NEXT Magazine October Issue

MADE IN CANADA • 10|2021

FREE

THE FUTURISTIC FOLKLORE OF

CAROLINE POLACHEK

REMI WOLF ALESSIA CARA LIL NAS X LUKE HEMMINGS

+

THE VELVETEERS NIGHT RAIDERS SMASH BURGERS THE RETURN OF LIVE MUSIC

2 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

10

2 0 2 1

Contents

4

THE SHORT LIST

Crown Lands leads a charge back to live as venues carefully open, Venus Fest flies and James Bond finally returns.

24

MUSIC FEATURE

Photo ID singer and social media siren Remi Wolf is storming across the internet and up the streaming charts.

29

NEXT BIG THING

The Velveteers quickly went from promising, unknown indie artists to opening for Guns N’ Roses and being championed by Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.

30

COVER STORY

Avant-garde pop siren Caroline Polachek brings her surreal sound to the mainstream as she readies to tour with Dua Lipa.

37

ALBUM REVIEWS

Lil Nas X, Arkells, Crown Lands, Said The Whale, Exmiranda, Chrvches, L’Orange, Andy Shauf, Charlotte Cornfield, Mile High Club, Alessia Cara and many more

43

THE LOCAL PAGES

Vancouver gets its film festival, Calgary bellies up to a beer bonanza and ImagiNATIVE Film Fest brings Indigenous perspective to Toronto screens.

56

THE FUNNIES

We asked Away from Voivod to help us bring a spooky Halloween vibe to The Funnies — his work will a-maze you!

+

06 FOOD Smash burgers clobber competition 08 DRINKS Celebrities bring star power to wine choices 10 CANNABIS Stash the Zig Zags, check out our vape-r tales 12 FASHION Can’t beat beads for bold fashion statements 14 GAMING A bunch of new games up the ghouls game for Halloween 16 TV/MOVIES Night Raiders offers dystopian Indigenous resistance

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

3

SHORTLIST OCT

T H E

T O P

�

5

T O

D O

I N

C A N A D A

T H I S

2

Nimkish

FESTIVAL

VENUS FEST REACHES FOR THE MOON Sat., Oct. 16 – Sat., Oct 30 Virtual and in-person festival Free – $25 Happin App and the plumb, 1655 Dufferin St., Toronto venusfest.net

4 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

Toronto not-for-profit music festival returns both in person and online with two weeks of unique and inspiring programming. Venus Fest is an annual event and monthly concert series that elevates diverse voices and builds equitable, safe art spaces. This year’s mixed-media festival will feature a virtual concert on Friday, Oct. 22, and Saturday, Oct. 23, via Happin, a live-streaming app. Musicians will perform alongside video content specially created by Canadian visual artists. Friday performers include Haviah Mighty, Nimkish and Ah-Mer-AhSu, while Saturday boasts Charlotte Cornfield and SPELLING. The curated videos will also be on display at Toronto DIY art space, the plumb.

M O N T H

WATCH THE JAMES BOND TRAILER RyanHERE Reynolds

IT’S FINALLY TIME FOR NO TIME

MOVIE

No Time To Die Movie, 163 mins, $18 and up cineplex.com/movie/no-time-to-die

Agent 007 makes an action-packed return to the silver screen in the latest instalment of the James Bond franchise, with Daniel Craig reprising his iconic role one last time. Bond has been retired for five years but is dragged back into active service by a long-time friend, an abducted scientist and a terrorist plot. The star-studded cast includes Rami Malek and Jeffrey Wright, and the screenplay features writing from Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Also coming to theatres later this month is the highly anticipated sci-fi flick Dune, with Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet and Osscar Issac as leads.

3

LIVE MUSIC

CROWN LANDS CONQUER CANADA

NEXT Magazine

Crown Lands Canadian Tour Thurs., Oct 21 and Sat., Oct. 23, 7 pm ET Concert $20 Various venues crownlandsmusic.com

Editor/Publisher Michael Hollett Creative Director Troy Beyer

Powerful rock duo Crown Lands are going cross country this fall and hitting all three NEXT cities. They’ll be sharing their hard-hitting progrock anthems at Calgary’s Commonwealth Bar (Oct. 21) and Vancouver’s Biltmore Cabaret (Oct. 23) playing Toronto’s Axis Club in December (Dec. 1).

4

Associate Editors Laura Robinson (Calgary) Rayne Fisher-Quann (Vancouver) Contributors Benji Andringa, Away, Kristen Chew, Keisha Balatbat, Latoya Elle, Kristal Griffin, Sarah Khan, Zack Kotzer, Amy Lloyd, Khufu Najee, Nicole Richie, Laura Stanley, Sierra Stone, Sarah Wade, Caely White, Sanjeev Wignarajah Advice Columnist Amy Millan askamy@nextmag.ca Sales and Marketing Manager, Sales and Partnerships Barbara Hefler

LIVE MUSIC

deadmau5 LAUNCHES LIVE

Sun., Oct. 10, 10 pm ET Concert $35 and up Rebel, 11 Polson St., Toronto rebeltoronto.com/events/deadmau5

Joining a growing list of acts starting to play live again, the world’s second-favourite rodent, deadmau5 hits Rebel (Oct. 10).

Other Toronto club shows include: TikTok talent 18-year-old 347aiden at the Velvet Underground (Oct. 23); Vypers and Cloudage at the Garrison (Oct. 16); JMSN at the Horseshoe (Oct.14); Miyavi at the Opera House (Oct. 23); and Madison Beer at the Phoenix (Oct. 18).

Advertising Inquiries: sales@nextmag.ca Administrative Coordinator Amy Lloyd Digital Content Coordinator Elaine Song Circulation Coordinator Eric Caldwell

5

Circulation Paul Mckenzie, Callum Miller, Adam Pharoh, Connor Radcliffe, Sharon Rosinke, Henry Voskuil Published by NEXT Magazine Enterprises Inc. TELEVISION

THIS SHOW IS SORT OF GREAT!

Sort Of on CBC Gem Season 1, 30 minS., 8 episodes Tues., Oct. 5 (CBC Gem), Tues., Nov. 9 (CBC TV) Gem.cbc.ca

Shot in Toronto and packed with original music from five up-and-coming YYZ artists — including Haviah Mighty and Säye Skye — this classic coming-of-age narrative is anything but derivative.

It tells the story of Sabi, a 25-year-old nanny, bartender and the youngest child of a Pakistani family who is brimming with ennui for their life thus far — until a fateful accident changes everything. Injected with tasteful sarcasm and heartwarming moments aplenty, Sort Of makes waves with one of the first non-binary leads on North American network TV.

NEXT Magazine Enterprises Inc. Board of Directors Michael Cohl, Michael Hollett, Gary Slaight Distribution NEXT Magazine is distributed in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto For distributor info: distro@nextmag.ca Contact Us 115 Danforth, Suite 302 • Toronto • ON • M4K 1N2 T. 416.519.5004 email: info@nextmag.ca All content property of NEXT Magazine Enterprises Inc. ©2021

nextmag.ca

  

nextmagcanada

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

5

GET SMASHED! FO O D

The Pastrami Burger from Toronto's Happy Burger

THE SMASH BURGER CONTINUES TO BASH its way into foodie hearts with its delightful, retro-simplicity hiding the culinary craft at the core of these crispy-edged delights.

The smash burger has been winning the bun battle at the best American fast food joints

like Shake Shack and In-N-Out, for years. The smash patty is as simple as a regular chuck burger flattened down into a thin patty that’s then sizzled on the flat top until its shaggy edges are crispy and the centre is tender.

Making a permanent mark north of the borBy NICOLE RICHIE

6 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

der, smash burger joints across our NEXT Three Cities are giving those fast food spots a run for their money. Sporting only the quintessential cheeseburger toppings and a no-muss-no-fuss attitude, smash burgers are the new classic of the burger family.

WHERE TO SCORE GREAT SMASH BURGERS IN YOUR TOWN EXTRA BURGER 269 Dunn Ave. extraburger.ca

TORONTO: Matty’s Patty’s ​​923a Queen St. W., mattyspattysburgerclub.com Celebrity chef Matty Matheson’s Queen West burger shack is taking the chef’s heralded recipe from his pop-up collab. with RVCA’s Pat Tenore at 2018’s RVCAloha (Tenore’s Hawaiian skate-and-surf event), making it the centre of his newest restaurant.

Serving only the classics — single, double and triple cheeseburgers — along with their impossible burger counterparts, these “Patty’s” are slathered in American cheese and Matty’s special sauce, which includes the “holy trinity” of burger sauces (mayo, mustard and ketchup) with diced pickles and white onions.

Happy Burger 76 Lippincott St., happyburger.ca Happy Burger makes customers smile with freshly ground chuck and brisket patties served on the go-to bun for smashing, Martin’s “pillow soft” potato buns. These juicy burgers come dressed in a couple more options than just the classic cheeseburger. The pastrami-topped smash patty is a standout with griddled pastrami, American cheese, the works (lettuce, onions, pickles) and a happy sauce.

This Parkdale burger joint is slinging out the ultimate in classic smash burgers. With only its double or single cheeseburger on the menu, Extra Burger isn’t very extra at all. With no menu filler, this spot is focussed on creating the perfect beef patty (or Impossible patty for vegetarians) for you to grab and go.

CALGARY:

Iyycburg 19 Sunmills Dr. SE iyycburg.com With smash burgers made from locally sourced meat and dairy, this spot is made

by Calgarians for Calgarians.

The menu here is simple: pick your patties (3-ounce single, double or triple) and watch as it gets loaded up with Iyycburg’s classic toppings and served on a lettuce wrap or Martin’s potato bun. Vegetarian? Iyycburg has a samosa smash burger, which can also be added to the smash burger of your choice.

VANCOUVER: Lil’ Empire Burger 4323 1st St. SE lilempireburger.com Inspired by the golden age of roadside drive-ins in Southern California, Lil’ Empire Burger is a fast, casual burger joint focused on serving the perfect cheeseburger. Using local Alberta beef, this burger spot has a small menu that centres on sustainability and the quality of the ingredients.

Try the staple Empire with Cheese or go plant-based with Beyond Meat patties.

Boogie’s Burgers Renfrew: 908 Edmonton Trail Marda Loop: 2129 33 Ave. SW boogiesburgers.com Crowd-pleasing, creatively topped, savoury patties on soft buns have helped Noel Sweetland and Kipp Teghtmeyer create one of the biggest destination burger spots in Alberta — well, two locations actually! Boogie’s boldly features smash burgers piled high with toppings like butterflied hot dogs, fried mac and cheese wedges, and pepperoni and pizza sauce.

↑ Between2Buns 105 W Pender St. instagram.com/ between2bunsburgers GTO Burger Last Pop-Up at 1950 Triumph St. instagram.com/gto.burger Mark Perrier, the former chef at Vancity’s Savio Volpe, is taking his burgers across Vancouver, working exclusively from different pop-up locations. Operating in a “slow fast food” mentality like fast food joints of the ’80s and ’90s, Perrier and his partner, Drew Dunford, put a ton of care and thought into their grass-fed and hormone and antibiotic-free smash burgers.

Their Dressed Burger, a classic double smash topped with the works, is served on a sesame seed bun and lathered in a GTO sauce.

Mimi’s Burgers 2287 W. Broadway mimisburgers.com Kevin Doyle and Jesse Harris are making hand-pressed smash patties in honour of Harris’s late mom, Mimi. The burgers here are made from quality beef and are handrolled and pressed to order.

With only Mimi’s cheese, classic, double or beyond-meat burger the focus is on quality, taste and hospitality. Make it a combo and try Mimi’s colossal and crispy onion rings.

Between2Buns is serving up some serious takeout smash burgers in Chinatown. Owner Tony Hua takes on a simple menu of cheeseburgers, focusing on making sure each cheesy-layered burger is made to perfection.

Try the Jalapeño Bacon Cheeser featuring the classic cheeseburger layered with bacon strips and pickled jalapeños.

LEARN 3 WAYS TO COOK SMASHBURGERS AT HOME

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

7

SIPPING CELEBS

D R I N KS

Solar power may be dimming as summer finally comes to a close (sorry, Lorde), but not to worry. We’ve picked the best celebrity wines from the vine so you can bless your fall feasts with star power instead. From France and Niagara to the best in film and the father of dropping it like it’s hot, we’ve scoured the market for celebrity wines that actually taste good.

Be the ultimate dinner guest by showing up with one of these VIP bottles. The NEXT Taste Test Kitchens have deduced they’re worth the hype.

By LAURA ROBINSON

SCAN THESE LINKS TO FIND THE WINES IN YOUR CITY:

TORONTO

It’s got bark, it’s got bite — just like the Dogg on the label. Grown in the California heat, this renegade Cali red is bursting with dark fruits and smooth body, with just the right amount of tannins to make it a bold sip. No doubt Martha Stewart and Snoop will be sharing a bottle over a candlelit roast beef dinner this fall.

Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Rosé

Tawse Winery Available in Toronto $26

Invivo X, Sarah Jessica Parker Available in Calgary $25

Maison No. 9 Available in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto $30

In their early days as a bar-playing band, Blue Rodeo would often be paid in beer. Developing a more sophisticated palate, guitarist and vocalist Jim Cuddy turned to wine and developed his own blends with a Niagara-based vineyard.

This full-bodied blend is barrel-fermented and oaky but still has fruity notes of pineapple, pear and caramel apple.

This classy little package packs a passionfruit punch — from the first splash and sniff, aromas of the tropics dance in the glass. Blending the craft of a New Zealand Sauvignon blanc with the sophistication of a New York City It Girl, it’s the perfect not-too-sweet treat to pair with an episode of Sex and the City.

And Just Like That… the entire bottle is gone.

Dear Post Malone: congratulations. This rosé is the perfect little blend of blushing strawberries, melon and lavender all wrapped up in a sleek and sexy bottle. It’s such a bright, refreshing sip that one taste instantly transports you to a gargantuan yacht on the French Mediterranean — where the wine is produced — as Post treats you to a private serenade.

CALAGARY

19 Crimes Available in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto $20

Cuddy by Tawse Chardonnay 2016

VANCOUVER

Snoop Dogg Cali Red 2019

BON APPÉTIT: SOMMELIER TRIES 16 CELEBRITY WINES

The Tragically Hip Ahead by a Century Chardonnay 2019 Stoney Ridge Estate Winery Available in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto $22

Got the invite to a classy charcuterie soirée?

Whip out this silky, citrusy Tragically Hip chardonnay. Because it’s only partially aged in oak barrels, it’s got a rich palate, but it’s not too oaky — think notes of smooth vanilla and sumptuous peach. Raise a toast to Gord with this luxurious blend, created in honour of the iconic Canadian band’s six-time platinum album Trouble at the Henhouse.

Diamond Collection Claret 2018

Francis Ford Coppola Winery Available in Vancouver, Calgary (other Coppola wines available at LCBO in Toronto) $27

When the silver screen just wasn’t enough to conquer — see: The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders — legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola started a winery and wrapped the best bottles in gold. The crown jewel of the Coppola Diamond collection, this California-grown Bordeaux blend is a full-bodied, fruity-spicy red that’s the perfect companion for dinner and a movie.

C E L E B R A T I N G 5 0 Y E A R S O F B I L LY J O E L

THE VINYL COLLECTION, VOL. 1 NOVEMBER 5

TH

PRE-ORDER NOW

the best of BILLY JOEL

on one amazing playlist LISTEN ON

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

9

CA N NABIS

VAPE TRAIL VAPE PENS ARE THE PERFECT TOOL FOR ON-THE-GO ELEVATION. Get lifted discreetly with sleek and stylish pens that carry oil cartridges for all kinds of high. With rechargeable 510 thread batteries, you can find cartridges that will take you to familiar skies without the hassle of rolling up. Vaping also eliminates the skunky smell of smoking.

Whether its high-grade distillate, CO2 oils or live resin cartridges, we’ve got the products that will ensure you the best vape experience the market has to offer.

By NICOLE RICHIE

SunFarms Pennywise 1:1 Full Spectrum 510 Cartridge Potency: 26% – 32% THC, 39% – 45% CBD, 0.5 g cartridge

B.C.’s Sun Farms makes some great bud, which is why this isn’t the first time you’ve seen its products featured here in NEXT. This cartridge has a substantial amount of both THC and CBD, giving smokers a balanced and clean high that will stimulate their minds and relax their bodies. This hybrid strain is preserved and extracted to create the cleanest oil for a smooth pull, every time.

10 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

Greybeard KISH Live Resin 510 Cartridge

Dosist Pen Rechargeable in Arouse

Marley Natural Black 510 Cartridge

Extracted from live flower instead of dried and cured bud, live resin results in a more natural and terpene-heavy vaping experience and features indica-dominant strain (Shishkaberry, better known as KISH) grown outdoors in Simcoe, ON. These powerful vape cartridges are very strong — perfect for sleeping, relaxing or pretty much any activity that doesn’t require moving for long periods of time.

Dosist recently released a rechargeable version of its iconic dose pens. The “arouse” terpene profile is aimed to enhance your senses, elevate your mood and give you a burst of energy — ideal for getting in the mood with yourself or a partner. It also works wonders for moments of meditation and self-care. Available in either 100 or 200 precise 2.5 mg doses with every puff, this pen allows you to get the perfect hit every time.

This naturally winterized cannabis oil is made from some of the cleanest Washington State flower and some of the highest cannabinoid content on the Canadian market, with pure oils providing a consistent high that’s made to last.

Marley Natural is known for its CO2 extraction method, which uses no filler or added flavouring to create its cartridges.

The “Black” or indica-dominant cartridge is left with a clean taste and aroma, showcasing the best of its bud.

Potency: 82% – 88% THC, 0.2% – 0.10% CBD, 0.5 g cartridge

Potency: 84% – 89% THC, 0.5 g cartridge

Potency: 70% THC, 0.5 g cartridge

baby keem

the DeBUt ALBUM

Trailblazer Glow 510 Cartridge

Potency: 35% – 37% THC, 0.5% CBD, 0.5 g cartridge

Solei Unplug Lavender Fog 510 Cartridge Potency: 65% – 71% THC, 6% – 11% CBD, 0.5 g cartridge

IncLUDIng hIt Solei sIngLes Great for social gatherings, this Unplug is a sativa-dominant (cALL By yoUr nAMe) & InDUstry BABy of low-THC Montero hybrid strain givesMe a tercartridge that’s reminiscent pene-rich experience to smokers, lavender-infused tea; it’s calming, without sending them into oblivirelaxing and leaves you ready on. With its ceramic atomizer, this to snuggle up under the covers cartridge safety heats up the oil after a long day. with each pull.

Sweet, with very little cannabis Trailblazer’s Glow has a sweet taste, this vape cartridge is great and floral scent, which is domifor smokers who are looking to nated by the myrcene and caryofeel the effects of a high THC phyllene terpenes in this strain. vape pen without the harsh hit or Known for providing a focused, taste. Solei’s extracts are made uplifting and calming high, this from quality sun-grown Ontaris a great smoke for moments of io flower and use no additives creativity or to give you that extra during the extraction process. push in a social situation.

oUt noW

the melodic blue OUT NOW

ST YL E

GAUDY IS GOOD

2

� 3

5

4

With the world slowly opening up, we’re about to re-enter the extravagant, all-out fervour of the roaring ’20s — which means that the time for stylistic subtlety has long passed.

Bright colours, ’70s silhouettes and bold-faced maximalism are stepping into their rightful place at the top of the fashion hierarchy, and thank God for that! I’m exhausted by sensibility; I pray to never see another earth tone or comfortable kitten heel again.

The easiest and most accessible way to embrace excess this season is with the unique, quirky jewelry that’s taking over the internet. The indie jewelry market ranges from candy-coloured kidcore to one-of-a-kind reclaimed vintage, so there’s something for everyone — and no matter what you’re looking for, you know you’re going to stand out. So reclaim garish!

Minimalism is sooo 2016.

6

7

8

14

Note: Many of the pieces pictured here are one of a kind. Visit the shops linked in the QR codes to keep up to date with current releases!

By RAYNE FISHER-QUANN 10

12

9

11

13

Susan Alexandra (1-4)

Susan Alexandra’s iconic jewelry is already being seen on the necks and ears of every NYC cool girl and fashion blogger with an Instagram account — and for good reason. Her intricately beaded designs are iconic, often whimsical and always eye-catching — and despite their youthful influences, her jewelry is distinctly elegant. You’ll feel like a kid again (while looking like a grown-up who buys indie designer jewelry).

The Magazine That Plays Music and Videos on Your Phone MADE IN CANADA • 10|2021

Tunnel Vision (5-8)

Tunnel Vision is a heavy-hitter in the alternative scene: you can’t scroll through TikTok for more than 30 seconds without seeing a très cool teenager wearing one of Tunnel Vision’s signature designs. Their jewelry is wildly popular without being overplayed and, better yet, all its wares are ethically made through a worker-owned business model.

FREE

THE FUTURISTIC FOLKLORE OF

CAROLINE POLACHEK

REMI WOLF ALESSIA CARA LIL NAS X LUKE HEMMINGS

+

THE VELVETEERS NIGHT RAIDERS SMASH BURGERS THE RETURN OF LIVE MUSIC

String Ting (9-10)

Can an accessory still be classified as quirky once it’s been seen on Kendall Jenner, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus and others? Maybe not, but the String Ting is a colourful trend that doesn’t seem to be going out of style anytime soon. The Ting loops through your phone case and can act as either a functional handle or just a dangly accessory. Stand out in a crowd and keep your phone safe in the process!

We encourage you to read NEXT Magazine with your phone handy. When you see a QR code, Apple Music QR Code or Spotify Code, your phone's camera will instantly deliver extra music, video and exclusive content from your favourite streaming services.

How To

Sweaty Pigeon (11-14)

My advice: get your hands on a Sweaty Pigeon piece as soon as you possibly fucking can. The up-and-coming designer handmakes necklaces out of vintage watches, toys and other doo-dads, and while the accessories are still an underground best-kept secret, they won’t be for long (they were recently featured on the cover of Teen Vogue)! Sweaty Pigeon’s weekly drops sell out in seconds, so set an alarm: it’s worth it.

QR Code

Apple Music

Spotify

1. Open camera app on your phone.

1. Launch Spotify app on your phone.

2. Hold your device so that the QR code is centred in viewfinder.

2. Go to the search bar on Spotify search page.

3. Tap the notification that pops up to open link associated with the code.

3. Tap camera icon on the right of the search bar and hover camera over the code.

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

13

GAMING

CREEPS, CURSES AND COSMIC CRITTERS HAUNT OCTOBER’S GAME LINEUP Turtle Rock Studio's Back 4 Blood leads the ghoulish pack of frightening new games this month By ZACK KOTZER

G

houls and ghosts have been with video games from the very start. Nothing gets the blood pumping, or the run button held down, like a good fright.

The last year has given us a frightening range of scary games: from the action-packed monster mash Resident Evil Village to the more reserved folk tale Mundaun.

Appropriately, October 2021 has some of the most anticipated horror games of the year, filled with space freak-outs, ancient evils and zombies by the droves.

There’s a joke that Half-Life, Portal and Team Fortress creator Valve never gets around to making a third in its franchises. Some games don’t die so easily. The creator of the Left 4 Dead series, Turtle Rock Studios, has returned with Back 4 Blood, bringing along an army of undead.

Released in 2008, Left 4 Dead saw up to four players make their way across a zombie-riddled

America, safe house to safe house, collecting supplies and keeping corpses at bay. Back 4 Blood reanimates the beloved formula with some twists.

Multiplayer games have shifted seismically since 2008, a challenge Turtle Rock is taking on. Back 4 Blood features new ways to play, including a more intricate versus mode in which four players fortify their surroundings while four others attack as supercharged ghoulies known as the Ridden.

The main campaign features eight cantankerous survivors and even added deck-building elements.

Between safe houses, players can collect and manage cards that can boost their own skills or benefit the entire team. But beware: hands are dealt against squads too, subjecting additional challenges like time limits and larger hordes — making sure those navigating the apocalypse aren’t too comfortable.

Back 4 Blood had an extensive open beta over the summer but releases in full on Oct. 12 for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

ALAN WAKE Left 4 Dead isn’t the only game back from the grave.

From 2019, Control was a colossal hit for Remedy, but it also gave us an update on the studio’s previous paranormal investigator, Alan Wake.

This long-awaited next chapter sees Samus investigating an outpost where Federation robots have been vanishing en masse, raising concern that X, or even the vampiric Metroid, has survived.

Samus will have to evade haywire EMMI drones, space pirates and a mysterious adversary using Chozo weaponry — the elusive race of Samus’s adopted family whose training and tech gives Samus an edge against fearsome monsters. Samus’s new nightmare begins Oct. 8 on the Nintendo Switch.

HOUSE OF ASHES

WATCH THE OFFICIAL BACK 4 BLOOD TRAILER HERE

A novelist trapped in a horror ripped from his own pages and star of their own 2010 game, Wake passed through the halls of Control’s Oldest House before falling deeper into some ethereal passage.

Be it renewed interest in Wake or an opportunity to replay the original in full (DLC chapters were pulled from digital stores over, kid you not, the rights to Harry Nilsson’s song, “Coconut”), Remedy recently unveiled a full remaster.

When Alan Wake and his wife, Alice, booked a cabin in Bright Falls, it was to relax and alleviate Wake’s creative block and nightmares. Little did Wake know that greater, sinister beings of Bright Falls set up a trap for him and other artists for generations.

The game wears its Stephen King and David Lynch influences on its sleeve, though the aesthetic cocktail feels more like a horror set in the Northern Exposure opening. Alan Wake Remastered comes to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on Oct. 5.

Supermassive Games, creator of the hit chooseyour-own-adventure PlayStation horror Until Dawn, continues its Dark Pictures Anthology this Halloween with House of Ashes.

Previous chapters Man of Medan and Little Hope have subjected their motion-captured TV actors to ghost ships and witch covens, respectably. House of Ashes offers a spin on another familiar monster.

Set during the Iraq war, a group of American soldiers are hit with an ambush before both groups are surprised by a sinkhole. Suddenly, all involved find themselves in a bizarre subterranean and labyrinthian crypt, awakening an unknown evil.

The player’s choices can radically change the course of this ghost story and the ultimate fate of these survivors. See how you fare against the House of Ashes on Oct. 22 when the game launches on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

SPOOKWARE

METROID DREAD Nintendo’s most diligent hunter returns this October with Metroid Dread. Last we saw Samus Aran, she barely escaped a research station in 2002’s Metroid Fusion, battling a vicious parasite called X that could imitate the most dangerous beings in the universe.

Including herself.

Lastly, if you’re looking for something a little more lighthearted but still packed with little ghoulies, you can treat yourself to SPOOKWARE. An homage to the manic WarioWare series, SPOOKWARE follows three skelebros who decide to make up for lost time in the afterlife after waning their existence on horror movies.

Split into four chapters, the game will feature over 200 lightning-quick and quirky mini-games — from hatchet attacks to skeleton synth solos — all inspired by all manner of creepy crawlies. The first chapter is available on PC. NEXT OCTOBER 2021

15

Watch TV / MOVIES / STREAMING

What To

NIGHT RAIDERS DELIVERS INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE IN SCI-FI SENSATION

By AMY LLOYD

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

16 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

WATCH THE OFFICIAL NIGHT RAIDERS TRAILER

NIGHT RAIDERS

T

Where: Theatres What: Movie, 101 mins.

When: Now Genre: Dystopian Sci-fi Why you should watch: An incredibly poignant Indigenous thriller set in the not-so-distant future and heavily influenced by the past. In a military-occupied North America, a Cree mother fights to get her daughter back from a state-run school and joins forces with an underground vigilante group. It’s a powerful exploration of family and community.

Brooklyn Letexier-Hart (left) and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

he morning after the Canadian premiere of Indigenous sci-fi film Night Raiders at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of quiet celebration and reverence. Quiet because the downtown Toronto press office has glass walls and creaky wood floors, and no one wants to disturb lead star Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers or writer-director Danis Goulet during their post-premiere interviews. But even in hushed tones, there’s an obvious — and justified — buzz in the air, thanks to the movie’s TIFF screening.

Not operating at full capacity this year, TIFF had to be selective with its in-person theatre offerings and clearly made the right call with Night Raiders. This Canada-New Zealand co-production has been years in the making and could not have had a more poignant release.

The film transports viewers to a dystopian, post-war North America in the year 2043. A military occupation controls the streets, and children are property of the state, raised to be obedient soldiers. Niska is a Cree woman desperately trying to keep her daughter Waseese from the government’s grips. When Niska can no longer fight alone and her child is locked in a state-run academy, she meets the Night Raiders, an underground Indigenous vigilante group taking their children back one by one.

Goulet’s decision to tell this story through a science-fiction lens was clearly freeing. At its core, science fiction is an exploration of humanity, and while it pushes the bounds of reality, often the results don’t seem too far-fetched.

Take, for example, the virus that sweeps through the community in Night Raiders — the film wrapped production in November 2019, meaning Goulet’s narrative pre-dated the

COVID-19 pandemic.

And while fictional, Night Raiders is heavily influenced by real, lived experiences within Indigenous communities.

“The thing about Niska, she encompasses so many Indigenous women that I know. Her story is close to home for myself, my family and so many others,” Tailfeathers confides as she sits across from me in an office boardroom, her love for this film and Niska’s character palpable.

Celebrated for her ability to tell Indigenous stories, Tailfeathers is an award-winning Vancouver-based writer, director and actor. She’s best known for her directorial role on the emotional drama, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, as

Amanda Plummer

well as starring in the zombie horror flick, Blood Quantum.

“Niska is someone who has experienced violence, the most recent is having her child taken away from her. Generations of our people have taken on that type of violence. Niska’s a person who’s experienced immense pain and immeasurable barriers and is somehow still finding the strength and capacity to love and move forward. I think there’s so much power in showing that particular experience on screen.”

In spite of its heavy subject matter, there’s a great sense of love, community and hope throughout the film. There’s a mother-daughter bond that can’t be broken and a lesson in allowing yourself to accept help from others.

This love was also felt off camera.

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on set!” Tailfeathers gushes. “There were a ton of Māori people from New Zealand and Indigenous people from all over North America, not just cast but crew. There were Elders, ceremonies, spaces for cultural safety and support. It was so much fun to come to work every single day. I think that’s reflective of being in Indigenous spaces — there’s always laughter, always joy.”

Tailfeathers credits Goulet as a long-time inspiration and mentor and was overwhelmed by the opportunity to work alongside her. She’s quick to celebrate Goulet’s advocacy work for Indigenous representation within Canada’s art spaces.

“I learned so much, both as an actor and a filmmaker, by watching some of the fearless decisions Danis made. I’ve been on sets with big egos, but Danis embodies compassion, strength and vulnerability. It was incredible to watch her process and know that you can achieve greatness while remaining rooted in your humanity and empathy.”

Tailfeathers describes the current rise of Indigenous film and television as “a dream” (see EMA Films’ Beans or FX’s Reservation Dogs) and thinks there’s a lot viewers can take away from Night Raiders.

“I hope that Indigenous audiences walk away feeling loved, seen, heard and understood. I hope Indigenous youth walk away feeling like our people are superheroes and that we’re worthy of celebration.

“And I hope that non-Indigenous audiences walk away with a respect for who we are, our stories and our strength. I hope they also understand there’s so much work to do in this country and that the violence we faced in residential schools is still alive in other capacities. There’s still a lot to learn and unlearn.”

October Movies and Streaming

RESERVATION DOGS

Where: Disney + What: Series, 8 episodes, new episodes every Weds. until Oct. 20, 29 mins.

When: Now Genre: Dramedy Why you should watch: A group of wannabe-badass Indigenous teens on an Oklahoma reservation are determined to fund a move to L.A. with petty crime. Funny and searingly authentic — which is no surprise with its almost all-Indigenous cast and crew.

Oscar winner Taika Waititi (Best Adapted Screenplay,Jojo Rabbit) is a show creator, Canadian D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai stars.

Second season just confirmed.

SORT OF

Where: CBC Gem/CBC TV What: Season 1, 8 episodes, 30 mins.

When: Tues., Oct. 5 (CBC Gem), Tues., Nov. 9 (CBC TV) Genre: Dramedy Why you should watch: Shot in Toronto and packed with original music from five upand-coming YYZ artists, this sarcastic and heartwarming coming-of-age narrative is anything but derivative. Sabi, a non-binary 25-year-old nanny, bartender and the youngest child of a Pakistani family is brimming with ennui for their life thus far — until a fateful accident changes everything.

October Movies and Streaming

YOU

Where: Netflix What: Series, Season 3, 10 episodes, 50 mins.

When: Fri, Oct. 15 Genre: Psychological thriller Why you should watch: Back to conflict viewers between finding main characters Joe and Love (Hollywood charmers Penn Badgley and Victoria Pedretti) attractive and feeling utterly terrified of their lethal stalker tendencies, season three is all about love and marriage. Newlywed and new parents too, Joe and Love move into the Northern California suburbs to live the American dream. How they’ll survive each other is another question.

THE RESCUE

Where: Theatres What: Movie, 114 mins.

When: Now Genre: Documentary Why you should watch: Deserving winner of audience choice best documentary honours at TIFF this year, The Rescue will likely get Oscar consideration. It’s a riveting doc detailing the remarkable rescue of 12 teenaged soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. Real footage and some reenactments by the actual heroes tell an inspiring tale of teamwork, with tension made bearable only because we know it has a happy ending.

18 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING

INSECURE

Where: Crave What: Series, Season 5, 8 episodes, 30 mins.

When: Sun., Oct. 24 Genre: Comedy Why you should watch: Issa Rae’s critically acclaimed comedy is back with its heavily anticipated final season. The show’s five-year run has been applauded for its honest, realistic portrayal of the lives of modern Black women and has consistently established itself as one of the funniest, realest shows on TV. And if you needed one more incentive to watch: this season will be directed by the phenomenal Kerry Washington!

Where: Disney + What: Limited series, 10 episodes, 12 mins.

When: Now Genre: Anime Why you should watch: Seven of Japan’s top anime studios are unleashed on the Star Wars universe, borrowing themes, characters, gadgets and more to create 10 gorgeous, self-contained episodes. And it’s as cool as it sounds as each studio takes its own inspired and often very different approach to the Star Wars universe — which originally borrowed from Japanese myths and culture.

STAR WARS: VISIONS

SEINFELD

MAYDAY

ALL OR NOTHING: TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT

HAPPIER THAN EVER: A LOVE LETTER TO LOS ANGELES

Where: Disney + What: Series, 11 episodes, 30 mins.

When: New episodes weekly until Sat., Oct. 16 Genre: Whodunit mystery Why you should watch: Selena Gomez keeps veteran comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short relevant as the three quirky neighbours in a classy Upper West Side New York City apartment who get drawn into solving a murder in their building. Gomez is the edgy youth to the charming codgers on a show that cleverly taps into the true-crime podcast craze.

Where: VOD What: Movie, 100 mins.

When: Now Genre: Fantasy Drama Why you should watch: Leave logic at the door and immerse yourself in this gorgeously shot fantasy that follows a defeated female hotel worker who enters a parallel universe that’s initially presented as a safe haven for women. The so-called paradise quickly becomes a blood-soaked nightmare and the hotel worker wants out, but return tickets are hard to come by. It’s emotionally compelling, and the landscape montages alone are worth the price of admission.

Where: Amazon Prime What: Limited Series, 5 episodes, 48 mins.

When: Now Genre: Documentary Why you should watch: A remarkably candid look behind the scenes and deep inside the Toronto Maple Leafs most recent season; one that started with promise and ended in disaster. Fucks and pucks fly with equal intensity and frequency as we see intimate moments between coaches and players as well crusty onice banter from miked skaters.

Where: VOD — iTunes, Vimeo What: Movie, 100 mins.

When: Tues., Oct. 26 Genre: Documentary Why you should watch: A gentle look at a remarkable women’s volleyball team that ends up being a source of national pride to post-war Japan, peaking with a gold medal win at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Features amazing archival action footage, anime simulations and interviews with surviving team members.

Innovative, acrobatic play and relentless training helped the team amass 258 straight victories.

Where: Netflix What: Series, 9 seasons, 173 episodes, 22 mins.

When: Now Genre: Sitcom Why you should watch: Arguably the funniest — and most enduring — sitcom ever moves to Netflix just after another contender for the comedy crown, The Office, leaves. If you’ve somehow managed to miss Jerry and his pals, now’s your chance to understand the laughs behind: the yadda yadda, the Soup Nazi, mastering your own domain and more. And as fans know, you can happily watch these episodes over and over.

Where: Disney+ What: Movie, 65 mins.

When: Now Genre: Concert film Why you should watch: Versatile director Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, From Dusk till Dawn) lushly presents Billie Eilish and brother, recent NEXT cover boy, Finneas, performing her new album in an eerily empty Hollywood Bowl — at times with the L.A. Philharmonic.

Animated Billie also appears in scenes around her favourite town, and while the film is a love letter to L.A., it’s also a love letter to the beautifully presented singer.

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

19

20 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

LUKE HEMMINGS

Boy band singer explores life as a man

A

t 16, Australian singer Luke Hemmings was already well on his way to becoming one of the most famous teenagers in the world. His band, 5 Seconds of Summer, blew up during the boy-band craze of the early 2010s; he and his bandmates went from friends posting covers on YouTube to international heartthrobs virtually overnight.

Their pop-rock convictions offered a slightly edgier alternative to the One Direction zeitgeist (when I was in middle school, you were either a 1D girl or a 5SOS girl — no in-between). Their upbeat, explosive energy quickly established them as one of the most popular Australian musical acts in history, and Hemmings hasn’t slowed down since.

The pandemic changed things. Over the past year, Hemmings used the downtime for introspection and crafted his debut solo album, When Facing the Things We Turn Away From, released in August. It’s a wise reflection on a life spent in the fast lane, and it shows a musical maturity that proves he’s learned a lot from his time in the spotlight.

When you’ve spent the past 10 years of your life without stopping to take a breath, what was it like to be thrust into this period of introspection?

In 5SOS, we were just going for such a long time from such

LUKE HEMMINGS

When Facing the Things We Turn Away From Genre: Pop Sound: Emotional lyricism tells a story over lush, sometimes experimental, production If you like: The Killers, Bon Iver, Joshua Bassett Why you should listen: Hemmings wrote this album as a departure from 5 Seconds of Summer’s pop-rock fare, and it works: it’s genuinely introspective, expertly produced and handles both stripped-back vulnerability and wall-of-sound intensity with skill and emotion.

Best track: A Beautiful Dream a young age. It was a nice change of pace, but it’s hard to put it in a positive manner because it’s obviously such a horrific thing. I’m very lucky that I could stay at home and reflect on the last 10 years — start to understand it more and have time to really let it marinate. The album started as just sort of writing at home;

obviously, I had a lot of free time and wasn’t on the road, and I finally had time to reflect on everything.

You’ve been in this band and had all these eyes on you since you were a kid. Was it hard to figure out who you were as an individual?

That’s kind of the personal journey that I’ve been on over the last couple of years. You know, when you attach your whole life and your whole personality to this incredible music act, which I say in a positive way because I honestly wouldn’t change any part of it, but you know you attach yourself to it emotionally, there’s not really time to figure that out. You know, I’m Luke from 5SOS. That’s just kind of part of who I am.

I think with this album and probably just ever since I met [fiancée] Sierra, I’ve sort of more understood who I am as a person outside of the band. And the album is just another step towards that, I would say. I love being in 5SOS — this was just an expression of sorts.

Your album is called When Facing the Things We Turn Away From. What were some of the things you were turning away from that you had to address through this music?

When you’re gone all the time, moving 100 miles an hour, you don’t really have time to understand yourself as a human. You sort of put things on the backburner, and then when the pandemic hits and you’re stuck with your own thoughts, it’s a bit like, you know, all these dishes are piled up in the sink and I haven’t even looked at them.

So I think, there were a lot of different things, but it was mainly sort of just about understanding what had even happened to me. My positive thing is, hopefully, when things get back to normal and you know we’re travelling and playing shows and meeting people, I feel like I’m going to take less for granted.

What’s the future of the Luke Hemmings project?

I definitely want to keep releasing music, but I don’t want to do it for the sake of doing it. In this album, I’ve obviously had a lot to say. But the short answer is: yes, I’m gonna keep doing things — I would love to continue exploring it because, just for me, having another creative outlet is just, I mean, that’s the dream. It consumes me.

By RAYNE FISHER-QUANN

LISTEN TO LUKE HEMMINGS'S WHEN FACING THE THINGS WE TURN AWAY FROM HERE

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

21

ALESSIA CARA

POP STAR MUSES ON PANDEMIC PURGATORY ON NEW ALBUM, FINDS HOPE IN HEARTACHE

O

n a cozy evening Zoom call from the comfort of our own homes, it is easy to forget the virtual conference host is a Platinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning artist because she’s so down to earth. Brampton singer-songwriter Alessia Cara sits at a kitchen table for her exclusive album listening party, which feels more like a FaceTime with an old friend as her dog occasionally barks in the background.

Cara excitedly shared her third album, In the Meantime, ahead of its release last month with a lucky few — me included. In the chat box, fans from all over the world discuss their favourite lyrics and swap crying emojis when a particularly emotional track comes on. Cara gets involved too, expressing how thrilled she is to have any form of human connection after two years of no touring.

Now a well-known name in the pop world, Cara skyrocketed to fame in 2015 with her debut album Know-It-All. She toured Europe and the U.S. as the opening act for Coldplay, recorded an original song for Disney’s Moana soundtrack and has collaborated with Troy Sivan and Khalid. Only 25 years old, Cara has already achieved a lifetime of career goals and has grown up in front of millions of people.

Growth is a strong theme throughout her newest album, and there’s a great sense of maturity and self-awareness from Cara as she breaks down the tracks and her motivations writing this album.

There’s a classic blend of upbeat pop songs and emotional ballads, with layers of Latin influences and impressive vibrato. Listeners are guaranteed to find a song (or several) that resonates with them.

22 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

ALESSIA CARA In the Meantime

Genre: Pop Sound: Jazz guitars reminiscent of bossa nova music, funky beats and breathy vocals If you like: Camila Cabello, FLETCHER, Julia Michaels Why you should listen: The Grammy- and JUNO-winning artist makes her long-awaited return with a lot to say on a packed 18-track album. Pulling from some of her hardest times, Cara gets real about anxiety and self-doubt while shining a light on her positive, confident moments. With features from YouTube child prodigy Muimui Guitargirl and American hip hop artist CHIKA, there’s also a whole lot of girl power.

Best track: Voice In My Head Why In the Meantime?

I wanted it to be called In the Meantime because of the “meantime” we’re all experiencing, this life purgatory. It’s an encapsulation of my last year and what I’ve been up to — all the stories that have unfolded in the meantime. More symbolically, it represents the fact that we’re always in a state of transition, always growing and changing. Life itself is a meantime between birth and death, everything is impermanent.

The Duality of Life As people, we are surrounded by dualities. We feel multiple things at once. I think that’s the beauty of life: there’s versatility.

When I was writing, I noticed that some days I feel super confident and independent and others I just want to hug somebody! So, this album is heavily focused on duality — there’s a lot of down-tempo, emotional, grittier sounds and also light, fun, confident themes.

BFF Boy Troubles I was writing in Montreal and my friend was with me in the studio.

She was freaking out — the guy she was newly dating wasn’t responding to her texts. We started saying we would rather be alone than let a guy fool us. So I decided to write to this guy who was being shady and the song became Lie To Me. Turns out, he was just out to dinner with his cousin, so all is well! I got a great song out of it, so thank you, sir!

Diverse Album Influences Find My Boy feels like a contemporary spin on the traditional Portuguese music I grew up loving. Voice In My Head reminds me of The Police or Phil Collins and their melodic choices and the chorus feels almost reggae-inspired. Lie To Me has a cool, funky Destiny’s Child-esque throwback feel to it.

Emotional Vulnerability, Better Days I kind of hit a rock bottom emotionally and mentally last year, and I had to look at my life in a different way: I needed to take better care of myself. It was a really sad, scary time. I’m sure we all have our own insecurities and voices in our head that warp our sense of self. Now that I’m on the other side of this feeling and okay, I think it’s a nice reminder that there’s always good days

By AMY LLOYD ahead.

WATCH THE BEST DAYS VIDEO HERE

the DeBUt ALBUM

IncLUDIng hIt sIngLes Montero (cALL Me By yoUr nAMe) & InDUstry BABy

oUt noW

LISTEN TO ALESSIA CARA'S IN THE MEANTIME HERE

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

23

RE MI WO LF

O

AVANT-POP POWERHOUSE REMI WOLF IS A FUNK-FUELLED SUGAR RUSH OF FUN

BY LAURA ROBINSON

O

n any given night, there’s a chance you might find avant-pop sensation Remi Wolf nestled in the back of a restaurant in L.A.’s Koreatown at a table for one.

“I go and cook my meat alone at Korean barbecue. Doing that is solid decompression vibes for me,” says the 25-year-old artist, who boarded the roller coaster reserved for pop stars on the rise back in 2019.

Wolf ’s wonderfully wacky and impressively innovative new brand of funk pop is the sonic equivalent of a good-time sugar rush. Listeners are feeling a lot more sweet than salty about the unconventional new sound: her most popular single, Photo ID, clocks in at over 10 billion views on TikTok and she hasn’t even dropped her debut album yet (due October 15).

The Palo Alto native’s fresh sounds are much more than DIY pop bops designed with the intention of going viral, though — her formally trained vocals and natural talent mean she can scream like Janis, sing smooth like Amy and serve sass like a Spice all in one track.

Her melodic stylings bring good vibe grooves with crisp drumbeats, zippy electric riffs and pitched-up harmonies that play with a surprise loot bag of sound effects — think video game beeps, boops and bops, wailing sirens and springs that go boing!

“My brain just goes to those places,” Wolf explains of her music’s quirky-girl energy and madcap lyrics that reference everything from bubble gum and bubble butts to viscerally disturbing horror flick Human Centipede.

“I'M A VERY IMPROVISATIONAL WRITER. I DON'T LIKE TO OVERTHINK SHIT TOO MUCH.” “I don't really have an explanation for it, other than I'm a very improvisational writer. I don't like to overthink shit too much, don’t like to rewrite anything. I mean — it's all very true to me. I'm telling my story, even though, to most people, it's a little disjointed and crazy. That’s just my expression.”

Wolf, who went “pretty far” on an American Idol stint when she was 17 and graduated from USC’s prestigious music program, began making a name for herself with 2019 EP, You’re A Dog! and its 2020 answer, I’m Allergic To Dogs! Now, completing the trifecta is her earworm-heavy debut Juno, eponymously titled for the handsome little French Bulldog she adopted during the pandemic.

We catch up over a lunch hour Zoom — she joins the call with a big grin on her face and a yellow and brown-striped knit hat on her head. It looks like a psychedelic mushroom cap, and it’s struggling to contain her wild, dark curls. Holding an iced coffee in one hand and her phone in the other, the picture is essentially a shaky FaceTime — but her casual approach draws me in, like I’m chatting to a friend.

Making sure my background was tidy almost starts to feel like overkill.

“Welcome to the fucking show, my girl,” Wolf chuckles, as we start joking about both turning 25 this year. I ask if she also experienced a quarter-life crisis.

“Yeah, I went to rehab,” Wolf laughs incredulously.

“I had a crisis. Still having a crisis.”

I’m in awe of her honesty and willingness to lay her cards on the table.

“These past two years have been the hardest years ever,” she elaborates. “Especially being in my 20s — my career going off in COVID, having everything change around me but being isolated through the whole thing. It was a very strange experience. The artist lifestyle is proving to be really crazy. It’s crazy out here!” She says, half-joking as she delivers the last line.

LISTEN TO REMI WOLF'S JUNO HERE

beanie or wide-brimmed variety.

The thirst for fame in the City of Angels only adds “Jimmy Paul is the amazing designer of all those fuel to the fire. feather hats I’ve worn. He does some really wacky “In my career, especially living in L.A., people want fucking stuff. In the past year, I’ve been opened up to shit from you. A lot of them don’t have pure intentions.” the world of high fashion. It’s really fun, but I’ll always Wolf addresses her newfound sobriety head-on in be a thrift-store baby at heart,” she says fondly. the very first track off the new album, Liquor Store. It’s Between her absurdist lyrics, her experimental a boisterously catchy electric guitar-propelled piece featuring Wolf shouting in tune about her fear of being production and her fun, otherworldly videos, Wolf is redefining pop music with her wonderful brand of cheated on and how she would “always want more weird. But how did she get so comfortable being her walking into the liquor store.” The surrealist music wackest self in the public eye? video sees her frenzy-dancing in a rainbow claymation The secret is her working relationship with producsupermarket full of colourful booze. er and long-time best friend, Jared Solomon — he’s Wolf is making videos for all 13 songs on the album. the guy with acid blonde hair, slapping guitar and bass The five she’s already blessed the internet with have a in her videos. retro Treehouse TV-core aesthetic.

“Part of the reason I’m able to be “I’ve been working closely with my truest self in my music and not this girl, Haley Appell. We take a feel weird about it is we know each lot of inspiration from kids’ shows, other so well. We both bring out like Bear in the Big Blue House, Big our most creative selves and foster Comfy Couch, Pee-wee’s Playhouse such a comfortable environment. and The Doodlebops,” she explains.

It’s an interesting life to maneuver “I’m the oldest of four kids, so through right now,” she explains of I watched baby shows until I was being a professional artist, “it has like 14 or something — I think the its downsides. But, overall, I feel images are burned into my brain. really supported.”

I just love how fun and crazy and This fall sees Wolf back up on whimsical kids’ TV is. Especially stage with shows in the U.S. and in back in the day when there were REMI WOLF London. less rules and people were trying to “Performance is such a big part do this real-life cosplay shit.”

Juno of my happiness; I derive so much Based on visuals alone, the Genre: Alt-pop joy from it. It’s such a big part of YouTube algorithm might cateSound: Harmony-filled funkmy personality.” gorize the videos as kids’ content soul pop, punctuated with quirky sound effects And for her next trick: “I’m — Wolf’s wardrobe certainly fits If you like: Tierra Whack, binki, excited to release the album the part.

BENEE and move on to a new chapter, “I’ve literally dressed the same Why you should listen: artistically — go out to a farm or since I was five years old. I just go Packed with wonderfully weird something and write an album in with my intuition: colours and patreferential lyrics and kookythe woods.” terns and layering and comfortabilcatchy compositions, the Until she has her Taylor Swift ity. And hats,” she says, addressing experimental stylings of this folklore moment, you just might her signature garment.

Californian mega-talent are catch the avant-garde pop queen Her personal style is a major redefining what’s possible in practising self-care by frying up touchstone in her kooky-chic pop. some meats on a Koreatown hot brand. She’s rarely caught without Best track: Liquor Store a lid — be it of the bucket, trucker, plate. 

THE MERCH TABLE SUPPORT THE ARTISTS YOU LOVE AND BUY THEIR STUFF

THE VELVETEERS CHARMER AND THE SNAKE BASEBALL TEE $38 thevelveteers.com

CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD YELLOW CHAIR TEE $25 charlottecornfield.bandcamp.com

MAC DEMARCO COVER THE EARTH TOTE BAG $15 hellomerch.com/collections/mac-demarco

COLDPLAY MUSIC OF THE SPHERES PATCHES usstore.coldplay.com

REMY WOLF COW PRINT BUCKET HAT $38 remiwolf.com/product

SONREAL GO CAMPING TIE-DYE LONG SLEEVE $58 shop.kt8merch.com/collections/sonreal

NOBRO PANTHER TEE $20 nobroband.com

ALESSIA CARA IN THE MEANTIME FANNY PACK $50 shop.alessiacara.com 28 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

PARTYNEXTDOOR COLOURS SOCKS shop.ovosound.com/ partynextdoor

The Velveteers' Baby Pottersmith (left), Demi Demitro and Jonny Fig

NEXT BIG THING

VELVETEERS THE

BLACK KEYS' DAN AUERBACH BOOST HELPS LAUNCH COLORADO HARD ROCKERS

O

pening for Guns N’ Roses? Check.

Sign with Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach? Check. Move out of your childhood bedroom?

Not quite.

This spookcore, hard-rock outfit from Colorado — formed back in 2014 by Demi Demitro and Baby Pottersmith when they were barely teenagers — churns out wicked sonic walls of swaggering baritone guitar and roaring double-tracked drums.

Sweaty and scary, goth and glam, their sound casts a hardrock hex on any who dare listen.

Black Keys frontman and producer Auerbach, was instantly hypnotized by their seductive sludge-rock sound and vintage horror-inspired aesthetic. One fateful call later and the Velveteers — now a three-piece with the addition of second drummer Jonny Fig — were in Nashville

WATCH THE VELVETEERS' CHARMER AND THE SNAKE VIDEO HERE

at the Easy Eye Sound studio recording their debut album, Nightmare Daydream, which drops this month.

When we catch up with Demitro and Pottersmith, they are cozily sitting shoulder to shoulder in Pottersmith’s childhood bedroom, a surprisingly wholesome scene for a band on the precipice of rock stardom.

BECOMING THE VELVETEERS Pottersmith: One night, I was at a reggae show — not a good one, a white-boy reggae band.

Demi tapped me on the shoulder, we had never met before.

We talked the whole night. She told me she wanted to start a two-piece band. We were both homeschooled, so we were able to spend every day playing music. We fell in love with playing together.

Demitro: We were both very awkward teens.

LISTEN TO THE VELVETEERS HERE

GETTING SIGNED Pottersmith: Our manager said that Dan Auerbach saw one of our videos, wanted to fly us out and hang out.

Demitro: We were like, “That’s so random.” And, about two weeks later, we’re being flown out to Nashville to see his studio. We were super nervous.

When we get there, we’re led to this room with a round table and a dim light hanging over it. And then Dan is just sitting there with a cigar …

Pottersmith: We can only see his silhouette. Once we got closer, we could see a really nice welcoming smile on his face. And he was wearing a sweater with cows on it. He was very, very nice. Totally the person we hoped he would be.

ROCK REVIVAL Demitro: Rock and roll never really left. There are so many good bands in the 2000s, like Queens of the Stone Age and The Strokes—so many good rock bands in almost every era.

Pottersmith: I can see it coming to the forefront in artists you wouldn’t expect; a lot of great hip-hop artists are bringing rock elements into their

By LAURA ROBINSON

music. It’s exciting to see Willow and what she’s doing and Brockhampton’s most recent album — a lot of those are rock songs. Sometimes hip hop is the most rock and roll thing.

OPENING FOR GUNS N’ ROSES Demitro: Our manager left us a message saying, “You guys are going to open for Guns N’ Roses on Monday. Call me” Pottersmith: All the air was sucked out of my body. It was in two days, and my first thought was … panic. And then I was, “Wait, this is really cool.”

Demitro: That was the biggest crowd we’ve ever played for, 20,000 venue. We didn’t meet Axl, but Slash and Duff were both very kind. I used to play Guitar Hero when I was 10, Slash was a character. It was weird to be so close to him in real life.

GETTING DRESSED Demitro: We go thrift store shopping. We share almost all of our clothes.

I like flashy things — I’ll find something and then customize it with sequins and sparkles. My mom does most of the sewing.

I’m good at gluing stuff on.

THE VELVETEERS

Nightmare Daydream Genre: Rock and roll Sound: Witchy vocals and wicked guitar shred on a foundation of heavy drums If you like: Fleetwood Mac, Shannon & The Clams, Rose Hill Drive Why you should listen: Give in to hedonistic urges with this thundering debut album from the Colorado outfit whose melodic hooks and dark glam aesthetic make raunchy rage rock irresistible.

Best track: Dark Horse

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

29

CAROLINE POLA

ACHEK

THE AVANT-GARDE, EVER-ELUSIVE SIREN WHO'S BUILDING THE SURREAL FUTURE OF POP

By RAYNE FISHER-QUANN

I

32 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

I FIRST HEARD CAROLINE POLACHEK’S

one-of-a-kind voice at an underground rave, where a beautiful man in a dilapidated wedding dress blasted a chopped-and-screwed remix of So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings through the sweat-flecked, ketamine-infused nighttime air. There’s a part in that song, before the last chorus, where she takes a deep, shuddering breath before launching into the song’s explosive finale. It’s a visceral, parasympathetic moment — you can picture her seizing up, gasping for air, before releasing into electric, adrenal bliss. It’s a perfect moment in a perfect pop song.

This rush of epinephrine is at the core of Polachek’s artistry. She sings with a primal, dizzying force that can only be described as supernatural — she often moves between notes with an electronic deftness that’s misleadingly synthetic, to the point where you have to watch her sing live to believe it’s not auto-tuned.

“As a vocalist, there’s something very, very physical about what you're doing. It’s very related to drawing,” she explains to me on the phone from her new Los Angeles home. Polachek has said in the past that she counted the twisting, folkloric engravings of 17th century artist Jacques Hurtu among her inspirations, but it’s in a way that’s more physical than aesthetic.

“I look at those engravings and it looks like music to me. It looks like the way I want my vocal lines to feel.”

At its highest register, her voice is diaphanous and otherworldly, somewhere between the call of a siren and the religious arias of an 11th century abbess. When combined with Polachek’s futuristic synth stylings, the result is like something from a science-fiction novel.

Polachek is lithe and willowy, with a surreal, selkie beauty that matches her ethereal voice. Her visual work deals heavily in the fantastical, where her elven features fit right in — it’s almost hard to imagine what she would look like in everyday clothes (or, rather, it’s easy to imagine that she simply wears leather, buckles and 18th century corsetry to the grocery store). She frequently co-directs her music videos, which take inspiration from Greek mythology, obscure surrealism and historical fantasy.

After 11 years spent at the helm of the Brooklyn synth-pop band, Chairlift, and a series of projects released under the names Ramona Lisa and CEP, 2019’s Pang was the first piece of music to which she’d ever put her real name. The title was inspired by the aching, all-consuming rushes of adrenaline that wracked her body shortly after the dissolution of her marriage.

“In some ways, it felt like my career, up until that point, had been me building many little anthills,” she says. “They all had kind of different sonic qualities and different audiences. I realized that I think the thing that I'm passionate about kind of exists in the middle of all these anthills.

“There’s the kind of theatrical romanticism of Ramona Lisa; there’s kind of those pop, physical, R&B and soul aspects of Chairlift; and then there’s the future-forward synth-nerd aspects of CEP. I was like,

“

it’s time to not make a fourth project but just build a bigger anthill right in the centre of all these others and connect to them and just do it under my own name.”

Pang was the most Caroline Polachek record that Polachek has ever released, and also — in a testament to her magnetism — her most successful: it catapulted her from indie darling to alt-pop icon and attracted a cult following that worships at her esoteric altar. She’s currently fresh off the release of her latest single, Bunny Is A Rider, an addictive summer jam that cemented her place at the bleeding edge of pop music — and she has more music on the way.

Her east-coast shows attract New York gays dressed in chainmail, leather and Mugler; her L.A. shows are a veritable who’s-who of the coolest art school kids in Hollywood. Her August performance at the Greek Theatre attracted a festival lineup’s worth of celebrities du jour, with Olivia Rodrigo, Phoebe Bridgers, Charli XCX, a Haim sister, Christine and the Queens, and Alex G all either in attendance or on stage.

H

er appeal is both strikingly obvious and deceptively undefinable. Polachek is unmistakably brilliant, with a prodigious vocabulary and a pensive demeanour and has a detached, vaguely ironic affect that’s pure crack to the nihilistic denizens of the internet age. She’s not quite a pop diva, but she doesn’t surrender herself to the social media zeitgeist, either: I’d place her persona as somewhere between Galadriel from Lord of the Rings and the most elusive girl at the house show. What more could you ask for?

In a YouTube video of a 2020 performance, she smiles at her audience. “I’m not in the mood for an encore,” she says, coyly. “It’s just, like, such an illusion, right?”

“You’re so hot!” a fan screams.

Pang was released in October of 2019, and Polachek was expecting her biggest festival season ever before the pandemic thrust the world into isolation. She’s only getting to tour Pang now, two years after its release, which brings her to Vancouver in December.

Immediately afterward, she’ll visit Toronto in February while on tour with Dua Lipa.

“Pang still feels fresh,” she says — apparently, formatting the mostly electronic album for a live band has kept the music new.

“I mean, admittedly, it was really emotionally difficult during the pandemic. I was invited to perform on the James Corden TV show, which was of course a remote taping session because TV sets weren't operational at the time. And even the process, in March, of filming something just with the crew was, like … My boyfriend had to scrape me off the floor with a spatula.

I felt so dephysicalized and so unable to present myself for cameras or otherwise. And so, I guess, every show since then has been the process of it feeling more and more natural.”

The July release of Bunny Is A Rider marked her first

I'm finding Instagram to be increasingly commercialized as a space in a way that I feel makes people approach music and musicians with this kind of unconscious reticence.”

CAROLINE POLACHEK

“

As a vocalist, there’s something very, very physical about what you're doing. It’s very related to drawing.”

single since Pang’s smash success. The track is impossibly infectious and features lyrics touting the “sexy power of unavailability” over a hypnotic bassline.

“It's about disappearance. It's about, like, not picking up the call, or being off grid, and the liberation in that,” Polachek explains. I wonder aloud if the pandemic period hindered that desire for transience. Did being stuck inside put her at odds with her desire to be untethered?

“Of course, but it wasn't just quarantine,” she says. “I think it's been a slow creep of digital integration for all of us. Being so connected to each other and with our devices and always being so available. And I guess, in that way, Bunny Is A Rider is a total fantasy, because I do feel so personally beholden to so many things and people.

It’s my escapist fantasy.”

P

olachek craves the ephemeral in this way; it’s clear that, at least to some extent, she loves the idea of being intangible and untethered.

When we discuss the commercialization of social media, she mentions how she hates the permanence of Twitter but is partial to the fleeting nature of Instagram stories.

There is a kind of safety in impermanence and, certainly, a liberation in escape.

At the same time, though, transience has come at a price. She’s spent the past four years without a home or even a city to claim as her own, and she’s started to crave stability.

“I just moved into the first actual home I will have lived in since 2017, which is interesting because that kind of instability was a big undertone in Pang. But this week actually marks a turning point: I'm setting up my home studio today, and I’m very very emotional about it. Hopefully, I'll get to, kind of, spread out and, kind of, locate the music in a place to keep me connected to it instead of just looking at a computer screen all the time.”

Polachek speaks with intention, like she’s thought very carefully about all the words she wants to say before she says them, and her voice has an uncanny quality to it that’s somewhere between clinical and otherworldly: it’s smooth and clean, all clipped vowels and soft S’s.

Polachek was born in Manhattan, then moved to Tokyo, where she was raised until she was six. She then moved to Connecticut and Colorado after that, then Brooklyn; she spent her most recent pre-pandemic years oscillating in the “Bermuda triangle” between L.A., New York and London. A life spent in the liminal spaces between countries and homes has given her voice an undefinable lilt free of national, regional or cultural allegiance: it is transatlantic in nature, closer to the absence of an accent than anything else. In this way, even her vocal cords are a living testament to her ephemerality. You can hear her transience in every word.

Another result of Pang’s success is a newfound online audience — Polachek, like many stars of her ilk, is famous not just as a musician but as a consumable, aspirational persona.

“I’m taking a bit of a step back from social media

“

34 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

right now,” she says. “I’m finding Instagram to be increasingly commercialized as a space in a way that I feel makes people approach music and musicians with this kind of unconscious reticence, because something is so obviously being sold to you. It gives me this kind of paranoia when I use it … I’m kind of recalibrating my relationship with it right now.

“I’ve been realizing very consciously this week that I’m kind of afraid of letting people in too much because, I guess, I don’t trust the faceless online viewer at all.

And so there’s this kind of flirtation game always of like, how vulnerable are you going to make yourself? How much of your home are you going to show? How much of your process are you going to show? And what’s the feeling it gives you?

“When I stand on stage and I look out to the crowd of people, I feel this genuine bond because I really do feel that when people come to a show, they make themselves vulnerable as well, so there’s this kind of beautiful handshake agreement. But online, I don’t feel that.”

Currently, Polachek is fascinated by the natural and the physical, which is pretty much as conceptually detached as you can get from Twitter and Instagram.

Her artistic influences have always been diverse — she’s mentioned surrealist artists Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington and Kay Sage, 17th century engraver Jacques Hurtu, Magic: The Gathering and many more as inspirations for her visual and sonic work — but now, she’s turning inwards.

“Right now, I’m interested in a way more elemen-

When I stand on stage and I look out to the crowd of people, I feel this genuine bond because I really do feel that when people come to a show, they make themselves vulnerable as well, so there's this kind of beautiful handshake agreement.” tal approach, where I’m thinking a lot about energy reserves, vitality, the unconscious.”

Polachek has always been fascinated by the unconscious, internal self — Pang, of course, dealt heavily with the sympathetic nervous system and its effects — but this new approach signals a turning point.

“The first seed of it really happened during the darkest moments of the pandemic, when I was thinking about, ‘What does art in a pandemic look like?’ Obviously there’s been so much very political artwork, and it often feels so disingenuous and ineffective, and I was thinking, ‘Well, what's the opposite of that?’ The opposite is like a complete retreat into the imagination. But is that insidious? Is that privileged? Is that a lie?

“But then I realized — you know what? — the internal doesn’t lie. The internal can be universal, the internal can actually express a political state or the sensorial state of living in a political situation — maybe even better than an on-the-nose description of it can.

“So now, I’m honouring that impulse. That’s what a lot of my work does — it deals with the imaginary and the fantastical, but it is always connected.” 

CAROLINE POLACHEK

“

TOUR DATES: DEC. 13, HOLLYWOOD THEATRE, VANCOUVER FEB. 22, CENTRE BELL, MONTREAL (WITH DUA LIPA) FEB. 23, SCOTIABANK ARENA, TORONTO (WITH DUA LIPA)

Right now, I'm interested in a way more elemental approach, where I'm thinking a lot about energy reserves, vitality,

the unconscious.”

WATCH THE BUNNY IS A RIDER VIDEO HERE

LISTEN TO CAROLINE POLACHEK HERE

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

35

36 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

LIL NAS X

Carefully constructed “overnight” sensation delivers on great debut album

LIL NAS X Montero

Genre: Rap Sound: Booming, mega-hit rap with an unapologetic queer edge If you like: Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, Lizzo Why you should listen: Lil Nas X’s debut album plays to his hitmaker strengths with immaculate production and a star-studded array of features, but there’s a complex current under its summer-jam exterior.

On Montero, he struggles with queerness, industry expectations and building an identity while being watched by the world.

Best track: AM I DREAMING

LISTEN TO L'IL NAS X'S MONTERO HERE

I

t’s common to look at the subjects of explosive viral fame and assume they got lucky, but Lil Nas X (né Montero Lamar Hill) has been planning and meticulously executing his meteoric ascent since before anyone had ever heard his breakout hit Old Town Road.

In his teens, he developed a major Twitter following by growth-hacking the algorithm on his Nicki Minaj stan account. He started promoting his music under viral tweets, and when he wrote Old Town Road, he promoted it ruthlessly, even posting about it on music subreddits under a fake name. A one-hit wonder is born every minute, but from the very beginning, Lil Nas X was determined not to be one of them.

Lil Nas X’s electric debut album, Montero, grapples with his rise to fame and his queer identity.

Over the course of his short career, he’s faced no shortage of roadblocks: after coming out as gay at the peak of his popularity, he’s been pulled from the charts, protested, banned, harassed and maligned by people both inside the industry and out. But despite it all — and maybe even because of it — he’s maintained the shit-kicking attitude and ever-present humour built during those days trolling with the Barbz on Twitter.

The first half of Montero brings you to the dance floor of the most extravagant party you’ve ever seen: triumphant brass bands, infectious hooks and boasting, self-assured lyrics referencing coke and champagne construct an explosive, queer Mardi Gras soundscape. This party, of course, has a wild guest list: Doja Cat drops in for a taunting, sneering verse and Megan Thee Stallion’s booming feature outshines even Nas’s prodigious confidence.

And at the centre of it all is Lil Nas X himself, the eternal showman thrusting himself onstage to revel in his newfound success. “This one is for the champions,” he raps on Industry Baby. You feel like he’s talking directly to you, holding your hand and inviting you to celebrate his victories with him.

As the album continues and the night winds down, though, we watch Nas try to figure out who he is once the party’s over. Summer jams are replaced by contemplative, yearning tracks questioning his identity amidst the newfound glamour. Lil Nas X spent his whole life fighting tooth and nail to be where he is right now — so now that he’s here, what does he do? Miley Cyrus, another queer star with a controversy-laden come-up and country roots, joins him on a stripped-down and quietly tragic finale.

Ever since he appeared out of nowhere to become rap’s resident provocateur, it seems like the whole world has been trying to figure out who Lil Nas X is. In this album, he dares to admit that he’s not quite sure either.

By RAYNE FISHER-QUANN NEXT OCTOBER 2021

37

REVIEWS

30¯SECOND ALBUM ARKELLS

JOY CROOKES

SAID THE WHALE

SHAN VINCENT DE PAUL

HELADO NEGRO

Genre: Alternative Sound: Strong lead vocals, propelling drums and feel-good, full-bodied arrangements If you like: Born Ruffians, The Strumbellas, Neon Dreams Why you should listen: It’s not hard to picture the Hamilton hero band parading through the streets and amassing a crowd while playing this album. Accented with bouncing piano chords, electric riffs and frisky brass, it’s a triumphant record celebrating life and love after the storm.

Best track: You Can Get It (ft. K. Flay)

Genre: Soul/Jazz Sound: Honeyed croons groove to the beat of bright, soulful brass arrangements If you like: Amy Winehouse, Adele, Celeste Why you should listen: At times aching, at times jubilant, this strong debut album (recorded at the historic Abbey Road Studios) from Londoner Crookes promises her a spot among the league of legendary British soul songstresses.

Best track: When You Were Mine

Genre: Indie pop rock Sound: Upbeat West Coast crunch rock laced with supple strings If you like: Tokyo Police Club, Yukon Blonde, Hey Rosetta!

Why you should listen: The fiercely indie Vancouver band comes in swinging with their seventh album, brimming with stacked productions of fuzzed guitar, driving drums and guest spots by stunning cellos and keys.

Best track: Show Me Everything

Genre: Hip hop Sound: Lyrical hip hop deep in storytelling, with raw and subtle beats If you like: Yanchan, A.R. Rahman, Sid Sriram Why you should listen: Tamil-Canadian rapper Shan Vincent De Paul’s fifth studio album, Made In Jaffna, is his most personal record yet — exploring trauma, heartbreak and identity with a great use of instrumentation to match the emotion of each rhyme.

Best track: Neeye Oli (Ft. Navz47 & Santhosh Narayanan)

Genre: Avant folk-pop Sound: Lush, blissed-out bilingual folk soundscapes If you like: Kevin Morby, Y La Bamba, Sufjan Stevens Why you should listen: Unbothered by genre conventions, experimental folk maestro Helado Negro makes calming, cosmic sounds that are tinkered to perfection — all you have to do is drop the needle, sit back and exhale.

Best track: Gemini and Leo

Blink Once

Skin

Dandelion

MADE IN JAFFNA

Far In

THE NEXT PLAYLIST 1 Feel It Now Nue

Toronto rap meets ’80s classic Where Is My Mind in this genre-bending banger.

2 Silk Chiffon

MUNA ft. Phoebe Bridgers The typically melancholy Phoebe Bridgers features on this surprisingly upbeat sapphic summer jam.

3

4

5

Shit Show

French Kiss Trois

Here to Dance

Smooth old-school hip hop from the late Phife Dawg, former member of A Tribe Called Quest, with a connection to Montreal.

Grooving and moving hip hop with jazz interludes that makes you dance the night away.

Peter McPoland Clever lyrics over twangy acoustic guitar make this track perfect folk-pop.

Phife Dawg ft. Illa J & Redman

DijahSB ft.

Mick Jenkins

REVIEWS

LIL HUDDY

CHVRCHES

Genre: Pop-punk Sound: Angsty 2000s poppunk for the TikTok generation If you like: Nessa Barrett, Blink-182, lil aaron Why you should listen: Lil Huddy might be best known for his e-boy thirst traps alongside viral stars like Charli D’Amelio, but his debut record shows promise: he’s developed a sound clearly inspired by the emo pop-punk of the Y2K era, and while it’s a bit cliche at times, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t fun.

Best track: 21st Century Vampire

Genre: Synthpop Sound: Gleaming synths and mesmerizing vocals you can vibe to If you like: Wolf Alice, Foxes, Why you should listen: This horror-inspired album takes notes on horror movie tropes, though the actual lyrical content is more hopeful than expected. There’s social commentary about modern society and dealing with depression, all wrapped up in sparkly melodies.

Best track: How Not to Drown (ft.

Robert Smith)

teenage heartbreak

Screen Violence

L’ORANGE

THE WORLD IS STILL CHAOS, BUT I FEEL BETTER

Genre: Hip hop Sound: Lo-fi hip hop mixing jazz and hip-hop samples with subtle techno interludes If you like: Marlowe, Stimulator Jones, L’Indecis Why you should listen: North Carolina-based producer L’Orange’s 16th album lets you get lost in edgy lo-fi samples, beats and an otherworldly production.

Best track: Durbin Was A Trap House

USE YOUR PHONE'S CAMERA TO SCAN THESE CODES TO LISTEN TO ALL THE MUSIC REVIEWED HERE ON YOUR FAVOURITE STREAMING SERVICE.

PRINCESS CENTURY

OURI

Genre: Electronica Sound: Methodical drums and minimalist synths build an ethereal, zero-gravity feel If you like: Aphex Twin, Beach House, German techno Why you should listen: Deceptively simple instrumentation gives way to a sophisticated centre with a wellspring of emotion at its base. Dreamy, hazy, sweaty — could just as easily be blasted at a Berlin nightclub as played while drifting off to sleep. Minimalism at its finest.

Best track: Stupid Things ft.

Fragrance

Genre: Ambient pop Sound: Dreamy, experimental ambience punctuated with industrial samples and electronic fervor If you like: Ramona Flowers, Princess Century, Beach House Why you should listen: The flurry of sounds cascading through here are lush, intangible, sensual, sometimes vaguely mystical. Some tracks are hypnotizing in their minimalism; some are so full to brim with sonic power they seem to overflow. It’s sort of like what you’d imagine an alien would listen to.

Best track: Odd or God (ft. Mind Bath)

surrender

Frame Of A Fauna

10 TRACKS THE NEXT STAFF CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THIS MONTH

6

7

8

9

10

Back 2 Black (Yo Regreso a)

Lala &ce

Sunset Glitter

The Mission

Surface Tension

From Moroccan producer Saib come dreamy lo-fi sounds that transport you to the Italian coast to soak up the remnants of summer.

Layered sonics make the chorus of this hip-hop number about nepotism hit different.

With her arrestingly beautiful voice, rookie songbird Stokes shines in this floating folk pop track.

Saib

Bakar

Genevieve Stokes

Charlotte Cardin, De La Ghetto The Montreal jazz-pop chanteuse pays homage to Amy Winehouse with this seductive reggaeton mash-up.

Show Me Love

A full Sade-vibe in this quietly compelling track from the emerging French rapper, guaranteed to get hips gently swaying.

30¯SECOND ALBUM REVIEWS

CROWN LANDS White Buffalo

Genre: Rock Sound: Wailing guitars fly through complex riffs to build classic prog sound If you like: Rush, King Crimson Why you should listen: Canadian rockers Crown Lands have more than mastered art of the old-school homage: their prodigious vocals, mind-bogglingly elaborate guitar and experimental instrumentation would make Rush proud. Their music is made even more complex by its commentary on Indigenous rights.

Best track: White Buffalo

K, LE MAESTRO Whip Music

Genre: Hip Hop Sound: Electro-hip hop with soothing R&B interludes and vocals If you like: Phoniks, Illa J, Blue Lab Beats Why you should listen: London’s K, Le Maestro’s Whip Music takes you on a car ride and lets your get lost in the late ’90s and early 2000s electro-hip hop that lives in your head rent free.

Best track: Ride With Me (ft.

Liv Averie & Mike Nasa)

THE JOY FORMIDABLE Into the Blue

Genre: Alt-rock Sound: Melodious, yet gritty, guitar tones with a driving heartbeat If you like: Silversun Pickups, Blood Red Shoes, We Are Scientists Why you should listen: Wailing guitars and propulsive drums accompany Ritzy Bryan’s whispered vocals to grow tension and mystery. At times, the album is eerie and focused; other times, it’s heavy and pulsing.

Best track: Gotta Feed My Dog

MILD HIGH CLUB Going Going Gone

Genre: Alternative Sound: Hypnotic, psychedelic jazz-funk with a hint of bossa nova If you like: Father John Misty, Tame Impala, Cage The Elephant Why you should listen: With funky, lounge music mixing jazz, psychedelic pop and soothing vocals, Los Angeles-based Mild High Club’s third studio album is the record to relax and dance to.

Best track: A New High (ft. Winter)

‘A Vi e w f r o m t h e To p o f t h e Wo r l d ’ Avail able 10/22/2021

The 15th studio album from the Grammy-nominated, million-selling legends of progressive music 7 tracks & 70 minutes of brand new music, produced by John Petrucci and mixed by Andy Sneap

d r e a m t h e at e r . n e t

40 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

KISSISSIPPI Mood Ring

Genre: Indie Pop Sound: Soft and sweet indie pop for the hopelessly romantic soul If you like: Sidney Gish, Charly Bliss, Remember Sports Why you should listen: Playful and sunny pop tunes, matched with confessional lyrics circling first crushes and heartbreaks, Mood Ring is nostalgic, uncomplicated, and relatable.

Best track: Moonover

HOMESHAKE Under the Weather

Genre: Indie Sound: Soft musings floating on smooth and sparkling and smooth lo-fi arrangements If you like: Toro y Moi, Blood Orange, Unknown Mortal Orchestra Why you should listen: Reflecting on a long period of depression, Toronto-based Peter Sagar’s expertly crafted low-key compositions evoke a calmness that feels like a weighted blanket.

Best track: Vacuum

ANDY SHAUF Wilds

Genre: Folk rock Sound: Wandering, bittersweet end-of-summer acoustics If you like: Adrianne Lenker, Chad VanGaalen, Christian Lee Hutchson Why you should listen: Narrative songwriting, beachy guitar and Shauf’s gentle, warbling voice make this stunning album an evocative follow-up to 2016’s critical hit, The Party. It’s the perfect soundtrack for the bus ride home from a party.

Best track: Television Blue

CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD Highs in the Minuses

Genre: Singer-songwriter/Folk Sounds: Easygoing folk-rock harmonics topped with a tasteful sprinkling of tambourine If you like: Andy Shauf, The Moldy Peaches, Lucy Dacus Why you should listen: Toronto-based Cornfield’s evocative and deeply personal songwriting paints colourful pictures and her casual, quirky delivery make this record an easy, highly enjoyable listen. Cornfield was shortlisted of 2019 Polaris Prize.

Best track: 21

Canadian Tour Dates: Mar 23, 2022 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom Mar 25, 2022 Calgary, AB The Palace Mar 26, 2022 Edmonton, AB Winspear Centre

EXMIRANDA FuNk BrEak

Genre: Funk/Hip hop Sound: Savvy rhymes groove to catchy West Coast and disco-flavoured beats If you like: Kari Faux, Lil Kim, Kaytranada Why should you listen: Hard-hitting bars and diamond-tipped delivery landed Ghana-born, Toronto rapper Exmiranda’s music on the Gossip Girl reboot soundtrack — and the funky beats on her debut album beg the question: where’s the party at? Watch out for this rising star from Rexdale.

Best track: Fresh Fro

JAMES VINCENT MC MORROW ‘Grapefruit Season’ Out Now!

Mar 28, 2022 Winnipeg, MB Park Theatre Apr 2, 2022 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall Apr 4, 2022 Ottawa, ON Bronson Apr 5, 2022 Montreal, QC Corona Theatre

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

41

42 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

APRIL 2 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite APRIL 3 - Calgary, AB - Commonwealth APRIL 15 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall APRIL 16 - Montreal, QC - Fairmount Theater MAY 16 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theater

THE LOCAL PAGES

Y Y Z

INDIGENOUS FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE AND IN PERSON

TORONTO ARTS & EVENTS OCTOBER

WATCH THE BEANS TRAILER HERE

imagineNATIVE

Tues., Oct. 19 through Sun., Oct. 24 Film and arts festival Free – $85 Various theatres and online festival.imaginenative.org

Bean

The world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content, imagineNATIVE returns with six days of in-person and online events. The festival celebrates 22 years with over 145 pieces of work (feature films, documentaries, interactive media and so much more!), representing 51 Indigenous nations and told in 26 different languages.

The celebration will spread across the city in movie theatres and drive-ins, as well as direct to your laptop screens at home. A selection of screenings and film Q&As will be accessible for free, but all-access passes are available for film buffs and aspiring creators.

The festival opens with a gala presentation of this month’s film feature Night Raiders (page 16-17). Cast and crew will be in attendance to discuss the powerful dystopian sci-fi flick.

Other top picks include Beans, an exploration of the 1990 Oka Crisis through the eyes of a child, and the coming-of-age film Portraits from a Fire.

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

43

YYZ OCT

Canada's Walk of Fame Proudly Celebrates its 2021 Allan Slaight Music Impact Honouree

Photo: Kayla Rocca

Serena Ryder The Allan Slaight Music Impact Honour is presented to a remarkable musician that continues to make a positive impact with their talent and benevolence in the field of music.

Through Serena's journey of self-discovery detailing despair, heartbreak, hope, joy, and love in her lyrics - she is as passionate about her music as helping others find their path to mental wellness.

For details on the Allan Slaight Music Impact Honour and the Canada's Walk of Fame Broadcast this December, visit: canadaswalkoffame.com 44 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

@CWOFame #CanadaThrives

Jeremie Albino

UNION STATION ‘AFTER HOURS’ SHOWS FEATURES TOP MUSIC ACTS ONLINE Great Hall Union Station Sessions Fridays from Oct 1. – Dec. 3, 6 pm ET Virtual concert Free TD Music Great Hall YouTube channel TDmusic.com

Tyler Shaw

Ten top Canadian artists are recording 10 weekly Union Station “after hours” performances and bringing them right to your screens. Acts will record an overnight performance at Union Station’s newly renovated Great Hall, and each mini-concert will be broadcast for free across social channels for Union Station, TD Music and Music Incubator. Artists include Blues rocker Jeremie Albino (Oct. 15), R&B duo TRP.P (Oct. 22) and pop singer Tyler Shaw (Dec. 3).

OCT YYZ FEIST TAKES CENTRE STAGE BACKSTAGE MULTITUDES by Feist

Oct. 20 – Oct. 30, 7 pm ET & 9 pm ET Concert $125 Backstage at Meridian Hall, 1 Front St. E. TOlive.com

Compelling Canadian vocalist Feist is returning to live music with a series of unique, intimate performances hosted backstage rather than on stage. Conceived during and in response to the pandemic, MULTITUDES invites limited-capacity audiences to reclaim the stage and involve themselves in the production, whether that’s sitting and watching or raising their voices alongside the artist. Featuring brand new music from the 11-time JUNO-winning songwriter, MULTITUDES made its debut in Europe this summer and will have a nine-day residency at Meridian Hall, with two shows each day.

WATCH FEIST AT THE JUNOS HERE

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

45

YYZ OCT

GHOSTS AND GHOULS INVADE CASA LOMA Legends of Horror

Fri., Oct 1 – Sun., Oct. 31 Outdoor event $35 Casa Loma, 1 Austin Terrace legendsofhorror.ca

If you’re looking for something a little more spooky than a pumpkin patch this Halloween season, Casa Loma is your ideal destination. For an entire month, the castle grounds will be transformed into an eerie, immersive theatrical experience. Guests can walk the two-kilometre trail from the gardens to the tunnels, and meet creepy creatures along the way, such as ghosts, skeletons and zombies and other figures from your nightmares. Consider this your jump-scare warning!

FALL 2021 RETURN TO THE ROSE

PHOTO: STEVEN PAGE; AT THE ROSE NOVEMBER 12, 2021

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW 46 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

FALL 2021

Picasso: Painting the Blue Period

Wed., Oct. 6 – Sun., Jan. 16 Art exhibit Free for AGO members, $25 general admission AGO, 317 Dundas St. W. ago.ca/exhibitions/picasso-painting-blue-period

The Art Gallery of Ontario is painting the town blue with Canada’s first exhibit that focuses exclusively on Pablo Picasso’s early work. Before he became a household name in the cubism movement, Picasso curated a collection of blue-hued paintings in his late teens and early 20s. This exhibition boasts more than 100 items from 15 countries, including paintings, sculptures and sketches. They tackle challenging subject matter that Picasso observed in everyday life, including war and gender inequality. Whether you’re a Picasso expert or novice, there’s a memorable art piece for every visitor.

21 Greater Toronto artists address the most pressing issues of our time — and our city A new museum-wide triennial exhibition September 29, 2021 – January 9, 2022 158 Sterling Road, Toronto moca.ca/GTA21 Presenting Sponsor

KAREN GREEN Common Accounts, Parade of All the Feels (rendering), 2020. Courtesy of the artists.

PABLO PICASSO. THE BLUE ROOM, 1901. OIL ON CANVAS, 50.5 X 61.6 CM. THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, WASHINGTON, DC. ACQUIRED 1927 © PICASSO ESTATE / SOCAN (2021)

OCT YYZ KIND OF BLUE AT AGO’S NEW PICASSO SHOW

THE LOCAL PAGES

Y V R

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION FOR VIFF

VANCOUVER

Vancouver International Film Festival

Virtual and in-cinema film festival Fri., Oct. 1 - Mon., Oct. 11 In-cinema tickets start at $15 with discounts available Various locations viff.org

ARTS & EVENTS OCTOBER

WATCH THE TRAILER FOR MONEYBOYS HERE

48 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

Moneyboys

While often overshadowed by its east-coast big sister, TIFF, the Vancouver International Film Festival is not to be missed. This year’s exquisite lineup of films, screening in theatres across the city, range from whimsical to political to comedic to melancholy and everything in between — so whether you’re in the mood for a stylized look into the realities of the Chinese gay sex market (Moneyboys, Oct. 9 and 11, The Cinematheque) or a weird and wonderful acid trip of a film about a rainbow crab’s return to water (Bipolar, Oct. 9, The Cinematheque), VIFF has what you’re looking for.

Other highlights include The Worst Person in the World (Oct 9, the Rio), a comingof-age epic about a woman unleashed, and Saloum (Oct. 10, the Rio), an action-horror film about a team of mercenaries whose actions have supernatural consequences.

Films are also available to stream online throughout the duration of the festival.

OCT YVR

In partnership with MLSE and Scotiabank, Canada's Walk of Fame is searching the country for an exceptional Canadian under 30 who positively influences the lives of others and makes a profound impact on their communities and beyond.

The selected Grand Prize Winner will receive a $10k donation to support a cause that is important to them, as well as other prizing to raise awareness for and support their initiative.

WISEAU’S THE ROOM RETURNS WITH CULT-CLASSIC COSTUMES AND PROPS The Room

Cult classic film screening Fri., Oct. 15, 11:55 pm $15, student and senior discounts available Rio Theatre, 1660 E. Broadway, Vancouver Riotheatre.ca

Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic film is more than just a bad movie: it’s the greatest bad movie of all time. The film has developed such a religious cult following that it’s still selling out midnight screenings over a decade after its release, and screenings of The Room are a religious experience in themselves. Moviegoers typically dress up as characters from the film and bring props to throw during inside-joke moments. Even if you’re not yet a true Wiseau zealot, introduce yourself to a whole new world with the Rio’s encore midnight screening on October 15.

2020

ADITI SIVAKUMAR

WOMEN'S RIGHTS ADVOCATE

2019

ABHAYJEET SINGH SACHAL HUMANITARIAN

2018

STELLA BOWLES ENVIRONMENTALIST

Is the 2021

COMMUNITY HERO someone you know?

To nominate your Community Hero by October 29th, 2021, and to view complete prizing, rules and regulations, visit:

COMMUNITYHERO.CA WATCH THE TRAILER FOR THE ROOM HERE

@CWOFAME

#CWOFCOMMUNITYHERO

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

49

YVR OCT

LIFE’S A DRAG

Canada’s Drag Race Viewing Party

Thurs., Oct. 14 Tickets start at $50 Hollywood Theatre, 3123 W. Broadway Hollywoodtheatre.ca

Season 2 of Canada’s Drag Race is just around the corner — and how better to watch it than with some of the cast members themselves?

This big-screen viewing party at the Hollywood Theatre features Drag Race S2 contestants Gia Metric and Adriana as well as special guests Alma, Carmen Dior, Coco Klein and Jaylene Tyme. And if seeing them up close and personal wasn’t enough, you can upgrade your ticket to get a VIP meet-andgreet session. Shante, you stay.

MEET THE QUEENS OF SEASON 2 HERE

Gia Metric

50 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

OCT YVR

LIVE MUSIC RETURNS! Crown Lands

Crown Lands Sat., Oct. 23 $20, 19+ Biltmore Cabaret, 2755 Prince Edward St. biltmorecabaret.com

Hard-rocking duo Crown Lands are bringing their signature wailing guitars and heart-stopping vocals to Vancouver's Biltmore Cabaret this October. It's part of their national Big Wave tour, in which they're touring their critically acclaimed new music to audiences across the country — and it’s their first tour since their big JUNO win for Breakthrough Group of the Year, so don't miss this band on the rise.

Other upcoming shows this month include Arlo Parks (Oct. 9, Biltmore Cabaret), Jack Harlow (Nov. 7, Commadore), and Yukon Blonde (Oct. 23, Hollywood Theatre), so, you can start getting your live music fix.

Just make sure to bring your vaccine card!

Crown Lands

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

51

YVR OCT DAN SAVAGE’S SIN-SATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL DAN SAVAGE'S 2021 HUMP! FILM FESTIVAL Pornographic film festival Tues., Oct. 12 - Sun., Oct. 16 $25 Rio Theatre, 1660 E. Broadway, Vancouver Humpfilmfest.com

If VIFF isn’t up your alley, it’s followed just days later by an infinitely more scandalous cinematic offering: Dan Savage’s titillating HUMP! festival. From Oct. 12 to 16, the Rio Theatre will be streaming an expertly curated selection of avant-garde pornography. The fest describes itself as “A cornucopia of body types, shapes, ages, colours, sexualities, genders, kinks and fetishes — all united by a shared spirit of sex-positivity.”

So, what’s not to love? Highlights include Monsterbait, a transformative Halloween-y romp; Motorsexual, a film that shows what it really means to love your truck; and Cock Monkey (self-explanatory). Bring the tissues!

Doggone Dystopia

REMASTERED. THE METALLICA WAY. 180G 2LP • CD 3CD • DELUXE BOX SET • CASSETTE • DIGITAL

SEPT 10TH

CELEBRATE THE BLACK ALBUM YOUR WAY.

53 ARTISTS COVERING THEIR FAVOURITE BLACK ALBUM SONGS THEIR WAY. ALL PROFITS GO TO CHARITY

7LP • 4CD

DIGITAL SEPT 10TH IN STORES OCT 1ST 52 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

THE LOCAL PAGES

Y Y C

NONSTOP HORROR AT CULT CLASSIC MARATHON Halloween Movie Marathon

Sat., Oct. 30, 7 p.m. – Sun., Oct. 31, 7 a.m.

Movie marathon $20 GA, $18 for members, students & seniors Globe Cinema, 617 8 Ave. SW calgaryundergroundfilm.org/ halloween-movie-marathon-2021

In the Halloween-lovers’ equivalent of running an Ironman, the Calgary Underground Film Festival is calling all cult horror fans for a marathon of gnarly retro classics. Costume up and sit down for 12 straight hours of frighteningly kitschy old-school horror flicks. If things get too blood-curdling, pop in and out to grab popcorn, candy corn, whatever — but why not wager a bet on who can last the longest?

CALGARY ARTS & EVENTS OCTOBER

DON’T MISS THESE HELLISH HIGHLIGHTS: Don’t Panic 1987, 90 mins., dir. Rubén Galindo Jr. (Mexico) What promises to be a fun birthday evening for a 17-year-old in dinosaur pyjamas turns into a demonic ode to Nightmare on Elm Street when a Ouija board comes to the party.

Winterbeast 1992, 80 mins., dir. Christopher Thies (USA) Take homemade gore, Super 8 mm film, a county Sheriff and mutilated stop-motion beastoids and you get this forgotten art-horror masterpiece.

WATCH THE WINTERBEAST TRAILER HERE

WATCH THE PIRANHA TRAILER HERE

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

CAITLIND R.C. BROWN

WATCH THE DON'T PANIC TRAILER HERE

Piranha 1978, 94 mins., dir. Joe Dante (USA) Like 1975’s Jaws, but … with piranhas.

53

YYC OCT Neko Case

Big Sugar

RETRO PHOTO SHOW RELIVES ’90S ALT MUSIC IN YYC

ALL PHOTOS: ZOLTAN VARADI

Line-up for Sloan

54 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

Placebo (Feist)

Reflections: 10 Years Capturing Calgary’s Alt Music Scene

Runs through 2022 Photography exhibition Free National Music Centre, Level 5, Arlene Flock McKen Cloud Lounge, 850 4 St SE, studiobell.ca/exhibitions/ reflections-10-years-capturing-calgarys-alt-music-scene

In the early ’90s, photographer Zoltan Varadi was embedded in the nascent alt music scene in YYC — now, his gallery of sweaty and celebratory memories from 1992 through 2001 has been dusted off and hung up at the National Music Centre. Snapped at the now-closed venues Night Gallery and Republik, and the still-kicking Ship & Anchor, the flash-filled action shots raise a glass to the institutions that helped transform this one-horse town into a vibrant music hub.

OCT YYC HOMETOWN HERO AT THE KING EDDY Michael Bernard Fitzgerald live at the King Eddy

Sat., Oct. 9, 8 pm Live concert King Eddy, 438 9 Ave. SW $25 kingeddy.ca/event

Filling the historic King Eddy tavern with his warm and fuzzy singer-songwriter musings, the local indie legend will bless the stage with an intimate live performance this month. The beloved Calgary artist started out back in the late 2000s, cutting his teeth playing small venues out west before sharing the stage across the globe with the likes of Kings of Leon, Bryan Adams and Dan Mangan. This must-see performance brings it back to where it all started.

GET HOPPED ON BARLEY AT BEER FEST Calgary International Beerfest

ALBERTA BEER FESTIVALS

Fri., Oct. 15, 4 pm – Sat., Oct. 16, 10 pm Beer Festival $20 GA, $30 VIP BMO Centre, Stampede Park, 20 Roundup Way SE albertabeerfestivals.com/festivals/calgary-international-beerfest

With over 700 beers from more than 200 breweries, Calgary is home to one of Canada’s largest beer festivals — checks out, since it’s surrounded by never-ending wheat and barley in almost all directions. Sip new brews, learn to cook with beer or take in the live entertainment with a cold one in hand. The event format may change as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, so check the event’s website before heading out.

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

55

SLAIGHT MUSIC

OCTOBER PLAYLIST FEATURING NEW SINGLES FROM

KAYLA DIAMOND

SAM DRYSDALE

SCREAMING

DREAM ABOUT A GIRL

www.kayladiamond.com

56 OCTOBER 2021 NEXT

www.samdrysdalemusic.com www.slaightmusic.com

FUNNIES THE NEXT

TIME-WASTING PUZZLES, GAMES AND ACTIVITIES

ILLUSTRATION: MICHEL LANGEVIN

AWAY'S MAZE OF MAYHEM Legendary metal drummer and creator of Voivod's logo and album covers, Away creates this month’s Halloween maze.

Look for a new album from Away and Voivod next year and see more of his art at: awayartpress.com. Check out Voivod’s latest live album at the link here:

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

57

FUNNIES

ODD COUPLES DUBIOUS DUETS DELIGHT

LADY GAGA AND UNLIKELY COLLABORATOR TONY BENNETT ARE RELEASING LOVE FOR SALE THIS MONTH, THEIR SECOND PROJECT TOGETHER SINCE THE PAIR STRUCK UP AN UNEXPECTED BUT HEARTWARMING FRIENDSHIP. IT’S NOT EVERY DAY YOU SEE AN AVANT-GARDE POP PRINCESS WORKING WITH A CLASSIC JAZZ CROONER, BUT IT GOT US THINKING … WHAT OTHER SURPRISING COMBINATIONS ARE SO WILD THEY JUST MIGHT WORK? WITH THE HELP OF THIS GUIDE,BUILD YOUR OWN PERSONALIZED MASHED-UP MUSICAL DUETS.

First letter of your first name

First letter of your last name

Birth Month

A-B Dua Lipa C-D Olivia Rodrigo E-F Alessia Cara G-H Britney Spears I-J Nicki Minaj K-L Kim Petras M-N Lorde O-P Carly Rae Jepsen Q-R Avril Lavigne S-T Beyonce U-V Charli XCX W-X Caroline Polachek Y-Z Rihanna

A-B C-D E-F G-H I-J K-L M-N O-P Q-R S-T U-V W-X Y-Z

Jan. Noise Feb. Hyperpop Mar. Elevator music Apr. Acid rock May Grunge Jun. Trap Jul. Jazz Aug. Surf rock Sep. Mumble rap Oct. Folk punk Nov. Weezer covers Dec. Classical

AND

Gordon Lightfoot Billy Joel Ray Charles Van Morrison Eric Clapton Johnny Cash Leonard Cohen Jim Cuddy Bob Dylan MC Hammer Neil Young Buddy Holly Paul Simon

RELEASE THEIR HEAVILY-ANTICIPATED ALBUM

I'LL WRITE A SONG, BUT WILL SHE LISTEN? Dear Amy, My high school girlfriend is back in town, and I want to get back together. We initially broke up because her dad didn't approve of me and caught me sneaking out of her room one night.

Soon after, she moved for college, and we kept in touch even though we weren’t dating anymore.

We’ve both grown a lot since then, and I heard through a mutual friend that she still has feelings for me. I want to write her a song to tell her how I feel. She used to write me songs when we dated, but I have trouble putting my feelings into words.

Any advice?

— Return of the feels Dear Return: Return of the feels! INDEED! This is the kind of romance we binge watch on Netflix! I think writing her a song is brilliant.

OPTIONS: A: You could take a song you both loved, keep the melody and just tweak the lyrics to make it about the two of you.

B: If you remember or have any of the songs that she wrote for you, you could do a cover of them (the fact that you remembered would make any human swoon).

C: Just have fun. Adam Sandler is pretty great at writing silly heart-wrenching songs that don’t, in any way, need to be perfect but just pull the heart strings. Planting personal anecdotes that go miles and bloom new feelings.

Rewatch The Wedding Singer.

Pretty sure this all ends in a kiss. Please update us with a copy of the song!

RECENT ELECTION BUST SHAKES VOTER'S TRUST Dear Amy: I wanted something new in this election, and the party I voted for didn't win. Nothing changed, the country is more divided and I’m wondering, “What was the point?” Makes me want to give up on the whole process. Shouldn’t I just tune out and save my sanity?

Really, what was the point?

— Feeling Frustrated

Dear Frustrated: I feel you, Frustrated. I, too, have these queries. Could this election just have been an email? Could the $600 million it cost to have this election instead be directed towards clean water for Indigenous communities, the fight against climate change, UBI, the arts sector — which has been decimated by the pandemic — and thousands of other issues that need money thrown at it?

Probably.

And yet only 60 per cent of Canadians actually came out to vote! Imagine if the entire country had participated and handed in their vote? I bet we would have seen a tremendously different outcome if all the young people had made their voices heard.

To be honest, I find democracy pretty sexy, and when I have that pencil in my hand and I make an X beside the person I think will do the best job out of the list, whether my person wins or not means I am active in the society I want to build.

Don't give up on democracy — imagine the alternative.

When I feel super grim, I do look to the women in that country to the south of us who worked so tirelessly and strictly grassroots to get elected. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezand, Rashida Tlaib and Illhan Omar are an inspiration in politics, maybe you will continue this kind of inspiring politics on our side north, Feeling Frustrated!

ASK AMY

Dear Vax: People we love who don't want to get vaccinated — what to do? This is the hardest thing to navigate at this juncture of the never-ending strange times we find ourselves in. It wasn't something I imagined I would ever have to manoeuvre emotionally.

I will say you are about to be quite limited in where you will be able to go on dates if you continue. You won't be able to go out for dinner together, see a concert, a movie, a theatre show or travel on a plane together.

You think you feel awkward now, wait until you want to introduce your new paramour to friends or family at a gathering that demands the vaccine passport. Or even at a private gathering, disclosing that your friend is not vaccinated seems most ethical, but the fallout of that could be disastrous and embarrassing.

Perhaps it is an opportunity to try to sway your new friend to science and the true wonder of how vaccines are working at keeping people out of the ICU and the beauty of the science.

I do believe in empathy, and you can reveal your discomfort from a place of love while also noting the reality of where we are and how impossible it will be to move forward without fear if your friend continues to refuse the vaccine — a privilege in our developed world.

As a free-will advice columnist, my advice is: ultimately you hold the power of choice between chemistry and science.

Could the $600 million it cost to have this election instead be directed towards clean water for Indigenous communities?

VAX FAX FLAP FORCES DIALING DOWN DESIRE Dear Amy I recently went on a date with someone I really like.

They casually dropped that they’re not vaxxed (not health condition-related).

It was super awkward and I left not long after. I don’t want to end things, I liked everything else about the date, but I also feel uncomfortable about this situation and worried the entire time.

What should I do?

— Vax Scene

NEED ADVICE ON LOVE, SEX, RELATIONSHIPS, THE MUSIC BIZ OR HAVE A CONFESSION TO GET OFF YOUR CHEST?

ASK AMY MILLAN.

CAN I MANAGE CAREER WITH NO MANAGER? Dear Amy: In a DIY world, do I even need a manager? Our band is three years old, we were booking our own gigs in Toronto and southern Ontario before the pandemic.

Reaching out again now, we can make all our connections on our computers. What do managers know that we don’t know? Don’t they get my money for nothing? Aren’t they always the bad guys in rockumentaries?

— On My Own

Dear OMO: Loreena McKennitt would agree with you! She has built her empire without record labels or management and has done it all herself. It’s a whole other set of skills, discipline and focus.

Basically there are two kinds of managers: ones that “carry water” — meaning they really help with the administrative stuff, tour planning and online rollout — and the other kind you hire for their connections. Those kind of managers help you get TV spots and into the orbit of mainstream awards and media.

However, it is a whole new world out there now, and a Tik Tok kid can become a sensation overnight. With young people finding their music through so many different platforms, some of that old stuff is for the dinosaurs.

Personally, my band has self-managed for the past five years. We have great publicists and a loyal booking agent. We have our touring team and we hire a person on an as-needed basis for announcement rollouts. It’s working for us and can be stressful and nerve-wracking, but knowing we only have ourselves to rely on and equally only ourselves to blame is very satisfying.

The biggest danger in taking it all on yourself is if it starts to erode the creative process. Try to make sure you leave yourself enough time between the calls and apps to make the art you love.

?

Have a question for Amy?

askamy@nextmag.ca

Amy Millan is a Canadian indie rock singer and guitarist.

She records and performs with Stars and Broken Social Scene and has a successful solo career.

NEXT OCTOBER 2021

59

Daryl Hall & John Oates 50 Years of Making Music

Listen to five decades of magic on Apple Music