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Hadassah Alencar

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The push to decriminalize simple drug possession

Montreal has joined other Canadian cities in calling on Ottawa to decriminalize simple drug possession.

Drug overdose deaths have increased since the pandemic began. 

Politicians in support of this growing legislative push say decriminalizing small drug possession could help decrease overdose deaths.

COVID-19 vaccines delayed

In other news,

Private seniors residences will have to wait longer for the COVID-19 vaccine. 

These private long-term care homes were next on the list to receive immunization. 

But reduced shipments from Pzifer has caused delays and changes in the vaccine rollout.

Just what that rollout will look like is still unclear. 

Indigenous groups and Premium brands buy Clearwater

A $1 billion dollar deal hands Clearwater, a seafood company, to various Indigenous groups and other companies.

This marks the biggest investment Indigneous groups have made in Canada's commercial seafood industry.

As a part of the deal, Mi'kmaq First Nations partnership will hold Clearwater's Canadian fishing licences.

2020 may be in our rear-view mirror, who says we can't look back and reminisce on the dumpster fire that was 2020. A year filled with natural disasters, a global pandemic, and political mobilization.

Despite all the odds, CJLO has been able to thrive in 2020 by maintaining and introducing new programming. Music is at the heart of CJLO as we explore and highlight artists of all styles. This year will be a little different, as we provide a few comments on the top 10 albums of 2020!

Thanks again to Andrew, our Metal Music Director and an extremely patient human being for compiling this list for us!

1. Nap Eyes - Snapshot of a Beginner

These Halifax indie-rockers offered a beacon of light for a tumultuous year. The band’s fourth offering showcased a more assured sense of songwriting and composition, proving that within the deepest corners of existential dread and anxiety lies a shining light at the end of the tunnel.

2. Les Deuxluxes - Lighter Fluid

With deft musicianship and a solid scene of musical lineage, Montreal’s Les Deuxluxes. The duo, Anna Frances Meyer and Étienne Barry, combined their dual talents to bring a rapturous blending of diverse influences, ranging from jazz, psychedelic rock and good old fashion 60s’ inflected rock.

3. Elephant Stone - Hollow

Taking a departure from the deep-fried psychedelic sounds of their early work, Elephant Stone rung in the new year with an album chock-full of densely composed soundscapes that bridged a gap between the worlds of pop and experimental rock.

4. TOPS - I Feel Alive 

The now legendary Montreal band culminated a ten-year long career with an album that sounds eons beyond their early work. I Feel Alive feels, for a lack of better words, alive, thanks due in part to the shimmery production flourishes and intricate guitar licks that compose it.

5. Waahli - Soap Opera

The flows on Soap Opera alone make it a worthwhile listen. If that weren’t enough, Waahli’s professionalism and brainy combination of influences, including Afro-Caribbean and Haitian music, breathes life into these tracks. The album dropped just two years after his first solo album, and despite that, Soap Opera sounds infinitely more assured and dynamic.  

6. Lido Pimienta - Miss Colombia

Much like the album’s namesake, Lido Pimienta’s Miss Colombia acts as a proclamation and repossession of her heritage, all the while recollecting the experiences that fortified her musical ability and proficiency. The end result is a melting pot of regional genres that delineate the contours of tradition, while keeping a watchful eye on the future.

7. Pantayo – Pantayo

The self-titled album from Toronto-Filipina exports Pantayo, expertly melds the familiar songcraft of their homeland with the sounds of Western pop. Incorporating a wide range of instruments, including a traditional Filipino instrument called the kulintang, Pantayo re-contextualizes old-school tradition through a modern lens, all the while never losing sight of the music that made them.

8. KAYTRANADA - BUBBA

After years of masterfully redefining the lineage of black musical subgenres by way of house and soul, KAYTRANADA kept his hot streak rolling with an album packed to the brim with infectious grooves, invigorating beats and mind-bending samples. BUBBA is an album of unequivocal confidence that begs to be listened to long after the party’s ended.

9. BACKXWASH - GOD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS LEAVE HIM OUT OF IT

No artist this year delivered an that’s equally hopeful and tortured as BACKXWASH. With forward-thinking production at the forefront and an edifying expressionism of queer and black identity, GOD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS brings BACKXWASH’s politized take on industrial-rap to HD clarity.

10. Thanya Iyer - Kind

Montreal-based singer-songwriter and violin extraordinaire, Thnya Iyer believes in the healing powers of compassion. Much like the album’s title, Kind finds Iyer using the nurturing powers of unity as a driving force for emotional fluidity. The instrumentation on Kind feels crowded with feeling; the compositions are stacked with harmony and the backing instrumentation feels just as complete. It’s truly a testament to the potential of collaboration. 

*Our charts are compiled from actual airplay, broadcast live on 1690 AM in the Montreal region, as well as via our website at www.cjlo.com,  denotes Canadian Content

Luca Caruso-Moro

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Ottawa criticizes Quebec’s homeless curfew policy after man dies steps from a shelter

On Monday, Raphael Andre, a homeless Indigenous man, froze to death just steps away from a shelter in Montreal. 

Now, federal lawmakers are criticizing Quebec’s curfew policy, according to CTV News. 

Quebec’s province wide curfew applies to everyone the same way: don’t be outside after 8 p.m.

That includes homeless people, many of which don’t have a place to go. 

And because of Quebec’s pandemic rules, the shelter had to kick Raphael Andre out, even though there were beds available.

He turned to a chemical toilet for shelter, where he later froze. He was 51-years-old. 

In a report from the Canadian Press, Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller called on Premier Francois Legault to, quote, “treat [homeless people] with humanity.”

Earlier this week, according to another CTV report, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante asked the Premier to relax the curfew rules on people living on the street. 

Legault refused this request, saying people may claim to be homeless in an effort to break curfew.

Photo credit: Philippe Thibault

Montreal based pop/R&B duo Flara K (pronounced Flair-ah K) consists of Sam Martel and Collin Steinz, partners in both creativity and life. The project is an identity for the two to explore ideas and embrace originality. After releasing a few one-off singles, the duo explores growth lyrically and sonically on their debut EP Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable, released in fall 2020.

Flara K is creating music that speaks to moments people feel every day and tell stories about a growing need for deeper connection, all the more important during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing influence from artists across genres such as Whitney Houston, James Jamerson, and Young the Giant, they’ve crafted a sound full of strength and sentimentality that blends nostalgic R&B with modern, soul-infused pop. CJLO spoke with the duo about their new EP, the pressures of social media, and what they’re working on in 2021.

Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable is the first collection of songs by Flara K, after a few singles in the past couple of years.  What sets the songs on the EP apart from the material you previously released?

Sam: We really tried not to put any pressure on the creation process for ourselves for this EP. We wanted to have as little creative barriers as possible and really just let the ideas flow no matter how weird or out there they might have been. I think that really allowed us to explore another side of our creativity that we had never tapped into. Just going for whatever idea we felt rather than over analyzing and judging every bit of it (which is still a work in progress). That was a really pivotal moment for us in the making of this EP.

Collin: I think Sam nailed it. We were also collaborating with a lot of other musicians during the creation process, and the people we were surrounded by were so inspirational that we really wanted to push ourselves to explore what we could do differently.

Despite its sugary melody suggesting a love song, “For a Minute” actually deals with the pressures of constantly maintaining a social media presence, and its effect on the duo’s mental health. Do you find the pandemic has lowered that pressure to always be online, or does it only exacerbate the problem?

Sam: Ooh, that’s a tough one. I think a bit of both. I feel like the fact that everyone is home all the time and online a lot more definitely makes me (as an artist) feel like we should always be doing something or saying something, otherwise we’ll get forgotten in the fast paced and ever changing trends. However, knowing that everyone is at home takes a small amount of pressure off. I think to a certain degree there will always be a small amount of self-inflicted pressure for artists to have a great online presence in this era, which is why we wrote “For a Minute.” We wanted to shine a light on the moments where that break is needed because I think a lot of people feel that.

Collin: Yeah, it definitely feels like a bit of both. We did an Instagram Live tour this fall where we travelled across Canada in an RV, stopping in the major cities along the way to host live performances and interviews. It was super powerful in helping us grow our network, especially while in a pandemic. Now being home, there’s a sort of self-imposed pressure in the back of my mind where I think how social media is this super powerful tool, and if we’re not using it then we’re not working hard enough, or making the most of the tools at our disposal. I guess for us it may have exacerbated the problem, but we definitely go out of our way to make sure we find a healthy balance.

Mental health is actually a common theme throughout your songs (e.g., “Lost”), and because of the pandemic, it feels like there’s been more of a focus on mental health than ever in 2020. We’ve all had to develop our own coping mechanisms to deal with the current COVID-19 reality. How have you both gotten by since the pandemic began?

Collin: I’ve read a bunch of books that I had been meaning to read, and that felt great. I feel like every time you embrace a new book, the ideas hang around your mind and it forces you to think and view things in a different light. I find this whole experience super fun and fulfilling to go through, so that’s definitely helped me a lot.

Sam: I’ve been reading a lot as well, but mostly it’s been a lot of cooking and baking for me.  Kinda helps me focus my mind in a different way.

Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable is filled with songs that are 100% certified bops! At its core, what is it that makes a perfect pop song to you both? Do you have a favorite song or artist that you think best represents the form?

Collin: It depends on my mood! I’ll go through a phase where I think Carly Rae Jepsen has created the perfect pop song, but then listen to Emotional Oranges on repeat and think they have tapped into something super special. So at the moment, “West Coast Love” by Emotional Oranges or “Pretty Please” by Dua Lipa would be my picks.

Sam: I have to agree with Collin, it definitely depends on my mood too but Collin’s picks are pretty spot on for me as well.

Spotify has been in the news recently when it comes to their practices in paying (barely) artists for their work. What are your thoughts on Spotify and the age of streaming, as an artist but also as a fan and consumer of music?

Collin: This is pretty tough because we have some friends who have found a ton of success on Spotify and it has brought them some financial stability which they may have not ever had received from their music otherwise. You can release your song on Spotify without paying for a publicist, radio tracker, etc., and still do really well. At the same time, I’m sure they would love it if they were paid better for their art so they wouldn’t have to take on a full-time or part-time job and just concentrate full-time on music.

Sam: As a consumer I love Spotify. I’ve discovered so many amazing artists through some great playlists. Though, as an artist I definitely feel torn on some level. It’s become such an important pillar in how you’re judged as a “successful” artist, so it’s tricky.

COVID-19 has obviously caused mayhem on all our lives, and as artists you both understand that more than most. That said, is there any music or non-music related phenomena popularized during the pandemic that you hope continues once this is all over?

Sam: I hope wearing masks continues haha. I like the idea of being able to wear a mask in crowded places whenever I want without anyone judging, is that weird?

I’ve read that you’re both already hard at work writing new songs. Without revealing too much, will these newer songs continue in the same vein as the ones on Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable, or will they be heading in a different direction?

Collin: We were fortunate to be able to co-write with other artists during the pandemic, and at this one writing session I noticed how the artist approached his ideas with almost a sense of invincibility that was completely inspiring to me. I’ve always struggled with my creative process – second guessing it, or thinking it wasn’t good enough and just letting the idea die. Being surrounded by people who didn’t think this way made me want to feel this way, so we’ve been trying to tap deeper into that creativity and further eliminate any barriers we still hang on to.  Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable I feel, was just a starting point. While I think we will always carry a bit of that pop vibe with us, our creative process is always evolving and I think the new material will inevitably be a reflection of that.

Sam: We’re always trying to evolve and grow as artists, so I definitely think the new material will be an evolved and extended version of what we began tapping into with Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable.

Anxious, Irrational, Fashionable is out now (independent).

Alex Viger-Collins is the host of Ashes to Ashes, your home for modern pop in all its forms, every Tuesday at 8:00 PM EST.