Tag: yegmusic

Tayler Grace’s debut EP, Let You Go, came out 5 months ago now

Posted on by Brizsa

A few days before it was released, we hung out in my living room with my cat, while listening to Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life. After hearing the title track a couple weeks earlier; this chill, sad-girl vibe felt necessary.

Tayler shared, in detail, the making of this EP

and how it evolved as she and her collaborators got excited and started exploring bigger sounds. What began as a simple mission to get something out into the world so she could meet the requirements to start applying to play festivals; quickly turned into homemade sunflower seed shakers, late night writing sessions, and sobbing harmonies (I am not going to elaborate on that). 

She discovered her sound at 14 when attending her first Edmonton Folk Fest. For some reason I tend to assume every young artist aspires to be a pop star but she says, “sometimes I feel like my problem is I almost start writing things that sound pop-ish, and I want to be very folky. My dream is to have a full folk band with a banjo and a mandolin. Folk music was like a revelation for me.”

When she’s not on stage wowing you with her hopeless love stories, she’s shaping our youth.

As in, she’s got a side gig, and it’s teaching.

Teaching music in an elementary school, to be specific, “when I’m teaching my students to play a song, I have a guitar and sometimes I’ll be silly and try to play with a kick-drum, a tambourine, and a shaker all at the same time and they eat it up. I learn more from them and their ideas and it makes me more creative and silly.”

I was curious if it affected her writing, imagining it would either hinder it in fear of her students hearing, or possibly open her up to be as weird and creative as ever – because kids are weird.
“When I was recording, I was like ‘what if my students hear this?’ and ‘should I make all of my songs child-friendly?’ but why would I limit myself? This is my dream and teaching is my side gig. Teachers can swear!”

She joked about how everything she wrote before this project was shit,

“I so look up to all of these 16 and 17 year old Edmonton artists that are already writing songs that are so incredible. My brain did not work like that at that age.”
Only in the last year or so has she figured out what she wants to say and boy does she say it on a rollercoaster. In these 4 tracks, she shares the deeply personal journey of apathetic love, infidelity, and yet still missing them when it’s over.

The first track, Let You Go,

was released as a single a few weeks before the rest. It’s about “running towards alcohol and abandoning your lover.” She brought it to her friend Eric Yaremko after writing the first verse and chorus and then not knowing where to take the song, which she says happens to her a lot.
“I cried the first time I heard what he’d written for the second verse.”
Also, fun fact: the line of the chorus I just don’t know how to let you go was not the original line. It was you won’t see me tomorrow when you get home. Before figuring that out, she says she’d play it at shows and, “I was just like, it doesn’t feel right. It felt bland.”

The second track, Strawberry Lipstick,

is quite literally the most heartbreaking cutesy song I’ve ever heard. To see the signs of infidelity and just wash them away to not cause a stir, and then right into “called you to make sure, that you made it home safe from work” and “maybe I’m hard to love.” Tayler I can’t!!! I could cry. I did cry.
If you only listen to one song on this EP, please make it this one.

About the third track, Salad Rolls,

she says, “it’s just a silly song about making dinner by yourself. And it’s sad because you wish you were making it with the person you once loved. It’s lonely and you’re doing your dishes and you’re like ‘ok, I have less dishes to wash, which is great.. but I wish you were washing dishes with me and we could be falling in love.’ and it’s like awww darn but yeah just a silly little sad song.”
Folger’s really does taste so much better when it’s your lovers’ favourite coffee (red flag tbh BUT HINDSIGHT IS 20/20 BABES!!!)

The EP ends on a high note with Spark Back

Tayler’s in love again… and it’s going way better this time. Inspired by that one time she went to therapy (literally just the one time). “She told me I needed to find my spark and get it back, and I was like.. you’re so right. I need to do that.”
It’s about my current boyfriend, so it’s kind of a diss track – YOU SUCK HE’S AWESOME!”

Tayler Grace’s next performance

will be at Felice Cafe on October 26th. These curated concert series shows tend to sell out so you should buy tickets like now, here.

It took me so long to get this piece out but I am not upset that it gave me a reason to revisit Tayler’s voice frequently over the last 5 months (omg). It’s a beautiful body of work and by the time she left my house that day, I felt like I knew her. She is expressive and excitable and sometimes it’s nice to just sit and talk shit with the girlies.

Bye 🙂

Bad Buddy @ Soho in Edmonton, AB May 25/24

Posted on by Brizsa

Written & Photographed by Brizsa Pedroso

I worked a show at Felice Cafe last Saturday night and thought I was going to miss this. But then Bad Buddy shared that their set time was 10:45PM!! And tbh sleep didn’t seem all that important suddenly.

I’m a newer fan after discovering their self-titled 2020 debut album in early 2023. Someone shared an instagram story with ‘Stupid Girl’ playing in the background. It got my attention, so I looked them up and then (true to my nature) I became the most obnoxious person to be around for at least 2 weeks. I was listening to it around the house, in my ears on every dog walk, in the car, and for literally hours on repeat at the cafe. Soon everyone around me knew about Bad Buddy and that is my gift to you.

BAD BUDDY II release party

Soho has a nice elevated stage and really great sound. It was my first time there. I think everyone should wear earplugs to EVERY show but I will say, this venue is known to be particularly loud (as in a couple people made sure to mention it to me before I went) so please be smart and protect your hearing!

I stood right at the front with my friend and my god did I DANCE. They played some of my favourites ever; Hunters, Fine Hunniez (!!! they didn’t play this last time I saw them and omg), mixed in with some new songs. They’ve been sharing the cover of their new album (Bad Buddy II) all over instagram but I haven’t seen a release date, so when I saw it sitting there at the merch booth I figured… they forgot to put it on Tidal. It wouldn’t be the first time I was left out.

BUT NO

It’s a pre-release. One of those you-gotta-be-there things and BITCH, I WAS THERE AND I HAVE IT AND IT’S REALLY DAMN GOOD.

Anyway. Pictures. I had my old Fuji X-H1 with a 23mm f2 lens and yes, I stood in one spot the whole time. Their set had pink lighting and y’all know I like a little challenge:

Love you! Bye!

New song, ‘Daylight’ by Roll The Bones – OUT NOW!

Posted on by Brizsa

I drive 3 minutes across my neighborhood and end up at the cuuuutest little green house to hangout at a Roll The Bones band rehearsal. They’re in the basement, and I can hear them as I walk up to meet a guy that looks as lost as me at the front door.

They’re trying out a new guitar player. His name is Joe, he is very polite, and I have no idea if he passed the test that day. We decide they probably can’t hear us so we wait. I’m awkward so I think I talked the whole time. 

Finally, Bri opens the door with a corgi at her feet and welcomes us in. The house is just as cute inside! 

I’m here because they’re releasing a new single called Daylight “in the next few weeks”, but mostly because I just think they’re cool, and we should talk about them.

Nash Calvert, Maxwell Evans, Bri Huot, Mark Boer of Roll The Bones

So, I’m sweating in their basement

and I realize I forgot my earplugs even after being reminded to bring them! Thankfully, they had some to give me. But if you’re reading this right now – you are not too cool for hearing loss! Please use earplugs! At every show! Hearing protection is hot!!

After playing through a few songs that I recognize, they decide they’re ready to sit and chat for a bit. We go upstairs and, daringly, out the back door.
But this is Edmonton. The mosquitos are too much!

We end up sat at the kitchen table and, seriously – who’s house is this? It is actually adorable. Wish I took a picture of them around that table. Missed opportunity.

Roll The Bones started as a duo

with Maxwell Evans singing & playing guitar, and the “best guitarist in the band” on drums, Mark Boer. Meeting how regular people meet – by nerding out over each other’s gear. Mark was not a drummer but says, “someone had to do it,” after they had tried out some actual drummers, but decided they were just giving too much… talent, I suppose.
“There’s some truth to that. Roll The Bones is guitar and vocals, it is not a drum band,” says Max.

They  were a duo for a while, but then brought in a bass player, and then a second guitar. When recording these singles, it was just the four of them. If you’ve seen them live recently, you know there is a very important piece missing there.

Roll The who? That’s Bri Huot’s band, right?

Bri is the band’s newest member – her first time performing with them being at that same show earlier in the year at Temple. They’re all quick to let me know that she has completely transformed their sound.

She’d been to every show, was dating Mark, and during rehearsals, she was hanging out upstairs. “I was upstairs sewing and singing the songs to myself. I’d just sing all the harmonies,” she says.
One day, Mark thought the band could benefit from a rehearsal with her and invited her down to join them. “Bri has great rhythm, she’s a great person to have on your team, and she can harmonize with anyone. And it felt so good,” he says. 
And let’s be real – those three part harmonies and her energy with that tambourine are the only reason I’m sitting in this kitchen.
She doesn’t want to make a big deal of it, but seems proud to sometimes be the one woman on a bill, representing and bringing the fucking energy.

In the recordings

all vocals are sung by Maxwell, and they’re playing to a click track. Click tracks can be restrictive for a band that really favours live performance. “The thing is that Max as a player, is very indecisive with where he wants to take the rhythm. You have to be at his beck and call, always ready to speed it up. Or slow it down. That’s part of our charm and chemistry. I am mostly following him like just a fraction behind to see where he’s gonna go and just help facilitate it. But speeding up and slowing down is just part of our sound,” says Mark.

“Our recordings are good but our live performances are something else,” says Max.

“If people like the recorded versions, they’re going to come to a show and have their face melt off,” says Nash Calvert, their bass player.

I couldn’t agree more and I love that they all felt so passionately about that topic specifically. Their recordings are good because Roll The Bones’ songs are genuinely really good. That said, I can confirm my face did, in fact, melt off and you’d have to see them live to realllyyy understand the essence of Roll The Bones.

Their newest release, ‘Daylight’

is out now, October 9th, 2023. It’s about seeing someone across a crowded room, uncertain about where it could go but they’re gone before anything can truly happen. Inspired not by romantic comedies, but by simply being in many crowded rooms.

Max wrote it and  says that it quickly changed into what it is now after playing it through acoustically. “It was initially a lot slower and the chorus was very different. We completely modified the structure of the song together.”

It is another great song from the band, and if you’ve seen them live and appreciated their unique sound, you probably already know it.

What’s the plan for Roll The Bones?

“I think for right now – it’s just continuing the creative growth. We have this album done and, with this lineup, I’d like to get another EP out there. We just want the music out to more people and not staying stagnant. That’s pretty much the goal,” says Max. “I mean, fuck, a little tour would be cool, too!”

An album done? Does anyone know anything about this?

Make sure you give them a follow in Instagram, stream their music, and I’ll see you at their next show.

Love ya!