This interview is one of a series in collaboration with Loveless Festival 2026, taking place July 25-26. Buy tickets to Loveless Fest here.

Beauty is a fundamental aspect in anything that Toronto’s the neverminds puts out into the world. With a distinct blue colour permeating their Instagram feed and the covers of their releases, and a hazy, dream-like feel in their sonic output, the neverminds create a cohesive musical and aesthetic landscape that  has garnered a dedicated following throughout North America and East Asia. Since their formation as a band in 2022, the neverminds have released a handful of singles and two EPs: nevermind, the summer in 2023, and nevermind, the winter in 2024. In an effort to uncloak them from the blur of sky-toned blues that the neverminds shroud themselves in, I chatted with founder of the neverminds and of Loveless Collective, Ginny Kim, ahead of the band’s headlining performance at this year’s Loveless Festival on July 26th.

While Kim grew up playing music in the form of classical piano and violin, it was in joining her first middle school cover band that she found true enjoyment in playing rock music. After moving from South Korea to Canada and being accepted into Toronto Metropolitan University’s Professional Music program, Kim started to consider music and art as a career rather than solely being a hobby. Kim formed the neverminds in 2022 with collaborator Vincent Hau, alongside two other university friends. Currently, the neverminds are Ginny Kim (guitar, vox), Vincent Hau (bass), and Vincent Ta (guitar). Kim and Hau were initially inspired by the shoegaze genre in general, as well as local acts like Milton, Ontario’s White Rabbit. Kim first witnessed the dreamy shoegaze act at an Arcade DIY show in Toronto, which marked one of her first experiences interacting with the city’s music scene. “I hadn’t really been to any shows before in Toronto, and so it was like such a cool experience… just being in a house venue, and seeing all these [people] our age playing music. [White Rabbit] were already so talented at that point. It was so cool, and we were super inspired by that show,” she says. 

The aesthetic direction behind the neverminds is some of the strongest I’ve seen, and the band are dedicated to creating their own distinct audio-visual world. Both of their EPs take on the musical forms of what Kim associates with the seasons. With summer being reminiscent of cherished memories and evoking sentiments of nostalgia, its EP encapsulates a lighter, more upbeat feeling. winter covers a more depressing sphere–during Toronto’s bleak cold seasons, loneliness and heartbreak aren’t surprising territory to cover. While blue is indeed Kim’s favourite colour, the band’s visuals are also often inspired by an array of East Asian media, including Sonny Boy, All About Lily Chou Chou, and Fallen Angels. 

While the neverminds are strongly driven by storytelling within their music, the dichotomy between summer and winter encapsulates all the band wants to express when it comes to the subject of seasons—we won’t see a nevermind, the spring/fall in the future. “It was always supposed to be summer and winter, and I do think we always try to create a story, or a world of its own within the two EPs. I want to have a purpose. Even when we released “afterglow” and “dawn,” we wanted it to be kind of like sunset and sunrise, the kind of thing where you can compare these songs, and you need to listen to these songs together to have them make more sense. I think we’re trying to be very careful about our storytelling in general,” Kim states. When asked why she thinks that the neverminds attracts a such dedicated listener base within the world of modern-day shoegaze bands, Kim replies that when it feels like a band has a strong direction within themselves, it’s often very compelling to the listener: “I love when an album or an EP is very planned and curated–it has a purpose, it works as a playlist rather than just a bunch of songs put together. A visual direction, I think, is as important as the music, and I think a lot of shoegaze bands [would] agree, because a lot of the bands that I look up to, like julie and She’s Green, have a very specific direction or aesthetic they kind of build around their music.”

While the visuals and the dreamy layered sounds of the neverminds can create a wall of sound which is easy to get lost in, Kim expresses that their lyrics are something integral and very deliberate within the grand scheme of their music. Each song tells its own story, and lyrical themes connect throughout their releases. The lyrics they write are just as carefully curated as everything else about the band, and you should read them on the bandcamp to get the full picture. 

Much of the summer EP is inspired by Japanese shoegaze, which, in turn, is the country where the neverminds have found some of  most receptive audiences. The summer EP received substantial attention in Japan, where the neverminds toured alongside small Japanese bands including herveil, softsurf, Blurred City Lights, and Hollow Suns, who, in Kim’s eyes, were “so talented that they should be playing in arenas.” Though most of their Japanese tour was paid for out of pocket, the support of their promoter, Ikki, helped make it all possible. With a considerable listener base in China as well, the neverminds are hoping to organize an East Asia tour within the near future, as long as they don’t run into any visa troubles. 

Being in the neverminds has taught its members a lot. A band that started as a group of people who “didn’t really feel like real musicians” is now a band who have learned how to align their recorded material with the specific sonic vision they have for their music. Wanting their “afterglow / dawn” release to sound better than anything they’ve previously released, the band spent months tinkering with mixing and mastering the single on their own. While the band enjoyed the process of finding the sound they desired by their own hand, they’re excited to be heading to the studio to record a new EP with Jesse Turnbull this time around, who has produced for hardcore acts such as Brampton’s Scab and Dear Evangeline. 

While the neverminds have cemented themselves as one of Toronto’s biggest shoegaze acts, what’s equally as impressive is Kim and Hau’s founding and operation of Loveless Collective—one of the city’s foremost concert organizers, who focus on indie and shoegaze acts. The collective formed out of a desire to facilitate booking the bands that the duo wanted to see and has continued as a labour of love ever since. As a solidly DIY operation, keeping things running includes sourcing photographers and designers by reaching out to the people around them. A Loveless bill might showcase heavy-hitting shoegaze from anywhere across southern Ontario, noise rock from Hamilton, hardcore from Brampton, or anything in between. Regardless of what might be on a Loveless bill, it’s almost certainly guaranteed to be a great night. 

Loveless Festival itself was inspired by shoegaze festivals present across the United States, such as Slide Away Festival, which sparked an aspiration to bring that same experience into Toronto. Keeping with that same DIY ethos that underlies some of Toronto’s best shows, the first iteration of Loveless Festival came together rather quickly, and venues were paid out of the neverminds’ checkbook. The response they received, in terms of numbers and of sheer enjoyment, was bigger than they expected: “We honestly weren’t expecting that many people to show up. We were running out of wristbands. People were enjoying it so much–we were headlining Monarch Tavern and people were moshing for our songs and I was like, ‘that’s crazy.’ We’re playing such sad songs and people are somehow able to mosh to it. There’s some people who just love music, and it just shows throughout any type of band that plays,” says Kim. 

Obviously, Toronto is hungry for some good shoegaze, and Loveless Festival created an environment to feed just that. With a receptiveness towards Loveless Fest 2025 that inspired them to reach greater heights, Loveless Fest is returning this year with a lineup that’s bigger and better than ever. On top of ensuring numerous spots for our local gems, this year’s festival packs some heavy hitters, including New York City’s Bubble Tea and Cigarettes, Philadelphia’s Bleary Eyed, and Toronto’s What is Your Name? Besides Loveless Festival, both Kim and I agree that Toronto is ripe with amazing festivals in the upcoming months, with the likes of Second Summer Festival, New Friends DIY Fest, and Prepare The Ground. 

For more of the neverminds, make sure to keep an eye out for word surrounding their newest EP, and catch them at Loveless Festival 2026 on July 25th and 26th, amongst many other great acts at venues across Toronto.