When the new year becomes old news, it can be daunting to look ahead. With all holiday cheer expended and the fabled Blue Monday approaching, why bother getting out of bed? Well, a few of the city’s best and brightest have offered convincing reasons.

Running from Jan. 20 through 29, this year’s iteration of Winterruption, produced by the West End Cultural Centre in partnership with Real Love Winnipeg, boasts an all-star roster of both familiar local talent and more widely known acts. The 14 shows, ranging from music to dance to professional wrestling, are spread out across five venues across the city, ensuring a quick relief from any dull moments.

Among the performers are local twosome Bedtime, which will make its Winterruption debut at this year’s festival with Motherhood and hometown heroes Virgo Rising on Jan. 26.

The genesis of Bedtime can be traced back to Christmas Day, 2019, when Mirella Villa, bassist and co-vocalist, and her co-worker Hailey Primrose brought their instruments for an impromptu jam session at their workplace: a call centre.

“A shitty centre, as I say it,” Villa says. “We connected through there. I just brought my piano, and we just jammed when we were working on a Christmas Day, even though I was off. And then we connected so much, I was like, ‘why don’t we start a band?’ And that’s how it started, pretty much. We hung out and became closer friends even more through music.”

“We just instantly understood each other musically really well,” Primrose, who plays guitar and shares vocal duties, says. “We even thought of the band name that day. It was just all of a sudden a thing.”

Formed shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair relished the opportunity to develop their songwriting without the pressures of deadlines or shows to play. While much of the music industry came to a halt, Primrose and Villa viewed it as a chance to get together.

The band describes a relaxed, hypnagogic sound at the core of the project, which they call “lull music.”

“I always imagine two sirens singing at you,” Villa says. “Especially when a lot of bands have heavy guitar and drumming, and we show up and go, alright, it’s bedtime.”

“Someone at a coffee shop I frequent said that she’s been listening to us before bed every night because she loves it, and she feels it’s so calming and soothing and also kind of dreamy,” Primrose says.

With one single currently released, the group plans to debut another, “sundaze,” in the near future.

“We’re stoked about that. We’ll see where it goes and go with the flow,” Villa says.

Visit Bedtime’s Bandcamp at thatbandbedtime.bandcamp.com/ to listen to their single “unseen” and keep on the lookout for their new music debuting soon.

Published in Volume 77, Number 14 of The Uniter (January 12, 2023)