We Speak Alternative

Ruby Waters Announces SUPPRE$$IONS, and “PAY AS YOU GO” Shows Why She Is Next

Published

49 minutes ago

November 9, 2026

Ruby Waters. Photo by Lissyelle Laricchia.

Ruby Waters has never fit cleanly into one box, and her new album is not about to start. The 2x JUNO-nominated Canadian singer-songwriter has announced her sophomore album SUPPRE$$IONS, out January 15, 2027 on Wet Records Inc., and its new single “PAY AS YOU GO” is out now, a breezy indie rock song about the financial pressure almost everybody is feeling right now.

The release arrives as Waters plays a private showcase at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn on Tuesday, November 10, and it follows her breakout track “WET T-SHIRT,” which has surpassed 11 million Spotify streams and became a Canadian Alternative radio hit.

The Song Everybody Can Relate To

“PAY AS YOU GO” is a bouncy indie rock tune about the financial limitations that can keep a person feeling stuck. “It’s about the struggle everyone is f***ing feeling in this economy,” says Waters, who spent her early adult life couch-surfing while making money as a busker on the streets of Toronto.

The song’s pop surface carries something heavier underneath. “The song’s pop veneer is wrapped in a melancholy awareness, anchored by Waters’ compelling voice let loose across miles of gauzy melodies,” praises Beats Per Minute in its exclusive premiere of the video. “And while there’s more than a bit of cynicism laying beneath its polished veneer, the song never falls into outright hopelessness, proving that the burdens we face can be overcome, and we can maintain our momentum forward.”

Beats Per Minute also wrote that Waters “folds together elements of dream pop, R&B, alt rock, and soul into a perspective of fluid musical impressionism.”

Listen to “PAY AS YOU GO” here.

Watch the music video here.

An Album About Letting Go

Rattled by the definition of “to suppress,” Waters poured her feelings into the 20-song album. “It’s the act of holding back or preventing something from developing, functioning, being seen, or being expressed,” reads Waters. She adds, “The album is about hanging on to old habits that prevent me from becoming a better version of myself. It’s also about the pressures of being seen by the world and wanting to hide like a little crab underwater in a safe little shell, being weighed down, almost underwater, by suppressed emotions.”

“I’ve been dealing with addiction and mental health issues for a very long time,” admits Waters. “This album stems from wanting to change or being in limbo between wanting to change and building up the courage to do so. Learning to accepting all of these feelings, wants, and needs instead of suppressing them.”

Written mostly from her home in the BC mountains and recorded over the last two years, SUPPRE$$IONS was made with longtime collaborators Sam Jackson Willows (The Beaches, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie), Harper (Burna Boy, Russ), TJ Whitelaw (John Legend, Syd), Zach Zanardo (Monowhales) and ALP (MSTRKFT, Death From Above 1979), with mastering by Alec Ness (Alabama Shakes, Sam Smith). The album honestly admits to many of the distractions and habits she has used to escape her real life: sex, drugs, nature, and rock’n’roll, and details her path away from some of them.

From Busking to the Big Stages

Raised in Ontario and now based in the mountains of British Columbia, Waters first found her voice performing at farmers markets and busking on the streets of Toronto, at one point paying her rent with what she earned singing. Her genre-blurring sound pulls from alternative rock, dream pop, R&B, soul and raw singer-songwriter confessionals, with Waters citing Rihanna and Nirvana as two artists who capture the opposing sides of her musical personality.

Since those early days she has toured internationally, performed at Osheaga and earned her second 2025 JUNO Award nomination for Alternative Album of the Year for What’s The Point. “WET T-SHIRT” reached No. 8 at Canadian Alternative radio, helping grow her audience to more than 800,000 monthly Spotify listeners. Ahead of the album, she also released the genre-blurring single “GET A GRIP,” a spiralling, synth-y dream pop track that floats on her dexterous and raspy vocals.

SUPPRE$$IONS is out January 15, 2027 on Wet Records Inc. “PAY AS YOU GO” is out now.

Follow Ruby Waters: www.rubywatersmusic.com

Darren Jessee Returns With Wistful New Single “Shoulder Season”

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2026

We Speak Media

Darren Jessee. Photo by Dustin Condren.

Darren Jessee has been the drummer behind Ben Folds Five and the songwriter behind Hotel Lights, and his new single sounds like a man deciding not to put the pen down. “Shoulder Season,” recorded by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, previews a forthcoming solo album due in 2027.

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five, Hotel Lights) is proud to present “Shoulder Season,” the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist’s brand new single lifted from his forthcoming solo album that will see a 2027 release. Recorded by GRAMMY-winning musician and producer Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Kurt Vile), “Shoulder Season” traces the paths people chart in and around our lives over the years. The track also invites close listening, which in turn draws attention to Jessee’s evocative lyrics as well as the nuanced instrumental performances he and Kaufman captured on tape. “‘Shoulder Season’ … I liked the words by themselves,” Jessee says. “They suggest perseverance and resilience during a season of time. The term shoulder season means a transitional time of year.” Watch the music video for “Shoulder Season” on YouTube.

Darren Jessee was in a period of personal upheaval. His mother had recently passed away after a short illness. He was also touring as a drummer for the Americana act Chatham County Line, a gig that he enjoyed but one that kept him from performing much as a solo artist. And then his label rep at Bar/None, home of Jessee’s last seven albums, retired. In the wake of it all, Jessee found himself wondering if it was perhaps time to set aside the burden of managing a songwriting career and simply lean into his work as a drummer. “But then I just kept finding these songs and enjoying them,” he says of his forthcoming solo showcase that symbolizes a new beginning for the veteran musician — an organic, hushed and transcendent sound very much inspired by the blizzard that the album was recorded in.

Stay tuned for more music and information on Darren Jessee’s forthcoming solo album to be announced in the coming weeks. Jessee will be making the following appearances in November:

November 12 — Wake Forest, NC — Wake Forest Listening Room

November 18 — Greensboro, NC — Flat Iron (with Natalie Jane Hill)