Minuscule Release “Nice Guy,” A Fiercely Tender New Single About Love, Harm, And Healing
Harmonic pop ensemble Minuscule returns with “Nice Guy”, a defiant anthem for empaths and romantics released May 2 via Catland Records. Soaring with five-part harmonies and rooted in deep emotional terrain, the track previews their much-anticipated sophomore album If Not Now, due out October 17, 2025.
“I know my worth / I want a nice guy for me,” lead singer and songwriter Laurel Minnes insists on the closing refrain — a shimmering reclamation of compassion in a world that often rewards cruelty. Equal parts catchy and cathartic, “Nice Guy” doesn’t so much flip the toxic masculinity script as it rips it up and composts it into something stronger, more beautiful, and enduring.
The song’s origins are as warm and peculiar as the band’s ethos.
“My mom, sisters, and I have this goofy voice we use for big dopey pets: ‘Ohhh what a Niiiice Gooouuuyyyy,’” Minnes recalls. “My niece picked it up, and while petting our old cat Roy Boy, she said it back to us — which somehow became this whole song about inherited language, expectations, and what we teach our kids about love.”
From that quirky spark came a deeply autobiographical track reflecting on unhealthy relationships, manipulation, and how childhood instability can distort our sense of what’s “normal” in love.
Drawing from the musical minds of Minuscule’s powerhouse lineup — Tara Stanclik (vox/keys), Jill Smith (vox/bass), Catherine Leniarsky (vox/percussion), Taylor Hulley (drums), and Michael Saracino (vox/guitar) — “Nice Guy” is both lush and raw. It’s no surprise the group has collaborated with Juno- and Polaris-nominated artists from Great Lake Swimmers to Vile Creature, earning praise for their genre-defying arrangements. Minnes’ earlier song “Great” won her Songwriter of the Year at the Niagara Music Awards and airplay on CBC’s Q. This new single takes their sonic ambition and vulnerability even further.
Recorded between Catland and WOW! Recording Studio (home to sessions for Sarah Harmer and Ron Sexsmith), “Nice Guy” features acoustic and bass by Joseph Stracuzzi, ghostly guitar swells from Saracino, and backing vocals by a choir of family and friends — including Minnes’ own mother and sister. It’s a full-circle moment that brings the song’s message of healing and inherited growth to life.
Lyrically, it cuts deep:
“Her fam dynamics were unstable / she grew up hearing her parents cut each other down around the dinner table… / so she equated fighting with passion / now she’s uneasy when it’s quiet.”
It’s uncomfortable. It’s honest. And it lands like a hug and a hard truth all at once — a signature of Minuscule’s progressive, harmonic pop.
Minuscule has enchanted festival stages nationwide — from Hillside to In The Soil, Paris Drinks to Sonic Glow — and 2025 promises more chances to catch them live. Upcoming tour dates include:
June 22 – Trail Mix Festival, The Exchange, Niagara Falls, ON
July 18–20 – Starbelly Jam Festival, Crawford Bay, BC
July 23 – 39 Days of July Festival, Duncan, BC
July 25–27 – Mission Folk Festival, Mission, BC
August 7 – Bluewater Park Bandshell, Wiarton, ON
September 13 – Supercrawl, Hamilton, ON
To the soft-hearted, the self-aware, the ones who keep showing up with kindness: “Nice Guy” is for you. As Minnes says,
“Do not degrade yourself to abide by the misogynistic, alpha-masculinity that rules much of our media today. You don’t need to change. We will heal. And we will be so thankful to find you, as you are.”
Hi Laurel! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
I am Laurel Minnes (Min-esse, like Min-ess-cule!), and I am the creator of Minuscule. I write the songs and bring them to the band, and they help me flesh it out into something so much bigger. When I’m not Minuscul-ing, I’m voice and stage acting, playing cover gigs, backing up others in their projects, making bread, gardening, and squeezing our collection of middle-aged cats.
“Nice Guy” transforms a playful family phrase into something deeply personal. How did you navigate turning that kind of intimate, inherited language into a broader anthem about emotional growth and self-worth?
I think I just suddenly became so acutely aware of the imprints we leave on the next generation – for better or worse – and I wanted something to shine a light on my own misteachings, so I could forgive and move on. The dynamic I describe is unfortunately, really common, and hopefully, hearing a song like this that speaks directly to it can help people break free from the pattern and choose something better for themselves.
The lyric “she equated fighting with passion” is so vivid and revealing. How did it feel to write and share something that vulnerable — and what conversations has it sparked within the band or your listeners?
I feel like music is one of the safest places to be vulnerable, so I lean into that as much as I can. Lyrically, I like to point directly at things, rather than be vague. So that line feels crucial in explaining the story, and it is often the line that people come up after saying it spoke to them the most. When I sent it to the band, they said they each felt seen by it in their own way, which is heartbreaking but also very much the point. I really think it is not talked about enough: the conflicting and uncomfortable experience you have in a safe, respectful relationship after you have spent your life observing violence and abuse. It should feel like relief, but it takes lots of self-awareness and active re-programming to recalibrate and accept this new kind of love. I ran from a lot of nice guys in my life, convinced that they were boring, or I must not really like them that much, if we weren’t throwing things at each other. Finally, I looked back at the path I had walked and saw it was something I needed to change about my own nervous system and my interpretation of love.
You recorded backing vocals with a choir of family and friends, including your own mother and sister. What was that recording session like emotionally, knowing the song is rooted in personal family dynamics?
I think most of my songs — but this one in particular — are an attempt to normalize conversations around our traumas. I don’t think we have anything to gain by dancing around uncomfortable topics. My mom and sister are actively working to undo their own bad programming, and songs like these help us stay accountable to each other and ourselves in that fight. It is good that my mom and stepdad eventually split, but the wounds don’t just disappear. You have to learn a new way, constantly, throughout your whole life. My mum says anytime we sing the final outro, “I know my worth, I want a nice guy for me,” it is hard for her. When you spent 25 years in a relationship that made you feel like no one would ever love you like they would, and you didn’t deserve better, it takes constant, active fighting to believe the opposite. But I am hoping that songs like this help people believe it.
If “Nice Guy” is a song about learning to trust kindness again, what would you say to someone who’s still stuck in a place where softness feels unsafe?
Be really honest up front with any partner you are attempting a relationship with, that this is your current struggle. And then, sit in the discomfort. Don’t run. I know, it sounds like absolute torture. And it is. It is a withdrawal; chemically, your body is expecting adrenaline and dopamine spikes that it’s no longer getting, and you will question everything about yourself and the relationship. Stay in the torture of that feeling. I am telling you, it is so much better than constantly dreading the next fight. It is so much better than the gutting heartache and confusion that comes from being in a relationship that is so dysfunctional. Both are torture, but only one of them is temporary. You can stay on the carousel forever, going up and down, riding the highs when your partner is “being nice right now,” but nervously awaiting the lows when things inevitably crash. And it will not change; I can pretty much guarantee that. Or you can get off the ride and allow your body and self-esteem to repair itself. If you can give yourself that time, you will be free.