Robyn Ottolini
By Will McGuirk
I”t feels like vulnerability and bravery in confessing an old love but it really is more of seeking comfort in the familiar and begging those around you to create that for you.” - Katie Tupper
“Hot Tea is a deep longing to be touched by life.” - Josh Taylor, half•alive
Clever Hopes, photo by Kyle Gatehouse
By Will McGuirk
“‘Remaining Light’ expresses the frustration felt towards invincible and corrupt institutions that uphold structural inequities, including police brutality and manufactured poverty experienced primarily by racialized communities. Written during a heat wave in the summer of 2016, the song dishearteningly remains as relevant as ever today.” - Absolutely Free
“‘Sparrow’ is my little ode to freedom. It was the perfect ‘escape’ when I was held ‘prisoner’ in my basement, as I wrote it in my home studio while I was in quarantine.” - Chin Injeti
“The song touches on the blinding love that you feel when you’ve found the ‘one.’ It’s like nothing else matters because they are all you see, want, and care about. Almost as if, they have this divine control over you.” - Lexxicon
Close Talker, photo by Nicole Ens
By Will McGuirk
Its been a fine few days of music; starting with a livestream by Oshawa band, Dizzy, on Friday, and today getting a peek inside a possible new venue in Oshawa while shooting an episode of a new Bell Fibe TV 1 show on the Oshawa music scene, this episode starring Lindsey Schoolcraft. On the weekend I was working, selling records in the shop and chatting with customers about possibilities and projects.
This is my community, I am of it and in it and I am in it because of music because music culture, unlike sports, is not divisive, music unifies. Music creates space for conversation, not competition. Music is its own venue, its own channel, its own content. And music is at its best when it hears itself as art and not product. We are getting closer.
“The voice of the song is overwhelmed with questions - seeking answers in teachers, family, love. Exhausted and uncertain, the song arrives at the recognition that the voice itself is the vehicle for change and actualization.” - Luka Kuplowsky
“It's about missing people deeply because you realize that you need them more than anything.” - Close Talker
“It’s a song about something I struggle with, which is how I want to present my body to the world, especially as the only woman onstage most nights in our band.” - Libby Rodenbough, Mipso
“Every day, I picked up my acoustic guitar and wrote. I said something. It all felt urgent.” - Anthony da Costa
Beautiful tropical night here in Shwarawk City, sending you good vibes from the porch on the Snobbery Patch with the Neowise comet on the rise on the horizon. It may be all helter skelter shelter in place, stay home, play home but we say stay with us home crew as we tune in turn on and drop the needle on tune and tune and tune . . .
Busty & the Bass, photo by Maya Fuhr
By Will McGuirk
Today we announced the nominees in the Oshawa Music Awards Best Songwriter category. We are working on the Apr 3 and 4 galas. At Kops we had Skye Wallace in and we have Hunter Sheridan and Robyn Ottolini coming in, all OMA nominees and we also have Tyler Ashton. Last week I was at the first Sewing Session held at Frere Du Nord in downtown Oshawa. Sponsored by Town Brewery the featured act was Tijuana Jesus. Quite sometime ago I was randomly crammed into a small gallery in TO for a show of Stew Jones and Chris Mills and it was one massive hug of thunder. I got that same vibe at the sewing factory and I see it with the OMAs and the listening room in the record store. Change is afoot, magic is afoot.
“As a gay man, how could I have faith in a God, whose commandment is to stone me for who I love? It just didn’t add up. But as I a grew a little older and developed my own faith and my own truth, I realized that it was never God that I had an issue with, but rather the systems of faith and religion, as well as the systems of government. That’s what this song is about. This video is about that inner battle of finding the courage to love yourself and find your true self amongst the clutter of tradition that all of us are born into.” - Juwan Crawley
“Strange Habits” is inspired by the idea of making music with a completely free mindset – of course, that's impossible in real life.” - The Informations
Lexxicon dates:
Thursday, March 5 – Rise Edutainment’s Rise & Flow – 918 Bathurst – Toronto, ON
Thursday, March 12 – Burdock – Toronto, ON – Tickets and Info
Saturday, April 18 – The Boat – Toronto, ON – Tickets and Info
Donovan Woods, photo by Justin Broadbent
By Will McGuirk
In a world in which the centre will not hold, in a world where division is norm, fragments of shattered orders realign along old ideas on a global scale, so too the artists realign themselves. Look for them. Stand with them. Connect with them.
“We can always be in touch. So heartache must be getting harder.” - Donovan Woods
“The Party is a story about a woman, filled with anticipation in those moments while getting ready for the party, which sometimes feels like the best part,” says Grant. “It’s about the evening to come, of dancing and love and loneliness and gathering. And something that resonates with this time of year, under all the sparkling lights.”