The Timmins-based band Sonic Democracy has a new album coming out next month, and it has a theme you wouldn’t expect.

The students that make up the band voted on the topic of grief for their new album, Crossroads and Dreamlands, which will be released on June 8th. It’s a concept album with each track representing one of the five stages of grief. The album won’t follow a five part story; instead, each song covers one of the stages (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance) and showcases the artist’s interpretation of it.

For those unsure of the topic of grief for a music album, don’t worry: Sonic Democracy’s Student Manager, Josh Warner says the album won’t be too heavy.

“We thought it’d be an interesting topic to cover as teenagers to sort of show that we have an understanding of heavy topics like that,” he says. “But not necessarily to make a heavy album.”

Crossroads and Dreamlands is the second album for Sonic Democracy, a band that was put together eight years ago under the guidance of the band’s music teacher, Barry Promane. Barry, who used to tour with professional bands, wanted to replicate how professional bands operate.

“I really try to enshrine within their practice, how do professional bands operate, and how can we replicate that experience,” he says. “So if they want to go into the real world, they know about lighting and sound and picking music.”

Barry says as long as they have the resources to prepare students for the music industry in the real world, they may as well use them. “[If] people want to go to college for music, or the technical side, or attend a university for music, we might as well emulate that environment here, now. And we certainly have the capability to do so.”

Sonic Democracy is sponsored by the TEMPO Educates Foundation and Tahoe Canada.The band is off to Toronto next week, to Coalition Music, to record the upcoming album in time for a June 8th release date. They will then perform the album in its entirety on June 8th and June 9th at Timmins High. If that wasn’t enough, they’ll also open for Marianna’s Trench this summer at Stars and Thunder. When asked about nerves before that show, the students brushed it off like old pro’s, saying they got practice at last year’s summer festival and are ready for anything.

With the experience and sophistication of a well put-together professional band, it’s hard to remember that the band members are all still in high school.

Check out more from Sonic Democracy here, at their website.