Canadian musician Rich Aucoin made a name for himself in the late 2000s, pairing his ambitious and exploratory pop music with impressive feats of endurance, including a coast-to-coast tour via bicycle and another that involved long-distance running, each of which supported a different charity. By the time he'd issued his 2011 debut, We're All Dying to Live, Aucoin had made friends and found collaborators all across the country and developed a reputation as a captivating live act. Subsequent releases like 2014's Ephemeral and 2019's Release only bolstered his renown as a pop auteur. Heading into the next decade, Aucoin continued to challenge expectations, recording his 2020 psychedelic American travelog United States, and launching Synthetic, a massive four-album vintage-synthesizer project with albums in 2022 and 2023.