On the rainy eve of Friday, March 15th, soulful singer-songwriter Allison Russell graced her motherland of Montreal at Studio TD. Russell’s presence in the music industry has flourished within the last few months following the release of her second studio album The Returner on September 8th, 2023 and Grammy win for her song, “Eve Was Black” in February. Russell has since gained significant praise for the album's integrity to its “expression of black liberation,” self-love and trust in life’s journey.

You may have seen the bright pink and blue posters of the Fika(s) Festival around the city. As a Scandinavophile, I was surprised when I learned that this is a Scandinavian and Nordic cultural festival, in Montreal no less. Ta fika means to take a coffee break in Swedish, and the Fikas(s) festival proposes a series of films, talks, performances, games, and other events from March 9th to 15th. 

It’s been 5 years since I last went to SXSW and I am excited to get back to this cool city and awesome festival. There are a lot of artists this year that I do not recognize which is what is going to make this festival fun as I am sure there will be a lot of cool discoveries. Here are some artist I see in the lineup that I want to check out.

 
Now, I've stated in the past that metal does not seem to be a priority for SX, so how is it this year?

It's actually worse than previous years.