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SXSW had a different feeling this year as artists pulled out of the festival in support of Palestine; Raytheon, a weapons company, had events at the festival, and though the rest of the artists came because of the opportunity SXSW provides them, some expressed that they do not support the US providing weapons to Israel and demanded a cease fire.

We landed in Austin Wednesday. The first event we attended was a networking event hosted by M for Montreal. Whenever M for Montreal hosts an event outside of the city they always have some Canadian treat for those in attendance and this year they did not disappoint, with Beavers Tails for dessert! Right after I went to the Pop for Montreal showcase which was adjacent to the event. There I discovered Montreal artist Hanorah who has a soulful sound and put on a beautiful performance. I couldn’t believe I never heard of her! Next was indie group Sorry Girls. The last performance I watched, and the reason I went to the showcase, was to see Janette King, a friend of The Limelight. It was so good to see a familiar face in a different city. She set the stage with roses and dim lights and began her performance which was soulful, sensual, she performed her newest track Nah Mek Me Fall which has a Caribbean dance feel to it.

Thursday I went to see The Beatbox collective from the UK. This is a crew that beatboxes sounds, beats and sketches. Each Beatboxer, Bass 6, Ball-Zee, Hobbit and MC Zani bring their own sound from Hip Hop, House and Pop. It was an amazing show, my mind was blown!

Friday I went to see Ho99o9, a group that Andrew our metal director and Allison our station manager attended. They mentioned that they blend punk with hip hop so I wanted to see what they were about. When they got on stage there was who looked witchy and a little scary and one dressed in a suit. Their sound had a heavy punk sound that they sung and rhymed over. It was a different sound for me but I got into it. What got me during the performance was that in between songs they would play classic tracks from Frank Sinatra to Crystal Waters, almost as if it was to balance the craziness of their performance. I found out later that a few of my friends know Ho99o9 so I felt good knowing I got to experience these artists and their unique style.

Later, I went to BBC Presenting, a UK showcase at The British Music Embassy held at the Sheraton where was two stages were set up outside. It was one of my favourite venues at the festival. Once again I was joined by our metal director Andrew to see Crae Wolf. She is described as rock and fantasy meets drill. Crae Wolf came off stage, told us her name and that when she says Crae, we say Wolf making it sound like Woof! The crowd loved it. She told us that she loved vampires and werewolves and you can tell by her goth style. She put on a great show, rapping singing over drill and rock beats. I had the pleasure of meeting her after her performance, not only is she a great performer and cool artists, she is very down to earth and humble.

Next I watched SANITY known for encapsulating a distinctive blend of Hip Hop and jazz. Her flow was smooth and her story telling was flawless. This was my favourite performance and discovery of the festival. She is now an artist in rotation on my show.

Overall the festival had so many artists to discover, I enjoyed that there were shows where the genres crossed meaning I got the see some of them with other MDs on the trip.

Amrew Weekes aka Lady Oracle is a co-host of The Limelight, Saturdays 6-8 p.m.

‘Does Casa del Popolo have a generator?’. ‘Does it have A/C?’. These were notions that certainly went through spectators’ minds as they ran into the venerable show bar during a fierce electrical storm that left parts of the city in a blackout. At thirty degrees plus humidity, Casa’s ventilation would be put to the test, hosting three indie rock outfits whose high energy would push the system to its limit. It was worth it.

With roughly 40 to 50 people in attendance, there was enough room to comfortably pick a spot while holding much-needed liquid refreshment as Montreal garage-pop band The Wesleys took to the stage shortly after 9pm. Hot off the release of their self-titled debut album in March, The Wesleys took no time immersing the crowd in their brand of freshly vintage indie rock. Keeping banter to a minimum, the quartet set an impressive precedent, with a capable drum and rhythm section that served as an anchor, allowing room for riffing and harmonies associated with classic DIY surf and punk styles. Casa del Popolo’s unique - albeit restricting - stage usually means bands have to be creative with their presentation, which may have been why bass player Quentin Chisholm was positioned firmly front and centre, though it seemed in keeping with the band’s collaborative spirit, sharing in vocal responsibilities and otherwise free-handing musical duties, a through line that would be prevalent with the following acts.

Charlottetown, PEI’s Absolute Losers came next, lauding The Wesleys while referring to them as a ‘real rock n’ roll’ band. Yet the trio of brothers Sam and Josh Langille, along with drummer/vocalist Daniel Hartinger brought their own spirit of crushing indie pop to the stage, standing firm in their own rock essence while delivering effortless power hooks, mostly from their latest release, At the Mall. Though Absolute Losers’ unassuming and proficiently tight set may have run counterpoint to their looser, flashier predecessors thatevening, they proved to be terrific ambassadors of the rock n’ roll tradition as well, with Sam Langille pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose with the microphone after jostling and bobbing through half their performance – as rock n’ roll a move as I can remember. Drummer Hartinger unassumingly served as the bands’ fastener, adeptly pulverizing his kit while contributing to splendid harmonies, key to the bands’ overall energy and sound.

By the time Montreal-via-Charlottetown contemporaries Prism Shores hit the stage, it was apparent that the crowd had begun to wane, with body heat catching up to the venue’s overworked ventilation system along with a 10:30 start time on a Wednesday evening. Thankfully, the headliners pushed through, working to keep their audience enlivened with songs from their well-received 2022 record Inside My Diving Bell as well as new music from a forthcoming album this year. Apart from a brief technical issue to address a frenetic G string, the band deftly traversed from their signature sonic evocations to an edgier, urgent sound (potentially due to a lack of space for a keyboard), which served as an irresistibly alchemic soundscape complimenting the two previous acts. Guitarist Jack Mackenzie and bassist Ben Goss divided the burden of vocal duties on songs like “Tennis Shoes” and “Acrobat,” buckling down under quickly rising temperatures, no doubt due to the combination of lighting and moving bodies appreciating the high-energy set.

With a trifecta of up-and-coming Canadian talent, the evening proved to be a rewarding showcase for a crowd seemingly satisfied with what they witnessed; an unadulterated, melody-driven mixed bag of styles indicating that what’s old is new and that ‘real’ rock n’ roll is alive and well, even in the dog days of May.

In a Montreal spring, many days you look up, sure it’s about to start raining, the sky dark, and atmospheric pressure pressing down on you so much you almost feel under the weather, but the clouds never open, and that release of rain is never found. This was the case on Monday, May 13th, when Ride came to Fairmount Theatre with its equally pummelling guitars and abrasive sound. 

The Oxford band found early success with their breakout debut Nowhere (1990), which garnered critical and charting acclaim and is still considered one of the most important shoegaze records released. Shortly after, in 1992, Ride released Going Blank Again, another beloved classic of the genre. The band released a few more records before disbanding in 1995, and finally reuniting in 2015, abandoning fans’ nostalgic wishes for them to continue in the shoegaze tradition and embracing broader rock sounds. 

First up on the bill was local band Karma Glider. The band is fronted by Susil Sharma and features Jean-Philippe Bourgeois (bass), Jean-Philippe Godbout (drums), Charlie Neufeld (guitar), and was joined by Wesley MacNeil on keys, who you may know from fellow Mothland outfit Nightlunch. The band played mostly off their excellent 2023 record Future Fiction (#4 most-played release on CJLO last year). Karma Glider makes noisy indie rock, with a bit of a shoegaze bent, that was more on display in their live performance than their recorded music. The set was brash and energetic, with plenty of impressive guitar playing from Sharma. Later into the set, Sharma mentioned the next songs were from an upcoming EP. One of the songs, “Sugarcane” strongly utilized MacNeil for a more synthy sound. 

Between sets, I talked with a local musician who told me that Karma Glider went drastically over their allotted time, which made sense, as it was creeping towards 9:00 PM, with another band to go and Ride set to play at 9:15 PM. With that, Philadelphia’s Knifeplay entered Fairmount’s wide stage, saying they’d be playing a shortened set due to time constraints. Knifeplay ended up only playing two songs, though, as a shoegaze band, both songs were well over five minutes. Knifeplay, which TJ Strohmer started as a bedroom project, now performs as a six-piece, crafting beautiful, slow tunes, layered with distortion. Despite their short set, Knifeplay certainly wowed Fairmount, with their packed stage presence and room-filling guitars. After their second tune, guitarist Johnny Klein leaned into the mic to say “We have merch in the back” and the band promptly left the stage. Ouch… but fair. 

After a brief break, the lights turned down and recorded drum instrumentation began, the LED lights behind Fairmount’s stage lit up to say “RIDE,” and the crowd started cheering. The band entered the stage and launched into “Peace Sign,” the opening track off of their 2024 album Interplay. The band played through a few more tracks from Interplay, solid rock tunes, with less of the drony shoegaze sound the band originally became renowned for. But then, the iconic drum beat started and the venue knew it was time to go back to 1990 for, in my opinion (and that of resident CJLO shoegaze expert, Omar of Hooked on Sonics), the song we were waiting for – “Dreams Burn Down.” Cellphones went up in the air and the crowd started singing along to this classic. When the song finished, guitarist and vocalist Mark Gardener simply said, “That was a shoegaze song,” before going into the next track. 

He did this a few times throughout the show, likely poking fun at the recent renaissance the genre is having. This Fairmount show consisted of mostly the demographic you’d expect for a band that’s been at it since the early 1990s. Unlike the Duster concert of a few months earlier, which was packed with teenagers shoulder to shoulder against the barricade, this audience was around the band's age. However, there was certainly still a fair share of eager high schoolers and college kids packed up front. It’s safe to say that Ride hasn’t hit it big on TikTok the way some of their peers have, which is a shame, as their early output is some of the best of its genre. 

Ending off their set with their most famous song “Vapour Trail” and then the similarly-iconic “Seagull” and “Leave Them All Behind,” the audience came alive again, singing along to “Vapour Trail” especially loud. 

Some highlights off their new album included “Monaco” and “Last Night I Went Somewhere to Dream,” which had the audience dancing to the catchy rock tunes. Interplay sounds almost nothing like the seminal Nowhere and Going Back Again, but live, somehow it works. While, yes, you could tell the audience was rearing up, clamouring to hear their favourite classic shoegaze songs, the band’s no-fucks attitude and technical skill made even the new stuff feel pretty great. 

Aviva Majerczyk is the magazine editor at CJLO 1690AM. She is also the host of The Alley, a folk-rock show airing Fridays at 11:00 AM.

CJLO DJ Lumina sits down with local artist Shaina Hayes to talk; childlike wonder, farming and finding inspiration in the “non-creative.” 

I'm wondering, what was the inspiration for the name, Kindergarten Heart and what does this title mean to you?

That song specifically is about tapping back into your childhood brain. More specifically, a version of yourself that's not encumbered with the stresses and weightiness of being an adult. It’s about trying to let loose and be free and living in your childhood wonder. The song structurally is doing this thing where the verses are trying to remember that sentiment, trying to get back into it. And then the very end section, the chorus of the song is meant to be like what it would feel like if I were to be successful and suddenly time travel into my childhood brain. Kindergarten Heart as a title is about childhood but other songs deal with other moments in my life, like the early days of falling in love or memory at a large scale.

Do you mind speaking about your process when you write songs, how did you go about this journey to “retap into your childhood self”? 

This album just came out in February, but in truth, the songs were written within a year and a half before, which meant I was still farming full time and with my first album as well. I was farming full time and, I think for me, farming has facilitated my process musically. In the cracks of my days, as I would get home and be tired and be getting ready for bed I would just mess around on the guitar and the music would come up. That's something that I think happened a lot during the farm work because you're doing a lot of these kinds of mindless tasks, a lot of the time. So it, I guess, it awarded me a lot of time for my brain to wander and it's in a beautiful environment.

To me, there's something very freeing about being in agricultural spaces, letting my mind wander like that and sort of just being surrounded by beautiful things. Even if you're not directly trying to make something beautiful about that specific beautiful space you're in, it still sort of influences it. I think there's something really important about surrounding yourself with beauty and letting it inspire you to make other beautiful things. So that's my process. Often the melodies and the chords and stuff come to me in little moments when I'm messing around on the guitar and the ideas and the lyrics are sort of a separate thing that take shape in those tasks. But I guess now I'm farming a lot less, so I'm having to be a bit more direct with it. So I am just sitting down and kind of hashing out these ideas in full.  But, it’s a changing process.

Maybe this is a bit of an unfair question but I'm going to ask it anyway. Do you have a favourite song on the album?

I don't think it's unfair. I think people often have a favourite. I think it kind of depends on my mood. The last song on the album “Mastery” was one of the last to be written and I guess content-wise it's a bit more fresh in that way. But, gosh, I think lyrically my favourite is “A Thousand Perfect Words,” which was a song that literally just came up in full with no arrangement. I wrote the lyrics while I was on tour, in a car with my bandmate, sleeping beside me. I was kind of just driving this five-hour drive, writing the words, and it sort of all came together in one piece and I like that about it. It's very unprocessed. It’s hard to say though, I like them all, depends on my mood.

I really love the song “Sidewalk,” with its honky-tonk rhythm and I’m wondering if there’s a story behind it?         

It's a lament to people who are pessimistic. “Your heart’s on the sidewalk, you drew it there in blue chalk and it's fading away with every raindrop.” You’re just like, "oh poor me, woe is me," and so long as you're saying "woe is me," it's gonna rain and your heart is gonna be washed out. If this is the tone you're taking with your life, then it's not gonna mend itself, essentially. With “Sidewalk,” I was trying to keep the childhood theme with that imagery. It's sort of a sassy, maybe too sassy, lament for people who are being too pessimistic, and we were very intentionally trying to make it sound like a saloon, like you're sitting in a dingy bar. We had a big vision for that one.

Some of your songs are addressed to “you.” I was wondering if you're talking to specific people or something else?

I guess it depends on the song. I think often they're directed at specific folks, but I try to keep it relatively broad. The first song “Early Riser” is to a good friend of mine, also from the Gaspé, who also moved away. The song is addressed to her and about how we're getting older at a distance and how we both miss home. “Sun and Time” was for another friend who I farmed with when I was at McGill and about how we both had such a hard time in the winter, because our summers were so full and so busy and so fruitful. The seasonal letdown in the winter was always really hard for us. Any of the sassier ones are probably with certain people in mind, but I try to keep them vague enough so that no one's ever going to notice, or it will never be offensive to anyone. I think I’m often writing to people. 

Can you talk about your farming practice?

I studied agricultural sciences at Mac campus at McGill with a specialization in ecological agriculture, so organic farming, basically. I went on to work for a bunch of other vegetable farms not far from Montreal. In 2020 I was supposed to be running a farm for a restaurant, and because of the pandemic, they obviously closed, but it was March so I had already prepped a bunch of stuff. I made a deal with them where I used the land and the equipment and I started my own farm and did the basket program, which I had done before when I was at McGill, we ran the student-run farms. It was a full-fledged CSA Farm. You really had to learn quickly and you had to learn enough that you then had to pass on the information. 

That’s so cool. 

It was so cool. And it was enormous! We were doing like three market stands a week and like 80 CSA baskets. And it was such a great learning opportunity. The coolest thing at McGill.

So anyway, when the pandemic hit, I took over this farm from this restaurant and then kept doing that for three more years.

Last year, I officially retired from the basket program because the music kind of took over, but until that point, it was very, very full time and it was pretty much just me. I had some volunteers, but I kept it at a scale that was feasible for one person.

Can you talk a bit about the time in your life when you decided to pursue music more full-time and also about your career transition?

I just wrote an essay about it in TalkHouse.

There was a transition, but it was such a natural transition for me in the way that I mentioned that the farm was pretty influential in me writing my songs, it facilitated a lot of those first songs in many ways. As I said, it is such a beautiful landscape that you're creating, the baskets themselves are beautiful, the vegetables are beautiful. Initially, when I turned towards farming in my university studies which eventually led to me working at these farms and starting my own farm it was in an effort to pretty consciously, move away from music. I had studied music at CGEP, jazz voice and I found it pretty intimidating and really competitive and I felt like it wasn’t for me, and moved towards farming in a conscious effort to get away from creativity.

But, when I started my own farm and was realizing how beautiful it was, how much satisfaction I got out of that, I realized that my desire to farm at its core is still a very creative desire. What I love most about it is creating these landscapes and sharing this produce that I've created with people. So, the farming awakened my desire to be creating all the time and that's I think why in the cracks of the farming I was writing songs.

That's why in the winter I found myself drawn back to writing music because I had awakened this desire to be creative and had awakened my confidence to being creative. 

I don’t think this would have happened without having had that farming experience, I would have never gotten there. And I think there's something to be said for not being a full-time musician all the time as far as you know, content of the songs and life experiences, I just feel like having had a more diverse life and having had a life where I wasn't just a musician surrounded by musicians all the time has made for, I think, perhaps more meaningful discussion within my songs. Hopefully… They seem like very different things and they are in a lot of ways, but for me, it’s a path that went directly from one into the other. They're intertwining.

Is there a message you’re trying to convey through your music?

I don't think there's one specific message, I guess maybe if there was, it would be if you have something beautiful that you want to say, you should probably just say it. You know, I wasn't avoiding making music actively for my twenties. I was busy doing other things but I do look back and I'm like you know, I love doing this so much now. I love making these songs. It's too bad it took me so long. No regrets, I think it’s been very rewarding to finally feel the confidence to do it. So I guess it's just that. If nothing else, you should give it a go. If you have something beautiful to say, say it!

We talked a bit about having a career previous to music and I'm wondering if you have any advice for people who are transitioning careers or want to pursue music?

I think the bottom line with my transition is it was incredibly gentle and incredibly patient. People might look at it and it might seem like I just made this drastic jump to this new thing, but I think the seeds were planted a long time ago and I just gently followed things that I was interested in, that being the farming until I was in a point where I was then interested in music and I followed that. I've always just done what interested me.

If you're looking for practical advice, it would be: apply for grants. There's a lot of funding available, especially for music and people don't realize it and if I had never applied for grants, I would never have been able to start a music career at all. Yeah, I would say, patience… but also applying for grants.

That’s super cool, that is like spiritual and practical advice.

Yeah, if I had to describe myself in two words it would be reasonable and spiritual.

Photos by  Lawrence Fafard, courtesy of Bonsound