Changes are afoot for Kadhja Bonet. The Toronto-based vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is on the brink of a slew of new releases, including an EP and a full-length album.

Since her debut in 2014, Bonet has racked up millions of streams, and more than 500K listeners on Spotify. But her new music won’t be adding to these stats. Last week, she announced that her new releases won’t be available on Spotify, and she will no longer use Instagram and Facebook. Instead, her new self-release (her first in nearly a decade), a demo EP titled Battlewear, will roll out across Substack, Patreon, and Bandcamp. 

“If I was starting today, the way that the music industry operates today, I wouldn’t have any success at all, because I can’t stay on social media,” Bonet says. In her announcement, she cited the lack of privacy on her current social media platforms, as well as their artificial and addictive nature. 

“It’s hard to know where to draw the line, because I have to survive, I have to make money, and I haven’t really figured out what that’s gonna look like going for music,” she says. Even so, Bonet was confident in her decision to leave Spotify, following the news that CEO Daniel Ek invested $700 million into Helsing, an AI weapons company. Several other artists have since announced that they are leaving the platform.

“We think it’s just a music streaming app, but everything is connected,” Bonet says. “We have to be able to stand up for each other.”

This sentiment runs through her upcoming EP, written by Bonet in the window between Donald Trump’s election win and inauguration. The 4-song collection, which she describes as “rage-filled”, addresses trans rights, tech giants and oligarchs, and the blurring of reality in an age of AI. “I am constantly so angry and so sad. And I didn’t want to contribute to more things to sedate people. I don’t think we need that right now. So all these songs are songs to sing to activate yourself,” Bonet says. 

These politically driven lyrics also facilitated a change in production towards a much more minimalistic sound for Bonet, who produced all of the songs on her EP. “I want to do something that feels cathartic, and so I started playing in a style that was really just guitar-based, not tons of string layers and synth layers.” Battlewear, the new single released last week, is an energetic call to action, centring Bonet’s dreamy vocals with a driving string backing.


Bonet’s musical journey has been far from linear. She began playing the violin from a young age, but after some discouraging experiences, she decided to explore other interests.

“I thought I was going to be a track star— I tore my Achilles. I went to film school—didn’t like film school. And then I started playing guitar and singing…and then I was like, oh, this is it. This is the thing for me. And I just didn’t stop.”

Since her first albums The Visitor and Childqueen, she has collaborated with Anderson .Paak, SiR, and Bonobo, was featured on Childish Gambino’s 2024 album Atavista, and was sampled on Kendrick Lamar’s song Die Hard. But one of the biggest influences on her artistry, she says, happened outside of the recording booth. 

“Because I have a five-year-old now, the music I was putting out before just had a different perspective,” Bonet says. “And since my child, it really destroyed my ego in first a crippling way, but then getting to rebuild from there, I think it’s really changed the way that I experience the world.” 

In her shift away from Spotify and mainstream social media platforms, Bonet’s goal is to find new ways to connect with listeners and build community. One of her favourite ways to do this, she tells us, is through events like It’s Ok* World Festival, a free, outdoor, Black-led music festival running this weekend at Trillium Park with a lineup that includes artists like Ṣẹwà, Cruza, and JADALAREIGN. 

“It’s free for people, but it’s funded. That’s my favourite,” she says. “That would be my dream scenario—there’s funding for arts, but people get to consume it no matter your own financial position.”

Toronto’s vibrant arts scene and variety of community-focused programming like It’s Ok* World Festival was a shock for Bonet, who moved here two years ago from L.A. She cites political reasons as the impetus behind her move, but she was also making another big step—returning to school to pursue a master’s degree in music technology. 

“That’s why I’ve been sort of M.I.A. for the last few years, to focus on school,” she says. “But now coming out of it, I’m ready to go, and I learned a lot.” 

Ready to go, she is. In her recent announcement, Bonet listed all of her upcoming projects in the pipeline: an EP, an album, a cover album, live performance recordings, music videos and a web series in which she will interview several Toronto artists. But despite all she has coming up, what brings her joy is opportunities like this weekend’s festival—a chance to cut through all the noise, and return to what she loves most. 

“The deeper you get into the industry, the more industry it is, and the less music it is. I feel like 85% of the job is other stuff,” Bonet says. “That’s why I love when I get to do these types of shows like Saturday. It’s like, oh, I’m finally doing that thing that I thought I was signing up for!”

Kadhja Bonet will perform on August 16 at It’s Ok* World Festival at Trillium Park. Her EP Battlewear releases September 18 on Bandcamp.