poolblood (she/they), the musical nom-de-plume of Toronto’s Maryam Said, announced their debut album mole, out January 13, 2023 via Next Door Records. Louie Short and Shamir worked with Said as producers on the project, and played on a number of tracks in addition to a cadre of musicians like Christian Lee Hutson, Eliza Niemi, Dorothea Paas, Grant Pavol, Victoria Bury, Annie Truscott, Nick Short, and Drew & Jeremy Harmon filtering in and out of each song. The impact of the connection between us living not just at the core of the songs

Raised in a religious household at arm’s length from popular music, Maryam nonetheless found themselves drawn in by the music of Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), and later by artists like Fiona Apple, Nick Drake, Ichiko Aoba, Yuck, Title Fight, The Apples in Stereo, Mitski, Deftones, and every stop in between. Channeling these influences, along with films like the critically acclaimed homoerotic drama My Own Private Idaho, Said is the rare artist who picks through the layers of the art they absorb and finds takeaways to bring home and use in their own creations, taking lessons learned from the art that has impacted them the most to perfect their own craft.