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

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

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The Lad Classic · New Emotion

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Wayfinding, Begonia, Storry, Jason Collett, White Lung, Emily Mac, American Lips, and Linebeck

By Will McGuirk

“I’d rather be someone’s shot of whiskey than everyone’s cup of tea,” - Emily Mac

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Yves Jarvis, Rachel Beck, Storry, Dirty Projectors, JR JR, The Rentals, Bretton Lee John, and American Grim,

By Will McGuirk

The rainbow of a bruised eye.

The hues and cry of a riot. The stretched and ripping of separation. The birth of a rebellion. Identity is only won through a violent act. Anger is an energy. Nurture the righteous rage. Arm up with facts and dance moves.

“a tightrope walk between victor and victim,” - Yves Jarvis

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“We hear the cries for change, but we just turn up the music and keep dancin' while the earth burns around us”. - Rachel Beck

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“Be free, my friends, and watch how assortments of all kinds of love spring up all over the place. This song is for all queer love.” - Storry

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“We were put up in a truly depressing casino, which featured an oxygen/IV fluid bar in the lobby, next to a tattoo parlor.” - Josh Epstein, JR JR

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic - Tiger! Tiger! with Soft Plastics, Jacqueline Tucci, Tops, Pantayo, STORRY, Sarah Jarosz, Dirty Projectors and Sorry

By Will McGuirk

Well who knew we would find common ground in watching tigers. Maybe that fading grinning Cheshire Cat of Alice was the clue after all. Maybe the Tiger King in all his George the Third madness may result in a revolution, as disruptive socially as the the one George set in motion.

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“Sometimes we search for ourselves in various places, people, and things and end up ignoring what’s right in front of us.” - Jacqueline Tucci

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“I hope this video rings true in the hearts of those who watch it, in a world where more is more and less is not good enough, new is better and what becomes old is an increasingly shorter window. I hope that people will laugh and cry and leave changed. Because what is art if it doesn’t make us feel and ask important questions?” - STORRY

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Dirty Projectors, photo by Jason Frank Rothenberg

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Storry, The Dunlop Brothers, Nathan Smith, Overcoats, Alexandria Maillot, Best Coast, the Actual Goners and Scenic Route to Alaska

By Will McGuirk

Cyberspace is the space one enters when one is on the phone I have heard say but forget where and I wonder what is the space one enters while listening to music. Where is that acoustic space, what is that place, because if we could find it I’m wagering we would set up house.

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“I needed to strip to make money to pay for the music so that I wouldn’t have to strip anymore. I remember people saying I just wanted the easy money. But let me tell you, there was nothing easy about being an exotic dancer, going back to an industry that had caused me a lot of trauma.”  - STORRY

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"It’s a soul-searching song about chasing your passion and learning from love. It’s about the joy and pain of loving someone, and about learning to love yourself. Consequently, it’s also about what you decide to work on in your life and how you choose to spend your time off away from your work." - Justin Dunlop

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“The idea you have to fight for who you are, what you want, and what you hope to see in the world became poignant for us. We realized the thing to do is not to wait for life to get easier, but to start fighting harder.” - Overcoats

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"The music video represents the unsettled, peculiar frame of mind I was in when writing Someone to Keep You Warm, The song lyrics paint images of darkness and discomfort, straying from a sense of home and leaving an aftertaste of discontent. The video translates many parts of it visually as a twisted dance between the protagonist's unkept and unhealthy lifestyle and the ghost-like mirages of those affected along the way. It is a story of a haunting, or rather, one's past catching up to them." - Alexandria Maillot

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“This album is about leaving the darkness for the light, but still understanding that nothing is ever going to be perfect. It’s about burning it all down and starting from scratch even when the idea of that is fucking terrifying.” - Bethany Cosentino

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic - Storry, Rachel Beck, Skye Wallace, Whyte Horses, Marcus King, Sarah Harmer, Holy Fuck, Mute Choir and Best Coast

By Will McGuirk

“the robots are smarter than ever, and the algorithm knows more and more what we like as individuals, but we have to remind ourselves that there is music in the margins that can go missing and that that music is more important than ever.” - Holy Fuck

I wonder what a world made entirely of music would look like.

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“I believe as creators, the art doesn't always come from us, but sometimes it is channeled through us from a higher source.” - Storry

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“Warrior is most directly inspired by my four-year-old daughter, Nora,” reflects Rachel. “…imagining the kind of woman she will grow up to be. It is also influenced by badass women throughout history – the ground-breakers and the change-makers. Amelia. Greta. Rosa. Malala.”

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"Beautiful Stranger is a story about longing, searching for love. We tried to paint a picture of a dim lit bar, lost souls finding one another before last call.” - Marcus King

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“When the future is wide open, it can be easy to overthink your present decisions in the face of who you might become. You can never know for sure if life will turn out the way you hope when you go with your gut instinct. There is always a possibility for failure, and fear of failure can be overwhelming enough to drive you to the wrong kinds of compromises.” - Mute Choir

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