London, ON Singer-Songwriter Stephen Ingram Releases “Sour Candy,” First Single From Upcoming Album, Silly Things
London, Ontario singer-songwriter Stephen Ingram releases “Sour Candy” out now, the first single from his sophomore album, Silly Things, arriving September 25. The track marks a warm, self-aware entry point into a record that finds Ingram examining the space between who he used to be and who he has become, all set against the specific backdrop of Southwestern Ontario.
“Sour Candy” grew out of Ingram’s move from his twenties into his thirties, and the realisation that finding himself meant letting go of the instinct to please everyone around him. Rather than framing that shift as a loss, the song treats it as an essential trade, developing a firmer sense of self to reach the sweeter parts of life waiting on the other side. At its core, like much of Ingram’s catalogue, it doubles as a love song for his wife, tracing how staying true to himself has only brought the two of them closer.
That balance runs through the entire album. Ingram began writing ‘Silly Things’ shortly after receiving an ADHD diagnosis, using the songs to explore how it shapes his daily life and to revisit past relationships and events with fresh understanding. Rather than dwelling on stigma, Ingram set out to celebrate the creativity and momentum his ADHD brings him alongside its real challenges, giving the record a grounded, hopeful throughline even as individual songs sit with conflict or uncertainty before resolving it.
“Sour Candy” uses the bittersweet metaphor of its title to capture the growing pains of adulthood, trading youthful people-pleasing for the confidence that comes with knowing who you are. Through witty, self-deprecating lyrics like “Used to be so sweet ’til I turned sour” and the playful refrain “Sour candy, taste it on me,” Stephen Ingram reflects on aging, anxiety, changing priorities and learning to embrace imperfections, ultimately revealing that becoming a little “sour” has made room for healthier relationships, deeper self-acceptance and a love that feels more genuine than ever before.
Written and recorded entirely in London, Ontario, ‘Silly Things’ leans further into folk textures than Ingram’s 2023 debut, ‘Fridge Magnet Symphony,’ which introduced his storytelling-forward songwriting and earned him an early feature with Canadian Beats Media. For the follow up, Ingram assembled an all-star ensemble of fellow London musicians, including cellist Anna Grigg, violinist and mandolin player Jesse Grandmont, guitarist Peter Karle, bassist Aidan Wasse and percussionist Mark Swan, giving the largely acoustic arrangements room to breathe. The album was co-produced by Ingram and Dean Nelson, mixed by Nelson and mastered by Kristian Montano.
A Hamilton native who moved to London over a decade ago to study at Western University’s Don Wright Faculty of Music, Ingram found his way from music into live theatre, where he has made his career for the last decade. Because of this long-standing connection to live theatre, he brings a strong instinct for narrative to everything he writes, drawing comparisons to Canadian songwriting touchstones including Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Joel Plaskett. That local specificity, right down to references scattered throughout the record, gives ‘Silly Things’ a strong sense of place even as its themes of growth and self-acceptance reach well beyond Southwestern Ontario.
With “Sour Candy” now out and ‘Silly Things’ arriving in September, Ingram brings the material to audiences across Ontario throughout the summer, building toward an album release show in London this fall.
Hi, Stephen! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
My name is Stephen Ingram, I’m a London-based, Hamilton-born singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, music director, and music teacher. I was a classical pianist my whole life and graduated Western University with a degree in music composition in 2017 after which I started a career in live theatre which is still flourishing to this day.
I didn’t start onto the singer/songwriter thing until 2020. I started buying instruments off Facebook marketplace and learning how to play them — there’s nothing like exploring an instrument for the first time to make the same old chord progressions suddenly feel new and exciting. The combination of that and the COVID boredom/isolation spurred me into throwing my feelings into songs, and I haven’t stopped since.
I put out “Fridge Magnet Symphony,” my debut album, in 2023, and I’m releasing my second album “Silly Things” in September 2026. While “Fridge Magnet Symphony” is more in the pop realm, “Silly Things” leans heavily into folk, and features an all-star lineup of London, ON musicians recorded live in studio. This upcoming album focuses on the coming of age from 20s-30s, and is very specifically set in London and Hamilton, ON. I take a lot of inspiration from the great Canadian singer/songwriters like Joni, Gordon, Sarah Harmer, Joel Plaskett, John K. Samson, and many others.
You wrote much of Silly Things after your ADHD diagnosis. Was there a lyric you suddenly understood differently once you had that new perspective?
The revelation that I had ADHD helped me understand myself better, both in the past and the present. Some of the songs are explorations of the way I navigate the world with ADHD now, and others are re-contextualizations of past memories/issues with this new understanding of how my brain works. I wrote pretty much all of the new album with the knowledge of my ADHD, but “Howling at the Moon” off my first album has the lyric “I can’t be by myself / I feel like someone else / in such a volatile state / I dissociate.” I always had issues defining myself outside how others saw me/what I could offer to other people, and it wasn’t until after my diagnosis that I understood how tied that was to ADHD.
“Sour Candy” is about becoming less of a people-pleaser. Was there a specific moment where you realized saying “no” was actually changing your life for the better?
For sure. A big challenge for me working as a contractor in live theatre is that I don’t get paid for time off. If I don’t have work booked, I’m not making money, so for a number of years early in my career I worked a lot of days that I regret in retrospect. I gave up time with the people I love, missed family gatherings, birthdays, funerals. A couple years ago I proposed to my wife, and the very next day I was in a different province from her because of the contract I was working. It felt so wrong that it drove me to set a hard boundary on things I’m not willing to miss. I turned down a lot of work for the 7 (!) weddings I’m going to this summer, and I’ve never felt more confident in my decisions. I’ve also made a pact with myself that I’m never working on my wife’s birthday again (unless it’s a contract someplace cool that she actually wants to visit)!
You’ve spent years working in live theatre. How has telling other people’s stories changed the way you tell your own through music?
I think I was scared to tell my own stories for a long time because I figured they weren’t that interesting, honestly. Working in theatre, I used to listen to a lot of cast recordings and I got used to being immersed in these epic stories that were larger than life, compared to which my own life seemed kind of unexciting. But just before I started into writing my own stuff, I got deep into listening to indie singer/songwriters and realized that mundane/everyday subject matter, when written well and recounted with intimacy and thoughtfulness, is just as affecting.
Because of my time working in theatre, all my songs have to tell a story. A lot of the songs end in a different emotional place than they started, with me having discovered/learnt something from the first verse to the last chorus.
When people leave your shows and your album release gig this fall, what’s the conversation you hope they’re having on the drive home?
I hope my music encourages them to appreciate the sanctity of the little things. “Silly Things” is, above all, an album about practicing gratitude for things that I often used to take for granted. The album opener is literally just a song about sitting and having breakfast with someone you love, and the title track is me daydreaming about married life might play out with my wife. The people in my life, the small moments both past and present that bring me joy, the lessons I’ve learned from navigating the world in my 20s, the beautiful province I live in, are all things I thank my lucky stars for on this album.
Upcoming Shows:
July 28, The Aeolian Hall, London, ON
July 31, The Bunker, Stratford, ON
August 21, Cornerstone Cafe, Guelph, ON
August 28, Burdock Brewing, Toronto, ON
September 26, XUUX Artists, London, ON
Connect with Stephen Ingram:
Website
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram