GOOD GRIEF

about us

Good Grief is a Toronto-based songwriting duo, consisting of powerhouse singer-songwriters Bryn McCutcheon and Kirstyn Johnson. After serendipitously being paired together at a writing camp hosted by Dreamhouse Studios, Good Grief was quickly formed. Their collaboration is founded on a shared belief: that creating space for their collaborators to access and express their defining truths is crucial in crafting impactful projects.

This writing duo has worked both locally and internationally with artists & producers such as Ari Hicks, Banx & Ranx, Blaise Moore, Chin Injeti, Daneliya, Delaney Jane, Fefe Dobson, Katherine Li, Lili-Ann De Francesco, Mackenzie Arromba, MKLA, Nelly Furtado, Nicolina, Rêve, Ryland James, Saint Harison, Shawn Desman, Sofia Camara, Strings from Paris, T-Minus, Tyler Shaw, Zolita, and many more.

Meet the Team

  • Co-Founder, Songwriter, Producer

    Kirstyn Johnson is an artist who exists in paradoxes—timeless yet current, raw yet refined, cinematic yet intimate. With a cultivated vocal tone and striking lyrical vulnerability, she bares her heart and breaks it in the same breath. Her pop ballads capture the defining moments of life, love, and love gone wrong. 

    Originally from Alberta, Kirstyn moved to Toronto in 2019 after graduating from Berklee College of Music. She has since been working on and off stage as a songwriter, artist, pianist, vocalist, and producer. In November 2024, Kirstyn opened for Forest Blakk at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. Most recently, she has joined Sofia Camara (direct support) on the European leg of Dean Lewis’ sold-out The Epilogue World Tour.

    Her debut single, The First Mistake (Nov 2023), introduced listeners to her heart-wrenching storytelling. This release was accompanied by a one-take live music video featuring a nine-piece band to exactly replicate the studio recording. Follow-ups 3 Hearts and Passenger Side delve into emotional infidelity, rose-tinted nostalgia, and the “feelings you can’t fight”. 

    Her next release is expected in spring 2025.

  • Co-Founder, Songwriter, Producer

    Bryn is a Toronto-based artist, songwriter, and producer who walks the line between pain and empowerment with her signature warmth, poetic lyricism, and pop sensibilities. Her carefully curated catalog explores everything from constructed femininity to hereditary trauma and the heartbreaks she’s survived along the way.

    Her 2021 single, Making Monsters—which debuted in the Apple TV documentary One Week Til Doomsday—personifies anxiety as a lover she can’t escape. More recently, No Man and Room offer a deeply personal look at her love life, navigating themes of queerness and romantic claustrophobia. In 2024, she released December, a haunting winter single featured in Last Exams, a queer Christmas film directed by Sarah Rotella.

    Bryn’s voice and songwriting extend beyond her own work. She was featured as an artist and vocalist on What I Wouldn't Do (North Star Calling), a star-studded anthem supporting Kids Help Phone’s Feel Out Loud campaign. She is also featured on Dead Types by Don Mills and One Eye Open by Royal Wood (co-written with Linda Perry). Her songwriting credits include Tongue, written with Rêve for Saturn Return, which won Juno Pop Album of the Year in 2024. Additionally, You Found Me—written by Good Grief and performed by Bryn—was nominated for a Canadian Screen Music Award in 2024.

    Currently, Bryn is engineering, producing, and writing her most personal work yet—her upcoming EP, expected in fall 2025.