Ghostly Kisses

Music has always been around Margaux Sauvé, born in Quebec to a family of musicians; she picked up the violin at the tender age of five. Moving on to the Conservatoire in Quebec, she quit due to “missing the fun part of it” but still loved music so started to play violin in local bands. Singing came a bit later as she thought that “to be a singer you had to have a powerful voice and be loud”, something that doesnʼt come naturally to her as a quiet, thoughtful person. Alongside this, the pop music on the radio whilst growing up in Quebec wasnʼt connecting with her, so it wasnʼt until she started to write music whilst studying psychology at University that the creativity and desire to express revealed itself: “it just opened a completely new path for me”.

Writing music as Ghostly Kisses arrived at a moment where Margaux was in “a living situation I was not able to get out of. A toxic relationship where I had a hard time understanding what was happening.” With this knowledge, it is understandable that most of her early music has a sorrowful but exploratory mood; knowing there were things she needed to express, but not understanding quite how instinctively she was writing until years later it became apparent what she was singing about.

And now, with ʻHeaven, Waitʼ, her mesmeric debut album ready for release, her songwriting has developed to the point that this is the first time she has written and felt like she was part of the conversation. Able to view herself with an external eye, the album reflects transitions and rebirth - still talking about difficult situations, but with the ability to cast someone else in the lead role, giving the music a deeply personal yet starkly universal appeal. One which Margaux feels has come from “a more mature, adult way of looking at it.”

Identifying key themes of the album, Margaux frames the album artwork within the context of the songs as being “from water towards the air, thereʼs a lot of dark around me and Iʼm just going through to the light.” And that feels like the crux of the album, that nothing is perfect - there are always difficult situations, but it is about trusting the process and working hard towards something positive.

All the songs on ʻHeaven, Waitʼ talk at some point about a transition or a relationship she had to work on, not wanting to be stuck in a situation forever. Whilst the story of the album is an intensely personal journey, itʼs the first time we find Margaux writing about excitement and desire. We also hear her develop as an artist with liberating songs that can be danced to amongst the darker, more melodramatic songs she has built her name on.

If title track ʻHeaven, Waitʼ encapsulates the positive side of growth, then other songs, such as first single ʻDonʼt Know Whyʼ is about how “at some point I had to let go and accept defeat, it was my own choice to leave and it was painful.” ʻBlackbirdsʼ is about depression; something she experienced first hand when she was eighteen going into an intensely dark place: “there was no grey area, there was only black or an idea of being free.”

ʻHeaven, Waitʼ was recorded largely at home with her partner (in music and in life) Louis-Étienne Santais, working separately in the same house they would bounce ideas between rooms before coming together to rehearse the songs once they have developed into a solid enough form. Once they had the songs in a place, they were happy with, they worked on the files in real time with producer Tim Bran, despite him being on the other side of the Atlantic in the UK, and with Thomas Bartlett in New York City on other songs.

Together they have created an album that nods to her contemporaries like Billie Eilish and Aurora, blending pop songs in sophisticated production; but Ghostly Kisses can be traced further back to Royksoppʼs ʻRunning To The Seaʼ and London Grammar - Margaux first learned to sing by trying to imitate Hannah Reid, a gateway to discovering her own way of singing. All in all, ʻHeaven, Waitʼ represents a new, more complete Margaux Sauvé, and as she moves from the dark to the light, we have been offered a compelling snapshot of grief, growth and desire.

KROY is the stage name of singer, songwriter and composer Camille Poliquin. Her deeply personal approach to music and her bold pop explorations have seen her accumulate millions of plays on streaming platforms. KROY has been described as a visionary artist and Montreal’s queen of electropop and is known for her soaring voice, synth-pop melodies and brooding lyrics. In the fall of 2016, KROY released her debut solo album SCAVENGER. With hypnotic electro rhythms and lyrics dominated by stories of impossible love, the album draws inspiration from spacey trip-hop (Goldfrapp, Portishead) and inventive modern pop (Vampire Weekend, Youth Lagoon). SCAVENGER’s whirlwind of synths has garnered praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Nylon, FADER, Complex, Noisey and more. Reflecting KROY's polished black-and-white imagery, the cover won a prize at the 2017 Grafika Awards. The album’s success has also allowed KROY to perform throughout Canada and abroad, including New York and Paris, Le Printemps de Bourges, Austin (SXSW), Hamburg (The Reeperbahn) and Montreal (Osheaga). Between 2020 and 2023, the musician collaborated with Belgium-born producer Apashe on Rain, Canadian producer Felix Cartal on Too Late and Korean producer QRION on Never Go Back. To express her forward and varied interests, Camille likes to say that, much like Seinfeld’s George Costanza, she could’ve become a marine biologist or an architect had she not turned her attention to music. On top of the success of KROY and Milk & Bone, the musician, who completed studies in orchestral composition, has crafted music for two Cirque du Soleil shows and several feature films with Laurence Lafond-Beaune, including the theme song for King Dave for which the pair earned a nomination at the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. Camille has also written the original music for the 2019 documentary Sisterhood, as well as the 8 episodes of Canadian TV series L’Empereur and KROY songs have been selected to create the right feeling in key scenes of multiple major international TV shows. After a long wait and relentless requests from her fans, KROY returns to unveil the fruits of her lyrical and musical explorations in what seems like the rollout to a new album to be released in 2024.