da nang Capture the Joy and Heartbreak of Growing Up on Nostalgic Kids EP Helmed by Bittersweet Title Track

Toronto-based emo and alt-rock trio da nang return with their new EP Kids, a release that captures the complicated intersections of love, loss, joy, and heartbreak. At the center of the record is the title track Kids, a bittersweet anthem that manages to balance the euphoria of young love with the ache of knowing it cannot last forever. Warm and nostalgic yet tinged with melancholy, the project plays like a time capsule of adolescence, brimming with the messy emotions that come with growing up.

LISTEN TO "KIDS" HERE

The EP’s sound was shaped as much by environment as intention. Written and recorded in cottage sessions filled with summer air, worn-out furniture, and bursts of inspiration, the songs grew organically from riffs and fragments into full-bodied tracks. That sense of spontaneity is baked into the music itself, giving the EP a looseness that feels honest and unforced. The result is a collection that feels less like a carefully curated album and more like a box of Polaroids—imperfect, immediate, and emotionally resonant.

“The title track is about being in love when you’re young, knowing it’s probably going to blow up but going all in anyway,” says frontman John Thai. “It’s grief dressed up in sunshine – holding someone close while everything feels like it could collapse at any second.”

That tension sits at the core of Kids. Musically, the title track combines bright, celebratory guitar riffs with subtle undertones of sadness. It creates an emotional push and pull, inviting listeners into the dizzy rush of first love while underscoring the heartbreak that inevitably follows. The production aims to feel like a summer drive with the windows rolled down—carefree on the surface but filled with unspoken weight.

For John, the songs on Kids are not just about love stories but about broader rites of passage. “The EP’s themes circle around those juvenile milestones – birthdays, first loves, being awkward, even botching your first breakup,” he shares. “At the end of the day, they’re just life lessons dressed up in catchy songs.” The lyrics and melodies serve as both reflections and celebrations, honoring the clumsy yet beautiful moments that shape who we become.

While many da nang tracks lean into joyful sonics, the emotional core often lives in a darker space. “Many of our songs live in the messy places where happiness and sorrow collide. That’s what makes them feel real,” John reflects. This duality has become a defining characteristic of the band, one that allows their songs to resonate on multiple levels. Listeners may find themselves singing along to bright guitar lines even as the lyrics tug at deeper feelings of grief or longing.

Formed by John Thai on vocals, Calum Shaw on bass, and Sean Leckie on drums, da nang thrive on contrasts. They are a band of differences and dualities—queer and straight, raw and polished, sad and joyful. Their music embraces these contradictions rather than smoothing them out, using them to create songs that feel both grounded and expansive. The band’s name itself nods to John’s Vietnamese heritage and his journey from growing up closeted in a small town to becoming a songwriter unafraid to voice unspoken truths through music.

The Kids EP is less about nostalgia as sentimentality and more about the way memory operates—how joy and pain often sit side by side, how the past can feel both distant and immediate. Each track acts as a snapshot, not only of moments but of emotions. Whether it is the rush of a first kiss, the sting of rejection, or the awkwardness of navigating friendships and growing pains, the songs hold space for it all.

Through this approach, da nang have created a body of work that feels instinctive, heartfelt, and unmistakably alive. The EP is not polished to perfection but deliberately allows rough edges to remain, echoing the imperfections of youth itself. By capturing the chaos and beauty of growing up, Kids does not just look backward—it brings listeners into the immediacy of those moments, inviting them to relive their own stories in the process.

With Kids, da nang solidify themselves as one of Toronto’s most exciting voices in the emo and alt-rock scene. Their ability to blend sun-soaked melodies with aching honesty results in a record that feels both comforting and challenging. It is an EP that celebrates the joy of being young, acknowledges the heartbreak that often accompanies it, and ultimately honors the complicated beauty of growing up.