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wallgrin

Vancouver, Canada

"Experimental Art-Pop"

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www.wallgrin.com

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LABEL

Independent (Bronze Age Feeling Records)

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music

"To Be A Creature"

SINGLE ☽ 2025 (Unreleased)

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"Arrow to the Wind"

SINGLE ☽ 2024

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Yet Again The Wheel Turns

ALBUM ☽ 2022

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YATWT
SINGLES

Slice In The Mouth

Bird/Alien

ALBUM ☽ 2018

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Bird/Alien

SINGLES

bio

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WALLGRIN is the experimental art-pop project of Vancouver-based composer, vocalist and violinist Tegan Wahlgren. Drawing from a background in Celtic fiddle and choral singing, Wallgrin’s sound moves between lush string-based orchestration, beat-driven pop and ornate vocal arrangements. Their spirited and raw live performances have led them to perform at Iceland Airwaves (2023), The Great Escape (UK, 2023), Tallinn Music Week (Estonia, 2021), and FOCUS Wales (2021).

66 words / 469 characters

WALLGRIN is the experimental art-pop project of Vancouver-based composer, vocalist and violinist Tegan Wahlgren. Drawing from a background in Celtic fiddle and choral singing, Wallgrin’s sound moves between lush string-based orchestration, beat-driven pop and ornate vocal arrangements After completing a degree in electroacoustic music composition, Wallgrin’s songwriting defined itself: pop-adjacent but deviant, never afraid to experiment.

From their 2018 debut Bird/Alien, to their most recent album Yet Again The Wheel Turns, Wallgrin’s world building has always revolved around fantastical and mythological imagery. Called “an innovative artist who is just starting to flex their myriad skills and talents” by CBC Music, and a songwriter who “measures up to standards set by art-pop visionaries like Björk and Kate Bush" (Northern Transmissions), their spirited and raw live performances have led them to perform at Iceland Airwaves (2023), The Great Escape (UK, 2023), Tallinn Music Week (Estonia, 2021), and FOCUS Wales (2021).

149 words / 1034 characters

press photos

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PHOTO CREDIT: Megan Magdalena

press quotes

“[Yet Again The Wheel Turns] is an eclectic and exciting release blurring genres and influences, showcasing an innovative artist who is just starting to flex their myriad skills and talents.”

— Andrea Warner, CBC Music (Canada, 2022) READ

"Deciding at the last minute to book it to KEX to see a musician I was previously unaware of and had no expectations for and then being absolutely bowled over with awe and emotion is just the [Iceland] Airwaves magic I needed."

— Catharine Fulton, Reykjavík Grapevine (Iceland, 2023) READ

"Through visceral lyrics and a versatile style that refuses to be defined or contained, their music is layered, thematic, and deeply emotional."

— Joseph Bardsley, Creative BC (Canada, 2022) READ

"Her brand of self-stylized 'Weird Pop?' makes for a record that feels more like an arthouse film — wildly compelling for being both immediate and just beyond reach; full of zigzags that eventually reveal patterns."

— Megan LaPierre, Exclaim! (Canada, 2022) READ

"Canadian artist Tegan Wahlgren knows like no other how to take listeners on a trip-like journey. You press play, suddenly you're caught in a Kafkaesque soundscape that won't let you go so quickly." (Translated from German)

— 101FM Deutschland (Germany, 2020) READ

notable performances

JUN 20-21, 2024

MAY 3-18, 2024

NOV 1-7, 2023

MAY 2023

OCT 22, 2022

MAY 6-27, 2022

OCT 7-9, 2021

OCT 5, 2021

SEP 29 - OCT 4, 2021

OCT 2019

Sled Island Music & Arts Festival (Calgary, Canada)

Germany/Austria/Switzerland Tour (10 dates)

Hamburg, Magdeburg, Bochum, Vienna, Munich, Kreuzlingen, Stuttgart, Bern, Hanau, Saarbrücken

Iceland Airwaves (Reykjavík, Iceland)

The Great Escape (Brighton, UK)

Yet Again The Wheel Turns Album Release Show
@ The Fox Cabaret (Vancouver, Canada)

Germany/Austria/Switzerland Tour (15 dates)

Reichenbach im Vogtland, Hanau, Offenbach, Bochum, Krefeld, Saarbrücken, Kreuzlingen, Wetzlar, Hannover, Kiel, Munich, Lübeck, Hamburg, Berlin

Tallinn Music Week (Tallinn, Estonia)

BreakOut West London Showcase (London, UK)

FOCUS Wales (Wrexham, UK)

BreakOut West (Whitehorse, Canada)

videos

live videos

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press release archive

April 9, 2024

Wallgrin Announces Single Release, "Arrow to the Wind"

(Vancouver, BC) — Wallgrin releases "Arrow to the Wind", their first single since the 2022 album Yet Again The Wheel Turns.

"This song describes the feeling of being pulled back towards your loved ones in your darkest hour — the idea that when you feel a connection, it stays with you forever, no matter how fleeting. As the first entirely self-produced and mixed Wallgrin track in many years, it's the most earnest and personal thing I've made in a long time. My dad Roland Wahlgren played trumpet on this one, too, which feels rather special."

"Arrow to the Wind'' is the first in a series of singles Wallgrin will be releasing through 2024-2025, leading up to a yet-to-be-announced album. It also comes ahead of Wallgrin's tour of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in May 2024.

"Arrow to the Wind" is available on all major streaming platforms as of April 9, 2024.

March 1, 2024

Wallgrin Announces Video Release for "At Rest"

A lost figure in a long-decayed party dress wanders through the ruins of a limestone quarry, ghostlike. Somehow, everyone else has disappeared without warning — all that’s left is one person and the vastness of the world around them.

This short film examines the differences between human, ecological, and geological time scales, which are so expansive that seldom do we get to see explicitly how they affect one another. It becomes starkly apparent at a rock quarry, where millions of years of geological development can be dismantled in a matter of months, days, hours. But comparatively, these hours, days, and months matter very little to the movements of plates in the Earth’s mantle, or the sediments depositing themselves in layers upon layers over millennia. Similarly, the mine facility existed for only a few decades, and has already been partially reclaimed by the land a short time after being abandoned.

“At Rest” imagines a great stillness — a moment where all human activity ceases. It’s an idea that’s been explored in science fiction many times over, a trope that touches on those deeply human fears of aloneness, abandonment, and death. But, in stillness, there is also peace to be found. Here, a human breath reminds us of how the Universe itself is expanding —the inhale— and will then reverse course and contract — the exhale, the end of everything. The Big Bang and the Big Crunch are the deepest breath ever taken.

“And I only had a single breath
To gather myself up again
Before the end of time”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 6, 2023

Wallgrin Announces Video Release for "Every Fall, I Fall In Love" on March 31

(Vancouver, BC) — On March 31st, alt-pop artist Wallgrin will release the second music video from their 2022 album, Yet Again The Wheel Turns, for the song “Every Fall, I Fall In Love”.

Directed by filmmaker Sarah Genge, “Every Fall, I Fall In Love” was filmed at the Chemainus River Estuary on Vancouver Island. The end of summer burns bright across the landscape, shimmering along dry grasses and muddy rivulets. Wallgrin is a lone figure in the scenery, clothed more appropriately for a late-night jazz bar than for a foray into nature. Their presence plays as part of a deconstructed dreamscape — an isolated, loudly-dressed wanderer in a quietly dazzling environment. The song picks up jauntily with the line, “Every Fall, I fall in love/Withering life just turns me on”, addressing the strange synchrony of a new love blossoming alongside nature’s yearly cycle of death and decay. As golden hour descends into the black of night, nothing but a stark spotlight illuminates Wallgrin as the lounge-y piano gives way to towering, dramatic synths.

“Fall is somehow the season of love, in my imagination. I seem to have a pattern of beginning new relationships or developing crushes as summer wanes, which gives the encroaching autumn crispness a totally romantic connotation. Some of those infatuations have worked out, and others, not so much — the memories of my Fall romances are certainly bittersweet. Being immersed in a new romantic love is one of the most exciting feelings ever, but it can also be a bit lonely. You’re still testing the waters, maybe having some doubts, or worrying that the object of your affection is having their own second thoughts. Infatuation is such a strong feeling that there’s a fragility to it. And so, the highs and the lows of autumnal love carry forth.”

The video for “Every Fall I Fall In Love” will be available on Youtube and Vimeo on March 31, 2023.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — September 20, 2022

Wallgrin Announces Album Release, Yet Again The Wheel Turns, on October 14

(Vancouver, BC) — On October 14th, alt-pop artist Wallgrin will release their sophomore album, Yet Again The Wheel Turns. Following their mythologically-inspired 2018 debut Bird/Alien, Yet Again The Wheel Turns broadens Wallgrin’s musical and thematic range, shaped by influences such as 1970s progressive rock, Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, and surrealist philosophy. The album was co-produced by Wallgrin and longtime collaborator Harley Small, recorded in Vancouver, BC from late 2020 to early 2022.

Yet Again The Wheel Turns reflects on themes of inevitability, recurring patterns, and yielding to unalterable forces. Various songs explore reincarnation (“Yet Again The Wheel Turns” and “Life Is Over”), mass extinction (“Slice In The Mouth”), the climate crisis (“At Rest”), unhealthy patterns of romantic love (“Every Fall, I Fall in Love” and “Silver Trail”), and the futility of seeking the meaning of life (“Yolk”, “PseudoReligion”, and “Knowing”). The entire album is also bound together by the interweaving of musical elements from song to song, with melodies re-emerging and bass lines repeating in various choruses, bridges and verses.

“This is an album about feeling ecstatically powerless. In other words, the act of surrendering to natural cycles, such as disease, death, and heartbreak, that are ultimately beyond human influence. Then, there are also those recurring patterns in our lives that are perhaps not so fateful — where maybe the cycle, the wheel itself, can be broken. In either case, accepting inevitability can feel delectably freeing, or rather like a prison. When is it necessary to take control, and when is it best to relinquish it?”

Yet Again The Wheel Turns will be available on all major streaming platforms on October 14, 2022.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — August 5, 2022

Wallgrin Announces Single Release, "Yolk", on September 2

(Vancouver, BC) — On September 2nd, alt-pop artist Wallgrin will release the final single, “Yolk”, from their upcoming sophomore album, Yet Again The Wheel Turns, due for release in Fall 2022.

Yet Again The Wheel Turns reflects on themes of inevitability, endless cycles, and surrendering to unalterable forces. “Yolk”, as its title suggests, seeks to get to the heart of the matter — to end rumination, and to break out of the grapple-hold of a relationship’s toxic patterns. The yolk is also an on-the-nose metaphor for the core, the meaning of life itself. “When will I know what’s inside the yolk?” is inevitably a helpless, rhetorical question.

In contrast to the psych-rock influence of April’s double single release “Yet Again The Wheel Turns” & “PseudoReligion”, “Yolk” remains flowing, organic, and leans into beauty. The comfort of the consistent, dancing melody alongside the padding of lush strings and heavenly harps pairs itself with the unease of the song’s sentiment: a kind of tranquility emerges when one gives up on finding the deep meaning in things, and simply allows them to be chaotic without reasoning.

“Yolk”, along with the rest of Yet Again The Wheel Turns, was co-produced by Wallgrin and longtime collaborator Harley Small.

“This song was written during a time of great transition for me, in late 2019. I was between jobs, between relationships, living in a basement suite that didn’t quite feel like home — a time spent being unsure of so many things. I wrote ‘Yolk’ as an ode to uncertainty, to the pit in my stomach, that space between dread and hope.”

"Yolk" will be available on all major streaming platforms on September 2, 2022.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — April 4, 2022

Wallgrin Announces Double Single Release, "Yet Again The Wheel Turns" & "PseudoReligion", on April 29

(Vancouver, BC) — Later this month, alt-pop artist Wallgrin will unveil two tracks —"Yet Again The Wheel Turns" and "PseudoReligion"— from their upcoming sophomore album. Both unabashedly influenced by psychedelic rock, these songs herald a noticeable departure from Wallgrin’s previous work in experimental pop. The double single comes ahead of Wallgrin’s Germany tour from May 6-27, and anticipates the release of the album, also called Yet Again The Wheel Turns, in September 2022.

Yet Again The Wheel Turns —the album— reflects on themes of inevitability, endless cycles, and surrendering to unalterable forces. The title track introduces these motifs through a steady, meditative beginning that eventually gives way to a kaleidoscopic swirling of voices and synthesizers. “Again and again and again and again…”

"PseudoReligion" presents a dark and quiet opening that, by the end of the 5-minute song, has unfolded into a noisy maelstrom of Pink Floyd-esque vocals and a ferocious electric guitar solo provided by Vancouver-based instrumentalist Tristan Paxton.

The two tracks are connected by a shared bassline — a constant presence throughout "PseudoReligion" that also emerges in the bridge of "Yet Again The Wheel Turns". The entire yet-to-be-released album is in fact bound together by this interweaving of musical elements from song to song. "Yet Again The Wheel Turns" and "PseudoReligion" were co-produced by Wallgrin and longtime collaborator Harley Small. Written by Wallgrin in late 2019, the evolution of these songs from voice memo to studio has been over two years in the making.

“These are among the first songs I wrote for the new album, back in the winter of 2019. I barely had a chance to perform them live before the pandemic hit — as I played and revisited them over the next two years, they seemed to put words to those universal feelings of confusion, grief, and fear that so many of us experienced. 'Am I a fool for seeking clarity, when I know that nothing will ever be clear?' ('PseudoReligion') That was what I was wrestling with — the idea of surrendering to the unknown, which feels like such an unnatural thing to do. Eventually, I was forced to let go of any resistance I had once harboured, and allow myself to believe the unbelievable.”

"Yet Again The Wheel Turns" and "PseudoReligion" will be available on all major streaming platforms on April 29, 2022.

wallgrin

music

Yolk

Pseudo Religion

Yet Again The Wheel Turns

Silver Trail

Slice In The Mouth

Two-Mouthed Woman

Ae'aea

bio

press photos

PHOTO CREDIT: Megan Magdalena

press quotes

notable performances

JUN 20-21, 2024

MAY 3-18, 2024

NOV 1-7, 2023

MAY 2023

OCT 22, 2022

MAY 6-27, 2022

OCT 7-9, 2021

OCT 5, 2021

SEP 29 - OCT 4, 2021

OCT 2019

videos

Wallgrin - To Be A Creature (Live)

Wallgrin - To Be A Creature (Live, solo)

Wallgrin - Yolk (Live)

Wallgrin - Hyperballad (Live in Bern)

live videos

Wallgrin - To Be A Creature [Official Video]

Wallgrin - At Rest [Official Video]

Wallgrin - Every Fall, I Fall In Love [Official Video]

Wallgrin - Slice In The Mouth [Official Video]

music videos

press release archive

April 9, 2024 Wallgrin Announces Single Release, "Arrow to the Wind"

supported by

Canada Council for the Arts Canada's Music Incubator (CMI) Creative BC Music BC FACTOR SOCAN Foundation

April 9, 2024

Wallgrin Announces Single Release, "Arrow to the Wind"

Canada Council for the Arts
Canada's Music Incubator (CMI)
Creative BC
Music BC
FACTOR
SOCAN Foundation