is the New Music Monday highlight!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDana Sipos has been a prominent figure in Victoria\u2019s music scene since she moved here from Toronto in February 2020, just a month before the pandemic set in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHer music style can be described as cosmic folk, or tenderly-skewed folk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI feel like [tenderly-skewed folk] really suits the style, because I\u2019m not doing this on purpose, but my song-writing isn\u2019t really straight forward, a lot of it is kind of cloaked,\u201d Sipos told Victoria Buzz.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a bit skewed with a tenderness to it I suppose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSipos says her earliest memories of music are of her mother singing to her in bed and through her young life she took piano and violin lessons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThough in her teen years she quit taking lessons, she came back to music by picking up a guitar and slowly finding her voice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was going to school at [Dalhousie] but moved to Yellowknife and was there in the summers and living there full time after, and that was where I really kind of came into my own as a songwriter,\u201d said Sipos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThere was a very cool supportive arts community and it was a pretty cool place to live geographically with all the natural elements and stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nFrom there she has continued to write a lot, has moved around Canada, living in Vancouver, Toronto, then Victoria and has released six albums.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe latest of her albums, <\/span>Golden Molten, <\/span><\/i>was just released on January 23rd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSipos says that this whole album has a lot to do with themes of transformation and embracing change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt kind of refers to that moment when pressure is so intense it kind of comes to a head\u2014it\u2019s maybe not the best example but when coal is getting squished [and turns to diamond],\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSo <\/span>Golden Molten<\/span><\/i> in my mind is when that pressure is happening, that\u2019s the general theme of the album\u2014a lot of songs are looking at certain situations of chances where there\u2019s pressure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSipos added that she was really trying to explore those states of pressure and change, trying to see what something will look like on the other end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHighlight Track \u2013 \u201cGemstone\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n
\u201cGemstone\u201d is the second track on <\/span>Golden Molten, <\/span><\/i>and was released as a single along with the album.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSipos says the first line, \u201cWhen they crack you open do they find you glowing?\u201d sets the stage for what this song explores, which coincidentally has a lot to do with the overarching theme of the record.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThat whole \u2018Gemstone\u2019 thing, like when you\u2019re cracked open, what will they find draws back to these themes of what\u2019s going to reveal in this pressure situation,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe song looks at some of those cracks a little bit closer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nShe says this song stems from a time when she was going in for a surgery, which sparked the idea for that introductory line of the song, as Sipos contemplated the fact that she would literally be cracked open in a way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was trying to put a bit of a poetic lens on that experience, or to try to take the edge off it\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe song also speaks to \u201cdreamers,\u201d which Sipos says she hoped would invoke the idea of letting the present reality go, even just for a moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSomething that can take us past our present moment, especially if we\u2019re in a uncomfortable or painful situation,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIf you\u2019re a dreamer then you can always shoot yourself into the future and have a bit of relief there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSipos noted that \u201cGemstone,\u201d like much of her music, began as a song about one thing, but weaves in a number of other ideas and thoughts for the listener to ponder and find their own meaning in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nListen to \u201cGemstone\u201d by Dana Sipos below:<\/span><\/p>\n