Also Cool Mag Turns Four!

Graphic by Malaika Astorga

Also Cool Mag celebrated our fourth birthday on October 29th, marking another amazing chapter for this project. Every passing year we reflect on how this passion project has expanded into all of our different communities, and how it connects us, and holds space for all kinds of different self expression. 

Minou at our Drink&Draw event at Système

This year, we welcomed Minou to our core team. Minou radiates with creative ambition: she has sparked a continuing residency at Montreal’s Système, offering free beading workshops with her at the helm. We firmly believe in creating accessible creative spaces wherever we can, which is why we teamed up with long-time Also Cool champion Mags to host free monthly Drink & Draw nights. Both of these events offer free art supplies, as well as a space for unwinding and making new friends. 

Photo by Ming Wu

Speaking of forging new relationships, this past year has been marked by a handful of special collaborations. We rang in the New Year with Palingenesis thanks to our friends at Congrego and Debaser, which saw an eclectic lineup of live acts paired with installations at All Saints Church in Ottawa. This ignited momentum for February, where we covered an inaugural Taverne Tour and co-presented Frankie Rose and Chiara Savasta at Montreal’s Casa del Popolo (thank you Mothland for always supporting us!). Later in the season, we linked up with pals at Side By Side Weekend to thaw the lulls of Ottawa Winter™ with Alpen Glow, Crisis Party, and Preloved at LIVE! On Elgin. 

Photo by Bradley Golding

The Also Cool team has been thrilled to not only program, but attend and profile high-level festivals and events. We co-presented with two of our favourite partners in our respective cities, KickDrum and Side By Side Weekend, attended our first Osheaga, and covered existing favourites Taverne Tour, POP Montreal, PIQUE, Festival de musique émergente (FME), and Psyched Fest in San Francisco. 

Also Cool tshirt collab with Garden Party

We also had the pleasure of collaborating with local clothing brand, Garden Party, on a limited run of tshirts. We’re big fans of the GP and Beamskii, the DJ behind the bunny-themed brand, and couldn’t be more stoked to have an official collab. There are still a few shirts left on the site, so make sure to get ‘em before they’re gone.

Podcast art by ohvasco

Moving into the realm of sound, our podcast Also Cool Sounds Like was well into season three. This latest chapter of the project has been incredibly redefining. Many wave-making musicians have sat behind the mic (and camera!) with our hosts Aviva and Gwen, and videographer George. The podcast has earned recognition from Apple Podcasts, Canadaland, Pod the North, and Edit Audio for its approachable yet insightful examination of the creative process amongst artists. This year’s interviewees include Gloin, Frankie Rose, NO WAVES, Magi Merlin, PACKS, OMBIIGIZI, Sasha Cay, Mags, and others to-be-revealed in the upcoming season finale. 

Photo by Bradley Golding

Our podcasts are premiered on our N10.AS radio show every second Sunday of the month at 5PM EST. Listen here, and to our second radio show on Frozen Section Radio (every second Thursday of the month at 7PM EST), to keep up with the artists and cool happenings on our radar in both AC capital cities.  

Also Cool on N10.as with Late Nite Laundry

The publication end of Also Cool equally traversed new frontiers in 2023. The writings and musings from contributors Aishwarya Singh, Valerie Boucher, Laura Mota, Uma Nardone, Marie Marchandise and Vero Denis were introduced to the Also Cool universe, and we look forward to spotlighting them (and hopefully others!) going forward. 

Our podcast team interviewing the moths at Mothland

We’re already starting to make major moves heading into year five of Also Cool. This past week, we entered the eve of our birthday in true AC fashion with a Halloween dance & costume party at Lounge 164 with DJs Jas Nasty, digital polyglot and Destiny. Next on the docket: M For Montreal. Between zipping around Montreal covering shows left, right and centre, we’re partnering with the festival again this year as an official media sponsor. We can’t say much right now, but we can confirm that you’ll be hearing from some major artists on N10.AS and our podcast…  

We also had the honour of making Cult MTL’s Top Magazines list for the fourth year in a row, this time coming in second place. Our team is constantly amazed that we’ve made the list (our group chat screams every time we get the notification). 

Overall we’ve had an absolutely killer year, and are so grateful that we have a community who cares about supporting indie creatives locally and around the world. It’s hard for us to grasp that our volunteer-run project has been running this long, but here we are, just as thrilled about indie arts projects as we’ve ever been.

Malaika being DJ Also Cool at Système

If you’re looking to get involved with Also Cool, don’t be shy to shoot us a DM or an email (alsocoolmagazine@gmail.com). This project serves as a platform to allow creatives to get their work out there, and we’re always happy to help you grow.

Until we see you next time on the Internet, catch us at one of our IRL events in Montreal (see the schedule below).

Beading Night at Système - Nov 22nd

Drink & Draw at Système (with Mags, & DJs Robocat & Flleur) - Nov 8th

P.S. Also Cool rebrand is coming soon… keep an eye out on socials for our new look created by local design wiz Heather Lynn.

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Also Cool Mag Turns Two!

Lately, it’s felt like there’s not enough time to catch up on life, and at the same time like 2019 was last year. October 29th marked our second birthday, and in the spirit of pandemic time not being real, we’re celebrating fashionably late to our own party. 

While it still seems unreal that this project has taken on a life of its own, we’re incredibly grateful for what it’s become. We still check every notification, freak out when we see someone wearing our merch in public, and are genuinely shocked (in the best way possible) when someone says, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of Also Cool!” For a long time, this project only existed on our laptops, in our emails, and had barely broken into the real world, never mind the mainstream music and media industry.

Despite another year of unpredictability, we are grateful for friends like you. We’re slowly starting to meet you all in real life at events or by happy coincidence out in the world. This project continues to evolve with our community, and we are so fortunate to share our achievements with people like you who believed in our values and philosophies from the beginning. 

Some milestones from this past year include the launch of our podcast Also Cool Sounds Like on N10.as, starting our radio show on the virtual airwaves of FSR, being named as one of Montreal’s best magazines in Cult MTL, hosting panels with Fierté Montréal and Hip Hop You Don’t Stop, playing a live stream with Shift Radio, hosting an exclusive screening at SAW in Ottawa, working with the local legends at Mothland, covering FME in Rouyn-Noranda (after years without live music, RIP), watching our Co-Founder and Creative director Malaika speak at the 2021 edition of Artpreneur, and––of course––every interview, special feature, newsletter and meme dump in between. 

Oh, and we also launched a Patreon, where we send our Patrons cute snail mail letters, personalized playlists, and more! Sign up here <3

We feel very fortunate to be at a place where our publication can grow without compromise of its DIY grit and devotion to our community. We’ve gotten the chance to work and grow with so many incredible contributors over the past two years, and we can’t wait to keep expanding the team.

With that being said, we’re looking ahead to a bright future and hoping to take our project to the next level. Lately, we’ve been asking ourselves, What do we need in order to grow? What does our community need from us? and, most importantly: How can we share all this, and our platform, with you? 

It goes without saying that the last two years have been demanding, because of you-know-what and the trials and tribulations of life in general (we will never hold back from telling you all that this publication is run by real people who all have day jobs, on a volunteer basis). Regardless, this project is what has kept us going in dark times, and what has helped us believe that people really do care about the creative community that surrounds them. People want to love the city they’re in and discover other creatives who are just like them, and if we can have a hand in helping with those connections, we will do everything in our power to keep that DIY spirit alive.

We’re so excited about planning for this next era of Also Cool, and will hopefully be seeing you on a dancefloor very soon. As always, if you want to get involved in some way, or just want to chat, we’re an email or a DM away. 

Anyways, what we’re saying is that knowing that you all still pick up what we’re putting down is a tremendous gift, and it is our honour to keep this platform enlightening, inquisitive, and cool.

Until next time,

XOXO Also Cool

Letter From the Editors: Also Cool Patreon Launch

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Become a patron of Also Cool and support us on Patreon!

We made a Patreon because we want to get to know you better. We’re testing new ways to make our platform more sustainable and interactive. We’re thinking online workshops, snail mail, fun digital goodies, and skill-sharing groups. Most importantly, we want a more concrete and sustainable way to compensate our contributors. 

We are a group of four volunteers: Malaika, Zoë, Maya and Rebecca. We all have day jobs, big dreams, and just really love working on this project in our spare time. Also Cool operates on a not-for-profit model, where all the money coming in goes back out to supporting the creatives who contribute their work to it, in addition to covering operational costs like having a website domain, and a podcast platform, and Canada Post’s astronomical shipping costs for merch. 

We believe in creating for each other and investing in each other. Reinvesting into the community has been our objective since day one, but it’s not a complete circle without your support! We’ve been hesitant to launch a Patreon for a while now, especially during this last year when all of us have encountered financial insecurity at different levels. We’ve put a bunch of our own savings into making this work so far, but we’re at a point where we need to ask for your help to keep the dream alive. 

That being said, we aren’t interested in sourcing our budget from methods that deviate from the ethics at the core of Also Cool. Can you imagine targeted ads on our website? We can’t! We decided Patreon would be the best way for us to go, considering that we will still be able to maintain our focus of sharing resources and highlighting the importance of collaboration and solidarity in creative circles. 

We’re offering all sorts of knowledge-sharing and entertainment goodies at every subscription level, in order to accommodate how much our subscribers are able to spend, from $3 to $25. These Patreon exclusives include things like access to special digital content, fun activities, early registration to our workshop series and events, and special edition merchandise. 

We can’t wait to hang out with you on the interweb. And most of all, we can’t wait to keep building the Also Cool community together with you. 

Check out the breakdown of our subscription exclusives by visiting our Patreon profile!

Thank you for supporting Also Cool!

- Malaika, Zoë, Maya and Rebecca

Keep up with us online!

Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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Happy First Birthday Also Cool!

Today is our first birthday, and we want to invite you to celebrate this milestone with us. Without all of your support from the start, Also Cool wouldn’t have grown to be the community it is today. We thank each and every one of you who has contributed your work to the magazine, read our online content and newsletters, attended one of our events (either IRL or online), bought our merch, listened to our radio show on N10.as, or stuck our sticker on your laptop. 

In its short time around the sun, AC has evolved from an idea between two best friends into a powerful, hardworking team and a little universe of its own; connecting folks from around Montreal (and the world!) through fostering a sense of community by bolstering creativity, learning and activism hand-in-hand. We are so grateful and inspired by you, our community, family and friends, who lift us up and believe in our vision. AC is just as much yours as it is ours, thanks to all of your undeniable support and passion for independent media. We can’t wait to see what year two has in store. 

We’ve been learning as we go, picking up literally everything from web-design to radio broadcasting (sooo many late nights editing on GarageBand) as the magazine brings on new experiences; all while juggling our full-time jobs, academics and the ups and downs of life in general. 

AC has kept us going in times of extreme hardship because it is the friend, creative outlet and support system we’ve always needed. We think that’s pretty cool, and hope that AC can continue to be there to support you too. We want AC to be a platform to share your work, connect with other creatives, and to help you feel seen in the arts and music community.

Though the world is filled with so much uncertainty right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic (yes, we left mentioning this until the bitter end), one thing we can promise is that we are looking ahead here at AC. As always, we have a few special surprises (and memes!) to share with you in the near future, and are always looking for ways to stay connected in these difficult circumstances. 

We love you all so much. Happy 1st Birthday to everyone who’s a part of Also Cool!

XOXO Also Cool

P.S. Of course the mag is a Scorpio

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