Toronto’s International Songwriting Competition Honouree Henry Lees Launches a Joyous Indie Pop Rocket with “Into Your Orbit”
The recent Artemis II lunar fly-by captured global fascination and reignited the spirit of exploration in many of us. Watching the intrepid crew – including Col. Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel to the vicinity of the moon – carry out their mission and land safely back home was an awe-inspiring adventure with the most satisfying ending. Fueled by that spirit of exploration, award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Henry Lees has since been counting down to launch day for his cinematic, hook-powered new single, “Into Your Orbit”.
“Into Your Orbit” is an uplifting, driving pop anthem that celebrates the undeniable attraction of first love and how good it felt, and still feels, to be near that special person.
“Love has its own gravitational pull,” notes Lees, “especially that world-changing first time you fall in love with someone. For a lot of us, that first love carries on for a lifetime because it feels that strong and right – like being the first person to discover something, or someone, uniquely precious and beautiful.”
But now I float above your surface
And I still feel that sweet, familiar pull
Into your orbit
“Into Your Orbit” has already received pre-release industry accolades as a semi-finalist in the AAA category in 2025 for the prestigious annual International Songwriting Competition, Lees’ fifth ISC honour since 2021. The song is also a selected addition to the exclusive library of L.A.-based Imaginary Friends Music Partners, an agency that has placed music in popular programs such as The Young and The Restless, Shameless and America’s Funniest Home Videos.
“Into Your Orbit” is the magical result of a first time collaboration between Lees and notable Icelandic producer/composer, Frosti Jónsson. With waves of synths, piano and electric guitar gliding over a driving beat with percussion accents like starbursts supporting Lees’ alternatively reflective and soaring vocals, the track is an exciting journey into new sonic realms for the Toronto-based singer-songwriter.
“Co-writing with Henry was a really smooth and fun creative process,” recalls Jónsson. “I also love challenging my collaborators and pushing them out of their comfort zone; Henry can verify this. But I’m really happy with the outcome.”
“I hadn’t ventured very far in the direction of electronic music before,” offers Lees, “but from the initial co-writing session to the final mix, I marveled at Frosti’s amazing creativity and storytelling ability using elements from both the electronic and organic music worlds.”
Jónsson, now based in Tampa, Florida, has placed his solo music and other collaborations in many productions including Netflix’s Temptation Island, a variety of HGTV home renovation series, and true crime series featured on Peacock, Amazon Prime, Tubi and elsewhere. Jónsson also releases his own electronic instrumental music as Bistro Boyand performs live internationally.
“Frosti’s music is deliciously atmospheric and evocative. He can expertly set a scene and mood before anyone would sing a word,” says Lees. “I am very intrigued and excited about what we’ve created and continue to create together.”
“When I write and produce I let emotions lead the way, trusting the process and approaching it with an open mind,” explains Jónsson. “When Henry shared his initial ideas and the lyrical theme with me everything started to come together rather quickly. The outcome is this uplifting, almost anthemic song that hopefully captures the exhilarating feeling of Henry’s lyrics about first love and the nostalgic memories of it.”
“Into Your Orbit” is Lees’ fifth single and follows “Smoke”, a collaboration with Canadian artist and producer-on-the-rise, Sean Thomas(Joey McIntyre, Debbie Gibson, New Edition). “Smoke” was a semi-finalist in the 2025 Unsigned Only music competition and has enjoyed airplay on college and community radio across Canada and internationally in Europe and the UK, Mexico and South America. Prior to “Smoke”, “Free This Love”, another collaboration with Thomas, gathered five song competition honours including a Top 10 Finalist award from the 27th USA Songwriting Competition.
In 2022, Lees celebrated his first number ones as a songwriter when triple Maple Blues Award nominee Chris Antonik’s album “Morningstar” hit #1 for two weeks on Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Canada Albums Chart, with “Back to the Good” — one of six songs Lees co-wrote with Antonik — also hitting #1 on the RMR. He also released “Walking With Fear”, a personal song supporting those dealing with anxiety disorders, co-written with multi-award-winning singer-songwriter David Leask and produced by Leask with JUNO winner Steve Dawson and The Henhouse Express. The single was released in partnership with Anxiety Canada in support of Action Anxiety Day.
More music is always on the way from Lees, with three more singles and a full EP in the works for 2026 – 27.
In the meantime, “Into Your Orbit” is rocketing into the digi-verse with the hope its reach will be out of this world.
Hi, Henry! Good to see you again! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Great to be here again! Thank you so much for the opportunity to reconnect with you and your readers. I’m a singer-songwriter and percussionist based in Toronto, originally from the west coast, who loves to follow wherever the music muse takes me, as long as there’s a great song to discover along the way. Most recently, soulful pop is the space I’ve been exploring but I’ve written and recorded songs that run a gamut of styles from rock to blues, to folk and country. I love trying on different genres and collaborating with a variety of writers and producers.
You’ve earned multiple International Songwriting Competition honours. Has recognition changed your confidence as a songwriter, or does every new song still feel like a leap into the unknown?
I’d say both things are true. The amazing recognition that some of my co-written songs have received from major competitions has blown me away. Certainly, it’s been a confidence builder but I still have much to learn about this art form and always will. That’s a big part of the fun and that learning grows with every new song written. Each of them start with a first step into the unknown that’s so exciting and addictive to me. Whether it’s a concept, a title, a phrase, a guitar or piano lick or chord progression, the thrill of building that first step into a fully realized song is the fuel that keeps me going.
The song was inspired in part by the Artemis II mission. If you could send one song of yours into space as a message to future civilizations, which would it be?
“Into Your Orbit” was written and recorded before the intrepid Artemis II crew journeyed to the moon and beyond but was certainly inspired by our human desire to explore and discover far beyond ourselves Also, the need to come home again to what and who we know and love. Watching the mission in April with awe at what we can achieve in space prompted me to decide this was the right time to launch this little song rocket I love so much into the music universe.
If I could send one song into space as a message to future civilizations, I’d choose one I released a few years ago called “Free This Love”. I wrote it with two super talented singer-songwriter friends, Heather Hill and Matt Gerber, and our mission at the time was to write an uplifting anthem about the power of community and neighbourly love – and give it a good groove. Humanity could use a lot more of both of those concepts these days but they would always be of utmost importance to future civilizations as well. Plus, everybody should drop the heavy load they’re carrying and just get groovy and dance sometimes.
This is your first collaboration with Frosti Jónsson. What was the biggest creative challenge he threw at you that ultimately made the song better?
We had the greatest time with this first collaboration! Frosti will be the first to say that he likes to challenge the artists and writers he works with and I was no exception. Our first session was mostly get-to-know-you but when we started writing, I had an idea based around the title and concept of “souvenirs” – cherished memories kept from a relationship or a certain time in life. Frosti challenged me to take the idea deeper and get more specific, and we ended up in space getting pulled ‘into the orbit’ of the love of your life. Songwriting can be a wild but ultimately very satisfying trip and it certainly has been with Frosti.
With more singles and an EP on the way, what new side of Henry Lees are listeners about to discover that they haven’t heard before?
I think listeners are about to discover a very emo side of me, not stylistically but more so in subject matter. Inspired by the great loss of three of my siblings over a short period a few years ago, my next release, “That Last Goodbye”, is about experiencing and living with grief. It’s something that everyone will unavoidably experience in their lifetime and a tough subject to write about. I’m really proud of the result of an amazing collaboration with singer-songwriter Joanna Butler and instrumentalist/producer Allister Bradley on that one and I feel that infusing some of my recent experiences really helped shape it. Watch for that release a little later this summer.
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