Delivering at times like a dive into a dark, warm ocean, and at others like a blast of icy water on bare skin, Yes We Mystic is a dynamic and emotional musical powerhouse originating out of Winnipeg, Canada. Approaching genre as a tool rather than a barrier, the band takes instruments, ideas, and sounds from wherever they can to craft something that is all at once exhilarating, heartrending, pummelling, and grand. Hurling rock together with folk, pop, and R&B, strings and mandolins together with synthesizers, pedals, samples, and vocal effects, they come up with songs that can mellow and groove but climb in an instant to towering, frenzied heights. Throwing opposites together has been a practice that they keep coming back to. The result is both unconventional and weirdly relatable.
Praised as “art pop transformers” and charged with a “fearless creative energy”, Yes We Mystic has in recent years become a steadily growing force on the Canadian indie scene. Touring tirelessly since the 2013 release of their “complexly orchestrated masterpiece” (Willow Grier, Beatroute) of a debut EP Floods and Fires, the band has become known for their fiery, impassioned live shows. They have performed extensively across Canada and Europe, including stops at The Great Escape, Reeperbahn, SXSW, NXNE, M for Montreal, Breakout West, JUNOfest, and Big Fun festivals.
If you had to put a finger on it, perhaps the best descriptor for the band’s sound is “intense, cinematic art pop”. The band matured into this sound with the release of their 2016 debut album Forgiver, recorded in the summer of 2015 with legendary Canadian producer Jace Lasek (Patrick Watson, Wolf Parade, Land Of Talk). The album was met with acclaim in both Germany (where the album was released on DanCan records) and Canada.
On the new video for “Ceilings”:
“The video explores the impact of modern solitude and the struggle of the exhausting search for personal purpose,” comments directors, Fabian Velasco and Milos Mitrovic.
“This is the culmination of everything we’ve made and released for Forgiver,” adds Yes We Mystic frontman, Adam Fuhr. “This is it; the last piece of that puzzle—our favourite piece—before we move forward and share what it is we’re doing next. It was a wild ride—the world famous ‘Gabe The Dog’ was set to star in this video but passed away just a few weeks before the shoot; Guy Maddin declined to appear himself but instead lent us one of the frozen horse heads from My Winnipeg; and the gun Keegan’s character sports was last used on screen by Renee Zellweger. Six years in, I think it’s our favourite thing we’ve ever released.”
