“When you’re aging, and those around you are aging – people get sick, and people die,” Kevin Drew says. “There’s no real way to convey your pain or grief without being self-indulgent within the high-five denial – but regardless of the personal details, it’s a reality.”

Aging, the third solo album from the co-founder of Toronto’s beloved indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene, was the inevitable title of Drew’s meditative new record – because he was living everything that comes with it.

Influenced by the passing of friends and mentors, as well as the health of friends and family, Aging brings together songs written over a decade marked by the signifiers of midlife – love, loss, and illness – all while wrestling with the hard truths of aging: How do you deal with the blunt-force impact of loss? What does it mean to look and feel different than you did before?

-

Joining Kevin Drew at the NAC is Zoon, a Hamilton-based musician! 

In the Ojibway language, the word Zoongide’ewin means “bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit.” It’s no wonder Daniel Monkman adopted Zoon as their musical moniker. They have spent the better part of their 28 years finding and channeling their strength to overcome such adversities as racism, poverty and addiction. 

On Zoon’s debut album, Bleached Wavves, they paint a message of hope and fortitude, lessons they learned studying the Seven Grandfather teachings after experiencing the lowest point of their life. Bleached Wavves is the first true document of what has been dubbed “moccasin-gaze,” a nickname for the amalgamation of Monkman’s shoegaze influences with traditional First Nations music.  

Bleached Wavves is notable not just for its breathtakingly inimitable sounds and giving birth to a newfangled subgenre (see “moccasin-gaze”), but also for its modest, resourceful creation, the sign of a true sonic genius-in-the-making.