Northern Dial Artist Profile

playingwithfire

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Hamilton, Ontario alternative-rock band playingwithfire formed in 2020 around vocalist-guitarist Campbell Coleman and drummer Brandon Roussell, later expanding with keyboardist Robert Bisset. With the pandemic limiting conventional rehearsals and live development during the group’s earliest period, much of its initial songwriting took shape remotely before the band moved into regular performance and recording.

The group’s sound draws from several strands of modern rock rather than a single revival lane, combining gritty guitar work with post-punk melody, electronic-rock textures and introspective songwriting. Early songs such as "Shivering" established that approach, while later releases pushed toward a darker and more atmospheric presentation. In 2026 the band issued the five-track project Monologues at Midnight, including "Erased," "Silhouette" and "Fallback."

playingwithfire is still an emerging act, so its significance is less about established awards than about documenting a developing Ontario rock voice while the story is still unfolding. Northern Dial’s profile captures the band at that stage: locally grounded, independently built and still defining how far its hybrid alternative-rock sound can travel.