We’ve almost made it to April! On this final Friday in March, settle down with a hot cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy this #NewMusicFriday with some fresh videos.
Angela Saini, “My Once Upon a Time”
Roots artist Angela Saini is all about second chances and empowering others. Her ability to combine humanistic and honest themes laden with catchy hooks and memorable melodies make her entertaining as well as relatable. With two European and five Canadian tours under her belt, Angela is a 2017 Toronto Independent Music Award Winner and blogTO named her in their “Top 5 Folk Acts to Watch.”
The songstress most known for her sunshine-soaked song “Living on the Bright Side” shows her more vulnerable side with new album “Hope on the Stereo.” Exploring themes of hope and fear, and the shades in between, still bring out her uplifting outlook on life, but through a different lens, choosing to reveal the cracks and vulnerabilities that lie beneath the surface. It also features her production skills as she partnered with co-producer Guillermo Subauste and recorded some of it in her home studio.
Her new single “My Once Upon a Time” is wistful and upbeat, about remembering the optimism of childhood, and that those memories remain for a lifetime. It showcases Angela’s shift to a more Americana sound, enlisting her long-time live band to record live-off-the-floor at Pacha Sound in Toronto.
Rich Aucoin, “The Mind”
Recently, Rich Aucoin shared the first single, “The Mind,” from his upcoming LP, “Release,” due out May 17 via Haven Sounds. Today, the acclaimed musician is sharing the video for the track directed by Meghan Tansey Whitton.
Aucoin tells Paste Magazine, “The song is a reflection on the mind. The video is a reflection, as well. The less articulated, the better. Meghan Tansey Whitton is a strong photographer and was experimenting with these reflections in the beautiful part of the world in which we both live, Nova Scotia. She shot this video over two years along with our faceless star, Mimi Audellyn.”
Speaking about the instrumental track “The Mind”, Aucoin explains, “This track is about the mind and therefore has no lyrics. Musically, this song has two drum sets on it. The main kit is played by Jeremy Malvin (aka Chrome Sparks) and the second is carried over from the Release session by Broken Social Scene’s Justin Peroff. Ben Talmi played the very rare Therevox slide theremin on the track down at his Virtue & Vice studio in Brooklyn. While Jenn Grant was recorded by Daniel Ledwell at his Echo Lake studio in Nova Scotia. The vocal melody seamlessly switches from male to female vocals with Jenn and my voices being the samples.”
Madison Violet, “Tell Me”
Madison Violet have shared the stunning new video for their single “Tell Me” – shot in Joshua Tree and directed by Jillian Martin, who was recently featured in Adweek’s 2018 Creative 100 as an emerging director to watch. In 1999, Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac met in Toronto. They instantly formed a band and became a couple. By recommendation of some industry folk, they were told that they should hide their sexuality and their relationship (which they did so for many years of their career). So, they ran away to the desert with their guitars in tow and wrote their first record. This video is a glimpse into their adventures and misadventures on that first road trip together.
Visit Madison Violet’s website.
Alicia Toner, “Dangerous Home”
Award- winning East Coast singer/songwriter Alicia Toner is presenting the latest chapter of a larger project about struggle, reflection and truth. The video for her latest single “Dangerous Home” is an intimately personal and poetic representation of the song’s protagonist on her journey of self-discovery and the viewer is invited to join her on the cathartic ride.
Toner states, “This entire “Dangerous Home” project has been a way to speak up in my own voice as an artist and the video is a continuation of that journey. Beginning with the photo/essay series, the project gave a glimpse into two very different realities for the same person. The expectation photo was a candy-coated way to deal with the flip-side of the image; reality. The video sees the two fused together. The “woman in red” no longer remains picture perfect. The further we get into the flashbacks and the more intense they become, the more she starts to break down as well. I suspect this character will continue to make appearances in the future as the rest of this album unfolds.”
Filmed in Stratford, ON, the video was directed and choreographed by Jordan Mah (Stratford Festival).
Photo credits: Scott Munn (Rich Aucoin), Jenna Walker (Madison Violet), Blake Hutchinson (Alicia Toner)
