pet” is about “the vulnerabilities of fully committing to another person and still craving affection despite both your flaws,” explains Wiley. “There comes a point in a relationship where you've seen every side of each other, the good, the bad, and everything in between, but you still need reassurance to know you're accepted and loved anyway.”

LISTEN / SHARE “pet” HERE
BUY / STREAM “pet” HERE

MORE ABOUT JUST CAN’T QUIT
Just Can’t Quit “reflects the lifecycle of a relationship and the idea that no matter how many times love kicks our ass, we always go back for more,” says Wiley. “Like some beautiful masochistic ritual we can't get enough of. Every love is different. Hits different, hurts different. I'm a very romantic writer and honestly useless without a muse. I wanted to capture what that feels like.”

Previous single “backporch” is about the honeymoon period and trying to slow it down to just share a moment of bliss, while “fluke” which is a song for the initial crush. The last song “wasp” talks about how breakups lead to estrangement, and when there’s no contact, things feel like it’s all rupture and no repair. 

LISTEN / SHARE “backporch” HERE
BUY / STREAM “backporch” HERE

MORE ABOUT CJ WILEY
Already a mainstay in Canada’s music scene having opened for artists like Tokyo Police Club, Boy Golden, US Girls, Juliana Riolino and performed at festivals like Mariposa Folk Fest, Super Crawl Riverfest Elora and Tiny Lights.

They’ve also staked their claim as a leader in the queer community as the host of the Big Gay Night concert series as well as with their performances at Pride Toronto (2022, 2023 & 2025).

2025 marked the release of So Brand New, Wiley’s debut full length LP. The artist sojourned to Winnipeg to record with Boy Golden and that polished western resonance is obvious from the album’s first blasts. It’s a passionate, tongue-in-cheek statement of certainty in themselves, a down-and-dirty roots-rock revelation that burns in a firestorm of its own conviction. Wiley sings of starting fresh, loss, gender, and how expensive it is to be alive, carving out a decisive path for themselves on a highway into and over the horizon — and they’re bringing you with them.

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

In support of So Brand New, they not only played shows across Canada but also ventured to the UK for The Great Escape and FOCUS Wales as their first international run of shows. 

Tearing through Toronto on a groundswell of gripping indie pop and slacker rock, non-binary singer-songwriter CJ Wiley doesn’t waste any time. Twirling guitars, a steady drum beat, crunchy bass; ballads twanged slightly country, anthems skewed slightly grunge; a message of love and anger, healing and rancour, Wiley’s musical project is urgent and undeniable.

PRAISE FOR CJ WILEY

“CJ Wiley keeps things simple in order to get complex. Warm guitars, steady drums and lively bass — sometimes that's all you need to start a fire. Wiley's Boy Golden-produced debut lights all kinds of fires, an ever-shifting document of change and renewal” Exclaim!

“Songs about friendship are criminally underrated. “You still call me up when my heart is burning / To calm me down with a midnight sermon,” Toronto alt-country singer CJ Wiley sings on “Adelaide,” a remarkable song about chosen family, and “choosing to love and grow together instead of growing apart. Wiley’s debut album, “So Brand Now,” is filled with striking songs about love, identity and acceptance” The Toronto Star

CJ WILEY LIVE
August 16 - Toronto, ON | Wavelength Summer Thing

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JUST CAN’T QUIT TRACKLIST
01 fluke
02 backporch
03 pet
04 wasp

CJ WILEY ONLINE
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ADA LEA’S THE END IS A WAVE EP OUT TODAY, SHARES NEW VIDEO

ADA LEA’S NEW EP the end is a wave OUT TODAY VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS

WATCH / SHARE “the evergreen, the birch” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE

BUY / STREAM the end is a wave, HERE

Photo Credit: Dylan Obront // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES 

Ada Lea—the moniker of Montreal-based musician Alexandra Levy—releases the end is a wave EP, following last year’s epic, 16-track opus, when i paint my masterpiece. the end is a wave is an experimentation of sorts:

“For this EP, I wanted to combine songs that were cut from when i paint my masterpiece, as well as the ones I’d recorded a million years ago when I was just a child. It was to test their fragility. How would they behave next to the other? The old and the new? The brave and the haunted? The impression and the finely sculpted. I also decided to mix three of the songs myself (was it a mistake? you tell me…I says). I’ve been thinking of the kind of artist I’d like to be, and how I’d like to see all artists treated. I am most at home when I am creating and performing, it is what I was born to do. These worlds are opposites. 12th house and 6th, 4th & 10th, the story goes on. I can imagine a future where artists are supported by UBI and they do what they want. A kind of welfare for the serious artists that are not afraid to play. It serves the betterment of society to support artists this way. I know there are others out there, like me, that feel little purpose in their life when they’re not working toward making things. But it’s also near to impossible to make things when you are fighting to protect your energy at every turn, feeling burnt out.” 

The focus track this release week is “the evergreen, the birch”, accompanied by a music video. With harmony contributions from Meggo, this song feels like a grounded walk in the woods. An always welcome step into nature and calm. 

Ada Lea shares some thoughts on the track, “‘the evergreen, the birch’ is a watery collage buzzing fly-walk in the woods. The song features lush harmonies sung by MEGGO. We met through a bi-monthly jam band with a band name that changes—the first being ‘fun band who knows?’, another being ‘QCNR’.

the end is a wave, on and on, a form just repeating a shape. I don’t know if I was reading something or how that line came to be, but it felt like an intuitive knowledge—what the end will feel like, or the lack of end.

And we are there, all of us, hand in hand with a little bit of snow capped mountain hill, nails on the wall, empty coffin fire drill, kindness is when… I feel these free-association-type songs are becoming a kind of happy place for me. I feel very at home in this, like I’m loose and freely writing without an agenda, like painting and channeling without any left brain restriction.”

WATCH / SHARE “the evergreen, the birch” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE

Levy is a Renaissance woman, and Ada Lea’s albums have been swelling in scope alongside the evolution of her artistic life. Her recent turn toward pedagogy—teaching a songwriting course at Concordia University and co-facilitating a community-based group called The Songwriting Method—weaves another vivid thread into her multifaceted practice. Her debut LP, what we say in private, blurred the lines between interior and performative worlds. Her sophomore record, one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, featured vignettes centered on Montreal. when i paint my masterpiece, written over three years and whittled down from over 200 songs, asks: what happens when you... pause? How can a life be held suspended in song? And is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the transformations art can bring. the end is a wave continues this exploration and bridges the gap between her last, and next masterpiece.

BUY / STREAM the end is a wave, HERE

the end is a wave Cover Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
TRACKLIST
01 copycat
02 I’ve never been in love
03 the evergreen, the birch
04 okay, ok, o.k!
05 phases
06 chelsea hotel #2
07 i miss the heavy shoulders of the trees

ADA LEA ONLINE
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MAYA COOK RETURNS WITH NEW SINGLE, “BLUEBERRY STAINS”

MAYA COOK RETURNS WITH FIRST NEW SINGLE SINCE 2025’S SALT LP,
“BLUEBERRY STAINS” OUT TODAY VIA AAKULUK MUSIC

WATCH / SHARE “BLUEBERRY STAINS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BLUEBERRY STAINS” HERE

BUY / STREAM SALT HERE

Photo Credit : Kelly Tatham // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Maya Cook’s journey into music was paved by her path as a multidisciplinary artist. As a circus performer with Artcirq, the renowned performing arts collective in Igloolik, Nunavut, Maya has spent years expressing herself with dynamic acrobatics and sharply crafted storytelling. 

Raised in the Gulf Islands of the Salish Sea, Maya hails from Mennonite-Anglo-Celtic ancestry and lives in both Vancouver, BC and Igloolik, Nunavut. Maya’s artist identity is shaped by these worlds, their influence in her music both spontaneous and transformative. “Creating art, both circus and music, has been a profound way of exploring how all of my pieces are woven together, within myself and in my relationships with the land and people around me”.

The project’s new single, “Blueberry Stains” is summer in amber: warm and bittersweet. “Formed by misplaced love and grounded in land and community, it’s the stain of sweetness as I try to keep summer (and dreams) from fading,” Maya reflects. “It’s grounding myself in the here and now, the beauty and peace of the ocean in the two places I feel at home and the joy of good friends and family.” 

“Blueberry Stains” arrives with a new music video featuring footage that was taken while boating near Manittuq. “It’s a very special place near Igloolik NU, with dear friends, as well as at the beach near the house that I grew up. It’s hot sun on the beach with your feet in cold water and the lingering taste of blueberries on your tongue."

The single's cover art, made with her late grandmother's handkerchief and blueberries picked near her home, is a visual echo to the song’s connection to place and family. "Blueberry Stains" is Maya at her most refined—jazzier, danceable, and carried by a vocal performance that has grown in texture and emotional nuance.

WATCH / SHARE “BLUEBERRY STAINS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BLUEBERRY STAINS” HERE

Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MORE ABOUT MAYA COOK + SALT
Her debut album salt, recorded at Aakuluk Music Studios in Iqaluit, Nunavut, is a testament to her artistry in a different medium. Writing with "a spare, economical grace" (Richard Flohil), and the "versatility and range of a seasoned artist" (Cups N Cakes Network), Maya’s songwriting swings between pulsing energy and dreamy reflections. You will hear rhythms to move your body and a voice to quiet your mind. 

salt brings together Maya’s reflective nature and her curious spirit, offering listeners a vivid sonic landscape inspired by a life in coastal BC and steeped in the Arctic’s contrasts—its beauty and challenges, warmth and cold. The album’s eight tracks each reveal a piece of her world and her heart. Themes of healing, introspection, connection, and community, run through the record. Songs like ”Metal In My Bones” channel the quiet contemplation of rainy Vancouver nights, while tracks like ”Silarjuaq” pulse with raw energy and defiance, fueled by the beauty and vibrance of the tundra. Maya’s voice, rich and emotive, soft and silky, guides listeners through her world, in dynamic conversation with rich and rhythmic instrumentation and the melodies of fiddle and saxophone.

For Maya, salt is more than an album; it’s an exploration of the balance in-between: in-between hurt and healing, strength and softness… it’s the spaces between our bodies and where sky and ocean meet. 

salt was produced by Jace Lasek, the renowned producer behind acclaimed albums by Aasiva, Terry Uyarak, and The Jerry Cans. Lasek’s expertise shines through, seamlessly blending Maya’s unique voice and artistic vision with rich, atmospheric production. His ability to bring out the depth and texture in northern artists’ music makes salt a stunning addition to the legacy of projects he’s helped shape, further amplifying the soundscape of the Arctic.  

Recorded under the crisp fall skies in Iqaluit, salt is a love letter to the North, to the Salish Sea, and to all the water in-between that connects them. It is an invitation to share in Maya’s vision of resilience and beauty, to close your eyes, and to feel the rhythm of the tides under your skin.  

BUY / STREAM SALT HERE

MAYA COOK ONLINE
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