Name:

Kim Manning & Mikey Vukovich, of Zuffalo

Genre:

Psychedelic rock and roll

Founded:

2016

# of Albums:

2 with a third on the way

Latest Album:

Our third album, “Flock of the Town”, is coming out May 29th, 2026

Latest Single:

Our upcoming single, “Digging a Hole”, came out April 21st, 2026

Latest Video: 

Favourite musician growing up:

Mikey: Radiohead, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Yes
Kim: Queen, Sheryl Crow, CCR

Favourite musician now:

M: Grateful Dead, Medeski Martin & Wood, The Meters, Lettuce
K: JJ Cale, 10cc, Neal Francis, New Mastersounds, Grateful Dead

Guilty pleasure song:

M: Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)
K: I Believe in a Thing Called Love (The Darkness)

Live show ritual:

After party!

Favourite local musician:

Zeus

EP or LP?

LP.

Early bird or night owl?

We are definitely night owls. Unless you count staying up until the early birds wake up again. Then we’re early birds.

Road or studio?

Both, please! We love travelling to play music to new places and dancing crowds, but we also love the special creative zone you get into when you hunker down in the studio.

Any shows or albums coming up?

Our third full-length album, “Flock of the Town,” is coming out May 29, 2026. We will be celebrating with a big hometown album release show on June 5th at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern. The band Animal will be opening up the show.

Where can we follow you?

Facebook | Instagram

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Banjara

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Queen St is so hip.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

High Park. We love how you can get lost in there.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

Drom Taberna — best vibe, best bands.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

Sonic Boom and Rotate This.

The post Five Minutes With: Psychedelic Rock and Roll Band Zuffalo appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Call it kismet: Kevin felt utterly exasperated with several aspects of making music and modern life, while Anna’s pregnancy produced a sense of urgency as a new life force was growing inside her. They were both in that place where many become lost and embittered, a dangerous liminal place of uncertainty between the end of an era and the beginning of something new. The time was ripe for the two to explore something different, with their friendship proving fertile ground to do so. Anna sent Kevin a batch of songs she was working on that didn’t feel right for Beams or Ace of Wands. There was a rawness, immediacy, and intensity to these home recordings that inspired him to layer instrumentation and ideas onto them instead of re-recording them from scratch. A visit from Anna to record more at his studio was joined by another friend of Kevin’s, Daniel Liss, a serendipitous swimming partner from a local mountain spot who had been trying to find his way back into music. His energy, enthusiasm, humility, and light touch helped keep the dangerous part of The Cross Sea in check and the surface dazzling just right.

The resulting album covers a lot of ground in a short time, from buzzy synths to pastoral banjo, from skeletal distorted riffs and vocal conjurings to bedroom lo-fi indie pop, from dueling dobros to bottom-dropping-out fuzz bass attacks. As usual with Anna’s songs, there are no simple three-chord affairs; her searching sound–often with unexpected changes, subtle hooks, and layered vocals–makes every song a journey, catchy and complicated at once. Kevin’s production gives its signature vibe and murk, shot through with moments of crystalline clarity and piercing beauty. Touchstones such as PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, and Big Thief inform the work in non-obvious ways. The immediacy of Anna’s urgently recorded new songs mixed with the well-worn melodies of older songs that never found a home, together with the cosmic timing of their collaboration, creates a compulsively listenable set of new songs that will be a balm to ears of fans of either’s work or a welcome new obsession for the uninitiated.

Name:

The Cross Sea

Genre:

Cinematic Art-Rock

Founded:

2024

# of Albums:

1

Latest Album:

Self-titled album

Latest Single:

Just Like Adrianne

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

Anna: Carol King (grabbing from a bag of many)

Kevin: Having only 1 of any of these favourites seems like it could not be possible for any actual musician. age 2-6- Adriana Caselotti, my mom, various Broadway singers, Yvonne Elliman, Julie Andrews, Peter Paul and Mary, Mama’s and the Papa’s, Aretha Franklin, Harry Nilsson, Three Dog Night. age 8- 11 Neil Diamond, Brothers Gibb, Barry Manilow, Ramones, Styx, Meatloaf, Beatles, Elton John, Heart age 12-19 Brian May, David Gilmour, Feddie Mercury, Bowie, Fripp, Neil Young, Edward Van Halen, Steve Howe, John McLauphlin, Prince, Eno, Paul McCartney, Jef Beck, Tony Levin, Billy Cobham, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland, Jerry Marotta, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Steve Stevens, Miles Davis, Rush, The Clash, Tim Curry, everyone from Jesus Christ Superstar, Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman, Gil Evans, Charlie Parker, Yaz, Siouxsie Sioux, Pat Metheny, Patti Smith, Daniel Lanois, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Pixies, The Sugar Cubes, Grace Jones, George Harrison, Keef Richards, Allan Holdsworth, Jimmy Page, Peter Schilling, Bauhaus, The The, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, XTC, Adrian Belew, Bill Nelson, Willy Nelson, The Blue Nile, Talking Heads, Pete Towshend, ELO……………….

Daniel: God, I love this list. And I could say: « same. » But I guess when I was a LITTLE kid, I went to over to my babysitter’s house and he played me Led Zeppelin II, and until then bc of my household, I’d only ever heard classical music. And I spent the rest of my childhood (until punk pulled me into its embrace) worshipping each of the members of the band in succession. (I freaked out so hard, he GAVE me his entire Led Zeppelin vinyl collection. So life sort of begins there…)

Favourite musician now:

A: Nnamdi
D: A streaming platform we all love to hate tells me for the last year, it’s been Courtney Barnett. And I’ll take it.

Guilty pleasure song:

A: “Miracle” by Paramore
D: Does listening to any one song dozens of times in a row qualify? Or is that a different problem?

Live show ritual:

A: Putting on eyeliner and testing whether my mic is going to shock me. And vocal warmups.

Favourite local musician:

That’s not fair, it’s like asking to say which kid’s your favourite! So many amazing musicians working in Toronto. I can’t answer that! See Zinnia, Skye Wallace, Aniqa Dear, Essie Watts, Isla Craig, The Cosmic Range, Burner, Slash Need, Johnny Borra, Future Now, Animatist, Wax Limbs, Silks, the list goes on and on.

EP or LP?

A: LP. Take me for a riiiide
K: LP
D: LP

Early bird or night owl?

A: Night owl that also has to get up early. *skull emoji*
K: If going to bed often when the birds are waking up means “night owl”- that
D: Early bird living in a world of night owls.

Road or studio?

A: With the right folks, both.
K: Duh (he’s a record producer)

Where can we follow you?

Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | Bandcamp

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Maha’s

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Kensington Ave in the Market. I like other streets for various reasons, but Kensington Ave is so vibrant and filled with treasures.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

Biidaasige Park! We have a lot of great parks. But Biidaasige Park is so exciting for so many reasons.. the badlands, the zipline, the reclaimed river mouth, the owl, the unearthed seeds of ancient plants sprouting…

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

I feel very at home at the Baby G. For a bigger show, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre is comfy.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

I’ll take this opportunity to hype up Baxter’s Vinyl. They’re tucked in behind The Greenwood cafe in Leslieville, and they have a great selection for such a little place.

The post Five Minutes With: Art-Rock Band The Cross Sea appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

The project’s first milestone was the release of its first two singles, “The Waiting” and “January Bird Calls,” which were released in August, 2016. Both of these singles were later re-recorded and featured on Grotoko’s first album, entitled We All Fall Down, which was released in July of 2017.

In January 2020, Grotoko toured Western Canada alongside Winnipeg punk rocker, Greg Rekus, shortly before being forced into a hiatus by Covid-19.

After the lengthy challenge navigating a recording process through a pandemic, alongside other obstacles, Grotoko’s second album, entitled Periwinkle, was finally released on December 16th, 2022. The project continues to perform across Canada year after year, and is currently beginning the recording process for the next album, entitled All of the Flowers are Dead.

Name:

The project name is Grotoko. My name as a human being is Blue McLeod.

Genre:

Art rock/Pop Punk/Baroque pop/Alternative

Founded:

2016

# of Albums:

Two (We All Fall Down and Periwinkle)

Latest Album:

Periwinkle (Which was released in December 2022)

Latest Single:

Who Killed Rosallie

Latest Video: 

Favourite musician growing up:

Rise Against

Favourite musician now:

Glockabelle or Mischief Brew

Guilty pleasure song:

Chicken Talk by Richie Kavanagh, because I just cannot get over the chorus, and I still think it would slap as a punk rock cover, despite nobody agreeing with me.

Live show ritual:

I set up equipment, get some water or non-alcoholic beer, and then tune my instrument(s) for an unreasonable amount of time before going on stage.

Favourite local musician:

This is a very difficult question to answer. A lot of them are tied as my favourites. I think I would still have to choose Greg Rekus, even though I’m in his backing band now. Some other favourites of mine are the Secret Beach, On Purpose, Perception Check, Borrowed Standards, and Housepanther.

EP or LP?

LP.

Early bird or night owl?

Early bird. I am up at 4 am every day, mixing demos, drawing, or attempting to do something creative before my day job.

Road or studio?

A bit of both whenever possible. Like many other musicians and artists, the time I spend on the road or in a studio is incredibly limited by my day job and budget, but there’s absolutely nothing I enjoy more than getting out of Winnipeg to tour. As well, I find working in a studio – especially with other people who are open to crazy ideas – incredibly fun.

Any shows or albums coming up?

Grotoko will be playing on April 4th, 2026, at Park Alleys in Winnipeg. I plan on doing some sort of solo tour over the summer, and have had the next two albums on a back burner for quite some time, both of which I’m very excited about. I hope to have some new music out next year, but I’m not ready to promise a date just yet.

Where can we follow you?

You can follow the project on Instagram or Facebook, which is where you can find the most updates. My social media handle for both is @grotokomusic. You can also download my music for a price you name through Bandcamp, where occasionally I post updates as well, although not nearly as often as on Instagram or Facebook. You can find all of these links, as well as other music-related links, on my website.

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Gohe Ethiopian Restaurant

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Osborne Street because it’s generally one of the places you would find street musicians back in the day, as well as a good handful of restaurants and venues.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

The first location that comes to mind (and I don’t know if I could really consider it a park) is Gibraltar Playground. I used to go for long walks with a notepad and recording device when I was a teenager, and I would often go to playgrounds during my walks and sit on the swings to work on ideas. One of the playgrounds I enjoyed writing at the most was Gibraltar Playground. It had a set of toy chimes, and occasionally the wind would blow through the chimes and hit notes that would trigger ideas. This location has a bit of a special place in my heart because it’s where I started writing the first-ever Grotoko song, which was called “Playground”.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

Probably Park Alleys or Sidestage. I really enjoy playing smaller venues, especially ones with greenrooms, good non-alcoholic options, and top-notch staff.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

I don’t really have a favourite music store anymore. We’ve lost a few music stores in Winnipeg, so the options have been narrowed down. In terms of instruments, I tend to go to either Long & McQuade or St. John’s Music. In terms of records, I usually just buy directly from the artist at shows or on their websites. A record store that I do miss, though, is Vinyl Revival, which was a record store that, if I remember correctly, was also sort of a café that would have open mics, songwriting circles, and music lessons. It was owned by my friend, Darren Sawchuk, who was always incredibly supportive of local music. He unfortunately passed away from cancer, and his record store seemed to disappear shortly afterwards, but I could undoubtedly call Vinyl Revival my favourite record store of all time. It was a great place, and I had some good memories there.

The post Five Minutes With: Art-Rock Project Grotoko appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Name:

Just Jillian

Genre:

Rock, Indie, Americana, Blues

Founded:

2016

# of Albums:

2 albums

Latest Album:

Story of Mine

Latest Single:

Grey Money

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

Nirvana. I was a devout fan

Favourite musician now:

Tough one. But I’d have to say a toss-up between Beck and Amy Winehouse

Guilty pleasure song:

Shoop by Salt n Peppa

Live show ritual:

Dim sum

Favourite local musician:

The Glorious Sons

EP or LP?

LP. I like a slow burn

Early bird or night owl?

Left to my own devices, I’m a bit of a night owl. Real life makes me an early bird.

Road or studio?

I love to travel. I’ve always dreamed of touring Europe. If anyone has some leads for bookings, hit me up!

Any shows or albums coming up?

Story of Mine – Out November 21, 2025

Where can we follow you?

Website | Facebook | Instagram

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

The Local Pub and Eatery on Laird Dr. Great patio and amazing food.

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Danforth Ave, aka The Danforth. It’s old Toronto, full of local shops, artisans and restaurants. It hasn’t been swallowed by Corporations…..

Yet. But the Grey Money is slowly seeping in.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

I love Rouge Valley. It’s Canada’s only National Park that’s still within the city limits. Great place to escape.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

I’m a big fan of the Danforth Music Hall. Great size, sloped floor. Intimate and yet always feels full.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

Kops records, yet another reason to love the Danforth.

The post Five Minutes With: Rock-Indie Musician Just Jillian appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Back home in Toronto, the band’s concert at Nathan Phillips Square attracted one hundred thousand fans. Lighthouse has performed more than two thousand concerts, and almost everyone who lived in Canada through the 1970s knew the band. They were and remain “Canada’s band”.

Their hits — including “One Fine Morning,” “Sunny Days,” “Pretty Lady,” and “Hats Off (To the Stranger)” — were the soundtrack of a generation and remain staples of classic rock radio. Lighthouse has released 17 albums, including several gold and platinum-selling and the diamond-selling (one million in Canada) “Oh What a Feeling” compilation. Lighthouse has been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canada’s Rock Hall of Fame, Canada’s Walk of Fame, and co-founder Paul Hoffert was awarded the Order of Canada in 2004. Lighthouse’s influence continues to resonate, and the band’s unmistakable sound and spirit still shine brightly on stage and on the newly released One Fine Morning (Anniversary Edition) LPs, CDs, and streamed media.

Lighthouse features co-founder Paul Hoffert and an all-star line-up that includes Russ Little, Dan Clancy, Doug Moore, Marc Ganetakos, Chris Howells, Simon Wallis, Michael Stuart, James Naro and Paul DeLong.

Name:

Paul (poli) Hoffert (Lighthouse co-founder/piano/organ/vibraphone)

Genre:

Rock

Founded:

1969

# of Albums:

17

Latest Album:

One Fine Morning Anniversary Edition (LPs and CDs)

Latest Single:

Vitamin B51– Not Lighthouse, but it’s my latest “new” music

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

Milt Jackson, Stevie Wonder

Favourite musician now:

George Koller – Bass

Guilty pleasure song:

O Siem – Susan Aglukark

Live show ritual:

Meditation and limbering up [mind & body prep]

Favourite local musician:

Marc Ganetakos – Guitar

EP or LP?

LP

Early bird or night owl?

Both with a short nap during the day.

Road or studio?

Road

Any shows or albums coming up? 

Double LP and CD, Lighthouse – One Fine Morning (Anniversary Edition)

April 1, 2026 – St. Catharines, ON – FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

You can visit our website for more shows

Where can we follow you? 

Instagram | Facebook | Fan Page | Website

Get Lighthouse tracks, CDs and LPs here

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Delicacy Kitchen, Cantonese, 2899 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON.

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Bellair St. in Yorkville Village, Toronto. It’s like a European pedestrian-friendly street in the heart of Midtown.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

Queen’s Park – historic setting by the Ontario Parliament buildings and the University of Toronto. A quiet country setting in the heart of Toronto.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

Massey Hall – it’s as close as we get to the classic old music venues like Carnegie Hall.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

Long and McQuade music stores on Bloor St. West near Dufferin.

The post Five Minutes With: Rock Band Lighthouse appeared first on Toronto Guardian.