group therapy (all lower-caps) lives up to their name: Their tracks sound like confessions among friends, colleagues, folks going through the same daily struggles. We’re counting down the seconds before we can lay back in our beds, let the grease paint masks melt off our faces, and cry or scream ourselves to sleep unless it overtakes us first. And God forbid the mask slips during our waking hours before we can catch it.
That’s “little warning”, the Toronto band’s new single, following last November’s “act right” which Filip covered. Annie Mo’s vocals convey the oncoming storm of emotion in the chorus: “See the rupture forming / Intensifies with little warning, little warning”. The music swells around her: Mo and Devon Pelley let their sound build with the track, with Taylar Mallo on bass and Ryan McNeill on drums thundering behind them.
That rising action – from glistening guitars to a wall of noise that finally breaks – conveys the desperate attempt to keep it together, no matter how hard it feels, and having all the emotion build up in your heart until it becomes too much to bear. It’s gotta come out somehow, and sometimes, the byproduct of the blast gets ugly.
But other times, letting out the rage that builds from the pain of being inauthentic to survive can turn into art, companionship, community, calm. And “little warning” is the result of group therapy spinning out their feelings into music. They’re four friends working through their struggles together and hoping you’ll sit down to listen; maybe you’ll even find you can work out your troubles with them. After all, as they say on their Bandcamp page: “We’re here to help.”
Speaking of Bandcamp, you can stream “little warning” in the player below, as well as follow group therapy on their Instagram for more about upcoming music.
Written by Will Sisskind
