NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
Indie pop singer/songwriter quinnie from New Jersey exploded onto our collective consciousness via her viral hit “Touch Tank” on TikTok, like many young artists these days. Yes, she had previously released music when she was just a teenager but it was that snippet of a song that finally made her known to a larger audience. Since then she has released her debut full length studio album “flounder” and played three album release shows in Los Angeles, New York, and London. On the evening of May 6th, she kicked off a short tour in support of “flounder” at the Drake Underground in Toronto. By 5pm, a number of eager fans had already lined up outside the venue, something that’s unusual for many shows at the Drake. Obviously, something in quinnie’s music and lyrics speak to this current generation of young people. Since the show was 19+, there were no high school kids present but many in the crowd could not have graduated from high school more than a couple of years ago.
For each of the five stops on quinnie’s tour, a different artist was selected to open. In Toronto, we were blessed with nineteen year old singer/songwriter Kylie V (aka Kylie Van Slyke) from Vancouver. She told the crowd that when she found out that she would be opening for quinnie in Toronto, she screamed and woke her brother! Armed with just an acoustic guitar, she opened her set with “Runaway” and…promptly forgot the lyrics just a couple of lines into the song. Not an auspicious start but the audience was forgiving and cheered!! Kylie V’s beautiful haunting voice easily fits her genre of sad girl music, her lyrics evoking melancholy and vulnerability. The last two songs of her set were unreleased, the first being “Anomaly”, a breakup song. She said that, with the lighting, she could see everyone’s faces and it was weird staring into people’s eyes while singing a breakup song. She closed her set with the yet to be released “Swimming Pool”.
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There must have been something funky going on at the Drake this night because, as quinnie kicked off her set, nothing came out of her mic! It seems it wasn’t turned on!! Ok, let’s start again. With a full band behind her, many of her songs sounded less like the expected bedroom pop and more like indie rock. It was unexpected but definitely added to the performance. During the set, quinnie would often stare up at the ceiling, perhaps lost in thought or perhaps looking for a higher power? Her affect reminds me a bit of another indie artist, Aurora from Norway. There’s something fey, otherworldy, about both of them. But while Aurora’s songs have an innocence about them with poetic and subtle lyrics, even though many of her songs speak to social issues, quinnie is more direct, almost as if she’s lying in bed speaking her thoughts directly into her lyrics without any filter.
Regardless, her fans were definitely feeling her music, singing along to almost every song. She did play the whole “flounder” record, although since the songs are not very long, it still made for a short set. As a performer, quinnie really understands how to draw her fans in. When she looks at you with those big expressive eyes, how can you help but get lost in her music? The loudest cheers during the set was for, of course, “Touch Tank”, with the crowd jumping, dancing and singing along. Again, the set was way too short for her fans but it’s to be expected for an artists with a brief catalogue. I look forward to seeing how her music evolves as she gets older and more polished. If you live in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, catch her over the next couple of weeks if you can!
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