Saturday Feb. 26 - Inverness County Centre for the Arts

Doors - 8:00PM - showtime - 8:30PM

Tickets are $25 - No refunds will be issued unless event is cancelled based on the direction of the NS Health Authority. Proof of full vaccination is required for entry.

Keeper E

Arriving fully formed with her debut EP, the bedroom pop artisan Keeper E. turns her classical music background into something that’s equal parts old-soul wisdom and contemporary performance: It searches. It questions. It laments. It hopes. Born Adelle Elwood in Nova Scotia, she picked up the violin at three, and sat at the piano for the first time the following year. It was in the middle of her classical piano performance degree, at Mount Allison University in the tiny marsh-side arts haven of Sackville, New Brunswick, that she began composing diary-like folk songs about life and love. In school she practiced Bach, Debussy, and Bartok, and in her leisure time she sketched out her own melodies on acoustic guitar.

Once she began recording the album’s seven songs—which are self-produced with the skill and confidence of a veteran engineer—her sound began to change, layering synths, beats, and effects with her clean and sincere voice at the centre. If you combined the bare honesty of Mitski, the adventurous production of Vampire Weekend, and the vibe of Sylvan Esso, you’d get something close to Keeper E.

The lead single, “Please Don’t Tell Me,” begins with a quiet drone and gentle beat before a darker, more insistent synth arrives on the chorus: “You are so distracting,” she laments to an unnamed love. “It’s about the very first stages of falling in love with someone,” she says, “and all the really good feelings that come with that and all the overwhelming feelings that come after that.”

It's a perfect introduction to Keeper E., a distillation of the album’s many moods in four minutes—the song hops between wide-eyed optimism on the verses to thoughtful concern on the choruses, threading in snaps and oohs as the lyrics oscillate from delirium to fear. “I think that I’m the most serious woman to call herself a silly girl,” she sings, in amongst lines about climate change, capitalism, and love, so much love. Paired with natural imagery—sparrows, flowers, leaves, rivers—that evokes her home on the east coast of Canada, Elwood offers down-to-earth honesty and big, philosophical ideas in equal measure.

waants

Drawing inspiration from Rostam’s shift from indie band songwriter/producer to solo artist and electropop’s current vanguard, waants is Adam Warren’s most sonically expansive and most pop effort yet. The new album, Love U Forever, marks his debut as a solo performer.

For nearly a decade, Warren was the singer, songwriter, producer, and creative driving force behind the beloved Halifax indie-pop band Glory Glory. A DIY outfit for most of their career, the trio earned critical acclaimed both at home and abroad, performing at premier festivals and international showcases. When the group dissolved in 2016, Warren dove headfirst into studio work, traveling between Halifax and New York City to mentor with Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, The Strokes), who would become his studio collaborator for a brand new project called waants.

Combining a deep affinity for bubble gum pop, an education and appreciation for the avant garde, and a proclivity for left-of-centre dance music, the music is a distillation of Warren’s vast spectrum of influences. The debut album from waants pulls on these threads to deliver seven tracks perfect for social-distance dance parties or late-night online rabbit holes.

Album opener “Hopeless” crashes in with a 90s-esque synth line, arpeggiated melodies, and a chorus that stands toe to toe with the indelible hits of MGMT or Phoenix. “I Won't Be Sad" presents a bouncy and hopeful piano-driven track that embraces the quirk of autotune and summer sheen tones, while “When Summer Comes” takes a more minimalist approach leaning into simple layers of vocal samples, tropical steel drums, and hand claps. On “Keep Careful” (which features Emilee Sorrey, songwriter and frontperson of the acclaimed shoegaze dreampop act Sorrey, on lead vocals) a funked up post-punk bass line, reverb-soaked toms, and plinky guitars underscore a retro dance vibe that would find itself right at home alongside deep cuts from Robyn's Honey.

Throughout, the music’s shimmering sonic allure is juxtaposed with lyrics couched in a self-conscious starkness that attempt to navigate the difficult path of finding hope and celebration amid unshakeable anxiety. Joy and possibility meet existential dread at every turn, earnestly striving to conjure positivity in the face of debilitating uncertainty.

Love U Forever is slated for release on July 16, 2021 and is available via LHM Records.