Toronto act Untradition, led by multi-discipline creative Julien Bowry, first emerged in 2018 when debut single "New Drugs" was chosen to close out the series finale of HBO's Ballers. This year, Untradition released a versatile EP titled Dark Summer which mixes sounds and styles ranging from rock to rap to folk textures with an exciting disregard for expectations or conventions.
"Religion" is a highlight from the project, and Untradition explains, "The vision for the 'Religion' video was to repurpose a fitting—a daily mundane task in the fashion industry—as a music video. I wore all my clothes that I wear day to day and collaborated with my close friend and artist Eric Lachance, who shares my penchant for untraditional music videos. The video came together effortlessly one night shooting on his rooftop at sunset. It was an opportunity for me to share a real piece of myself at a time when living and interacting in the world feels more impersonal than ever."
"Dark Summer to me is a kaleidoscope of musicality," Bowry tells us. "I took a maximalist approach to the arrangement of each song as a way of coping with the anxiety that I was feeling at the time during summer 2019, which for me, was quite isolating and very lonely. I was forced to confront many of my own demons and laid it all bare on this record. By releasing the project this summer, it seemed to take on a whole new meaning and a life of its own as we continue to watch the unrest that has unfolded over the past couple months all over the world. I felt listeners could relate more than when it was written."
Watch the premiere of the "Religion" video above. Listen to the full Dark Summer project here.
