Category: Indie Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Me.Kai Shares Brooding “Why It’s So”

Me.Kai is a singer/songwriter and guitarist, who began her career busking on Santa Barbara‘s streets covering an eclectic array of artists including Ella Fitzgerald and Dua Lipa, among others. Gradually transitioning from cover artist to solo artist, she became a staple in her hometown’s music scene, collaborating with Area 51, Everything’s Fine, and a number of up-and-coming producers, including Gold Man and Burko. As as solo artist, she has developed and honed a genre-blending style and sound that draws from  Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks, and her love of bass heavy, indie electro pop. 

Some of her songs have landed on Insomniac’s In/Rotation Label list, and several high-profile Spotify playlists. She has also had some of her work appear in the Netflix series All American. Building upon a growing profile, the Santa Barbara-based artist plans to be very busy: a number of collaborations with popular EDM producers and her debut EP are slated to on the horizon in the upcoming months. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Bump in the Night,” an accessible and sultry bop built around Me.Kai’s coquettish, come hither delivery and a breezy bop, glinting guitars, wobbling tweeter and woofer rattling low end, dancehall-like riddims and twinkling synths. The song is full of carnal longing and desire and features a narrator, who boldly expresses that she has sexual needs and desires that need to be fulfilled — now.

Her latest single “Why It’s So” is a brooding bit of singer/songwriter synth pop featuring a sinuous bass line, skittering boom bap beats, atmospheric synths paired with Me.Kai’s plaintive vocal. While seemingly nodding at a synthesis of R&B and Dido, “Why It’s So” is rooted in lived-in personal experience.

“‘Why It’s So’ was a very personal project for me,” Me,Kai explains. “It follows the ups and downs of being in an abusive relationship with the love of my life, finally making it out safely.. and then the hardship that follows afterward, even knowing you made the right decision for yourself in the end. I hope this song can take people on an emotional journey through that process of persevering through love and hardship.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: NISEFF Shares Summery Bop “La Nota”

With the release of her debut EP, Mami Spicy, the emerging and rapidly rising Puerto Rican artist Niseff quickly established a sound that that blends elements of reggaeton and contemporary pop and pairs it with her sultry delivery and empowering lyrics.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Ta To Cool,” a song built around skittering reggaeton beats and glistening synth arpeggios paired with a series of razor sharp, infectious and well-placed hooks and Niseff’s sultry-self assured delivery.

The Puerto Rican artist’s latest single “La Nota” is a slick synthesis of skittering reggaton beats and cumbia paired with Niseff’s sultry delivery. “La Nota” continues a remarkable run of dance floor friendly bangers – – but while arguably being the most summery she has released to date.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Rising Paris-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay Thaïs specializes in an atmospheric and delicate take on pop centered around the French Canadian artist’s ethereal vocals. Thematically her work focuses on melancholy, loneliness and dysfunctional, confusing, heartbreaking love. 

Last year was an enormous year for the rising Paris-born, Montréal-based artist. She signed with Bravo Musique, who released her highly anticipated full-length debut, Tout est parfait, which featured three singles I wrote about on this site:

  • “Arrête de danser,” a slickly produced bop centered around glistening and atmospheric synth arpeggios and trap beats that saw the rising French Canadian artist alternating between a syncopated trap-like flow for the song’s verses and ethereal cooing for the song’s hook and choruses. And while arguably being one of her most club friendly songs, “Arrête de danser” is a bitter tell-off to an unhealthy, dysfunctional lover that the song’s narrator knows deep down is wrong for her — and yet can’t quite quit.  
  • The Cœur de Pirate co-written, Renaud Bastien-produced “Vieux Port,” a danceable and deceptively upbeat bop featuring wobbling bass synth, glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies, twinkling keys, some brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter and soaring strings paired with Thaïs ethereal cooing. But just underneath the surface is a song that details a relationship that’s seemingly on the ropes while contemplating the passing of time and the desire to turn the clock back — with the knowledge you have now. 
  • “Le vent,” a breezy pop song but around twinkling and atmospheric synth arpeggios and skittering trap-like beats paired with Thaïs ethereal cooing. The song structurally was written to evoke a gust of wind for its verses and a brewing storm for it choruses. But at its core, “Le vent,” continued a remarkable run of material imbued with a bittersweet ache over a long lost love that deep down she knows she’ll never get back.

Thaïs also played a high-energy opening set at last year’s M for Montréal‘s Believe Presents Meet and Bowl at Darling Bowling Showcase that proved to me that she’s a superstar in the marking.

The rising Montréal-based JOVM mainstay’s latest single is a collaboration with Chibogamau, Quebec-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and musical Raphaël Bussièrs, best known as Lucill. Bussièrs can trace the origins of his musical career to his childhood: The young Chibogamau-born artist assiduously taught himself bass. After spending a period of several years as a touring and session musician with a number of acts around the world, Bussièrs decided it was time to step out into the spotlight as a solo artist. With Lucill, the French-Canadian artist specializes in a sound that features elements of indie rock, indie pop and folk paired with a straightforward approach.

Bussièr’s 2018 self-titled debut EP won the Indie Rock EP of the Year Award at 2019’s GAMIQ Gala. Building upon a growing profile across the province, the French-Canadian artist followed up with his full-length debut, 2020’s Bunny, which was released to rapturous critical praise and his sophomore effort, last year’s Snake Eyes.

“Si j’étais toi,” the Montréal-based artists’ collaboration together is an ethereal pop confection and a remarkably seamless meeting of musical minds built around shimmering and atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, the duo’s ethereal and yearning cooing, a relentless motorik groove and their unerring knack for a catchy hook. The song’s narrators express a desire for each other but they don’t quite know how to proceed with that knowledge — or if it’ll be successful. And as a result, the song is rooted in a coquettish yet frustrating push and pull.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: New York’s Pink Honey Moan Teams up with Beeson and daoud on Breezy yet Brooding “Bad Man”

Jared Lindbloom is a South Dakota-born, New York-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the emerging songwriting and musical project Pink Honey Moan. And with Pink Honey Moan, Lindbloom frequently sees his work teetering between the dusty, folky and homespun songs of his early EPs, the electro surf rock and pop of his other project FISHDOCTOR, Swedish outfit Stargazy and Tredmills paired with direct, heartfelt lyricism.

Released earlier this year, “Bad Man,” the second single off Lindbloom’s forthcoming Pink Honey Moan album The Live Life Girl Will Arm You is a hook-driven and crafted bit of pop built around strummed acoustic guitar, atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, some soulful trumpet from French musician daoud, backing vocals from alt-pop artist Beeson paired with Lindbloom’s plaintive delivery, earnest, lived-in lyricism and knack for infectious hooks. Sonically, “Bad Man” brings to mind Danish JOVM mainstays Palace Winter and Montréal‘s Reno McCarthy with the song being a remarkable display of craft — without losing its earnestness.

“‘Bad Man’ isn’t so much about a nefarious character, as it is more akin to the sentiment ‘it’s bad, man,” Lindbloom explains. “You made your bed, now you gotta sleep in it. I wanted it to sit at the intersection of Nick Cave x Elliott Smith x The Magnetic Fields during a scene in an episodic crime thriller like True Detective.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Javier Moreno Teams up with Adrian Garcia on Breezy Bop “Enamorado”

Javier Moreno is an emerging Barcelona-born singer/songwriter and guitarist. Moreno started playing guitar when he turned 11, after listening to Dire Straits and Paco de Lucia. In 2006, he relocated to Bristol, then to London, where he wound up fronting Los Amigos, a Latin music band that spent 13 years touring across the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

Moreno is currently working on his Joe Dworniak-produced third album. But in the meantime, his latest single “Enamorado,” a collaboration with Mexican singer and producer Adrian Garcia is a breezy, feel good bop that’s a slick synthesis of modern production, old-school craft and funky Latin groove.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Marie Dahlstrøm and Sipprell Team Up on Sultry “The Process”

Over the past few years, the acclaimed Roskilde-born, London-based singer/songwriter, musician, producer and JOVM mainstay Marie Dahlstrøm has proven herself to be one of the most prolific and essential talents in contemporary, underground R&B.

Dahlstrøm continues multitudes, a thousand different selves co-existing and contradicting each other — at once. An acclaimed singer/songwriter and producer. A mother. A partner. “These different pockets of life also create friction,” she acknowledges. “I’ve been figuring out where I belong, what I’m supposed to do and how I fit into all of this — because I am so much more than an artist. When you have big dreams or goals and you see time being taken away from achieving them, and going towards something else — how do you make that a positive experience? There are always challenges, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good life.” Fittingly, the Roskilde-born, London-based JOVM mainstay’s highly anticipated sophomore album A Good Life thematically is about dismantling the idea that your validity as an artist diminishes when it’s not the focal point of your life, that somehow being a parent somehow negates creativity. Hell, this can be even said for those artists, who have to support themselves with a day job.

“I hope that every album I make will convey a sense of honesty to it. This one is based on reflections from a few years of my life with many changes and adjustments,” Dahlstrøm adds. “It’s an album about human interaction in all its complexity.”

A Good Life is slated for a May 22, 2023 release through Dahlstrøm’s JFH Records. But in the meantime, the album’s last single before its release, “The Process” features Dahlstrom’s longtime friend and collaborator Sipprell. Built around twinkling piano, skittering beats, bursts of shimmering guitar, a Quiet Storm-meets-smooth jazz guitar solo, whirring electronics and a sinuous bass line, “The Process” is a seemingly effortless and sultry bop that sees its collaborators soulfully dissecting the intricacies and complications of being an artist — with a lived-in specificity.

“The song is about creativity, and the process of that,” the Roskilde-born, London-based JOVM mainstay explains. “The song is about the creative process. It’s about letting go in order to catch inspiration when it presents itself. Trying to go with the flow rather than forcing it.”

The accompanying video Lennon Gregory features Dahlstrom and Sipprell in a bare studio on an intimate photo shoot/video shoot and captures their friendship with an honesty while they vamp and sing for the camera.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Sôra is an emerging Paris-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and composer. After completing studies in Modern Languages, music and jazz vocal, the Paris-born, Montréal-based artist sang in a number of different bands before stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her debut EP 2018’s Number One.

Her full-length debut, 2021’s Long Life to Phil was written as a tribute to her father Phillipe — and was released through Colligence Records.

“You Love Me,” is the first bit of original material since the release of Long Life to Phil is a slickly bit of contemporary R&B/soul built around skittering trap beats, woozy and wobbling low end paired with the emerging Canadian-based artist’s sultry delivery. Inspired by the likes of Brent Faiyaz, Snoh Aalegra, and Jorja Smith, the new single is a wildly accessible bop but rooted in seemingly lived-in experience with Sôra expressing longing and frustration. “It reflects the difficulties one encounters in a relationship where love isn’t expressed the same way,” she explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pearl & The Oysters Share Woozy and Dreamy “Fireflies”

Released earlier this year through Stones Throw Records, Pearl & The Oysters‘ fourth album, Coast 2 Coast is heavily influenced by the pair’s move from Paris to Los Angeles — with a stop in Florida. Written mostly in Juliette “Pearl” Davis’ and Joachim Polack’s 1-bed apartment, the album’s material was fleshed out by a collection of friends and collaborators including Stereolab‘s Lætitia Sadier, Unknown Mortal Orchesta‘s, Caroline Rose’s and La Luz’s Riley Geare, Neon Indian creative mastermind Alan Palomo, Dent May, Mild High Club‘s Alex Brettin, and Shags Chamberlain, who mixed the album.

Because it was inspired so much by the pair’s relocation, the album thematically explores the idea of travel — physical, mental, experienced and fantasized. The album draws on an eclectic array of aesthetics and images, including Barbarella followed by an Agnés Varda triple bill; Florida swamps and sandy L.A. beaches under a mirrorball-like sun; a radio picking up a faraway broadcast before it fades into an oldies pop station, and crashing waves that melt into the sound of Davis’ white noise machine, among other things.

Coast 2 Coast‘s latest single “Fireflies” is a breezy and nostalgia-tinged bop built around woozy analog synths, twinkling keys, a supple bass line and a steady yet propulsive backbeat paired with Davis’ plaintive delivery. Sonically. “Fireflies” reminds me a bit of a synthesis of Young Narrator in the Breakers-era Pavo Pavo and 70s AM rock. Inspired by the late composer Ryuchi Sakamoto, the song explores dream states and insomniac visions.

Directed by Ambar Navarro, the accompanying video for “Fireflies” is informed by old sci-fi films: We see Davis hatching from a pearl and throughout the video, she plays a a daydreaming Tinkerbell type, who travels freely from planet to planet. Police acts as a controller of the universe while trying to capture Juliette, who has teleportation powers.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays JOSEPH Shares Buoyant, Feminist Anthem “Fireworks”

JOVM mainstays JOSEPH‘s fourth album, the Tucker Martine and  Christian “Leggy” Langdon co-produced The Sun is slated for a Friday release through their longtime label home ATO Records. The album reportedly sees the group — Natalie Closner Schepman and her two, younger twin sisters Meegan and Allison Closner —working with a collection of new collaborators and making yet another vibrant sonic shift while retaining the craft, three-part harmonies and hard-fought and harder-won lyrical wisdom that they’ve been known for throughout their career. But unlike its predecessors, The Sun sees the sibling trio taking a decidedly more hands-on role in the production process. The result is an album of material that sees Joseph spinning incredibly complex concepts into anthemic, sing-along ready pop that serves as a backdrop for the trio’s fearless and deeply personal storytelling from each of their perspectives. 

Thematically, the forthcoming album sees the trio focusing their soul-searching songwriting on the quietly damaging forces that keep us from living fully in our truth — e.g., gaslighting, cultural conditioning, unconscious yet painfully limiting self-beliefs and the like. Drawing on hard lessons from relationships and personal growth through therapy, The Sun reportedly shares stories of taking control of your own fate, making difficult decisions in the name of becoming yourself and weathering the highs and lows of love while keeping the faith — and importantly, tending to ourselves with presence and compassion. “All of our therapists were a huge influence on this album,” the sibling trio say in press notes. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release later this year, I managed to write about two of the album’s singles”

  • “Nervous System,” a punchy pop song rooted in deep. personal experience, the rousingly anthemic, sing-along friendly choruses the trio is known for, and big-hearted, earnest compassion. Fittingly the song — and its narrator — discusses being our own lifeline during times of anxiety, struggle and uncertainty. “It’s about self regulating and tending to ourselves with presence and compassion, rather than frantically reaching outside of ourselves,” the trio explain. Alison Closner adds “I’ve struggled with a lot of anxiety over the years, at times a constant inner storm, and it’s been easy to look outside myself to feel safe and secure. I’ve fought to find my inner peace, and through that process I’ve found that so much of the time I already have what it takes to calm my nervous system.”

  • “The Sun,” a shimmering, buoyant and fittingly summery pop anthem and a righteously defiant tell-off to a relationship that has made you feel small and insignificant while recognizing — and perhaps for some, reclaiming — one’s own power, integrity and sense of self. Much like the previously released material from the album, the song is rooted in universal yet deeply personal experiences, which add to its rousingly anthemic nature. “Many times I have found myself in a position where I’m stuck in cycles of negative self-talk” Meegan Closner explains. “Times when I have seen myself as bad and struggle seeing any other possible truth. This song is my higher self speaking to that me. It’s me reminding myself that I am more than I think I am.” 

The album’s latest single “Fireworks” is a lush, stadium-ready bop built around the trio’s soaring harmonies and their penchant for shout-along worthy choruses paired with twinkling synths, strummed acoustic guitar and a propulsive backbeat. While seeming like a slick mesh of 80s pop and country, “Fireworks” is a feminist anthem about knowing your worth and refusing to settle or compromise your romantic ideals. The song is rooted in psychological realism though, with the song’s narrator admitting that she’s taking a leap of faith, while expressing self-doubt and frustration.

“This song was inspired after my sisters and I binged the UK version of Love Island season 6. Everyone is walking around in bathing suits and falling in love – it’s perfect,” JOSEPH’s Allison Closner says. “I was fascinated by how many times ‘what’s your type’ was asked, only to have the response be ‘tall, dark, and handsome’. I would think, why isn’t anyone saying ‘fireworks’? There’s a line in the song, ‘I don’t want to just settle now, put my fire underground’, and to me it symbolizes wanting to feel like that fire is being fed by something deep and meaningful – not settling for anything less than FIREWORKS.”  

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Justin Frick, the accompanying video captures the Closner’s deep and affectionate bond with following them on the road, and their obsession with Love Island in a fun, playful fashion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Small Million Shares a Hook-Driven Feminist Anthem

Rooted in the collaboration of longtime creative partners Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham, Portland, OR-based indie pop outfit Small Million specializes in pairing deeply affecting sonic production informed by Linder’s background as a filmmaker with smart, lived-in lyrics about intuition and inhibition, losing control and ending up in unexpected places, being willing to fuck up, bodies being joyful, bodies being hurt and more. The end result is work that’s simultaneously intimate yet epic, delicate yet fierce.

Since 2018’s Young Fools EP, years of experiencing chronic pain have led Small Million’s frontperson Malachi Graham to deep explorations of embodiment that have changed everything from her singing voice to her dance movies to her observations of human frailty. “There’s one side of chronic pain that leads you towards intuition, self-discovery, and listening closely to yourself. But it also means you end up sitting on the side of the room a lot, watching people and paying attention. Also you’re pissed,” Graham explains.

Linder and Graham have been writing together as a duo but they recently expanded into a quartet, with the addition of Small Skies‘ Ben Tyler (drums) and Lo Pony‘s Kale Chesney (bass, backing vocals. Fittingly, their evolution into a quartet has resulted in the band’s sound and approach expanding to encompass more rock-based instrumentation and energy.

The Portland-based outfit have been releasing new music throughout the course of the year, including their latest single “Burnout,” which will appear on their forthcoming album Passenger, slated for release through Tender Loving Empire. “Burnout” is a hook-driven bit of pop built around Graham’s ethereal vocal melody, glistening guitar lines, and a driving rhythm section. But underneath the infectiousness of the song is a sort of revenge fantasy about the feminine urge to destroy the male self-serving and flat vision of you, and dance in the rubble and flames. “My mom always told me to beware of being a ‘flattering mirror;’ to watch out for people who adore you because they love how you make them feel about themselves,” Small Million’s Malachi Graham explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Acclaimed Inuk Artist Elisapie Shares a Gorgeous Adaptation OF Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”

Acclaimed Montréal-based singer/songwriter, musician, actor and activist Elisapie Issac (best known as the mononymic Elisapie) was born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik, Québec’s northernmost region. In this extremely remote community, accessible only by plane, Issac was raised by an extended, yet slightly dysfunctional adoptive family. Growing up in Salliut, she lived through the loss of cousins who ended their lives. experienced young love, danced the night away at the village’s community center and witnessed first hand, the effects of colonialism — i.e., poverty, hopelessness, alcoholism, suicide, and more.

A teenaged Issac began performing on stage with her uncles, who were members of Sugluk (also known as Salliut Band), a famous and well-regarded Inuit rock band. She also worked at TNI, the village’s radio station, which broadcast across the region. And while working for the radio station, the teenaged Issac managed to secure an interview with Metallica.

Much like countless bright and ambitious young people across the world, Issac moved to the big city — in this case, Montréal to study and, ultimately, pursue a career in music. Since then, her work, whether within the confines of a band or as a solo artist, her unconditional attachment to her native territory, its people, and to her language, Inuktitut is at the core of her work. Spoken for millennia, Inuktitut embodies the harshness of its environment and the wild yet breathtaking beauty of the Inuit territory. Thematically, her work frequently pairs Intuit themes and concerns with modern rock music, mixing tradition with modernity in a deft fashion.

She won her first Juno Award as a member of Taima, and since then Issac’s work has received rapturous critical acclaim: 2018’s The Ballad of the Runaway Girl was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, earned her a number of Association du disque, de l’industrie du spectacle Québeécois (ADISQ) Felix Awards and a Juno Award nod. She followed up with a performance with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal — at the invitation of Grammy Award-winning maestro Yannick Nézet Séguin — at Central Park SummerStage, a NPR Tiny Desk Session and headlining or festival sets both locally and internationally.

In her native Canada, Issac is also known as an actor, starting in the TV series Motel Paradis and C.S. Roy’s experimental indie film VFC, which was released earlier this year. She’s also graced the cover of a number of nationally known magazines including Châtelaine, Elle Québec and a long list of others. And as a devoted activist, she created and produced the first nation-wide broadcast TV show to celebrate National Indigenous People’s Day.

Slated for a September 15, 2023 release through Bonsound, Issac’s forthcoming album Inuktiut features inventive re-imaginings of songs by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica and more. These are all acts and artists that the acclaimed Inuk artist received permission from. Elisapie has imbued each song with both depth and purpose, an act of cultural reappropriation that reinvigorates the poetry of these 10 classics by placing them within Inuit traditions. The album’s first single “Uummati Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass),” caught the attention of the legendary Debbie Harry.

The album’s second and latest single is a gorgeous and fairly faithful Inuktiut adaptation of Cyndi Lauper‘s 1983 Rob Hyman co-written smash hit “Time After Time” that retains the familiar beloved melody of the original paired with a percussive yet atmospheric arrangement and Issac’s gorgeous, achingly tender delivery.

Much like her previous single, “Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time)” was inspired by a childhood memory of Elisapie’s aunt Alasie and her cousin Susie:
 
“I was able to get through my pre-teen years, thanks to my Aunt Alasie, as my mother had neither the knowledge nor the experience to give me a crash course on puberty, fashion or social relationships,” Isaac recalls. “In addition to entering a new chapter in my life, we were in the midst of the 80’s and modernity was shaking up our traditional methods. My mother’s generation had lived in Igloos, and the cultural changes were too swift. 
 
Despite her struggles, my aunt ensured I felt accepted and exposed me to new and modern things like TV, clothes, dancing, Kraft Dinner and make-up! 
 
Whenever I went to my aunt’s house, I was in awe of my older girl cousins. They were all so cool and stylish, and they loved pop music and the crazy makeup of the 80s and early 90s.  One of my favorite memories is listening to the radio with them and hearing Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ for the first time. It was like a lightning bolt, and I couldn’t separate the song or the artist from my older cousin Susie. For me, the song was all about her search for beauty, connection, love, and rising above pain.”

Directed by Philippe Léonard and edited by Omar Elhamy, the accompanying video for “Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time)” features home video-shot footage of dances, performances and games at her beloved community center, of kids just being kids and a slow yet steady encroachment of modernity as we see at least one kid popping and locking like Crazylegzs or least trying to do so. The video is a lovingly nostalgic look at the acclaimed Inuk’s community and of her childhood, making the video a meditation on the passing of time, and in some way the impact of pop culture on a young person trying to find their place in a changing world.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Niseff Shares a Club Friendly Banger

With the release of her debut EP, Mami Spicy, the emerging and rapidly rising Puerto Rican artist Niseff quickly establishes a sound that that blends elements of reggaeton and contemporary pop and pairs it with her sultry delivery and empowering lyrics. The end result is an effort that showcases the emerging Puerto Rican artist’s versatility as a performer and songwriter.

EP single “Ta To Cool” is built around skittering reggaeton beat and glistening synth arpeggios paired with a series of razor sharp, infectious and well-placed hooks and Niseff’s sultry, self-assured delivery. Ultimately “Ta To Cool” is an accessible and club friendly vehicle for a budding superstar.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Last night, I DJ’ed for the first time at Clem’s. I was a little nervous at first — it was my first public DJ set in which regulars, friends, loved ones and strangers would be hearing what I selected. But it turned out to be a lot of fun.

I’m now sharing the set with y’all. Four + hours of soul, funk, house music and more. Put on your dancing shoes and get on down!

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Toronto’s LIVVA Shares Darkly Seductive “I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore”

Olga Korsak is a Latvian-born, Toronto-based singer/songwriter, actress and former Olympic figure skater. Korsak’s promising figure skating career was cut short at 17, when she suffered a back injury during the World Championship. After a lengthy recovery, she discovered a love of music and started to teach herself piano and take vocal lessons, eventually writing her own songs.

Feeling the new for new challenges, Korsak relocated to Toronto in 2010. She developed her solo recording project LIVVA, which gained recognition with her self-released debut 2014’s Behind Closed Doors, which sold over 10,000 copies in Canada. 2018’s This is LIVVA EP featured “Minusx2,” which amassed over 80,000 Spotify streams and 280,000 YouTube views. The EP’s second single “You” received a Notable Best New Artist Award nomination.

Korsak starred in the 2020 film Petrichor, which featured a soundtrack written by her. The movie premiered at the Moscow Film Festival and received Best Original Song at the Venice Film Awards, Tracks Music Awards, and American Golden Picture International Film Festival. Building upon that momentum, 2021’s “Love Me Until I’m Me Again” amassed over 200,000 combined streams on all DSPs — within two months of its release.

“I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore” quickly amassed 140,000 streams on all DSPs within the first two months of its release. Built around an eerily sparse production featuring twinkling keys, skittering beats and atmospheric electronics paired with the Latvian-Canadian artist’s sultry and self-assured pop star delivery expressing self-loathing, despair and the awareness that she constantly self-sabotages. It’s psychologically precise, lived-in lyricism paired with a slick and darkly seductive production.

“The song is written about difficulty to be your own friend sometimes. I keep sabotaging myself and I don’t know why. I know I’m not alone on this,” the Latvian-born, Canadian-based artist explains.