TORONTO UNDERGROUND PT. 1
BY BRENESSA ROACH | JULY 6, 2024
Introducing our new series “Toronto Underground”. This is a series where we will share all the amazing artists from Toronto and the surrounding areas (GTA = Greater Toronto Area) no matter what their monthly listeners are.
Current Monthly Listeners: 3.3K
Laettner Calderon, also known as L8NR, is a Filipino-Canadian Indie-Pop & R&B singer and TikToker. Since he started posting TikToks in August 2019, he has gained over 381.7K followers. He made his debut on December 8th, 2023 with the single “wys?” which is his most popular song with over 26.7K streams on Spotify. Following his debut, he released the single “prettyboy” on December 22nd.
His first release of 2024 was on January 13th for the single “missin’ u”, followed by “lovely night” on March 22nd. This was the single we discovered him by. On April 12th, 2024, he released the single “i’m in love”. On June 8th, 2024, he performed during Canadian Music Week alongside BNZA and S1NE, which you can read about here. His latest release “Thank God We Tried” came out on June 21st. We love L8NR’s music and stage performance and we cannot wait to see his musical growth.
Listen to “wys?” by L8NR on Spotify:
Check out L8NR on Instagram: @laettner
Current Monthly Listeners: 82.2K
Koven Wei is a Chinese-Canadian Hyperpop/Punk artist from a suburb area outside of Toronto called Markham. His first release was a cover of Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood with Fruitypoppin. This release has over 3 million streams. He made his solo debut on November 27th, 2020 with the single “Endless”. Followed by his debut, he released “Sky Waltz” on July 9th, 2021 and “OMT” on August 6th.
He didn’t release any music in 2022, but he was an opening act for JUNNY’s BLANC North American tour stop in Toronto. He returned from his musical hiatus on February 10th, 2023 with the single “EVERYTHING IS RED”. This is his most popular single with almost 1.8 million streams. He also opened for GEMINI’s Still Blue Tour stop in Toronto alongside Ethan Low. He released “BEFORE” with HNATA in March, “LIPSTICK” with Aleebi in May and “LATE NIGHT TALKS” in June. All of these songs were included on his debut EP BAMBINO which came out on August 4th, 2023. Additionally, Koven opened for brb.’s Toronto show in September 2023.
His first release of 2024 was on February 16th for the single “ROADRUNNER” followed by “LEMONANDLIME” on March 22nd. He then released “HEY!” on May 31st. His latest release “ONESHOT” is a collaboration with Reikko and came out on June 28th, 2024. Watching Koven grow since 2022 has been amazing and we cannot wait to see him grow more.
Listen to “EVERYTHING IS RED” by Koven Wei on Spotify:
Check out Koven Wei on Instagram: @kovenwei
Current Monthly Listeners: 692
Ashavari is an Indian-Canadian singer-songwriter hailing from Mumbai and currently residing in Brampton, Canada—a suburb of Toronto. Ashavari’s musical style is very diverse ranging from Alternative R&B, Dark Pop, Punk, Neo-Soul with elements of Electronic, Grunge and Jazz Fusion. She made her debut on October 18th, 2019 with the single “Pink Afternoon”. Followed by her debut, she released “Frustrated” on November 6th, 2020 and “Sweeter” on August 13th, 2021. All three of these singles were included on her debut EP BitterSweet which released on November 12th, 2021.
In 2022, Ashavari released two singles; “In The Deep” in May and “No Angel” in October. She also performed during Elijah Rosario’s Tour in Seattle in September and in Toronto in October. On March 31st, 2023, she collaborated with Dante Riverz for the single “Feel The Same”. Followed by that release, she collaborated with Simon Servida on the single “Regina” which came out in May 2023.
On June 2nd, 2023, she released the single “Losing My Composure”. She also performed at DESIFEST in Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square. Her latest solo release was on November 3rd, 2023 for the single “Dreamers”, which is our personal favourite. So far for 2024, Ashavari collaborated with Caj Flow for the single “CIRCLES!” which just came out this week on July 3rd. Additionally, Ashavari will be performing at our first artist showcase on August 13th, 2024 in Toronto, so make sure to get tickets here.
Listen to “Dreamers” by Ashavari on Spotify:
Check out Ashavari on Instagram: @ashavari__
Current Monthly Listeners: 28.8K
Avry is a Vancouver-born Indie-Pop artist based in Toronto. On April 22nd, 2022, he released the single “Favours” which was in collaboration with JON VINYL. This is his most popular song with a little over 1 million streams on Spotify. He made his official debut on November 25th, 2022 with his debut EP Bloom which includes 9 singles. This is how we discovered Avry by.
On April 27th, 2023, he released the single “No Sound” followed by “Pillows” on June 1st and “Winter” on July 20th. On September 1st, 2023, he collaborated with harper on the single “Call Me On Your Way”. All of these singles were included on his first album Fields Of Honey which came out on October 6th, 2023.
Avry started 2024 off with the release of the single “Run Into Me” in February followed by “Fabrics” in April. His latest release “Nerds Rope” from June 26th is so beautiful and is one of our new favourite songs from Avry’s discography. We are hoping one day to see Avry live in Toronto.
Listen to “Nerds Rope” by Avry on Spotify:
Check out Avry on Instagram: @avry.music
Current Monthly Listeners: 6.6K
Sahati is an Alternative-Pop, New-Wave, Indie singer, songwriter, producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist originally from Kosovo and currently based in Toronto. She made her debut on April 11th, 2020 with the single “Rinise”. Following her debut, she didn’t release any music in 2021, but came back in April 2022 with the release of the single “anything”. This was a pre-release track for her debut EP Post-Kid which came out on April 29th, 2022. Her last release of 2022 was in October for the single “For Tonight”. Additionally in 2022, Sahati opened for Dua Lipa at Sunny Hill Festival and also performed at Vancouver Mural Festival and Pop Montreal in 2023.
In March 2023, she was featured on CHEEYA’s single “im gonna kill you”. Her only release in 2023 was on September 1st for the single “2 GOOD 2 YOU”.
Her first and latest release of 2024 was on April 26th for the single “TELL ME”.
Listen to “TELL ME” by Sahati on Spotify:
Check out Sahati on Instagram: @itsahati
Current Monthly Listeners: 220
noah. is an Alternative/Indie-pop singer and songwriter from Toronto. He made his debut on July 22nd, 2022 with the single “Borderlines”, followed by “Pickup” on November 25th, 2022. In 2023, he released “Ghosts” on March 31st, “I’ll Be There” on August 31st and “Empty Hands” on November 3rd. “Empty Hands” is the song that got us listening to noah. and is also his second most popular song with almost 3K streams on Spotify.
So far in 2024, noah. released one single “On Your Own” on February 29th, 2024. This is our personal favourite song of his so far.
Listen to “On Your Own” by noah. on Spotify:
Check out noah. on Instagram: @noah.vsthewurld
Check out our “TORONTO UNDERGROUND” playlist on Spotify:
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