Tag: Josh Korody

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TRAITRS Return with Lush and Urgent “Dream Drowning”

With the release of their first three albums, 2017’s Rites and Rituals, 2018’s Butcher’s Coin and 2021’s Horses in the Abattoir, Toronto-based coldwave duo TRAITRS — longtime friends Sean Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker — have firmly established a sound that blends horror-based imagery with anthemic choruses and cinematic, atmospheric soundscapes. During that same period, the duo evolved from bedroom pop artists selling cassette tapes to amassing millions of streets globally and playing hand hundreds of shows internationally.

The Canadian duo’s highly anticipated Josh Korody-produced, Matt Colton-mastered fourth album Possessor is slated for a March 13, 2026 release. According to the band’s Shawn Tucker, Possessor is “the most personal record I have ever written.” The album was written during Toronto’s coldest winter months, informed by storm battered days and a heavy emotional landscape. The pair focused on capturing precise moods, with lyrics serving as the material’s driving force with the surrounding soundscapes grew to mirror the bleak beauty of the writing process. 

Possessor will include the previously released “Burn In Heaven,” “i was ill, you were wrong,” and the album’s latest single “Dream Drowning.” Featuring eerily atmospheric and brooding synths, propulsive beats as a lush goth/horror-inspired bed for Shawn Tucker’s yearning delivery. Continuing a run of chilly yet achingly heartfelt, intimate material, “Dream Drowning” thematically delves into the subconscious, with the duo aiming to analyze the emotion and meanings behind their dreams. But at its core, is a deeply uneasy sense of one’s desires and motivations behind shrouded in mystery.

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TRAITRS Returns with Propulsive and Anthemic “i was ill, you were wrong”

With the release of their first three albums, 2017’s Rites and Rituals, 2018’s Butcher’s Coin and 2021’s Horses in the Abattoir, Toronto-based coldwave duo TRAITRS — longtime friends Sean Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker — firmly established a sound that blended horror-based imagery with anthemic choruses and cinematic, atmospheric soundscapes. And during that time, the duo evolved from bedroom artists selling cassette tapes to amassing millions of streams globally and playing hundreds of shows internationally. 

The Canadian duo’s highly anticipated Josh Korody-produced, Matt Colton-mastered fourth album Possessor is slated for a March 13, 2026 release. According to the band’s Shawn Tucker, Possessor is “the most personal record I have ever written.” The album was written during Toronto’s coldest winter months, informed by storm battered days and a heavy emotional landscape. The pair focused on capturing precise moods, with lyrics serving as the material’s driving force with the surrounding soundscapes grew to mirror the bleak beauty of the writing process.

Possessor will feature the previously released “Burn In Heaven,” a track that channels The Cure, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Cocteau Twins, while showcasing their unerring knack for crafting rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. The album’s second and latest single “i was ill, you were wrong,” continues a remarkable run of brooding and cinematic material. And while channeling a synthesis of New Wave and goth in a way that brings The Cure and New Order to mind, “i was ill, you were wrong,” is a chilly yet achingly heartfelt and intimate tune that showcases the duo’s rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

Thematically, the song examines humanity’s denial of its mortality and the complicated structures we build to distract ourselves from the fear of the inevitable, including the fragile bubbles we often create to shield ourselves from the one deeply universal thing that impacts us all — death.

“I felt that song connected me to everything and everyone, it is the one thing we all share and have in common,” the band’s Shawn Tucker says. “It is also a wake up call to live the life you want to live. We only have one chance at this so go dance in the rain.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TRAITRS Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Burn In Heaven”

With the release of their first three albums, 2017’s Rites and Rituals, 2018’s Butcher’s Coin and 2021’s Horses in the Abattoir, Toronto-based coldwave duo TRAITRS blended horror-based imagery with anthemic choruses and cinematic, atmospheric soundscapes. And during that time, the duo evolved from bedroom artists selling cassette tapes to amassing millions of streams globally and playing hundreds of shows internationally.

The Canadian duo’s latest single, the Josh Korody-produced, Matt Colton-mastered “Burn In Heaven,” is their first single since the release of Horses in the Abattoir. Channeling The Cure, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Cocteau Twins, “Burn In Heaven” continues a run of broodingly cinematic material that showcases their unerring knack for crafting rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

Lyrically, the song is inspired and informed by the harrowing real-life soy of 23-year-old Anneliese Michel, who underwent 67 exorcisms before dying of malnutrition — a tragedy that exposed the devastating consequences when blind faith eclipses medical science. Exploring themes of religious extremism, possession and the clash between faith and science, “Burn In Heaven,” is perfect for spooky season while being big club and arena friendly.

“The song deals with possession and the extremities of faith vs science,” the Toronto-based duo explains. “It examines the instilled religious beliefs where people think they’re going to get a pardon by god for horrifying acts when they get to heaven. It’s this idea that shaped the entirety of our new record.”

The band’s forthcoming album Possessor is slated for release next year.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Taylor Knox is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who can trace the origins of his musical career to over a decade ago, when he was recruited to play drums for The Golden Dogs, an act that was considered one of Canada’s criminally under-appreciated bands — and coincidentally, one of Knox’s favorite bands, too.

During his stint with The Golden Dogs, Knox forged friendships with several other bandmembers, who all go on to form Zeus. As a result of Zeus, Knox was a frequent presence at the band’s Toronto studio Ill Eagle, which naturally offered him the perfect environment and the opportunity to begin experimenting with his own original material. Interestingly, Knox and his then-newly formed Zeus were tapped by Jason Collett to be his regular backing band — and it brought him into contact with an even wider circle of musicians, including Luke Doucet, whom he joined on Doucet’s tour to support his acclaimed Steel City Traveler. He also joined Hayden for the Us Alone recording sessions and subsequent tour. He also played with acclaimed Halifax, Nova Scotia-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and JOVM mainstay Rich Aucoin.

With the release of the Lines EP and his full-length debut Love, Knox stepped out into the spotlight, crafting anthemic power pop that has drawn comparisons to acclaimed and highly influential Canadian power pop act Sloan and others. Slated for a June 7, 2019 release, Knox’s sophomore album Here Tonight thematically focuses on the mystery, stillness and artistic inspiration of the night; in fact, Knox’s tendency to be a night owl was a major influence on the album. And when he started writing the material that would eventually comprise his forthcoming sophomore album, he focused on precisely what he was thinking about — and what he wanted to do and say with it. He didn’t want to waste the insight that nighttime has always given him.“I really try to make sure the songs I write come from a place of not something I want to write but something I kind of have to get out. What I’m feeling below what I’m thinking,” Knox says in press notes.

Sonically speaking, the album, which sees Knox working with Josh Korody reportedly sees Knox continuing with the power pop that has won him attention — fuzzy and /or crunchy power chords, forceful drumming and rousingly anthemic hooks; but he sought guidance and inspiration from much more contemporary artists like The Weeknd, SZA and Prince in terms of production and songwriting, as well as the legendary Joni Mitchell. In fact, Korody’s production helped to add new textures to his overall sound, thanks to the incorporation of synths and keyboards to create glistening gutter tones. Knox also worked with Rob Schnapf in Los Angeles, who helped make one song reportedly to sound like one of the best Oasis songs to never appear on an Oasis album.

Interestingly, what sets the Toronto-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer’s sophomore album apart from this previously released work is a free flowing spontaneity that was encouraged by Korody and Schnapf — and that left room for unrestrained creativity. Doing this, he says, “leaves a little bit of room for discovery with the collaborator and room for their influence. I’ve always tried to do that but I did it more this time because I have confidence that I’ll be able to come up with it on the spot.” Adding to that, Knox brought in a number of Toronto’s finest musicians to collaborator for the sessions including July Talks‘ Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay and Tokyo Police Club‘s Dave Monks.

Here Tonight‘s latest single is the rousingly anthemic, Live It Up.” Centered around fuzzy power chords, forceful drumming, a big arena rock friendly hook and an ethereal falsetto, the track recalls 120 Minutes alt rock — in particular, The Posies, The Breeders, Smashing Pumpkins and even more contemporary acts like Silversun Pickups but with the free-flowing air of a bunch of guys jamming and coming up with something incredibly cool and full of furious passion.