The bright blue star you’ll often find drawn on TALK’s face as of late certainly feels like a sign of things to come. After recently going platinum and appearing on late-night TV with his single “Run Away to Mars,” the pop-rock powerhouse with a voice full of the gravitas of a natural-born entertainer – he’s covered both “House of the Rising Sun” and The Fray’s “How To Save A Life,” to give a sense of his ambitions – is rapidly going shooting to the stratosphere and going as interplanetary as the title suggests.

Named after his favourite Coldplay song – a band that he credits with saving his life through positive messaging – his hilarious TikTok presence and infectious personality have helped him grow his profile even further as he readies the release of his debut album. A talented producer as well as a singer, TALK grew up in Ottawa, where he was inspired to morph into a modern-day rock star by his brother, who was involved in the musical theatre community and transferred some of his flair for the dramatic over. With a rain of glitter, driving power-pop backdrops and a genuine, emotional delivery, his dream of playing stadiums shouldn’t be too far off. 

For anyone who is yet to meet you, who are you?

Hi I’m TALK, I sing and tell stories, sometimes I swear a lot on stage and I make good music. I like cooking shows and Matthew McConaughey movies. I also think Guinness tastes like soy sauce (sorry Ireland, I still love you) 

What does your daily routine look like these days?

A lot of visualizing and daydreaming at the moment. I’m trying to be the greatest I can be and inspire as many people as I can. All I want to do is play music and write music that means a lot to people as well as myself. I’m really enjoying the current point in this journey I’m on. Things are busy but peaceful. I get to work with my best friends everyday, not many people can say that. 

What’s one thing that you’re most proud of in your music career so far?

I’m proud of a lot of things but I think my song “Run Away to Mars” going Platinum in Canada was pretty big for me. I always dreamed of that. That was the first big holy shit moment for me aside from signing a record deal.  

What’s something that you do to keep your mental health in check?

This is something I think all artists struggle with in today’s industry. With the increase of focus put on social apps the last few years it can feel impossible to disconnect. I have definitely found out the hard way what burnout can look like. What I’ve found helpful is to always remind myself to be as kind to myself as I am to others. I think being kind to yourself is the most important thing you can do for mental health. 

Do you have any New Years’ Resolutions?

I don’t have a resolution but I do have a wish. I wish to be America’s next top model. I wish for it every year but it has yet to come true. I’m hoping one day I can walk that runway to the snaps and flashes of photographers from around the world. 

Who would be your dream collab? Someone you’d like to write/record/or tour with.

Chris Martin from Coldplay. His message of love and acceptance is something I carry with me everyday and I think he and I could do a lot of good for a lot of people around the world. 

What is something you’re really looking forward to in 2023?

Looking forward to putting out an album. That’s probably number one on my list right now. Playing more shows and hanging out in cool places around the world.

The Toronto hip-hop community is always expanding in new and exciting ways, and Just John is one of its foremost experimentalists. His latest single “SLAYER” has some frenetic Playboi Carti energy, while he names industrial rock bands like Nine Inch Nails as some of his biggest influences. For all of the horrorcore imagery that often accompanies John’s music, however, it all exists to create a place for his lyricism to open up discussions on mental health and deep and thoughtful self-analysis, contributing to the ever-increasing importance and connecting force of vulnerability in the hip-hop community.

Just John is additionally much more than a musician, and the surrounding artwork reflects that – he started out as a dancer, and his music videos often find him using the language of movement to communicate his ideas just as powerfully as his words do. He additionally founded Blank Canvas Collective, an artistic community focusing on marginalized creatives in Toronto that includes youth programs. Breaking out onto the scene in a duo with Dom Dias, Just John released a bevy of singles throughout the past year as he builds up to the release of his debut solo studio album.

For anyone who is yet to meet you, who are you?

What’s up! My name is Just John. I am originally from Scarborough, which is about 20 minutes away from Toronto, but I’ve been living in LA for over a year now. I make industrial hip-hop music and I’d like to think of myself as a radical imaginary. My motto “Just Life” promotes truth, honour and dreaming. Also, fun fact, I am a twin and I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

When did you realize you wanted to be a musician?

In high school, I was a part of a dance crew and we accomplished a lot together. We won battles and competitions, and were even sponsored by a shoe company. Music has always led my life, but I didn’t realize its strong presence until my dance crew disbanded in 2012. I released my first song in 2014. Two years later, I started an art gallery called Blank Canvas where I showcased underground artists in my community and eventually I began to develop my sound. Now I’m able to use my body and my voice to tell my story through visuals and shows.

What is your favourite song that you’ve released so far?

My favourite song I released so far would have to be “Open Wound,” off my This is Fate EP in 2020. Not only did that record help me transcend the pain of feeling unworthy to feel love, but it also opened many hearts and became my most streamed record. I felt the true magic that music can create – but I have something even better on the way, my debut album titled MDSM – “My Dreams Scare Me.”

What does your daily routine look like these days?

When in flow, I usually wake up between 6 and 7 a.m. I start my mornings with a 15-30 minute meditation/prayer, then a 45 minute workout. I try to knock out all emails, DMs, messages, and focus on brand building for an hour or two. By 10 a.m. if I don’t have a session later that night then I’m writing music or learning something new on podcasts. I try to do this all before noon, so I can keep my afternoons and evenings open for any meetings and occasions I have to run to.  

What’s one thing that you’re most proud of in your music career so far?

I am most proud that I’ve consistently remained on this mission while navigating the tides in life and the industry. I always move with integrity and I think people can feel that from me through my art and conversation. This has led me to open more doors, allowing me to continue to push the boundaries of my sound. My believers are growing every single day. It’s unreal, seeing how far we’ve come and knowing how far we’re going to take it – I dreamed this out my mind – you can do it too. 

What’s something that you do to keep your mental health in check?

Meditation is my main thing I would say, leaving out time for yourself to just sit with your thoughts and your emotions with the ease and the uncomfortableness helps keep a place for it, so that when I open my eyes and return to the space, I’m in a more optimal space to create and I can be whatever/whoever I want to be. This helps me so much with any kind of depression or anxiety that might creep up from time to time not only as an artist but as a human being. 

What is something you’re really looking forward to in 2023?

Touring Europe. 

Vancouver-based rapper Kimmortal’s breakout album, X Marks The Swirl, came out in 2019, but it continues to resonate and make its mark on listeners years after the fact due to the topical and unfortunately predictive nature of many of its lyrics and themes. Their newfound popularity after political trailblazer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the song “Sad Femme Club” to elucidate her frustrations with the US Supreme Court led to festival appearances, and, most recently, a prime placement of their latest single “This Dyke” on an episode of The L Word: Generation Q. A hyperpop-adjacent empowering song celebrating their identity, it’s an appropriate match, as Kimmortal themselves called the show “the most iconic queer one out there.”

After a series of singles since their 2019 debut, a follow-up is finally on the horizon for 2023. With a background in visual art, theatre, and poetry, an innovative presentation surrounding the music is a big part of Kimmortal’s artistry, and a passion for powerfully touching on issues affecting both diasporic individuals and members of the LGBTQ+ community has persisted into some of the project’s teaser tracks – the cleverly titled “K I’m Mortal,” for example, dives into struggles with anxiety. Kimmortal should continue to prove that they are the artist of the moment in 2023.

For anyone who is yet to meet you, who are you?

I am a queer non-binary Filipinx Sagittarius artist. I learn about my queerness within decolonization, spirituality, and abolition. I love creating imaginative, weird, and comforting worlds through my art and music.

When did you realize you wanted to be a musician?

I remember in my second year of university having a severe breakdown and I couldn’t do menial tasks. At the time I was in full time art school, working as a student telemarketer, holding down an art collective, competing as a dancer, and performing at shows. I decided I wanted to focus in on the art of word. I remember using excerpts from my journal entry about a woman in my life who was dealing with emotional abuse. I used those reflections to write lyrics to one of my first raps. I would perform at open mics. I would travel with my guitar from Surrey to perform wherever I could. Artists who influenced me when I was just starting out were Lauryn Hill (especially her MTV Unplugged album), Eternia, Blue Scholars, and Saul Williams. A lot of the spoken word artists and activists in this city put me on stages and these poetry stages became places where I experimented with music. Picking up on the reciprocated energy from the audience when performing in my early twenties was a catalyst for me becoming a musician.

What is your favourite song that you’ve released so far?

My favourite song is always the last one I’ve released, so right now it would be “This Dyke.”

What does your daily routine look like these days?

Coffee and journaling, finishing up recording for my album, admin work (always) which includes emailing collaborators, watching TV shows, reading and cuddling with my partner.  

What’s one thing that you’re most proud of in your music career so far?

All the highlights were from this year 2022: Opening up for Thundercat at the Orpheum, getting shouted out by AOC, and performing at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe in New York.

What’s something that you do to keep your mental health in check?

Bubble Baths, journaling, therapy appointments, alone time, and talking to friends.

What is something you’re really looking forward to in 2023?

Releasing the world (of my album) out into the world! Building my online art gallery and online merch store.

Taking their name from a French word désormais, which means “from now on,” BC-based alt-pop trio daysormay’s musical moniker feels appropriate, given their trajectory upwards. Although the band’s members – consisting of twin brothers Carson and Nolan Bassett and Aidan Andrews – are still only 22, they’ve been working on their craft since the self-produced Talk Peace to A Wolf EP dropped in 2016. In the years that followed they’ve racked up collaborations with the likes of indie-pop icon Tessa Violet and perennial Canadian hitmaker Steve Bays, who has penned tracks for acts like Mother Mother, The Zolas, and The Killers.

With a focus on lyrical authenticity and a wide range of influences, the band expanded their reach with their debut album, Just Existing, in 2021, and are currently gearing up to release a follow-up in 2023. The album spanned across a wide reach of genres, giving layered indie-pop harmonies reminiscent of a band like Phoenix a different backdrop each time. They experimented with hyperpop synths, trap beats and shimmering 80s flair, mixing them into their usual lush guitar soundscapes.  

For anyone who is yet to meet you, who are you?

We’re Aidan, Carson, and Nolan, and we’re daysormay. We’re from Vernon, BC, where we met when we were seven years old, and we make music that we would want to hear. 

What does your daily routine look like these days?

Aidan: It’s been a lot of movement, not a lot of downtime, which I’m enjoying actually. I’m editing some 2022 tour videos, working on the next album, and running every other day. I usually try to meditate in the mornings too, or whenever I can fit it in.

Carson: Usually consists of a solid breakfast to start the day, and then I try and get my emails and all that done so I can focus on getting outside while there is still some light, followed by working away on our songs or practice. Has been a busy couple of months.

Nolan: It’s really hard for me to be consistent so it really varies. Always starts with a shower though. I feel like my day hasn’t started until that happens.

What’s something that you do to keep your mental health in check?

Aidan: Besides writing, I try to run every other day. I feel like I have too many ideas bouncing around in my head at once, and it’s hard to organize/document them in a way where I can actually use them for something. Running kind of forces me to be present and it calms my mind down, so that helps me go through everything that’s been piling up.

Carson: You know music has been the thing that keeps me grounded throughout the year. Whenever I need to relax or check my mental health, making music is always where I start.

Nolan: For me it’s cooking something really good and spending time outside. Those two things always seem to help me the most. Sometimes making music can really mess with my mind, especially if I can’t come up with anything that I like that day so I find separating myself completely from that is what I need to do.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from a peer?

Aidan: Just never stop writing. Creativity is like a muscle that you have to exercise to keep healthy.

Carson: Trust yourself. Sometimes you can get caught up in what is “the right” thing and not what makes you truly excited about what you’re doing.

Nolan: For me I think it’s just keep going. If you don’t stop and stay committed, the longer you do it, the chances something good that will come from it increases.

What is one thing that everyone needs to shut up about?

Aidan: Their opinions of me with a buzzcut.

Carson: Yes, I have a bowl cut.

Nolan: Yeah I think people on the internet are way too casual sometimes with how they talk about peoples’ appearances and fashion choices and don’t think about how that can affect a person

Who would be your dream collab? Someone you’d like to write/record/or tour with.

Aidan: It would be super fun to tour with The 1975. Would love to collab with Slowthai or AG Club. I feel like we would make something wild.

Carson: Glass Animals would be such a fun tour. James Blake or Kendrick Lamar would be a dream come true.

Nolan: I’d love to do something with Mura Masa. Also a Westside Gunn feature would be a dream.

What is something you’re really looking forward to in 2023?

Carson: All the new music we have been working on.

The youngest artist of our class of 2023, dee holt has had the quickest rise over the past year. The Montreal singer was born into a musical family and has been honing her skills from a young age, but was first inspired to take music seriously when being prompted to sing at a family gathering – one that included a romantic partner without any knowledge of her hidden talents – left the whole room in tears after a cover of Kodaline’s “All I Want.” While she felt the need to face the wall at the time, she’s quickly cementing herself in the public eye with recent achievements like playing at the M for Montreal festival and an appearance on Lorem, Spotify’s most-followed tastemaker playlist.

To complement her bedroom-pop sound and yearning, whispery acoustic tunes, holt is also studying art and animation at university and applies those skills to her career as well – she creates all of her own album artwork, and animated the music video for her latest single, “Sober.” With a couple new singles already released, holt is preparing to cement herself as a key figure in the ongoing renaissance of relationship-focused teen singer-songwriters with her upcoming 2023 release.

For anyone who is yet to meet you, who are you?

My name is dee holt, and I’m a 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Montreal. I create music to make people feel something. I write and sing to find new ways of expressing myself as well as push myself to new levels.

What does your daily routine look like these days?

It differs everyday… but most days consist of school, work, and music. I study visual arts, so every day I’m sketching and creating. Luckily, I’m on my holiday break… so now I can solely focus on music.

What’s one thing that you’re most proud of in your music career so far?

I think I’m most proud of my growth and the way that I’ve come out of my shell… when I started this whole journey, I told myself I wouldn’t show my face in music videos or do live shows. I wanted to stay low key and only really share my music virtually… however now my goals have changed. I want to perform, collaborate with artists, do interviews… I slowly want to show people who I am as an artist, and not just hide out in my room writing songs.

What’s something that you do to keep your mental health in check?

Taking some “me time” is what keeps me in check… allowing myself to relax and be alone with my own things is what helps me most when I’m feeling overwhelmed.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from a peer?

I’ve received so much great advice, and I am so grateful for the support system that I have within my music career, as well as friends and family. However, if I had to pick just one it would have to be “vie ta vie.” It’s a french one ahahaha. My producer is always saying that. “Live your life,” do what you love no matter what others say or think. It encourages me to try new things, and not mind what others think. I think it’s my best piece of advice because it can be applied to every aspect in life, not only music.

Who would be your dream collab? Someone you’d like to write/record/or tour with.

That is a very difficult question. I would love to write with Lizzy McAlpine, record with Finneas and tour with Coldplay. I would also love to work with Lewis Capaldi. He just seems like such a fun person to be around.

What is something you’re really looking forward to in 2023?

So much! I’m really looking forward to releasing new music and collaborating with new artists. Most of all, although it makes me so nervous, I’m most excited to start doing shows! I’m excited to grow.