"Treemen" YouTube and Spotify
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TORONTO, Sept. 8, 2025 -- Some albums whisper. Others wail. Shadows & Machines, the new full-length from Canadian alt-rock artist Digger Jonez (a.k.a. Close Encounters), lives in the tension between both. Out now with lead single "Treemen," the record is a raw statement from a Northern Ontario Ojibwa artist who has always seen music as survival.
Born Lynden Jonez, he grew up with roots tied to the natural world—his given name comes from the Linden tree. It's fitting that his earliest song, and now Shadows & Machines' flagship single, was written under open sky, when he was homeless after high school and living in a Toronto forest. "I was amazed at the disrespect for nature by an overly materialist society," he recalls. "Treemen came from my heart. Do not cut us, protection is a must, do not waste us, money cannot be eaten."
The track feels like a manifesto. With jagged guitars and a cathartic rhythm section (Cory Aird on drums, Steven Jones on bass), "Treemen" works both as protest anthem and invitation to rage against complacency. Its chorus—"Treemen, Treemen, fighting for children, protection against corruption, with the roots in these lands"—balances urgency with defiance, echoing generations who have camped, marched, and prayed in Canada's forests.
While the record roars with heavy riffs and industrial grit, it never loses sight of its human center. It's part of why he was named RBC's Emerging Artist of 2022 and why fans across Canada are eager to follow wherever this project goes next.
At the heart of Shadows & Machines is Jonez's gift for turning biography into allegory. His liner notes read less like backstory and more like survival guide: trauma spun into resilience, disillusionment reframed as anthemic catharsis. Each record, he says, is a "diary of what went wrong and what went right that year," a timestamp in his evolving relationship with community, music, and land.
For Jonez, who carries Ojibwa heritage from Northern Ontario, "with the roots in these lands" is more than metaphor. It is a declaration of belonging and responsibility. If Shadows & Machines is the storm, "Treemen" is the lightning strike—loud, unrelenting, and impossible to ignore.
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