Over the recent months, we’ve been getting to know Japanese-Canadian songwriter Jonah Yano through his spectrum of lofi, experimental production and his honest exploration of identity. Most notably was ‘shoes’, a song about visiting Japan and meeting his father for the first time in fifteen years. The visuals for new single ‘strawberry!’ were filmed in the distinctly snowy and frost-bitten setting of Toronto in winter. Co-produced by Monsune, this is distinctly different from other songs due to the over-auto tuned vocals, hefty soul grooves and droning krautrock guitar riffs. As Yano says of this new release, "this is a song about my experience as a japanese person in canada and my grappling with it.” In the video, he’s dressed as a salaryman and thus embodies the stereotypical image of a Japanese person living in the city, which Yano goes on to discuss further, “this character represents the identity i've been expected to understand my whole life without ever actually understanding what being japanese means. this video and song are meant to symbolize my rejection of the identity white people have given me my whole life. i remember looking in the mirror when i was kid and wishing i was white so that i could just fit in and be like all the other kids. as an adult i am happy with all that growing up japanese in canada has taught me. and that is exactly the experience i identify with, the japanese-canadian." ‘Strawberry!’ also comes shortly ahead of the release of Jonah Yano’s debut album, souvenir, out on Canadian Father’s Day, June 21st. - Hannah Thacker