Tropigloom Confronts the Shadows With Haunting New Single “Disappear”

Shoegaze has always been about finding beauty in distortion, and Tropigloom leans into that tension with unflinching honesty. The Canadian indie project, created by musician Andrew Roy, delivers “Disappear,” a track that drifts between dreamy haze and gut-punch reality.

At its core, “Disappear” is about masking pain with substances and the brutal clarity that follows when the high fades. It’s the sound of running from yourself, only to realize the spiral has already gone too far. Tropigloom captures that duality, escape and regret, numbness and fear, through a sonic palette of washed-out guitars, pulsing bass, and vocals that echo like ghosts in the room. It’s dark, cinematic, and uncomfortably human.

The project itself is rooted in Roy’s own near-death experience, and the entire EP reflects on survival in reverse, looking at life’s fragility through shoegaze, dream pop, and post-punk textures. Fans of The Cure, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine will feel right at home, but Tropigloom doesn’t just recycle sounds from the past. This music feels alive, cracked open, and bleeding into the present.

Andrew Roy is no stranger to stages or studios. As a session musician, he’s played in a slew of Toronto projects and toured as guitarist for Hannah Georgas during her For Evelyn release, alongside work with Etiquette, Off The International Radar, Praises, and Beliefs. But Tropigloom is where his voice lands unfiltered, a project that doesn’t shy away from the messy, haunting parts of human resilience.

For Roy, the takeaway is simple: “We all have situations in our life that can really overwhelm us. Sometimes it’s easier to handle them when you know there’s someone else who has been through it too. You aren’t alone. Human resilience can be very powerful—you’re often stronger than you think.”

With “Disappear” and the forthcoming EP, Tropigloom isn’t offering easy answers. Instead, it’s offering solidarity in the dark, a reminder that even in the noise and distortion, you’re not alone.

“Disappear” wrestles with the cycle of masking pain and facing regret. When you were writing this track, was there a specific moment or experience that pushed you to put those feelings into words?

I had a near-death experience at the end of 2023. I was on life support and in a coma for 2 weeks. I spent about 3 months overall in the hospital. The whole experience pulled me out of all the negative cycles that I had created for myself, allowing me to objectively reflect on them. Something that I struggled with prior to this experience. My outlet from a young age for expressing myself has always been through music, so I saw an opportunity to fully let go of things from the past by capturing them in the form of a song and releasing them.

The EP Everything Now But In Reverse was born out of a near-death experience. How did that event shape not only the themes of this record but also the way you approach life and music now?

It’s allowed me to reflect on things from the past without all the emotional baggage that used to be attached. It’s been like pressing the reset button on my life. I’m not immune to things affecting me now, but I do feel like there’s enough distance there that I can decide whether I want something to affect me or not. It’s been very freeing, and since it has been such a profound experience for me, I would like to try to create music that honors what I went through.

Your sound blends shoegaze, post-punk, and dream pop, yet it feels distinctly modern. How do you walk the line between honoring influences like The Cure and Slowdive while carving out your own space?

A big part of the creative process for me is when I listen to an artist's music, I think about what it is that I like about their sound in particular. I find the majority of the sounds that I enjoy come from bands like the ones mentioned, but there will also be random influences in there that maybe aren’t considered part of that genre. For me, it’s more about creating a sonic collage of sounds that I really like and that I feel match the emotional tone that I am going for. Whether it be a direct influence from the bands I like, or from a modern song that maybe doesn’t necessarily appeal to me as a whole, but has a certain element that I do like. I think it can be really beneficial to be open to all genres of music for this very reason.

As a longtime session musician and touring guitarist, you’ve lived inside other artists’ visions. What’s been the biggest shift stepping into Tropigloom, where the stories and vulnerabilities are entirely your own?

I think you said it right there. The stories and vulnerabilities are my own now. It’s up to me to figure out how to best bring them to life. Creating music instrumentally has always come naturally to me, but singing and telling a story, not so much. It’s still a work in progress, but I think the way I’m writing and the subjects that I’m singing about work well with a less refined voice. It’s honest.

You’ve said this project is about reminding people they’re not alone in their struggles. What do you hope a listener going through their darkest night feels after pressing play on “Disappear”?

Everyone has their own unique situations that they are going through. I think knowing that someone else has gone through something similar and is either still working through it or has made it past it can be very reassuring.