Absent Sounds Archive

In today's episode of Absent Sounds, we sit with Alex and the world he built as Tōth. His latest record, And the Voice Said has been a compass for me these past few months- it imposes no answers on listeners, but pulls you into the space needed to hear truth behind the noise. Almost like a mirror. Also! Tucked in the episode: a live rendition of a surprise song from the record, performed by Alex and Allegra Heart. It's a small gift for those who stay until the end. We're grateful for Alex's openness and for you. As always, keep the conversation going, and be well. You can find the full episode transcript here, and more at cjam.ca

Twen are Jane Fitzsimmons and Ian Jones rock duo who have spent the better part of a decade booking their own tours out of a converted van. You can feel their fiercely independent method permeating each riff: they write, engineer, and mix everything themselves. Fate Euphoric, their 2025 album, is the one we kept returning to on our daily drives without getting tired. Sprawling across garage rock, psych, and melodic pop, the record draws on the medieval Rota Fortunae (The Wheel of Fortune) as a frame for examining fate when the world feels like it's spinning out. We spoke with Jane and Ian while the band was on an extensive North American tour. In this episode, we play the album in full and talk about intuition as survival, the logic of doing things unconventionally, and why creation might be the closest thing to feeling godlike.Find the full interview transcript, and more here!

Brendan Wright has been making music as Tiberius for the better part of a decade, quietly, in bedrooms and basements in Allston-Brighton, and then slowly, with a merry band of friends-turned-family. Troubadour is a record about love, loss, and limerence in between. About the specific shame that gets baked into you before you have the language for it, and the ways we measure ourselves against false scaled. By the time we spoke, the record already felt like it was made by someone they'd slightly outgrown. And by the time this has reached you, probably even more so. But that distance didn't make the record any less true. If anything, it made it more.Transcript available here

Hannah Frances is a composer, vocalist and guitarist, whose second album was one that has literally been spinning on repeat in our car. Spanning progressive rock, avant-folk, and jazz, the record navigates the ongoing, non-linear work of healing, with arrangements featuring contributions from Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear. Weajue spoke with Hannah at the tail end of her six-show tour, in Toronto at the Baby G.In this episode, we play the album in full and talk about uncovering what needed to be felt. Also airing in the second half of the program: Humanhood by the Weather Station, her seventh studio album, released January 2025 on Fat Possum.Full transcript available here!

Graham Johnson has been making music as quickly, quickly since before most people had the language for what he was doing. When we first encountered his music, I couldn’t describe to to anyone either. This conversation catches him in reflection of figuring out what comes next. I Heard That Noise is his most distilled record yet, with beats infused acoustic songs carrying production jump scares, built almost entirely in a windowless basement with red carpet and a knockdown ceiling he eventually put his fist through. We talked about the noise you surround yourself with so you don't have to be alone with your thoughts. About spending three years and one new laptop on a single song. About what it means to finish something that started as a different version of you, and learning to let it go.Transcript available here.

This week on Absent Sounds, we share a conversation with Mike Almquist: longtime manager, creative partner, and quiet architect behind the world of mewithoutYou. If you've ever let us play you music, you know we have mewithoutYou on almost every playlist. Saying "goodbye" (in the fullness of whatever the word really means) is nearly impossible. In this episode, we talk about how the band became a philosophy, and how something can end… without ever really ending. From early days of discovering A→B Life to [Untitled], Mike walks us through the life of mewithoutYou. At its core, this episode means a lot to us, and is one that we've held for a long time. We're so grateful he joined us, and that you care enough to keep listening. The transcript for the episode can be found here.

It's been four years since our first conversation with John, and this time we catch him in person during his stop in Madison Heights, MI for his Midwest tour supporting his new record.A lot has changed in four years, but the comfort his music brings his listeners has not. Unlike his other records, Joyful Noise is his most explicitly worship-focused project—yet it was the one that almost killed him to make.We talked about creative exhaustion and surrender. About the "embarrassment" of being a Christian artist. About bringing your anger and sorrow to God and a suffering savior who knows.It's a deeply honest and deeply human conversation and we're really thankful we got the chance to chat again because he is someone we look up to :)

It's officially December, which means its officially snowing season. So what better way to welcome in the cold than an interview with cult classic band, Snowing. We sat down with Willow Brazuk and JR back when the sun was still around at New Friends Fest in Toronto—their first time ever playing in Canada. Also joined by our friends Paul and Zac from Farron Keep, we talked about the wonder that was their debut/last record: I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted. The episode closes with music from Farron Keep's "The Weight of Rain" so tune in to hear it live on CJAM 99.1 FM Windsor-DetroitTranscript available here: deeandjue.me/absent-sounds