MONTREAL INDIE-RnB ARTIST EMBRACES SELF-ACCEPTANCE ON NEW ALBUM ‘DON’T PANIC’
June 27, 2025 BY Bailey Vigliaturo
Today, Montreal-based artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist kerri shares his new LP DON’T PANIC, via Nettwerk. The 17-track project is his third full-length, following 2021’s QUEEN CITY and 2023’s Finish What You Started, and marks a calculated shift into making more uplifting music, coinciding with his own rocky yet rewarding journey toward self-acceptance.
“In late 2023 when I started [the album],” reveals kerri, “I couldn’t handle being sober & I was still mad at the world for things long gone. I barely ate food for years. I couldn’t be funny because people might hate me. Every day, [I was] abusing my body out of some judgement I decided for myself early in life. I don’t like glorifying depression or any mental illness in music but I couldn’t convince myself I didn’t deserve it. These feelings… kept me in a cage.”
While the thematic shift of DON’T PANIC aligns with kerri’s own journey of self-acceptance—getting more comfortable with taking things less seriously, improving his relationship with food and convincing himself he deserves happiness—the desire to make more positive music also came from acknowledging his growing platform and the power of his words. With over 10 million streams across DSPs, co-signs from the likes of Timbaland, Billboard, Ones to Watch, Complex Canada, That Good Sh*t and On the Radar Radio and consistent Spotify editorial placement on New Music Friday: Canada, anti-pop and Indie All Stars, kerri realized he wanted to send a more hopeful message to listeners, and DON’T PANIC is just that.
kerri adds: “Music has always been my way to express what’s in my heart but after enough thrashing & suffering in this shell, I wished my airtime wasn’t dedicated to opening wounds. Instead, I wanted to see a different version of me & be thankful I was alive…. Self soothing became the theme of the project. Every day I chose to dig further and make contact with that inner child.”
Simultaneously, the album is a recommitment to creating freely. In an age where Spotify is playlisting AI-generated music to save money and TikTok implicitly encourages artists to build songs around catchy 15-second snippets (often at the expense of creating something more impactful), kerri embraces the opposite. He could care less about creating “radio hits” or fitting industry expectations for a check, and listeners can find examples of this throughout the tracklist, from the extended intro on “SAME PLACE” to the staticky vibrato on the chorus of “2 SOULZ,” to the anthemic, banjo-heavy closing track “hide your heart inside your body”
“I didn’t realize how important…retaining and valuing my individuality was to me before,” he explains. “[But] trying to approach things with pure intentions really helps you retain your humanity”
Ultimately, kerri created DON’T PANIC as a reminder to himself that life is too short to fear judgment, and we should be proud of who we are, warts and all.
“Overthinking, anxiety and panicking… it’s something I was very prone to,” he admits. “I tried to make the project in a way that people can really feel without necessarily having my exact life. Music that’s there to help you escape and relive positive memories.”
