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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Dany Laj and the Looks, Peter Katz, Flock of Dimes, 5omerset, Jiants, This Boy Electric, Alicia Lov, and Distant Matter

Will McGuirk March 30, 2021

By Will McGuirk

Everyone knows the Laj, everyone knows Jeanette, everyone knows because they travel and tour and perform and party and chat afters and befores and genuinely dig it, dig it all, even the crappy bits, its all grist for a song, so keep ‘em guessing Dany but we know don’t we, its called resilience.

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“"Through a shared connection I had the huge honour of receiving an advance copy of renowned resilience researcher Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe’s new book, which is a deeply powerful book about finding our path to everyday resiliency. To my great shock, right in the pages of the book, she talks about writing parts of the book to my music. When she reached out with this pretty unique idea of having a theme song for her book launch, I jumped at the chance. I was so deeply affected by the book and her story, I wanted to do it justice with my song. The themes of the book (developing resilience, finding our way through hard things, being ‘OK’) provided a rich emotional canvas to work from." - Peter Katz

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“I was half joking around thinking about how much time and energy I was spending obsessing over music stuff and feeling like a bit of a dork. I think everyone can relate to that in some way. But that's when it dawned on me that sometimes you might just have to learn to enjoy the rollercoaster because I knew that I was always going to continue making and sharing music, regardless of the results.” - Jiants

5omerset · Talk About Love

This Boy Electric · See What I See (ft Nova Nardi)

ALICIA LOV · Magnetic

Slowcity.ca with Elizabeth Leslie, Once A Tree, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Mattie Leon, Peter Katz, Grace Gillespie, Ghost Love, Busty and the Bass, Gillian Stone, and Black Collar Union

Will McGuirk November 30, 2020

By Will McGuirk

“Now is the time to look up from your phone and look around you. What can you do to effect change? I'd like for listeners to come away with a feeling of power, that we, as a collective society, are powerful, but only when we are not divided.” ~ Elizabeth Leslie

“To our knowledge there hasn’t been an Indian and ‘Indian’ (Indigenous) mash-up in Hip-Hop. It seems like an obvious choice that Indigenous people and Indian people would collaborate, as their histories are intertwined in one colonial historical moment where, thinking he’d reached India, Columbus dubbed the people he sought to conquer and eradicate, ‘Indian’.” ~ SNRK

"Part of what I wanted to do with this new music is to not have it be just about my story. It’s in there – it’s all in there – but I think that my older approach to writing was about holding on rather than letting go; This music feels like letting go to me. And I hope that when people hear it, they can hear their own story in it and that maybe it can help them feel like letting go too." ~ Peter Katz

Grace Gillespie · For Nick Drake

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Mav Karlo, Peter Katz, Mo Kenney, The War and Treaty, The Zolas, The Flamingos Pink, Ant Saunders, and the Chairmen of the Boards

Will McGuirk September 14, 2020

By Will McGuirk

When space becomes place, the mattering divides; the place-makers, the placed, the displaced, the misplaced - Lack of space they move to a new space, recently a digital space. Follow if only to steady, but to get ready move to a musical space. The acoustic space is all.

Toronto singer-songwriter Mav Karlo (the solo project of Menno Versteeg, the founder of Royal Mountain Records), has shared his latest single and video, “Detonator”.

“Detonator" is about that moment when you stop saying to yourself “I’m such a fuck up” and start asking “why am I such a fuck up?” It’s a long and a hard process, but an important one, and that’s reflected in the wordier than usual verses. I wanted the detail in the lyrics to act like dots in a pointillist painting, disparate images that when taken together convey a singular emotion.” - Mav Karlo

Buy the vinyl here ->

Singer/songwriter Peter Katz has a released a new track, “KMOTM” from his upcoming album, ‘City of Our Lives’ due to drop Nov. 25 2020. Its anew direction for Katz and well worth a listen.

peterkatzmusic · 05 KMOTM

“Part of what I wanted to do with this new music is not have it be just about my story. It’s in there – it’s all in there – but I don’t want to be that guy anymore. I think that my older approach to writing was about holding on rather than letting go. This music feels like letting go to me. And I hope that when people hear it, they can hear their own story in it too and that maybe it can help them feel like letting go.” - Peter Katz

Buy the vinyl here ->

“When our relationship has no hurt and it just plain feels good, we start to question if it’s really real because everything that has been real to us has come wrapped in pain. We start imagining a world where it’s not too good to be true and that world is Hearts Town… Hearts Town is a place where you can come broken and open, regardless of your past and find love, just like we have.” - Michael Trotter (The War and Treaty)

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Peter Katz, Ben Kunder, summersets, Venus Furs, Shred Kelly, Nation of Language, The Lagoons, Fleece, and Birdmask

Will McGuirk June 16, 2020

By Will McGuirk

When we can’t quite put our finger on it the artist can, the artist can articulate what we are feeling, the artist seems to be able to express just what it is we are hovering around. We are hovering now, unsure, cautious, courageous but nervous about this future we were not expecting.

“Of one thing we can be certain, as to visions of the future, it will be, as it has always been, the emancipatory, freedom-giving, loving and best fulfilling version of the future having been anticipated already and suggested by artists.” - President Michael D. Higgins via Hot Press

“ “Paper Thin” is about restarting and that strength that we find in ourselves during our hardest moments. Through catharsis and release, we are able to heal and a new sense of self emerges.” - Peter Katz

“It’s about exploration, nostalgia, searching for something greater and deeper than anything you’ve known.” - Ben Kunder

“I wrote "Paranoia" as an examination of mental health, looking at a bout of anxiety and depression.” - Paul Kasner, Venus Furs

Shred Kelly · Underground

“Our vocalist, Tim, began the process of creating “Underground” during a period of anxiety and insomnia while dealing with personal loss.” - Shred Kelly

“It’s about the transition of growing up and finding someone to create your own family with – leaving home, finding love, and the evolution of that happening all over again.” - The Lagoons

“It’s about saying goodbye to the world we lived in before Twitter, smartphones and Reddit. The times when we used to show up to each-others houses unannounced and it wasn’t weird. Now, however, in the context of COVID-19, the song sounds like it’s about saying goodbye to the world we lived in before the virus.” - Matt Rogers, Fleece

100% of the proceeds from this single from Jun 10 thru July 10 will go towards the Black Youth Helpline, Native Women’s Association of Canada and Black Coalition For AIDS Prevention.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Jade Hairpins, Peter Katz, Virginia To Vegas, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Francine Honey, and Reuben and the Dark

Will McGuirk May 12, 2020

By Will McGuirk

What is it, three days to break a habit - its been three months. Can you feel it, the sea-change - how it all looks the same but feels different. How for some its so so close and for others so far far away. Where are you? Inside it or outside of it, the change has happened but we will only know it when we all go outside again.

“‘Dolly Dream’ is a song about searching—not necessarily something you lack and have to ‘find,’ but grabbing hold of that ‘something’ you’ve always had. This search finds a connection within solitude, and within the crowd.” - Jonah Falco/ Jade Hairpins

“To be able to look back, from a place of resolve, where you know that whatever it was... it's behind you now.” - Peter Katz

“‘Pure Cinema’ is a cautionary tale and also an encouragement to keep faith and keep building home and family.” - Thao

“When the path through is unclear, there are unexpected heroes that appear with help. Whether it is a partner, a caregiver, a parent, a child, a friend, or one’s faith in something larger than life, this song expresses gratitude to those that light our world and help us through. There is nothing like seeing the light of love beaming from someone’s eyes when we need it most.” - Francine Honey