For Lia Pappas-Kemps, expressing herself through art has always been second nature. This is evident in the confident, natural presence the Toronto-born singer brings every time she steps on stage, stemming all the way back to the beginning of her career in music. In 2021 and 2022, she launched her music career through a series of singles, including the grunge-inflected “Jinx” and the gorgeous, swooning ballads “Sad in Toronto” and “Object at Best". In her emotionally unsparing, sensuous and critically acclaimed debut EP, Gleam, her intricate sound comes across, demonstrating influences from throwback alt-rock to ’70s troubadours to modern indie rock but never truly resembling anyone but herself. As Tom Power said of the project, "Lia Pappas-Kemps perfectly captures teen angst on her debut EP". Back again with her latest release "Reservations", Pappas-Kemps says of the track "Reservations is about misconstruing warning signs and choosing to be blissfully ignorant in a relationship rather than confronting it. I wrote it by myself in my apartment in Montreal and recorded most of it live off the floor with a group of some of my favourite musicians in Toronto". With each release she continues to trace her progress while finding her songwriting voice. But nothing about her music is underdeveloped. Instead, every new track plots a crystalline moment in an engaging coming-of-age story—one that will feel compelling for anyone for whom desire has felt as heavy as the weight of the world.