Awake & Dreaming Announce "Cold Shoulder": An Anthem for the Unheard

Waterloo, ON — At the heart of "Cold Shoulder" is a call and response. Our protagonist taunts: "go on, give me the cold shoulder," echoed by voices that have had enough: "come on, give us the cold shoulder." That cry instills a revolution. Awake & Dreaming announce "Cold Shoulder," the fourth single from their debut album Inevitable, out July 31, 2026, with album pre-orders launching the same day.

The song spends its first two minutes under pressure. Synth, guitar, bass, and drums deliberately held down and undercover while the verses look in both directions. Down, at a world sedated by its screens: "do what your TV told you, it's easier if you numb the pain." Looking up, at the performers running it: "is it lonely up there at the top? Smile and wave, smile and wave." At 2:20 the drop finally lets the band off the leash, a beacon to surge around. Whispers haunting what has been unleashed. At 2:52 the bridge starts the chant, "I'm gonna dance in the street while it's burning," sung in rounds that stack crowd, lead, organ, synth and electric guitar until the last one crashes over everything. Pandemonium. Then a hard stop: the band cuts out, and one voice finishes the line alone. 89 BPM. A minor. 4:25.

There is no lecture in it. Nobody in the song throws a punch; the rebellion is a street party staged in front of people determined not to look. Defiance without despair, joy as the act of revolt: the world shrugs, and the song answers with a chant it can hear through the walls.

The chant has already been tested on a room. Reviewing the band's El Mocambo set with Rough Trade this spring, Toronto's LoudTO watched Sasha Kristoff encourage a sold-out crowd to chant along with what the outlet called a "protest song," in a set of "alt-rock tunes filled with rebellion and hope."

"Cold Shoulder" was mixed by Jay Dufour, the 9-time Juno Award winner behind 18 Billboard #1 singles (July Talk, Finger Eleven, Billy Talent), and mastered by João Carvalho (Rush, The Tragically Hip, Alexisonfire, Death From Above 1979). Produced by Awake & Dreaming and written by Sasha Kristoff and Stefan Schneider, the single arrives as the album mix, exactly as it will appear on Inevitable.

This fall, Awake & Dreaming take the album on the road. The Inevitable release tour kicks off September 17 in Windsor and runs through October 10, crossing Ontario and Quebec with stops including Hamilton, Guelph, Ottawa, and Montreal.