knitting unveils sophomore record, 'Souvenir'
KNITTING UNVEIL SOUVENIR
MONTREAL BAND’S EXPANSIVE SOPHOMORE ALBUM
ARRIVES TODAY VIA MINT RECORDS - LISTEN
CANADIAN TOUR CONTINUES NEXT MONTH
WITH ALBUM RELEASE AT LA SALA ROSSA ON JULY 9 - BUY TICKETS
APPEARING AT RIVER & SKY CAMPING & MUSIC FESTIVAL
IN NORTHERN ONTARIO
Today, Montreal band knitting are excited to share their sophomore album, Souvenir, available now via Mint Records. A precise follow-up to their 2024 debut, Some Kind Of Heaven, the new record elevates their gritty approach, allowing frontperson Mischa Dempsey to explore deeper, more delicate themes. A confrontation with existential dread looms over every track while Dempsey and the band attempt to recover a sense of self. For the trio, souvenirs aren’t a physical commodity; they’re the memories, good and bad, that have benefited and burdened their lives. While Dempsey’s lyricism takes a moody turn, knitting’s familiar alt-rock buzz furnishes the record, making Souvenir a fitting sophomore return.
“Souvenir in this context kind of has a double meaning: in French it literally means “to remember”, but I also like to think about memories as a kind of souvenirs from life – like, what are the things that we take along with us,” Mischa Dempsey explains. “Sonically, we drew inspiration from a wide range of influences – punk, shoegaze, indie rock, alt-pop – and have created something that is both firmly an alternative/indie rock album, but plays with the conventions and limits of the genre.”
LISTEN TO SOUVENIR
Last month, knitting shared “I Wasn’t Fully Cooked,” a song that reflects on what it means to be known and remembered, stemming from a fear of unexpectedly dying before sharing something vital about yourself. The video, directed by Sasha Khalimonova, stars Celia Green, a performance artist out of Toronto, and Alex Mona Al Refai Al Jandali. The scenes jump back and forth between the two, building a sense of dread that pushes and pulls and gnaws at you as the song plays on. Each scene flashes with movement, creating one long ever-shifting dance.
Earlier this spring, the band announced Souvenir—which in French translates directly to "to remember." The record considers what we take with us in life—each song feels like opening a locket and looking onto a specific moment or memory, a world of feeling held in a few moments. They announced the album with the release of “I Want To Remember Everything,” a track about having been a weird kid, and trying to reconnect as an adult with all the parts of yourself you tried to deny in order to fit in. It’s a striking track that gets into your soft spots, while still finding an ease in its chiming chords and driving, focused guitars.
Along with “I Want To Remember Everything,” they released “Here Comes,” a song that moves towards an unclear destination, with the sort of straightforward fearlessness that comes from feeling both not enough and way too much. And yet, an unnerving uncertainty remains. As with the rest of the album, this track was recorded and produced in-house, fully engineered by guitarist Sarah Harris, with the rest of the band contributing bits and pieces to the production. Free of typical recording studio schedule restrictions, songs were built on instinct and in the moment, culminating in a record that feels entirely true to the band that made it.
WATCH “I WASN’T FULLY COOKED”
WATCH “HERE COMES”
WATCH “I WANT TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING”
After meeting through the Montreal DIY scene, knitting released their debut full-length Some Kind of Heaven in 2024 to great acclaim, a record with unflinching lyrics, gauzy sonic layers and brooding guitars. It garnered praise from Stereogum, FLOOD Magazine, Pitchfork, and even Nardwuar. In Canada and beyond, they've played with bands like Wishy, Preoccupations, Ribbon Skirt, and Wild Pink. To celebrate the release of the record, they announced a slate of shows in Canada coming up—see below and connect with them on Instagram at @knitting_band.
KNITTING LIVE 2026
JULY
9 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
10 – Ottawa, ON – FONO
11 – Peterborough, ON – Sadleir House
22 – Hamilton, ON – Ooey Gooey’s
23 – Toronto, ON – Dina’s Tavern
24 – London, ON – Honey Dip
25 - West Nipissing, ON - River & Sky Camping & Music Festival
ABOUT KNITTING:
After enthralling guitar fiends with their tight yet confessional 2024 debut album Some Kind of Heaven, knitting didn’t have to retreat for very long before they had an entirely new album on their hands. Souvenir is the product of frontperson Mischa Dempsey’s existential musings, dreamed up in what little downtime they had between their debut album cycle, world tours, plus appearances at SXSW and New Colossus Festival. Dempsey constructed the skeletons of each song on Souvenir, while guitarist/engineer Sarah Harris (Ultra Far), bassist Piper Curtis (Sunforger), and drummer Andy Mulcair (Andy and the Dannys, Lovelet) brought the songs to life over brief but productive studio sessions in St. John’s, NL and Montreal, QC. After extensive collaboration over the past two years on writing, recording, and touring, learning how to make that collaboration work its magic, knitting crafted Souvenir into a properly introspective sonic experience.
In the two years since knitting introduced themselves on Some Kind of Heaven, the fledgling band has, in a sense, grown up. As level-headed as the Canadian band may be, owing to their decade-plus of DIY experience, the highs and lows of completing, releasing, and promoting a debut indie rock album showed the band what they can control themselves and what’s out of their hands. While the band’s earliest performances showed strength, owing to each member’s teenage years spent learning how to be good bandmates, they were a little green when it came to releasing professionally. You have to be green to dive head-first like they did. Some Kind of Heaven sports a consistently ’gazey, grungy slacker rock aesthetic, earning comparisons ranging from DIIV to Hole to Alex G, jumping between songs discussing everything from trans identity to domestic doldrums. Eager audiences across North America and Europe responded right away. In 2026, knitting is a little more seasoned, less interested in making a big splash as they are in honing their craft and pushing their creative limits. The resurgent Montreal DIY scene is a consistent source of inspiration for the band, and they wanted the scene’s sonic diversity to be reflected on their next album. For Souvenir, their sonic palette has the same centerpiece but far more breadth, while every song has an introspective, existential backbone. It’s an inversion of Some Kind of Heaven’s aesthetically tight narrative bricolage. The album came together over studio sessions in Dempsey & Mulcair’s home of Montreal, Quebec, and Harris’ home of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
As knitting has grown from a lockdown experiment into a working band, each member has expanded their skill sets, allowing the band to accomplish more on their own or within their web of friendships. They didn’t rehearse much before holing up in the studio, owing to their cramped schedule, so Dempsey’s germinal ideas needed the rest of the band’s unique perspectives to usher final drafts and recordings into something fruitful. Mulcair’s drumming is more intricate and full of surprises; Harris taking the engineer’s helm meant the band didn’t have to translate their unique internal language to a third party. As the songs on Souvenir were primarily produced in Harris' studio, the tracks benefited from more extensive experiments with the drum machines and synthesizers that studio-mates had lying around. Their occasional prominence speaks to an eagerness to grow beyond the strictures of a rock band format. The band’s dear friend Rhys Climenhage took charge of the mixing, owing to knitting’s increased belief that tapping your network’s talent leads to a better final product than pursuing so-called prestige outside, since even the finest engineers can’t approximate what your friends can intuit from years of casual rapport. Souvenir sounds introspective and even woeful, but it listens like something more relaxed: you can hear the mutual understanding between every performer, each using their individual talents to help translate nuanced or hard-to-verbalize sensations. There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a band find their groove and revel in it.
Today, knitting is Montreal-based Mischa Dempsey, Andy Mulcair, and St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador-based Sarah Harris. Their sophomore album, Souvenir, is out June 26th on Mint Records.
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Photo Credit: Celeste Midori
