SXSW 2024

"Merv xx Gotti is the award-winning Canadian multi-genre artist behind solo singer-songwriter dream-pop project, ""Guitar Songs”. He is also the singer of hip-hop/R&B duo, Samurai Champs, as well as indie-emo band, GHOSTFORM.  Additionally, he serves as Artistic Director of award-winning Canadian DJ & artist collective, Trifecta Sound Co.

His latest project, ""Guitar Songs,"" explores a more minimal sound, emphasizing androgynous, dreamy vocals to deliver vulnerable, sincere songwriting. The first single from the project, “Jiujitsu”, was the biggest syndication pick-up in the past 5 years for a Saskatchewan song as it was played by 21 CBC stations across the country. Online, singles from “Guitar Songs” have already amassed over 50,000 streams on Spotify and other streaming platforms.

The debut EP release for ""Guitar Songs"" is scheduled for Spring 2024."
 

It doesn’t take long to get to know Marissa Burwell. In her blindingly personal work, Burwell writes about childhood, love, vertigo, and snow. With her captivating warm vocals and sharp prose, she effortlessly weaves an enchanting indie sound that flows between folk and rock, traversing sensuous melodies to exhilaratingly raucous moments.

Hailing from the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Marissa Burwell made her remarkable debut with a self-titled EP in 2019. The overwhelmingly positive response to her EP opened doors to international opportunities. In 2022 Marissa proudly unveiled her debut full-length album, “Bittersweet”, which showcased her warm, summery voice and wry wit beneath its indie-folk exterior. She has graced the stage at renowned events like Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival, the New Colossus Festival in NYC, and multiple Canadian festivals including Breakout West, NXNE, and Pop Montreal.

Burwell’s latest EP Either Way, released via DevilDuck Records in September 2023, features the clearest synthesis of Burwell’s spectrum of musical sensibilities yet with moments of warm musical tones featuring thick harmonies wrapped around guitars and gentle drum beats while other moments showcase cathartic bursts of alternative rock, erupting in dizzying crescendos of hammering pianos.

Golden-era taste, future-era based. Tylenol 3 for capitalist migraines. Resistance based-debauchery for disaffected baddies. Rooted in the tradition of Black American resistance arts, Super Duty Tough Work is known for their scathing wit and thorough analysis, pushing their radical politic of revolution, party and bullshit, on record and on stage. Inspired by the dirty jazz sample sound of 90s east coast hip hop and revered for their methodically curated sets, SDTW mix laidback rap action and razor-sharp delivery with hypnotic loops and effortless transitions, keeping audiences on their toes and excited for what’s next. These Polaris Prize nominees excel as much live on stage as they do in the studio with their fresh take on tradition in a movement where loops are slayed and jewels are tools of the trade.

Sam Tudor is an individual person, but also a project involving a large group of friends across Canada. The underpinnings of the songs are genre-less; jazz players join forces with Eno inspired beats while acoustic guitars meet distorted synths. What unifies the project is Tudor’s distinct voice: a sandy, melancholic narrator, leaning in close with confessional and cathartic writing. The band’s live show is a communal affair, moving from hushed tones to bombastic walls of sound and back again. The Georgia Straight calls the band “a gem, with a penchant for everything left field” while VICE Magazine describes the project as  “a darkened digital space… embellished with jazz, baroque, and electronic touches”. Their new album, Two Half Words, was released in May 2021.

so picture the chatter of a million talkers and then pan sideways to the corner where you notice the sneaky little poet-producer Lev Snowe, who's always observing and scribbling down songs as a curious means of getting closer to the soul. And this prairie kid maybe shows some sonic traces of nostalgia—perhaps that final homestretch after being gone a while—imurred in cosmic synth sways and the glittery sunlight of existence as the drums kick real hard and knock you back again into that familiar fact-consciousness—only this time there is no turning from the psychedelic hypnosis that now distorts the room and draws you into those lines, those words, the ones that maybe linger on in your mind like Eliot—at the still point of the turning world where Lev is too, recording a dazzling scene from his basement studio—that unlikely universe which sparks those future triumphs and freedoms of our time together. And maybe it's at this point you realize that's exactly where you want to be—because even on that tired road home, there are still dreams to be had. They await you. Lev often describes his songwriting as “just playing a part in a greater tradition of writing.” To catch perfect words from the sky, combine them with earthly guitars, and instill them into their own point in history doesn't use a formula or algorithm: It requires patience, and restraint, but its outcome is maybe what nabs your attention and sets Lev forth on his journey.