Tami Neilson, photo by Mary Ellen Matthews
alt image - Killer Mike

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Killer Mike, Pierre Kwenders, Tami Neilson, Grace Potter, summersets, The Matinee, Victoria Monét, and Big Little Lions

Will McGuirk May 11, 2023

By Will McGuirk

This is a celebration of a BAD ASS BLACK GIRL from the westside of Atlanta. She’s been affectionately called OG Mama Niecy by the many people she helped stay on their path.” - Killer Mike

“Reminding us that curiosity killed the cat, everything requires moderation, and that, in love, no one wants to walk on eggshells.” - Pierre Kwenders

“I wanted ‘Kingmaker’ to feel like a movie theme that plays as the opening credits unfold so that the songs take the listener through the highs and lows of a story unfolding, more like a movie soundtrack than adhering to one genre or style.” - Tami Neilson

“In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the ‘The Mother of all roads...the road of flight.’ As I zeroed out my odometer and started west on my road trip across the US, I hoped that driving the road of flight would give me a bird’s eye view of my life. But it didn’t take long to realize that I was not flying; I was running away.” - Grace Potter

Slowcity Open Mic: Mimi O'Bonsawin, Terry Uyarak, Pierre Kwenders, Stars, The Revivalists, Doug Paisley, Bella White, and Margo Price

Will McGuirk March 21, 2023

By Will McGuirk

“It gave me more meaning to my current group of friends, all around me, to always welcoming me in their hearts as I do them. ‘Come, let me show what you are capable of, I like you, I love you, for who you are.’ I have always belonged to many foundations growing, and mainly of family and friends feeding me a beautiful life.” - Terry Uyarak

“The online wailing wall or maybe the Goliath of our generation. Social media therapy is what we need. Social media therapy is a necessity.” - Pierre Kwenders

“Flowers On My Bedside is a song for empowerment. I wrote it when I was in a sad place and it was a very healing experience, to take a hard situation and turn it into something that feels creatively inspiring.” - Bella White

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Matt Holtby, Chastity, Mimi Webb, Pierre Kwenders, Margo Price, The Weather, Edwin Raphael, and Noisy

Will McGuirk January 13, 2023

By Will McGuirk

“represents the relationship one has with time, the constant balancing as a slow dance that one tries to weave," - Edwin Raphael

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Pierre Kwenders, Storry, Jordan Klassen, Adrian Sutherland, Alexis Normand, Steve Mason, Velvet Beach, and The Lad Classic,

Will McGuirk November 8, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“The mother is the land of your birth, it’s your culture, it’s all that makes you and it’s also all that makes you question yourself.” - Pierre Kwenders

"We praise the sun, earth, air and water. Just like the elements, we are gentle and lifegiving but also formidable. We are nurturing, we are power, we are ‘the maker of all things’.” - Storry

“Saskatchewan is often an overlooked and oversimplified place. I wrote Hidden Valley to show listeners a lesser-known landscape - it ain’t just flat roads, big sky and wheat fields over here! This is a cruiser - a road trip song that brings you to the breathtaking valley near the town of Eastend and embodies the contemplative peace I feel when I’m there;" - Alexis Normand

The Lad Classic · New Emotion

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Adam Baldwin, Jill Barber, Pierre Kwenders, Ombiigizi, Cave States, Robinson Kirby, and Denzel Curry,

Will McGuirk September 28, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“Sadly, the persistent undervaluing of music forces so many of us musicians to trade it all in—often in a defeated way, much like those willing to trade in their most valued possession out of pure desperation to have cash in hand.” - Jill Barber

Ombiigizi - Nov 05 - Oshawa, ON - The Biltmore w/Tuns

Multi-faceted artist Pierre Kwenders wins 2022 Polaris Music Prize

Will McGuirk September 20, 2022

By Will McGuirk

Congolese-born, Montreal-based musician, songwriter, and DJ Pierre Kwenders is the winner of the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.

The prize was handed out at an in-person gala held at the Carlu in Toronto Tuesday Sept 20 2022, the first live event of the award show since the pandemic and was broadcast live on a variety of streaming platforms as well as CBC.ca (where I watched it).

Kwenders won for his album ‘José Louis and the Paradox of Love’ (available via Arts & Crafts) which combines Congolese rumba and electronic music with pop-R&B and jazz, adds in vocals sung and rapped in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, AND features collaborations with Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Branko (M.I.A., Buraka som Sistema), Win Butler (Arcade Fire), Michael Brun (J Balvin), and Uproot Andy (Poirier).

The Polaris Music Prize awards $50,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year, judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration for genre or record sales. The nine other nominated acts whose albums make the 2022 Short List will receive $3,000 each courtesy of Slaight Music. Additionally, Polaris Music Prize has partnered with Play MPE to award the winning artist with a global music promotion distribution package for one release (single or album) worth up to $3,025 CAD. Play MPE will also gift all nine remaining Short List artists with distribution packages worth up to $1,000 CAD each.

Kwenders joins a pretty rad list of past winners; Cadence Weapon (2021), Backxwash (2020), Haviah Mighty (2019), Jeremy Dutcher (2018), Lido Pimienta (2017), Kaytranada (2016), Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015), Tanya Tagaq (2014), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2013), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy / Owen Pallett (2006).

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Soccer Mommy, Sorry, Cat Power, Wet Leg, Flasher, Pierre Kwenders, Edwin Raphael, Current Swell, and Rudy De Anda

Will McGuirk April 21, 2022

“When we’re out of love we can feel detached and think ‘oh we’ll never be in love again… cry, cry’ but also try and laugh a bit… It’s easy to laugh or think you’ll never be THAT person then the next moment you can feel like the loneliest person in the world.” - Asha Lorenz, Sorry

“It’s the conflicting pursuit of stimulation vs stability.” - Edwin Raphael

Sorry @ Phoenix Theatre, Toronto, May 14 2022

Flasher @ the Baby G, Toronto June 28 2022 June 28

Pierre Kwenders @ Music Gallery, Toronto May 4 2022

Edwin Raphael @ the Drake, Toronto, May 13 2022

Current Swell @ the Opera House, Toronto May 14 2022

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Jerry Leger, The Weather Station, Donovan Woods, Valerie June, Mamas Gun, Pierre Kwenders, Denzel Curry, Franz Ferdinand, and I Am Snow Angel,

Will McGuirk January 26, 2022

By Will McGuirk

"The opening line (‘break in the new world but let me keep my job’) is hopeful, it's actually quite a hopeful song. I like to think that real happiness involves being respectful, appreciative and considerate. The words have these deeper layers and questions but Angie Hilts singing with me really lifts it up to a nice place. It's just fun and fortunate to play rock 'n' roll with my friends and we've all needed some fun these days." - Jerry Leger

“The song was written long before the pandemic, but when we recorded it, on March 11, 2020, it began to feel eerily prescient. The day it was recorded truly was the end of an endless time, and as ever, I don’t know how the song knew. Somehow, the music captures that instability; it is ungrounded and diaphanous, it floats and drifts.” - The Weather Station

“I write about them again and again, just hoping people will still be interested. So the title is poking fun of myself, that I’m theoretically this big sad guy who keeps getting dumped and writing fucking songs about it,” - Donovan Woods