By Will McGuirk
“a break-up and love song all at once. I’ve been an all-or-nothing person in love and someone who has mistaken chemistry for compatibility,” - Evangeline Gentle
“We tried to write vertically instead of horizontally,” - Blanchard, Sunglaciers
Anyway Gang, photo by Calm Elliott-Armstrong
By Will McGuirk
“With all the ridiculous cacophony of information we currently swim in, it is no wonder that we've seen a resurgence of conspiratorial thinking, Most of us see this every day: online, from the mouths of relatives, maybe even in our own brains. I wrote ‘Niko’ as a bit of a tongue in cheek ode to finding out that someone that you know and love is buying in. Pleading my case that the earth is in fact round.” - Jordan Klassen
“despite anyone’s attempt to control a narrative or manipulate our perception of how things are, the truth and what is real always comes out,” - Sam Weber.
Broken Social Scene, photo by Richmond Lam
By Will McGuirk
"It's a poem for time and distance and whether or not peace and prosperity are possible amidst chaos. It is a meditation on our proximity to circumstances and our enduring love for those who contribute something powerful in our lives.“ - Andrew Devillers, Mad Ones
“Life isn’t easy in the music industry or with any dream you want to achieve. It’s full of ups and downs, people who don’t believe in you, but we need to acknowledge this, step out of our comfort zone and keep at it.” - Tennyson King
"My mom lived near this lake for a while, and whenever I’d go to visit her, I’d want to walk along the shore and have a moment. She’d always tell me before heading out to watch out for the water snakes.” - Scott Hardware
“This track is about quitting everything you’re passionate about and trying something else - and the process of returning to that first thing with a new perspective and taking stock of all your changes.” - Sam Weber
‘Fractured’ unearths the feelings of uncertainty and dread we were faced with in 2020. Inspired by the current state of the world, it delves into the madness that is the pandemic. The song poses the question, ‘What’s left of who we are?,’ as we are left with humanity divided and fractured. - James Nicademus, Misfire
Chastity
By Will McGuirk
“It's about the feeling of not being heard, and just wanting to escape the cycle of thought - planning your next move, and thinking and thinking about what you could say to make them hear and understand you.” - Ellen Froese
“I was taught to believe that there was always a right or wrong and beyond that, that there was a heaven and hell waiting for us after we die and we just had to live our lives accordingly to end up in either place. I had a lot of fear of screwing up and a lot of fear of the unknown. As I've grown, all of those binary ways of thinking have more or less been shattered.” - Begonia
Astral Swans
By Will McGuirk
“Jump the fence, break the window, be a weirdo. Fuck the masses. Question what you’re taught.” - Sam Jr.
“What I do in a professional capacity exempts me from the responsibilities that other people my age are beholden to, in some ways I feel very free, but in other ways I feel very lonely watching other peoples' lives unfold, like I’m stuck in the same place." - Sam Weber
“It’s essentially about a broke, young weirdo singing to their partner about wanting to move away together to someplace where they won’t feel so strange.” - Matthew Swann, Astral Swans
Samantha Fish
By Will McGuirk
“Through confronting my deepest, heaviest truths through these songs I am able to see the world in a new way. 'Here's To The Future’ was that song for me, but also a toast and a prayer to the better and brighter days ahead.” - Sam Weber
“When I began to imagine this album, I knew I didn’t want it to be small in any way. Neither did I want it to be known forever as the album that was born out of the pandemic. I was convinced that it definitely was the moment to aim at creating something very special, unique and vibrant, fuelled by the very deep emotions that this time has brought out of all of us.” - Alex Cuba
“If you need cheering up, this may not be the best place to start. Unless, of course, the sound of the world consuming itself from the inside out and spitting in the face of humanity is your idea of a good time” - Mastiff
By Will McGuirk
Holy Fuck! So much to do. I have lots of events at Kops Records Oshawa coming up, I’m involved in the 2020 Oshawa Music Awards and I have a new TV show for Bell FIbe1 on the Oshawa music scene about to start shooting. its always about building platforms, but its also about maintaining them. So lets get back on track and dig into some new tunes here.
"There isn't a single narrative driving this album, but we do linger on some basic human problems: confusion in the face of a desire for self-knowledge and belonging, a struggle for meaning that is circular and sometimes seemingly endless," - Loving
By Will McGuirk
We are slowcity.ca, we are slow for a reason, we pause, we wait, we give voice when we give voice and if what is said is worth saying it will always be worth saying no matter when it is said and if what is heard is worth hearing it will be worth hearing no matter when it is heard.
“This song is for the people who are working hard to make the world a better place than the one they were left with. This is for the fighters and the defenders. Part of being strong is also taking the time to stop, let go and release. Our DNA is of earth and sky.” - Bear Witness, ATCR
"It imagines someone looking back on their own life and walking into their old house, reliving some pivotal moments of their life and re-engaging with who they are as a person and where they're at now. I read Winter, the novel by Ali Smith, and it really inspired me to want to write songs specifically about Winter. I think it's an incredibly inspiring time of year and it was a really fun and collaborative process for Kev and I to work on these songs, flesh them out, and bring them to life: embracing piano ideas and more acoustic elements whilst still exploring electronic textures behind the more reflective lyrics and sparse arrangements. - Andrew Davie.
“If social media has taught us anything, it’s that there are a lot of unhappy people out there who are trying to find a way out. They are looking for meaning and something to believe in… or nothing to believe in… We all want the same thing, but are trying to achieve it in different ways.” - Elephant Stone
“I’m trying to say that good things and bad things will happen, but not because they’re good or bad, but because they’re true, and the truth always comes out in the end. No matter how tragic or joyous.” - Sam Weber
Wintersleep, photo by Scott Munn
TIME. Time to talk, time to reconsider. Time to see others as less and more than other. Time to look back and learn. Time to teach going forward. Time to look inside for views on the outsider. Time to look at settler truisms and colonial legacies. Time to take the blinders off. Time to look less and listen more. Take the time.
