I love Bandcamp. It’s SOOOO much better than any other platform for artists.

Spotify gives us nothing. I don’t even make a penny if I don’t have 1000 listeners a month. The ridiculousness of this makes me crazy. The small income from limited listeners in the west is exactly what the lesser-known artists need. But, when they don’t pay us, it just means those small dividends go into the executives’ pockets.

Apple Music isn’t much better. I almost never see any income from there either.

China is where I built my following in the past 17 years, and yes I get tens of thousands of streams there, but this doesn’t equate income in Chinese currency either… at least, not much. Their payout scales are worse than in the west (and I’m sure you can believe that), which is because the population is so much higher *and* the currency is worth so much less compared to the West. In fact, it’s admittedly disgraceful how little I’ve made there in digital income despite the hundreds of thousands of downloads and streams over the years. I don’t even want to talk about it. Sigh.

However, now that I’m back in the West (residing in France!), I have to rebuild my Western presence on platforms and social media. I’ve decided to focus on Bandcamp, which is the most ethical platform that I can find for artists. You can still download artists’ tracks here for a minimum fee, which means you’ll have the file on your hard drive, like in the ‘ol days, before streaming and subscription plans were the norm.

They also have Bandcamp Fridays. On the first Friday of every month, Bandcamp waives its revenue share, allowing artists to receive full proceeds from music and merchandise sales. This monthly event has transformed the way many fans buy and engage with music, giving a great opportunity for them to show their support for independent artists and the music scene.

Here are my my most tracks and their stories:

Make You Stay is a track I wrote in late 2023 and early 2024 as our family was dealing with my father’s advanced cancer. It was released formally on Father’s Day (June 15th, 2025). He passed away in May of 2024, but I managed to play him this song before he died. I struggled with saying goodbye that year, as anyone would, but particularly because he was my artistic mentor and friend and inspiration on so many levels. I had to write a song that tried to capture this struggle, but one that would also remind me that he would always be with me, just as he said he would…

The bridge lyrics are:

“look at your kids, you said, look at their faces / they’ve got me inside /
they’ve got my DNA / you can’t change time / but you’ve already made me stay

No More War was written in late 2024 and throughout early 2025, particularly in response to the war in Gaza, but also in response to the global increase of war (it seems) in these past five years. It’s still going on in the Ukraine! There has been so much destruction and lack of humanity. I have been sickened and heartbroken by what I’ve been seeing in the news.

Writing this song was a way for me to join in the voices for change.

This song was released on August 31st, 2025.

The first verse starts with these lines:

“All of the world is watching / watching this tragedy unfold / since when does a new beginning / require the bombing of the old? / under the rubble is the land / it holds the struggle to understand / who has the right to defend, to end the life of another, the beating heart of a brother, a mother…”

Finally, Nightmare released on October 31st, 2025 is a playful electro-pop song about toxic relationships, stalkers, and any other trailing regret we wish we could shed. Sometimes these experiences, bad decisions, people (yikes!) simply…. haunt us as we go through life. We must shed them! PURGE! Be gone!

This is the perfect Halloween song (hence its release date) and marks the first time I have ever released a song that suits this holiday. It was a lot of fun to both write and produce.

Here’s a bit from the second verse as well as the chorus:

“What are the tricks to really fix the mind / when evil powers infiltrate and comopromise? / focus on those sneaky little poisonous lies / dripping like blood from dirty mouths… You are my ghost, you are my nightmare / you always haunt me, haunt me / everywhere”

Of course, for the first of my four new singles, check out this blog that was published back in April all about the song Heart on Your Sleeve. I wrote about it then, but actually hadn’t uploaded it to Bandcamp at the time, so it was posted about but not fully made available (my bad).

Here are some lyrics from this song, which is a throw-back in terms of style to the crooners of yesteryear, like Patsy Cline (the direct inspiration)!

This song is a co-write with Gabriel Beaudoin and features a full band. It’s core tracks were recorded in Shanghai, China, in March of 2024.

From the first verse and chorus:

“I left my heart and your sleeve tonight / as I buried my head in your arms and cried / you said you had to leave and I / I let my tears be dried / now you’ll wear my heart on your sleeve / and I’ll be there right next to your skin / and if my heart is smart the tears will soak right on through into you / cuz the pores of your skin are just doors you can’t help but leave open / to let the love in…”

All of these tracks have been produced alongside of the amazing, talented, musical wizard: Tim Rideout of Fibiimusic Productions in Montreal. For more information about Tim and his projects, please check out his website here: www.timrideout.com

If you click on each album image above, it’ll take you to their respective pages on Bandcamp, and there you can listen and download and SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ART. Thank you, for all of you who have made it this far down the blog, and for all of your support over the years.

I will continue to make art, no matter what the climate is for art-makers, no matter what the situation for musicians is or becomes online or anywhere. I will make the music, as a human, in direct competition with the AIs, even if the algorithms make it hopeless for financial survival, and I will not stop. I am of the (perhaps naive but optimistic) opinion that the world will always need human music-makers. The in-person experience of live music is always magical. Those who consume it know exactly what I’m talking about.

Here’s to the future of live-music and human songwriters!

~ Ember