New Music: Awake & Dreaming – Underwater

Published On: September 26th, 2026|

Underwater sees Waterloo, Ontario based Awake & Dreaming learning from the past and applying that to the present day, in more than one way.

As you can also hear on I U Me, their single from earlier this year, the quartet – Sasha Kristoff, Stefan Schneider, Phil Lee, and Ryan Dugal – know how to deliver songs that are big enough to fill a stadium, with being personal enough to feel like a conversation with a friend or loved one in the still of the night.

The bands you can hear referenced in the wistfully drawn arrangement and conceptual lyrics – Coldplay, Radiohead, and Black Country, New Road – might not be fashionable. They do write music to last and create albums designed to work as a whole, as well as having a sense of permanence about them. That’s the case here, as Underwater has a specific role to play within the sound and running order of the band’s upcoming LP, Inevitable, and is equally likely to stand the test of time and changing tastes.

Reveal’s the band about Underwater, “[Vocalist] Sasha wrote it on a night of heavy sadness she could not get out of. It felt like drowning in it, and she loved the image of a whale calling out to its pod and getting nothing back.”

“There is no drop. The song floats and dives, and near the end the water starts rising, and the chords borrow from outside the key. It opens side two of the record by design: you have just come through the riot of Cold Shoulder, you flip the record, and it is 2 a.m. and you are alone with everything you have said and heard. ‘There’ll be no more tears on my shadow’ is the crux.”

Inevitable is set for release on the 16th of October; Underwater and more music from the band can be downloaded on Bandcamp and stream on Spotify and Apple Music.

Awake & Dreaming play a series of Canadian live dates to tie in with the release of Inevitable, with stop-offs including Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto. For tour details and album updates, check out the band’s Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok feeds.

Header image by Olivia Dans