Skip Waiters credits watching films and living life with enriching his music. It’s fitting, then, that the Toronto native’s 2026 EP INSECURE plays out like a short film, complete with a narrated introduction and closing—its songs dramatic scenes capturing the magic and chaos of love, yet rooted in what he’s described as “the coldest season of my life.” His storytelling is vivid and referential (clock the nods to Spider-Man, Superbad, and Charlie’s Angels in “shotGUN”), but the sonic palette has shifted. From the beat-heavy hip-hop of his previous work, he leans into soulful, old-school R&B arrangements flourishing with lush piano melodies and panoramic strings. Pre-release single “chanGES” signaled Waiters’ new era. Built on sunny keys and a buoyant bassline, it embodies the joy of new love—a heart-eyes emoji transcribed into sound—until the warped outro creeps in like a plot twist. Zoom out and the EP charts a wider journey, coolly detaching as self-preservation on “just busiNESS” and wresting back control from a downward spiral on “shotGUN.” For the finale, “1-800-MAN-DOWN,” Waiters channels Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s 1977 devotional classic “The Closer I Get to You” into a twinkling kiss-off, his coldest winter making way for the possibility of spring.