Queer indie pop artist Aman Dhesi celebrates sobriety and self‑liberation on debut album

Toronto-based queer indie pop musician Aman Dhesi has released his debut album The Restless Night via Zedd Records, introducing the project with its pulsating opening track and lead single, Dancefloor Shoes.

Co-produced by Mark Zubek and Dhesi himself, the single arrives as a shimmering declaration of self-liberation - a dancefloor-ready anthem built to move both bodies and spirits. With its gleaming synths and irresistible late-night energy, Dancefloor Shoes marks Dhesi’s most confident and compelling work to date, underscoring his emergence as a bold new voice in independent pop.

Originally from North Delta, B.C., just outside Vancouver, Dhesi has spent years crafting his unique sonic identity. His 2019 debut EP Day One introduced standout tracks Another Never Ever and Rise Up, establishing his blend of club intensity and emotional candour. Since then, he has earned multiple No.1 spots on independent queer music charts and established himself as a dynamic live performer across Toronto’s thriving music scene. Now, The Restless Night stands as his most fully realised artistic statement.

Dancefloor Shoes captures this evolution with clarity. The song opens with a warm invitation before accelerating into a moment of collective release. Its narrator pulls on their shiny black leather shoes and steps into a night brimming with possibility. The chorus - “I got my dancefloor shoes / Feelin’ in the mood / Jeans huggin’ tight / C’mon grab that mic” - is simple, joyful and defiantly alive, carrying the weight of someone choosing to show up in their fullness for the very first time.

By the time Dhesi sings “I just wanna’ be free tonight”, the sentiment reaches beyond the club itself, touching on deeper emotional liberation.

Much of the album was shaped during a period of profound personal transformation, written and produced as Dhesi embraced sobriety. That clarity informs every track. “There’s a strange clarity that comes with sobriety,” he says. “You’re no longer numbing the chaos - you’re standing inside it, fully awake.” That lucidity gives Dancefloor Shoes its punch, elevating it from a club anthem to a portrait of radical presence and self-defined freedom.

Produced in collaboration with Mark Zubek, the song’s sonic landscape fuses the glossy synth textures of '80s pop with the forward thrust of contemporary dance music. The result is a cinematic after-dark sound, nostalgic yet distinctly modern - a world of strobe-lit release rendered in sparkling electronic detail.

As an openly gay South Asian and Sikh artist, and a proud member of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, Dhesi brings a perspective still too rare in Canada’s indie pop sphere. His work treats queer nightlife, desire and emotional release with seriousness, care and celebratory vibrancy.

Across its 13 tracks, The Restless Night unfolds as a nocturnal journey through longing, eroticism, resilience and the restless heartbeat of queer nightlife. The album also includes a shimmering cover of Belinda Carlisle’s classic Mad About You, woven seamlessly into its themes. Together, the songs chart a dialogue between Dhesi’s past selves and the man he is becoming - offering a portrait of the courage it takes to live without armour.

“This isn’t an album about escaping the night,” Dhesi says. “It’s about learning how to exist inside it - lucid, open, unarmoured.”