When you feel like you're constantly showing someone who you are and they can't or don't want to see it.” - Begonia
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Slow Leaves
Slowcity.ca Open Mic: summersets, Slow Leaves, Flasher, Bodywash, Luka Kuplowsky, Mark Bragg, NQ Arbuckle, and Alexis Normand
By Will McGuirk
“I guess these songs serve as a reminder for myself, since I’m forgetful, that all moments are equal in that they pass through us once only in long stretches of boredom or by bursts of love and death. In the meantime, I only hope not to let any more go by unnoticed.” - Grant Davidson, Slow Leaves
‘Perfect Blue’ (the song) is an exploration of the many facets of my own cultural identity. Being both British and Japanese has often felt like a compromise. While it might be easy to romanticize this duality, the reality is that it’s impossible to wholly belong to either culture.” - Chris Steward, Bodywash
“the song is a recognition of the unanswerable. It is an attunement to the spiritual worlds that intersect and illuminate our daily lives.” - Luka Kuplowsky
Close Talker, photo by Nicole Ens
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Max Richter, Close Talker, Mipso, Luka Kuplowsky, Zella, Day, Anthony da Costa, Ryan Hillier, Taylor & the Apes, Motor James, and Lexxicon
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
Jyoti (Georgia Anne Muldrow), photo by Pricilla Jimenez
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Jyoti, Lou Canon, Jonsi, Mike Edel, Luka Kuplowsky, Busty and the Bass with Macy Gray, The Lagoons, Shred Kelly, Seether,
By Will McGuirk
Happy to spend time in the presence of Jyoti, the name given to Georgia Ann Muldrow by Alice Coltrane. The presence of the track in my feed reminds me of parallel worlds, cultures, lives which continue on, evolve, live, express and rarely cross my path. It is into these worlds we must challenge ourselves to step, I must challenge my self to step, to go beyond and understand the language of other cultures, other lives. And when its this good, this evocative, this clear, this expressive, this welcoming, this comprehensive well, who wouldn’t want to visit longer, and visit deeper. Its new tunes from an upcoming album Mama, You Can Bet!. Go forward with this and then go retrieve.
“This song is about pushing higher, going further, moving deeper. And engaging with the world in a sensual way. There is a passage by James Baldwin that encapsulates this sentiment, ‘To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.’” - Lou Canon
“I don’t really feel the doubt, I just wanna sing it loud” - Mike Edel
“Written in an empty apartment shortly after moving in with my partner. A sincere expression of love. A sacred love song attuned to the natural world - thunder, wind, moonlight and a dolphin.” - Luka Kuplowsky