For Crimson99, the point of making Daredevil was never to polish every edge until the humanity disappeared. Her five-track debut EP instead captures an artist learning to trust instinct, accept imperfection and follow ideas before fear has time to interrupt them.
The Montreal-based alternative rock singer-songwriter, born Maria Brousseau-Labbé, recorded the project with Montreal musician and producer Koko Love. Much of the EP was captured live with a band in a single day, giving the songs a loose, immediate quality that fits a record centered on self-discovery, healing and surrender.
At the center of the release is “Who Am I,” a song built around surrendering control and moving toward the person Crimson99 wants to become. It carries particular significance because it was the first song she ever recorded into a microphone, and the version that appears on Daredevil is that original first take.
“It’s about allowing love and truth to pierce through fear and hurt. It’s about not listening to all the internalized voices that prevented me from walking my path. It’s about trust and letting go of control and fear.”
Even after recording the rest of the EP with a live band, Crimson99 and Love returned to that initial recording rather than replacing it with a more technically refined version.
“We recorded the whole EP in one day with a live band, but that one song we ended up keeping the take from the demo. There was just something special about it, and it felt meaningful to do so. As we say, the last shall be first and the first shall be last.”
That decision speaks to the larger philosophy behind Daredevil. Crimson99 describes the record as an exploration of “finding the truth within yourself and aligning with the calling you are meant to follow,” with unconventional song structures left intact rather than reshaped to satisfy traditional formulas.
“It is an imperfect yet deeply honest offering. Some of the song structures are unconventional, not necessarily shaped around high efficiency or traditional songwriting formulas, but that was never really the goal. The intention was simply to open the dam and let the ideas flow freely, not allowing overthinking or interference into the process.”
The approach gives the EP the feeling of documentation rather than construction. Instead of presenting self-discovery as a clean arrival point, Crimson99 allows uncertainty, spirituality and emotional release to exist alongside one another.
That tension also runs through “Open Up Your Heart,” a previously released track about being tempted by familiar habits even when experience has already shown where they lead.
“Open Up Your Heart is about the desire to backslide,” Brousseau-Labbé said. “It’s about missing things from your past that never truly served you but felt good in the moment.”
Crimson99 connects the song to the belief that pain is temporary, even when moving beyond it requires confronting rather than avoiding what caused it.
The themes running through Daredevil are tied closely to Brousseau-Labbé’s own path toward music. Raised by a Dominican mother who trained as a pianist and jazz singer, she grew up surrounded by music but did not immediately pursue a recording career of her own.
In 2019, during a period she describes as shaped by loneliness, excess, restlessness and despair, Brousseau-Labbé traveled through the United Kingdom and the Himalayas. After returning home and later meeting the man who became her husband, she began allowing herself to enter music more fully.
Daredevil is the result of that decision, but its strongest idea may be its refusal to make arrival sound complete. Crimson99 introduces herself through songs that retain their rough edges, first impulses and unusual shapes, allowing the process of becoming to remain audible in the finished record.
