We Speak Music
Vancouver Singer-Songwriter Todd Kowaluk Shares New Single ‘Enough Is Enough’
Vancouver singer-songwriter Todd Kowaluk has been working on his unique brand of indie folk for a number of years, using 90s-influenced indie rock and pop with a higher message since his debut EP Love Can Set Us Free.
He returns with his brand-new single ‘Enough Is Enough’. A track which he credits a significant degree of importance. For him, it represents a milestone in his life, musically, spiritually and career-wise. He had the catchy, Paul Westerberg-esque indie pop guitar riff back in the days of Love Can Set Us Free, but set it aside for when he cracked the conceptual code of the old adage ‘enough is enough’.
‘Enough Is Enough’ is a protest song with a storyteller’s perspective. It starts with that fatalistic phrase and turns it into a question and a call for people to be honest with their hearts, with each other, and with, well, infinity. If love can set us free why constantly test it with boundaries? The pondering of all these questions is set within the backward (chorus first) structure of the song and Kowaluk’s personal experience with his own questioning nature.
“For me, as a songwriter, the question I kept going back to was ‘how does this song end’? That questioning made me want to evolve the song somehow, Find a brighter ending, Hope for a new beginning, a higher version of myself. I wanted to be a better human being somehow and hopefully in the process a better songwriter.”
“There’s really not much traditional about this song, it starts with a chorus, and generally, songs don’t start with a chorus, It questions the rules and at the same time asks what is important about being human in this ever-changing world of ours. It’s a protest song.”
The track’s opening is a straightforward yet catchy acoustic guitar that combines elements of rock and pop with indie-folk flavor. A syncopated cadence is infused into the song by the kick-drum-driven beat, which enhances the vibrant auditory representation and overall feel.
Todd Kowaluk‘s vocals, which range from powerful savors to low-pitched, delicate timbres, are replete with a profoundly philosophical message about life in general and music in particular.
“People have asked me what motivates me to write and record music and I say I would like to have more of a voice in the world… and yet what I am discovering is that it has been more about finding my own voice and than using it to express what is important to me.”
Todd Kowaluk was lucky enough to gain favor and assistance from local Vancouver electronic music icon Dave King of longwalkshortdock for the production of ‘Enough Is Enough’. He credits Dave for gifting him with a timeline, which in turn gave him the motivation and push he needed to finish writing the song and take these next big yet delicate steps forward in his career.
Although he admits that he didn’t know where he was “going with this song” in the first verse, Todd Kowaluk’s years of stumbling in the dark searching for the right keys and lyrics with which to express his ceaseless yearning have delivered this captivating, complete work. It’s clear that even if he has not found the answers to all his questions, he has enticed others to ask these same questions with him, And in so doing… He has finally found his voice.
We Speak Music
Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd to tour the UK for the first time this summer.
Shortly after releasing her sophomore album in 2007, US-based singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd walked away from music completely for more than 10 years, feeling burned out and unhappy with her career progression like so many other independent artists. After going through a divorce in 2019 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she found herself pulled back toward the siren call of songwriting and again making the leap to pursue it full time. Her latest album ‘Carnival’, released in 2024, is in many ways the culmination of those decisions, and the reintroduction of an artist who now has the wisdom of experience.
There’s an unmistakable urgency you can feel when a song is written and performed from a place of complete honesty. That feeling permeates ‘Carnival’. “I’ve always been envious of writers who say they write songs because they have to, because they had these things they just had to get out of themselves,” Juliet says. “I had never really felt that way until this album. I’ve become someone who writes because they have to.”
Stylistically, ‘Carnival’ draws on a range of influences from Laurel Canyon-era singer/songwriters, to Lilith Fair rockers, to confessional country/folk balladeers, to indie pop. The central theme of the record and that of its title track is not being too precious about any one experience or decision. Take them for what they are, live in the moment, and move on when they’re done. It acknowledges also that memory can be subjective, and ambiguous—was an experience ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? And whose memory can you rely on to determine the answer to that question?
‘Carnival’ doesn’t just deal with the complexities of ending relationships, it also deals with all the feelings that come with moving on. The album’snine songs feature evocative storytelling that reveals a simple truth: when the carnival inevitably leaves town, you’re left with an empty parking lot. And how you remember, it is a choice. As Juliet sings in the title track, “If only there was a way you could bottle up that feeling / and you’d drink it in / when the days are short and you long.”
Across her 20+ year career, Juliet has been admittedly stylistically non-monogamous. Her first full-length album, ‘All Dressed Up’, was released in 2005 and was heavily jazz-influenced- a label that she rejected at the time. “I am a piano player and a woman, so I was immediately compared to Norah Jones—and I bristled at that,” Juliet says. “Listening back now, I can totally see that it was true, and it of course wasn’t a bad thing.” Her follow-up release ‘Leave the Light On,’ came out two years later and featured a slick piano-pop production that led to five of its songs being placed on reality TV shows on MTV and VH1. Coming back after her 10-year break from writing and recording, Juliet released ‘High Road’, a collection of five Americana/soul-tinged songs produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Shai) that earned her widespread recognition and songwriting awards both in her home region of DC as well as nationally.
Now with her first ever UK tour scheduled for July 2025, Juliet has also dropped a completely brand-new single ‘Wild Again’, which like ‘Carnival’, was written with and produced by Todd Wright (Lucy Woodward, Butch Walker, Toby Lightman). ‘Wild Again’, however, charts yet another new step in Juliet’s journey.
“Carnival’, is full of deeply personal songs that are drawn from my real-life experiences and relationships. Coming out of that album cycle, I was feeling a little exhausted by my own navel-gazing and I was craving inspiration elsewhere. So, a lot of the songs I’m writing now are an evolution of sorts – focused more on external stimuli and finding the personal stories and humanity in that. Wild Again is a perfect example of this,” she explains.
The idea for ‘Wild Again’ was born out of a NY Times podcast Juliet listened to about the real-life efforts to return the whale that played Willy in the iconic movie ‘Free Willy’ back into the wild.
“It’s an insane, heartbreaking story that asks all kinds of thorny questions about human responsibility and humility and what’s the “right” thing to do and is that the same as the “kind” thing to do. There was a line that one of the trainers said in the podcast, explaining that they were trying to “train him to be wild again.” The complete absurdity of that statement hit me in the moment, and I immediately started jotting down lyrical ideas”, Juliet says.
Catch Juliet Lloyd on her UK tour this July:
1st July: The Folklore Rooms / Brighton
2nd July: The Hyde Tavern / Winchester
3rd July: Hen and Chicken / Bristol (CRH Music promotions)
4th July: Artisan Tap Hartshill / Stoke-on-Trent
5th July: Waggon & Horses, Nottingham
6th July: Cafe#9 / Sheffield
7th July: Hyde Park Book Club / Leeds
10th July: FortyFive Vinyl Café / York
11th July: The Muddy Puddle / London
13th July: The Wrotham Arms / Broadstairs

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