BEHIND THE BEAT'S HOMEPAGE HIGHLIGHT
BY BRENESSA ROACH | FEBRUARY 1 2023
When creating the homepage cover, I wanted the landing page to showcase a few artists since my blog is a platform to share artists and a place where I can support underrated artists. The homepage is filled with Canadian artists because I’m Canadian and I think there are a lot of local artists that deserve to be heard worldwide.
All 15 of these artists that I have highlighted on my homepage are artists that I support a lot and have supported me pre-launch. As well, some of these artists are the ones that inspired my love for A&R and talent scouting. So, in this post I will be sharing the names of each artist featured with a little backstory of why I put them on my blog. This is gonna be a short blog but hopefully you get some great music out of it.
Eric Ryan is an artist that I discovered within the first few weeks of my first official time doing A&R and I have supported his music ever since. He is also an angel (pun intended) who was super supportive of the creation of this blog. “Angel” is one of my favourite songs of Eric’s so I had to feature it. In the near future, I will feature him on another blogpost so you will get to read more about him then. Stay tuned!
Listen to “Angel” by Eric Ryan, Agapé Love and Kid Renaissance on Spotify:
Check out Eric Ryan, Agapé Love and Kid Renaissance on Instagram: @ericryanpascual, @byagapelove and @kid.renaissance
The High Loves are a super talented band that I have watched grow since 2020. They were the first band/artist that I had ever worked with in a studio back in 2020 right before COVID-19 when I was in my second year of University. That class was actually a Music Business course that made me realize I wanted to do A&R so, of course I had to highlight The High Loves on my homepage for being contributors to the start of my career. If you’d like to read more about them, I featured them on the blog post titled “10 Artists You Should Be Listening To”.
Listen to “Call Me Back” by The High Loves on Spotify:
Check out The High Loves on Instagram: @thehighloves
Malaika Khadijaa is a lovely friend of mine that I have gotten to know and work with in the last two years. In February 2021, a few classmates and myself created The Airtime Project as our fourth year thesis project. This was a project to help Toronto artists record a single in a professional studio and film an accompanying music video with a production company. Malaika was one of the four artists that we chose to work with and she is super talented and hardworking. Her music video is not out yet but, as soon as all of our videos are out, I will be making a blog post all about The Airtime Project, so please stay tuned.
Listen to “Need me” by Malaika Khadijaa on Spotify:
Check out Malaika Khadijaa on Instagram: @malaikakhadjiaa
Dimi is another artist I listened to very early on in my A&R career. This song is so underrated in my opinion. As well, I really love the cover art and felt it fitted well with the other album covers. This song has a very similar vibe to The Weeknd, who is one of my favourite R&B artists.
Listen to “When You’re Lonely” by Dimi and anders on Spotify:
Check out Dimi and anders on Instagram: @dimiandic and @anders
Nissa Seych is an artist that I think has a really unique sound as she mixes r&b/soul with Afro sounds. Her music is really catchy, in particular I love this song because it’s a blend of different genres and her voice is so powerful and colourful.
Listen to “10/10” by Nissa Seych on Spotify:
Check out Nissa Seych on Instagram: @nissaseych
Ley’s voice is so beautiful and this song in particular is my favourite because of the intro with the guitar and her little run before she sings her verse. I think I came across Ley for the first time through mutual followers and I have listened to her since. You can find out more about her in upcoming article, so stay tuned!
Listen to “Bestmistake” by Ley Vara on Spotify:
Check out Ley Vara on Instagram: @leysaprocky
earth2zoe is an artist I randomly stumbled upon one day because of the song “amnesia”. Ever since, I started following her and waiting patiently for new music! She is someone who was so supportive of my blog as well. You can read more about her on my first post “23 Canadian Artists To Listen To In 2023”.
Listen to “amnesia” by earth2zoe on Spotify:
Check out earth2zoe on Instagram: @earth2zoe
Pino is also an artist that I have been listening to since the start of my A&R career and it has been so exciting to watch him grow. His music is so amazing and so underrated. He is someone who I think has so much potential so please stay tuned for a future article with more about him.
Listen to “don’t call me” by Pino on Spotify:
Check out Pino on Instagram: @itspino
Firstly, I love the title of this song. Secondly, Zion is incredible and his lyrics always hit. With the start of the new year, he has decided to go by the artist name of Kuiper. He is coming out with a song called “Forget” on February 10 so please stay tuned for that. As well, stay tuned for the future blog where I feature him!
Listen to “when the roses have thorns, cornflowers start to cry” by Zion Kim on Spotify:
Check out Kuiper on Instagram: @kuiper_xiii
Nilo is an incredible artist, as well as an incredible performer. I first heard of him when my classmate was working with him. Now, if anyone knows me, they know that I had tried to see Nilo perform at a function at my University and unfortunately Nilo was unable to attend last minute. Thankfully, Nilo had me on the guest list for the GSoul concert in Toronto and I was able to not only meet him but hear him perform live. It was amazing to see how engaging he was during the performance and after the show when fans came to see him. If you would like to read more about Nilo, check out the article 23 Canadian Artists To Listen To In 2023.
Listen to “Nicotiana” by Nilo Blues on Spotify:
Check out Nilo Blues on Instagram: @bluelikenilo
These three artists; biosphere, Ethan Low and Koven Wei, I came to know about through a good friend of mine Amanda, who posted the BTS of their music video for this song “BLASTOFF!”. It was really amazing to see her photographs so I obviously had to listen to the song and it was on repeat for the longest time. A few months later in September 2022, I got to see them open for JUNNY which was crazy. They were so hyped up and it was really cool to see them perform live and hopefully in the future, I can see them perform live again.
Listen to “BLASTOFF!” by biosphere, xiv and Koven Wei on Spotify:
Check out biosphere, Ethan Low and Koven Wei on Instagram: @_biospheremusic_ and @_ethanlow and @kovenwei
Altameda, I came across randomly one day and I slowly started loving all of their music. This song in particular is one of my favourites and I really love the cover art. I featured Altameda in the blog post “10 Indie Artists You Should Be Listening To” so check it out for more information.
Listen to “Wish Upon The Weather” by Altameda on Spotify:
Check out Altameda on Instagram: @altameda
Ivytide is another artist I came across while scouting one day early on in my A&R journey. I like this song a lot and it fit the aesthetic I was going for which is why I included it. As well, Ivytide falls in the indie pop and chill genre which is one of my favourite genres so naturally I just love all of their music. You can expect me to mention them again in a future blog post.
Listen to “Undone” by Ivytide on Spotify:
Check out Ivytide on Instagram: @ivytide
The Free Label is probably one of the coolest and most unique Canadian bands I have heard of. They fall under the funk genre infused with other elements and something about them is so nostalgic but so modern. I absolutely love this song. They will be featured in a blog in the near future as well.
Listen to “All Night” by The Free Label on Spotify:
Check out The Free Label on Instagram: @freelabellove
Lyle is another artist I came across through mutual followers. Actually, the first song I ever listened to of his was this one. Lyle’s lyrics really stood out to me when I first started listening to him and I think he does an amazing job telling a story through his music. He will be featured soon in an upcoming post, so please stay tuned for that.
Listen to “what if i had told you” by Lyle Kam on Spotify:
Check out Lyle Kam on Instagram: @lylekam
You can find all 15 of the songs mentioned in this article on our Spotify playlist below:
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