AloneKitty - Sad Not Sad

FloodMagazine: Premiere

“a big, gooey ball of melodic shoegaze” – New Noise Magazine

“Its serrated guitar layers shift between tension and release, vocals blurred just enough to fuse emotion with noise. The track resists transformation in name but captures the friction of change in sound—abrasive, melodic, and unflinching.” Buzz-Music

Engines make the loudest noise right as you flip the ignition. Animals roar their mightiest when their peace is broken. Sometimes starting over, leaving comfort, stumbling forward is the biggest noise we can make. Toronto’s AloneKitty writes like someone who rebuilt life brick by brick. Because that’s exactly what happened. After a period of intense personal upheaval – losing a job, a long-term partner, and nearly everything that felt like home – AloneKitty was, yeah, alone. Untethered, with one lone familiar thing to hold onto. That thread became a lifeline. Then it became a record. Writing songs became a way to navigate from a before into an after. It wasn’t neat, it wasn’t clean, it never is. But it was honest. Like it or not. “I kind of think I lost my mind by playing these in front of other people as I feel re-traumatized or upset by what’s at the core of some of these. ‘Not Painless or Easy’ is one of those.” Despite the name, AloneKitty is no longer going it alone. Stefan’s on drums, Mike’s on bass. “I never worry about them…which is great because I do everything else.”

Brick by brick. Layer over layer. Track on top of track. “Shoegaze purists play heavy and conjure Loveless vibes,” wrote Plastic and Wax when they heard “Stay The Same.” It’s a melodic wall of sound that doesn’t hide emotion, but forces it out of hiding. Instinct, tension, and release. The guitars (sometimes five or six deep) shift and surge like weather. Hooks break through like the sun, then vanish again. Think MBV, Ride, or Hüsker Dü. Where pop collides with the primal. Tracks were laid down live at Canterbury Music Company on a legendary 1976 NEVE console, the sonic Grail. No grid, no polish, just feel. “Twelve songs in two days,” as Alonekitty remembers it. “Live. Two or maybe three takes of some of the songs at most.”

Mixed by Luke Schindler (Alexisonfire, Broken Social Scene) and mastered by Slowdive’s Simon Scott, the Sad Not Sad is both massive and painfully intimate. “Every time I opened a new song, it became my favorite,” Schindler says. “It’s something I’d have in my rotation.” Scott adds: “[Alonekitty’s] music is great and I’m playing the songs over and over.” That’s not just high praise. It’s a seismic nod from a god, a true creator of genres. From the jangle of “She Lets You Down Again” to the 10-ton blanket of “2Tired2,” the hooks are everywhere. You just have to wade in. Let it all slowly close over you. And call it shoegaze. Call it dream-pop. Call it post-rock. But AloneKitty calls it what it is: music shaped by upheaval, fluidity, and reinvention.