LYON

Lyon is a singer-songwriter with a penchant for making soft and dreamy electronic synth-pop music come to life with her breathy vocals. The Toronto native recently released a video for "Floating" that puts the singer centre stage at a karaoke bar. Here's what Lyons had to say about the video:

"The director, Sean McLoed, really understood the intention of the song. On the surface, 'Floating' sounds like an up-beat, "falling into new love" song. It's the high you get when something good happens. The feeling of falling in love. But there's another layer, the reality that suggests that things don't necessarily last forever, and only time will tell. I feel that Sean and his team really captured this, and with a ton of style."

This video was funded by MuchFACT. - Noisey

Sometimes you can really connect to an album emotionally. It makes you happy, or sad, or angry, or nostalgic, or maybe all of it all at once. With Indian Summer, Lyon does something a little different. In just five songs, this Toronto synth-pop songstress takes us though those (not necessarily romantic) relationship highs and lows that we know all too well. From the picturesque beginning where you feel unstoppable, to the realization that things aren’t as perfect as they once seemed, to the heartbreaking goodbyes and the self-assurance that everything will be OK. Lyon covers it all in this one EP.Indian Summer was originally released independently back in February. But since then, Lyon has been picked up by Toronto’s Black Box Music (home to artists like Shad, Northcote and past OTM-ers Teenage Kicks) and the EP was re-released by the label earlier this month. The buzz surrounding Lyon has been growing rapidly ever since the album hit a larger audience. That doesn’t come as a surprise for a debut release that could be stylistically filed next to current big names like Haim and Ellie Goulding.

Known offstage as Lauren Malyon, Lyon opens herself up to listeners like a book, laying her emotions out in the open with real sincerity. She does so whether she’s boasting about “flying high with you” in the (literally) finger-snapping opening track “Indian Summer”, or learning how hard it is to say “Goodbye” in the appropriately named second tune, or even if she’s discovering how to be “Happy Alone” in the EP’s closing song.

Lyon’s happy is just happy, without ever being over the top, and her sad is heartbreaking but always hopeful.

This won’t be last you’ll hear about this up and coming singer on OTM. Keep an eye out for our exclusive interview and photo shoot with Lyon that’ll be released in the very near future! While you’re waiting, be sure to check out Indian Summer in it’s entirety up on Lyon’s SoundCloud. - OTMZine

By Alex Hudson
Last year was an Indian Summer for Toronto songwriter Lyon, and now she's released a video for that EP's third and final single "Lullaby."

The song is an ultra-sparse, sleepy keyboard ballad. The accompanying video, directed by John Ker, plays up the mellow mood. We see lots of dreamy, soft-focus images and some lingering close-up shots of vocalist Lauren Malyon.

Ker said in a statement:

When I first heard the track is was immediately struck by its ethereal quality, and was inspired to create a video that was a visual representation of someone slowly fading in and out of consciousness. Rather than making a video with a storyline, I wanted to create a visual experience that looked very organic, a reflection of the emotions Lyon is singing about.

This video is unique in that all of the effects used were done in the camera, we made custom filters from glass and mirror that warped the images in interesting and dreamy ways. We see beautiful, simplistic shots of Lyon singing the track, contrasted with hazy shots of the city, as if she was looking out a window while slowly falling into a dream. Working with Lyon and her team was an absolute pleasure, and I think we created a very elegant video that's perfect for the song.

Malyon also added:

John, the director, felt and understood the raw minimalism and honesty of "Lullaby." When we were in the studio recording this song, myself and producer, Japeth Maw, chose to keep the song stripped down. We didn't deviate much from the acoustic demo. I think we visually captured the same concept with this video. We shot it one freezing cold day in the winter, very early in the morning. The mood was lonely, dream-like, in the city; very much a reflection how I felt when the song was written."

Watch it below, and stay tuned for Lyon's new single from her upcoming debut full-length to drop in October via Black Box. - Exclaim.ca