With smooth vocals and emotional themes, Toronto-based artist Sebastian Gaskin calls his debut album LOVECHILD autobiographical.
Released by Indigenous-owned music company, Ishkōdé Records, and Universal Music Canada, the album sees Gaskin dive into sensitive topics like grief, love, and family.
“I’ve lost a lot of people over the past five, six years, and I’ve been sort of processing that grief,” they told Now Toronto.
“There’s also points of joy on the album, with a song like ‘Cherie Amour,’ which is kind of almost the party anthem/ love song of the record,” Gaskin elaborated. “I talk a lot about family as well as romantic relationships, and telling my story as it stands right now.”
The Tataskweyak Cree Nation-raised artist explains that love and grief are similar, but he finds writing about grief easier.
“I find that in the music industry, it’s a lot easier to sell grief as opposed to selling love. We love to see an artist suffer, so I find that writing those kinds of songs is a little bit easier for me.”
Releasing their debut single in 2017 and their first EP in 2019, LOVECHILD has been a longtime coming for loyal fans of Gaskin, whose work has amassed over 563,500 streams across Canada.
He explained that his favourite song on the new album is “I Don’t Want to Feel Anymore,” which was also the last addition to the project.
“It’s a very poignant way to wrap up the album. I really love performing that one live,” Gaskin explained.
“Throughout the album, you hear the five stages of grief, and at the end of the song it’s kind of a big sigh of relief. Almost like we’ve done all this healing, we’ve done all this feeling, let’s just chill out.”
Gaskin has been recognized for his talents with multiple accolades, including two SOCAN Awards, the Western Canadian Music Award for Artist of the Year, and the Kevin Walter’s Songwriting Award. Most recently, he was nominated for a 2025 Juno Award in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year category for his 2024 single “Brown Man.”
Gaskin has an upcoming show in Toronto at Axis Club on March 21. Tickets are available here.
LOVECHILD is now streaming on all major platforms.
