Time’s slippery slope

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This article was published 10/10/2025 (285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Time is a slippery concept. Waiting feels like an eternity. History repeats itself. The present becomes the past in the blink of an eye.

Living Hour’s fourth album, Internal Drone Infinity, tackles the flat circle of time with a fuzzy, aching sound the Winnipeg band has dubbed “yearn-core.”

“It’s a way of existing where you’re constantly dissatisfied,” vocalist and songwriter Sam Sarty says of the self-styled genre. “But it’s also kind of romantic; you’re looking at things thinking, ‘I just want to remember this forever.’”

The Free Press caught up with four-fifths of the band — Sarty, Gilad Carroll, Adam Soloway and Isaac Tate — prior to the release of Internal Drone Infinity, out Oct. 17. Bandmate Brett Ticzon was on the road performing with JayWood (who also has new music out; see sidebar).

Living Hour hosts an album release party on Nov. 21 at the Park Theatre (698 Osborne St.).

Free Press: How has everyone been spending their time since the last album (2022’s Someday is Today)?

Sam Sarty: This summer I went tree planting. I wanted to do something that was the opposite of music. I wanted to do a lot of physical labour and get back into my body after being so in my head. It was really hard. There was lots of bugs.

Gilad Carroll: I got married. Me and my wife Andrea live in a duplex and Sam moved into the main floor. So we built a home studio, which is where we wrote a lot of the new album.

Isaac Tate: I joined the band in 2022. I started working as an (educational assistant) and I play in two other bands: Fencing — we made an album (Fencing Wikipedia, out now) and went on tour — and Virgo Rising.

Adam Soloway: Gil and I run Real Love Winnipeg and First Date Touring. This past year was our last Real Love Summer Festival. It was bittersweet and it was such a perfect festival, but I think we’re excited to figure out what’s next.

FP: How did time as a theme factor into the songwriting or production of Internal Drone Infinity?

Sam: Anything you make is going to outlive you and outlive different versions of you, which I think is so interesting. The last song on the record, Things Will Remain, is basically about that.

Isaac: I really like the sequence of the album because it’s so intense at the front and then it breaks apart and becomes like slow motion at the end. It’s like a little magic trick.

FP: The album artwork and music videos feel very Winnipeg — the Perimeter Highway cloverleaf, empty parking lots and back lanes. How did the city serve as inspiration for this record?

Gil: This has been our most lyric-driven album and there’s certain Winnipeg references that only people living here would catch.

Sam: In Texting, talk about Loveday Mushrooms and a biker wearing high viz with an old Halloween mask, which is something I’ve seen on the Osborne Bridge. That song in particular is a love letter to Winnipeg and trying to explain (that love) to someone who’s never lived here.

FP: How would you describe the ethos of the band right now?

Gil: We’re changing who’s playing what a lot lately. Everyone plays guitar on at least one song. Brett and Isaac will switch guitars and drums, Sam plays bass. Adam sings one song. I feel like that’s opened us up sonically.

Isaac: It’s really fun. It’s nice to not be restricted to your one instrument.

Adam: Someday Is Today wasn’t recorded live; we built it up in the studio during the pandemic and it gave us the opportunity to add a bunch of different instruments. We’ve expanded outwards because of that.

 

FP: You’re hitting the road next month. What does touring look like these days?

Adam: We know exactly what we need on the road to feel healthy. Prioritizing healthy meals, having coffee, drinking less and sleeping well, those things make us1 happier, which feels more sustainable than it did when we were younger.

Sam: Tour smarter, not harder. It’s such a long way to go from Winnipeg to anywhere, so we’ve gotta make it worth it.

Gil: Prioritizing rest is something we’re trying to do, but admittedly we only have one day off on our upcoming tour.

FP: What’s next for Living Hour?

Adam: We’ve all taken on so many other things in our lives over the last year-and-a-half, and now it’s time to bring back focus (to the band).

Sam: This has become our most locked-in era. We’re experimenting a lot, we’re switching instruments, we’re promoting ourselves seriously.

Gil: It does feel like this is a new chapter for us and I feel like our creative peak is still ahead of us. We just want to play music forever and we’re just trying to do what we can to make that happen.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

 

Tunes coming soon

JayWood – Leo Negro
Out now

Performing at the West End Cultural Centre (586 Ellice Ave.) Oct. 20

Jeremy Haywood-Smith, a.k.a. JayWood, contains multitudes. As does Leo Negro, his third album and first release since relocating to Montreal, where he works as a mailman between making music. This record is big and busy, featuring punchy verses, experimental slow jams, astrology and a collaboration with Tune-Yards.

 

Leith Ross — I Can See the Future
Out now

Performing at the Park Theatre (698 Osborne St.) Oct. 17 and 18

Leith Ross is looking forward and thinking about grief, love and existential moments big and small. I Can See the Future is the Ontario-born singer-songwriter’s second release, pairing Ross’s bright and pensive vocals with folky, layered instrumentation.

 

Fontine — Good Buddy
Out now

The first full-length album from Fontine Beavis is an exercise in joyful resistance — tender, tough subject matter sung with hope and a touch of twang. The title, Good Buddy, is a reference to trucker slang for gay and a personal reminder: “…it encapsulates who I am and who I want to be. Scrappy and raw and honest and gentle and kind,” Beavis writes on Instagram.

 

William Prince — Further From the Country
Out Oct. 17

William Prince keeps on rolling beyond the comfort of home, through fear and towards the unknown. Further From the Country, the Peguis First Nation singer-songwriter’s fifth record, is a collection of personal songs about travelling, physically and emotionally.

 

Begonia — Fantasy Life
Out Oct. 24

It’s Begonia’s magical, melancholy world, and we’re lucky to be privy to it. Alexa Dirks releases her third album, Fantasy Life, later this month, which she describes as a work of self-actualization and escapism: “It’s watching bright balloons float away into the clouds. It’s a slimy fleshy worm feeding (on) a beautiful garden.”

 

Sundayclub — Bannatyne
Out Oct. 31

Performing at Sidestage (700 Osborne St.) Nov. 14

Short, sweet and spooky. Bannatyne is the debut EP from sundayclub, a hazy pop duo from Beausejour made up of Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St. Pierre. With tracks about metaphorical masks and nuclear fallout, the project comes out, fittingly, on Halloween.

 

The Bros. Landreth — Dog Ear
Out Nov. 14

The Bros. Landreth come out swinging on Knuckles. The second single off the band’s forthcoming record, Dog Ear, features a duet with Bonnie Raitt and a message of fighting for what you believe in. Brothers and bandmates Joey and Dave Landreth kick off a European tour with Begonia next month. Canadian shows have yet to be announced.