Nick Thorburn always has a few extra side projects on the go, as do the musicians who’ve played with him over the years. There are so many of them, you could connect pretty much any indie musician in Canada to the band through just a few degrees of separation.

Christopher Owens has a backstory so unusual that it’s amazing his nakedly honest, lovesick songs are so relatable. You could write a book about his personal history, but the short version is that the Miami-born musician spent his childhood in the controversial Children of God cult, isolated from popular culture and performing church songs in the streets of Asia and Europe for spare change. (The group didn’t believe in “work.”)

It might surprise many to know that Blue Rodeo’s expansive, masterfully executed new double album, The Things We Left Behind (Warner), is in some small way a metaphorical middle finger to Thom Yorke.

Terror Tone, aka Luke Dziadkowiec, has a decidedly UK sound that ties together ominous synth lines, heavy bass and both chipper and dark vocals. Not surprisingly, his remix of Toronto electro-rap group 84.85’s Breakin’ My Back has seen success on the Juno.co.uk charts.

Imagine being an under-the-radar singer/songwriter with five solo albums to your name when suddenly you’re asked to join one of the hottest indie rock bands on the planet. As a drummer, no less.