Story and photos by Annie Da Silva Heather May is a northern Albertan singer songwriter that offers a unique blend of raw stripped down aspects of folk genres with soulful acoustic progressions.  Often times we can fall into the seemingly simplistic routines that we build around our lives, forgetting to acknowledge the everyday magic that is waiting around each corner. Sitting down with Heather May about her upcoming album For Mark not only reminded me of the importance in searching for that magic, but also made me question why it was all too easy to become hardened in our ever moving world ..read more

Ideally, I want to showcase my favourite RNB and jazz influences on this playlist. I’m a huge vocal nerd when it comes to songs and songwriting; if the vocalist can alter their range with a way that flows over the melody, naturally I’m 100 per cent here for it. The local talent in this city has a vibrancy that will inspire and motivate me no matter where I am. I’m so lucky to call some of these amazing artists friends and collaborators. the playlist has a mishmash of stunning local talent with the likes of Sweet Barry Wine, with their goofy fun energy matched with the insane musicality of tho ..read more

Interview by Annie Da Silva Emerging from spontaneous bursts of collaboration, The Wells’ songs often begin without intention. A delicate progression of sweeping chords or an intricately melodic percussive rhythm are repeated and reshaped until evolving into the silhouette of a song. Here they find themselves asking, what does this song feel like? Pulling from an eclectic spectrum of influences such as indie, folk, melodic electronica, punk and jazz, The Wells strive to create something truthful and unique. Formed in the spring of 2014, The Wells consists of Jolene Marie (vocals and keys), Sa ..read more

Story by Ollie Fadipe Derrick Lane, better known under the moniker ‘localgirlinyourarea’, has been messing with guitars since the third grade, and he began writing music in the eighth.   “I started reading biographies of artists I loved – [people like] Ozzy Ozbourne, Slash, Keith Richards, [and] Anthony Kiedes. They all talked about the euphoric rush of playing in front of people, and how it’s incomparable,” Derrick said. “Countless videos of Keith Richards of the Stones smoking a cigarette while playing a solo in front of tens of thousands of people, without a single care in the world.”   Der ..read more

Story and photos by Sara Kuefler We are all connected. Connected to this world we live in, connected to each other. And yet we are all entities unto ourselves. It can be difficult to reconcile those two modes of being, but every so often you can feel both at once. One such time occurred recently in Calgary when we had a very intense rainstorm where we received a huge volume of precipitation causing flooding in some areas. During the afternoon, before the storm released, the energy that was building was palpable in the air like static electricity pulling at every molecule. I spoke to several pe ..read more

Story and Photos by Sara Kuefler “The name is very catchy.  I love when people say, ‘You’re in the Witch band?’  I’m like ‘which band?’” – Krauss   Witch Victim is a band that defies…well a lot of things to be honest:  expectation, definition, and any sort of predictability. Sounds exciting, right?!  After having the opportunity to hang out and enjoy an adventure with the members of the band I feel that Witch Victim operates principally from a beautiful harmony of the combined instincts of its members. Considering they have been together for under a year this is a pretty precious occurrence. T ..read more

Story and photos by Aron Diaz Formed in May 2015, Calgary’s Pill Crusher consists of lead singer/guitarist Mike Elliott, bassist Tyler Burton, and drummer Nick Baldock. Since their inception, Pill Crusher has had a constant live presence in the Calgary local scene, as well as surrounding cities such as Edmonton and Lethbridge.   The band released their first EP, called Space Brainz, in the same year, followed by their full-length record, Cosmonauts, in 2017. Following these releases, in  July 2019, the group will release a split EP simply titled Splits with the Calgary local band GEOFF. Raw, u ..read more

Story by Jamie Campbell Photos by Aron Diaz One of the most hyped up shows (for good reason) over Sled Island was Calgary rap duo Cartel Madras. Recently signed to Sub Pop Records, who achieved fame for having their artist roster include Nirvana, Soundgarden and more, Cartel announced this as their farewell show. I had the opportunity to sit down with the talented sister duo, Priya Ramesh and Bhagya Ramesh – better known by their stage names, Contra and Eboshi. The pair not only spits bars like you wouldn’t believe, but it’s their stage presence that gets the crowd vibrating on a whole differ ..read more

Story by Jamie Campbell As I stepped into the Legion Branch #1 hours before Japanese Breakfast was set to take the stage, I could already sense the anticipation and excitement. Quickly realizing the long line-up for the ATM was actually a line-up for the merch table, I headed into the venue to claim my spot. Standing adjacent to the seemingly ceiling height set of speakers, I would be in clear eyesight of Michelle Zauner. Leading up, I could feel my personal bubble slowly deflating as people pressed closer and closer. By 11 p.m., Sled Island posted a friendly warning that the sought after perf ..read more

Story by Jenessa Blanchet Photos provided by New Forum In the year 1988, when George Michael’s “Faith” was topping the Billboard charts, Stephen Hawking published his book “A Brief History of Time,” and Calgary was host to the Winter Olympics, the first issue of a local feminist magazine called Forum was released. That magazine was a feisty, grassroots periodical that tackled topics affecting women – and that continue to affect women.  Flash forward 21 years to the discovery of a box of back issues of the magazine, which ceased publication in 2002, and the decision to launch a reinvented vers ..read more