Kirty

For Toronto-based singer-songwriter Kirty, making records is the art of making time capsules of your own life. She’s been at it since she was a kid, growing up on a hobby farm outside of Orillia, Ontario. A middle child in a large musical family, from a young age she was taught the country, folk, and rock n‘ roll standards, sparking in her those natural, timeless kind of songwriting instincts that can only be cultivated from the pop songsmiths of the 20th century.

Also a member of acclaimed indie-rock group Fast Romantics, Kirty released one solo record in 2016 that found success on Canadian radio. After a whirlwind of new musical influences reached a climax in 2019, she began working on her second record. Songs came fast and furious, marking in time her experiences on the road, the passing of close family members, and a growing relationship -- both musical and romantic -- with her Fast Romantics bandmate and songwriting partner Matthew Angus.

As 2020 comes to a close, Kirty has teased a first taste of the now-finished album, the appropriately titled "This Year’s Been Hell." A sparkling, melancholy song written about pausing her own life to work through the struggle of a close relative in their final chapter of life. As Kirty said, the title is a “wild, wild coincidence.” But while she couldn’t have anticipated releasing it in the midst of a pandemic, civil unrest, environmental crisis, and a political circus... it still somehow feels timely and more meaningful than ever.