2026 kicks off the momentous 15th year of I Heart Hamilton! Let’s start with the first seasonal mix. Get cozy and turn up Winter 2026 ❄️
Are you a musician from Hamilton and the surrounding area? Let me know what you’re up to! I’m always looking for new local music to play on my weekly radio show on 93.3 CFMU!
AOIFE – “HIGH” [Listen]
Check out the live version from AOIFE and the band live from Supercrawl’s main stage!
Lost Faculty – “Out” [Listen]
From the band’s debut EP, TEMPER, out March 6th. Catch the release show in Hamilton that night at Corktown.
Thomas Duxbury and New Mother Nature – “Istanbul” [Listen]
The band’s first track of the year, which launches into their new era with more to come!
Katie Bulley – “Last of the Riot Grrrls” [Listen]
Taken from Katie Bulley’s fifth solo album, Untitled, recorded at Hazy Grove Recording Studio in Dundas.
Spookyguava – “WHENUGETBORED” [Listen]
A new pop punk banger from Spookyguava just dropped on Friday the 13th.
In All Fairness – “Trace” [Listen]
Emo pop rockers In All Fairness are back with an incredibly catchy new track.
Paulo Leon – “Cologne” [Listen]
The andthenyoudie crew always keeps us on our toes (and tapping our toes!) including the latest from Paulo Leon.
L-R Top: Arkells, Lost Faculty, AOIFE
L-R Middle: Alex Whorms, Floating Mansions, Thomas Duxbury
L-R Bottom: KTxKP, The Greenhouse Collective, Paulo Leon
Allegories – “The Next Life” [Listen]
Experimental duo Allegories blend in some shoegaze and indie rock with their latest track.
Bleach Dreamer – “Not Another Happy Ending” [Listen]
Although a veteran indie musician in the scene, Bleacher Dreamer is a brand new project, sharing their debut three-song EP, If You Even Care.
Floating Mansions – “Space And Time” [Listen]
A new local project on my radar, Floating Mansions start the year strong with their latest track.
Arkells – “Next Summer” [Listen]
Arkells are set to drop their new album, Between Us, on April 17th. Max Kerman says of their latest single, “This song is a nod to the beauty and the mystery of what might lay ahead, and an appreciation of how we got to today.”
James Favron – “Drift Away” (Gospel version) [Listen]
After catching James Favron on Supercrawl’s main stage last year, which also showcased a stellar group of musicians, I was pleased to hear this new version of “Drift Away” featuring Jazzmin Gray, Alliston Davis, Whitness, and Izzi Ahmed.
KTxKP – “Better” [Listen]
The latest bop with a message from the dynamic duo of Ktriggs and Kristen Prince.
The Greenhouse Collective – “Broken Dream (WTF)” [Listen]
Buddha Abusah, Roa, and Danny Smart make up new hip hop/pop rock project The Greenhouse Collective, bringing their influences together for their own fresh sound.
Jesse Adams – “March Madness” [Listen]
Pop singer songwriter Jesse Adams shared her new EP Love You Like I Do, made at the great Catherine North Studios with collaborators Emma Whale and Will Crann.
Garrett Lajoie – “Let You Down” feat. Alex Whorms [Listen]
Singer songwriter and musician Garrett Lajoie released his debut EP, Scary, last fall, and followed up with a new take on “Let You Down” as a duet with Alex Whorms.
Alex Whorms – “PARANOID!” [Listen]
Alex Whorms enters a new era with a first taste from her fifth EP. A louder, more pop punk-inspired track – and I’m looking forward to what’s next. Alex shares that “poking fun at my paranoid tendencies in this song has helped me take things a little less seriously and say what I actually mean – in music and in real life!”
Sarah Bellstedt – “Bad At Sleeping [Listen]
From the softer sounds of Sarah Bellstedt’s previous releases to a louder instrumentation with this new track, Sarah shares that she started writing this track “during the same liminal, otherworldly hours in which the song’s story takes place—hours where the veil is thin and anxiety, longing, existential fear, and joy all have room to coexist.”
Gareth Inkster – “Steeples” [Listen]
You can always expect a beautiful sonic experience from Gareth Inkster. With “Steeples,” the musician shares: “In an age when songs are getting increasingly shorter, contain fewer and fewer key-changes, and so many now don’t even have bridges – an age of shorter melodies, monochromatic harmony, and simple song-structure, I aim to insist and demonstrate that there is so much power within music beyond simple entertainment.”
Scott Orr – “Stay Awake on the Phone” [Listen]
Scott Orr shares Portfolio, a retrospective on an impressive discography that I first started to discover during this blog’s start in 2011. The musician shares, “As an artist and producer, it’s a gift to hear how these songs have changed over the past fifteen years, and how they’ve stayed the same.”
Jack Stearns-Ley – “Dottie’s Sketchbook” [Listen]
Another new artist on my radar, musician and singer-songwriter Jack Stearns-Ley, shared Dottie’s Sketchbook in November, the follow up to 2023’s album BAY STREET GHOSTS.
