Vancouver-based singer-songwriter JJ Myers doesn’t hesitate to admit he’s lived a turbulent life. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he performed with dozens of Canadian bands, and those years also brought with them substance abuse struggles, mental health battles, divorce, bankruptcy, and even a short prison term. Music was the one constant that kept him alive, and now he has announced the release of his latest album, I Don’t Want To Die, which is out on November 5th 2026.
When searching for a title for his full-length debut solo album, Myers settled on I Don’t Want To Die, and he means it. Driven by the same restless spirit he’s always had, Myers channelled love, loss, and mortality into the album’s 10 tracks. After rediscovering purpose through fatherhood, Myers dedicated himself to writing, ending up with 40 tracks that producer Jackson J. Gardner helped refine into the final product’s reflections on resilience and rebirth.
This album was preceded by Myers’ participation in Silva Dawn, a psychedelic rock project rooted in themes of spirituality and self-identity. On its lone 2024 album The Great Unknown, the six-piece group developed a sound notable for exploring shifting states of consciousness and emotion through rhythm, texture, and sound. Many of those elements are still evident on this new album, although Myers now feels much more grounded. That approach is on full display on the single Heading For A Storm, featuring Polaris Prize winner Owen Pallett on strings which you can listen to below.
Overall, Myers now views this album as an experiment in using his music to overcome personal fears he’s never been able to shake. “Every track draws from personal experiences and the LP exists as a testament to the uprising that is so inherent to being human,” he says. “Light is not light without something dark, and it took a lot of time to be able to write music from that perspective. As any singer-songwriter will tell you, the work is an invitation into an artist’s mind, and as someone with not only a chronically crowded mind but a chaotic past, I invite people into a world of emotional turbulence that stretches itself into hope, resilience, and redemption. There is so much in this world to feel; sometimes it takes years to even fully feel anything. But I hope my songs help someone feel just a little bit deeper. Hopefully, that will help spread less fear of mortality and more hope for emotional relief.”
“I Don’t Want To Die” tracklisting:
01 The Marquee
02 Long Way Down
03 Heading For A Storm
04 Flowers Upon My Bed
05 Don’t You Want My Love
06 Dear God, I’ll Be Leaving
07 Jump Into The Fire
08 Oblivion (So Far)
09 San Francisco Bay
10 Something Changed
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