By Jim Barber
Mountains are spectacular. Mountains are inspirational. Thrust up by violent tectonic forces more powerful than anything we can imagine hundreds of millions ago, mountains are monumental examples of the timelessness of the Earth. From a distance, there is an epic, awe-inspiring beauty to them. Up close, their jagged edges, steep slopes, sheer cliffs, deep chasms, and a sense of menace, for the uninitiated.
Mountains are not for the faint hearted. The mountains of The Kootenay region of British Columbia are lush, verdant, teeming with life. Nature in all its forms is on full display, wild and untamed. There is beauty, but there is also ruggedness, there is danger as predators stalk their prey, the risk of fire from a careless camper or an on-rushing thunderstorm can inflame not only the forests but anxiety in those who are hardy enough to live, work and play there.
For those who called this part of Canada home for generations, ‘mountain life’ is simply the normal way of life. Folks have adapted and developed skill sets, ways of thinking, philosophies of life, and a healthy respect for their surroundings which are passed down from parent to child. A special sort of human is forged by living in this wild and sometimes untamed environment amongst the tall trees, the ancient rocks and stones. One learns to appreciate the closeness of family, the reliance upon one’s neighbours. These people don’t ‘tame’ the mountain environment, they co-exist with it.
It may seem an overly dramatic, and perhaps even melodramatic introduction to an article about a musical artist, but in order to understand someone, anyone, on a deeper and more profound level, it helps to know something about their surroundings and the values it imparted to them. Creativity and innovation are part and parcel of life out there, having a solid sense of one’s self, of understanding that life is good, but that you have to work for that good life. If you’re a kid, you’re backyard is a place of wonder, exploration and adventure.
For this is where 28-year-old Maddison Keiver, known by her artist name as Maddisun was born – in Cranbrook. B.C., to be precise. Her music is an extension of her personality, which is one filled with passion – for life, for adventure, for real, authentic experiences, for making her own way, in her own way. She even calls her particular style of music, ‘Mountain Music’ a form of folk, singer songwriter, rock and pure Canadiana that is as emotionally expansive as it is compellingly melodic. It is infused throughout each and every song on her compelling new album, The Pages, which was released independently on July 18 in both physical copies and via download from Bandcamp.
But there’s something deeper at work in Maddisun, which comes out in conversation as well as through her music, and even by following her active and wondrously effervescent social media channels. There is an old-fashioned longing to be immersed in the world, with all her senses alive and taking in every moment, every unique encounter.
Going against the grain is a well-worn expression for someone who chooses to take the more difficult, but ultimately more rewarding path. Others would prefer the more modern phrase of taking ownership of one’s own destiny. Maddisun has done this her entire life, but not in an arrogant, entitled or petulant way. Rather it comes from a place of freedom and contentment, of confidence in her own beliefs, choices, intelligence, talent and hard-earned wisdom.
“I’ve been pursuing music for more than 10 years – probably closer to 15 now. Fifteen years ago I was writing songs and thinking about and wanting to do music but not as a business. I’ve always been kind of pursuing it so I’ve always just done what I had with what tools that I had with what I knew from my upbringing. My upbringing is very grassroots. It’s all about classic rock music, camping, campfire singing. My dad sings and plays guitar and taught me how to play. My aunts are singers, my grandpa was a musician as well – none of them professional, but amazing and always playing music. And all they really knew was hard work, they just knew how to provide for their family and do what needed to be done,” she said.
“They all definitely could have done something with it, but it’s not that easy. Being where I’m at, of course, I am grateful that I have the internet and the ability to connect with people. But the message that I’m putting out there is not necessarily a modern message. I’m out there on social media talking about records and talking about my old car and my travel and my Bohemian life. I am using my modern age tools to get across a more classic message. Technology is just a way to get my voice out there because that’s what I have to work with now. But I grew up listening to vinyl and CDs. I’m old enough that if I wanted to listen to music you had to work or do chores and save your money and go buy the CD. And when I bought it I cherished it, I read all the lyrics and I put the posters up on my wall. And that’s what I want to inspire. There are little girls that will come to my shows and young women and that’s the experience I want for them. I want it to be this exciting thing, not just looking at their screen.
“My family is in the forestry industry. No one knew anything about the music industry or arts. When I decided I was going to do this as a full-time career, my dad kind of got it because he is a musician. He knows that I have what it takes, but my mom didn’t fully get it. She’s still thinking I am doing this on the side. She wants to make sure I’m okay. But I just have this unwavering belief that I know it’ll work out. I’ll always get by, even if it’s by the skin of my teeth, I’m always able to pay my rent and get by. With this new record, I am hoping to build on that a little more. I want to monetize. And that’s also a huge part of why I’m doing the physical thing, because people are going to buy the vinyl, but the records that I put all this time and energy into.”
Maddisun understands that as her career continues to grow it will become more complex, busier and there will be more demands on her time. But she also knows her partner and producer/collaborator Julian Bueckert (Bonecrusher Collective) has her back, and is someone she can bounce both creative and business ideas off of. It’s a life and creative relationship that, much like everything else in her life, evolved organically and with splendidly happy and prolific results.
“I have always been writing and I put out a string of singles in 2023 and 2024 including ‘Crawl,’ and “Feelin’ It Again’ as well as “Evergreen’ and ‘All or Nothing.’ Then I applied for some Factor Funding and it didn’t come through, thankfully because honestly the project wasn’t right. I’m glad that it didn’t come through because it then led me to where I am now. I was in Nashville at the time and I had all these songs that were cohesive and felt ‘together.’ I knew then I could do an album. And it all kind of fell into place as I started kind of forming a relationship with someone that I went to school with, who is a musician from my town. He and I started hanging out again and writing together and making music. His dad was actually my music teacher and my choir director in high school. It was all pretty random: we met at a gig and started hanging out and then started dating and then started making really cool music together,” Maddison said of Bueckert.
“He just said, ‘why don’t I just produce your new album? Why don’t we just do it together?’ And it all fell into place, like I said. I think The Pages is the best music that I’ve ever done. It’s obviously my best songwriting because I’m more mature now as a writer and an artist. But it’s also the best producer I’ve ever worked with as far as sound quality and attention to detail. Julian produces a lot of bands and artists in the Kootenays, the area where we’re from. I always knew he was an amazing producer; he’s been producing his own music since high school. There’s very few of us working musicians in town because Cranbrook’s pretty small. So I always knew he was good. We just never hung out until the last couple of years when it all happened. It’s become an amazing partnership and now we’re doing stuff for other artists and making stuff for film and television, which is kind of a side thing. It’s going well and I feel like I am really coming into my own as an artist and songwriter.”
As mentioned above, Maddisun embraces an analog, retro vibe, and again, those words may not sum them up. There is a very mid-1970s aesthetic to everything from her hairstyle to her clothes, the earthy tones and vibrant hues, to her plan to release the new album not only in CD and vinyl form, but also cassette. But this is not an affectation or a gimmick – there is nothing false or insincere about it. She could very well be a time traveler!
“I’m releasing The Pages on physical copy. I’m going to have physical copies available for purchase exclusively because I want to veer away from streaming. You’ll be able to buy it on Bandcamp to have it on your phone and download it as part of the package when you buy the physical. I think this idea of free music streaming, making it so accessible, I don’t like it anymore. I’m over it. It’s not supporting artists, and I think it’s our time now to reclaim things. So, I am reclaiming the artist’s purpose by exclusively releasing the album physically. Some of it will go on streaming, but if you want to listen to the full album, you have to buy the physical,” she said, fully understanding her non-conformity with current industry practices.
“Most of my fans will like this idea. I know my fans, I know the people who listen to my music, so I know what they want, and they are like me, they are creative thinkers, and creators themselves, so we want tangible music. And for people who say they don’t have anything to listen to them on, companies are still making CD players and record players and even cassette players. Just because you can’t buy a new car with a CD player any more doesn’t mean you can’t listen to the record. If people want that MP3 or Wav files, they can still get the download on Bandcamp and pay the $15 for the digital files. We can go on and on about the problems with streaming and that it’s basically the consumerist way of listening to music. It’s the Wal Mart way of listening to music. And I am not about that. My music isn’t about that. It just makes complete sense for me to go in this direction.”
As befits someone who embraces everything tangible, physical and analog,The Pages refers to the pages of a book, or journal, with each song being a different entry and Side A and B being chapters.
“For this record I remember at one point kind of freaking out because I didn’t have it altogether. All the songs fit together sonically, but what is the message? And then I showed Julian the song ‘The Pages.’ And he thought right away that this is probably a single, and that it was really, really good. But I didn’t hear it. We all think different songs are going to be hits and everyone has their own opinions. So that actually helped me because that song had such a strong message with the storyteller, songwriter, journal kind of vibe. And that started everything else coming into place for the other songs. Like ‘Big Star’ where there’s literally a lyric that says, ‘wrote it in my journal, I’m going to be a big star one day.’ There’s all these little pieces that came together and images and ideas about storytelling and pages, paper, and I realized this is a book and this is a story I am going to be tell. There’s 12 songs, and I split them into the two chapters, one on each side. And it also influenced the artwork on the album. I’ve got all this old text and old paper and old writing like from the Renaissance or from folklore. Which is what storytelling and writing songs is, it’s folklore. But it’s also my journal, my thoughts but instead of writing them down I am putting them out into the world.
‘Pumpkin Pie’ was the first single released from The Pages, and comes from a past dating experience that did not pan out as Maddisun hoped.
“That one really came out of an experience I had dating someone who didn’t like me as much as I liked them, which has tended to be a recurring theme because I am an anxious, attached person in relationships, although not so much anymore. I guess I was tending to go for people that weren’t really right. And I would be searching for their attention and not getting it. So that’s kind of what the song is about,” she said.
“Also, the guy was like five years younger than me. And when you’re in your 20s that’s more like 10 or 15 years. So when the guy is in his late teens or early 20s, he might as well be 12. He was actually 21 and I was 26. So ‘Pumpkin Pie’ is like this very cheeky song. I remember I sat down at my desk one day and I was just writing and I’m sitting there all alone, and it when that happens my mind starts to wander to funny things. A lot of my songs kind of started as jokes. It’s like a jumble where I am processing these weird experiences and something hit me and the song just started coming out of me. It was done in about 15 minutes from start to finish.”
Another song based on a less-than-ideal relationship experience is ‘Open Door.’
“That song was another one that I wrote through a semi-relationship I was going through, and it gets back to that recurring thing of not getting let in by the person fully, or not feeling seen. I remember I was dating someone and I was feeling like they were scared maybe that I was too much. And I was saying, ‘if you just let me in, I promise it won’t be too much.’ And then at the end of the song, the chorus sort of changes and it’s me talking because then I realized that I was actually letting too many people in who were the wrong people,” she said.
A delightful little diversion is the 44-second number called ‘Little Colours’ which on the album leads directly into the next song, called ‘Amber.’ It caught the attention of the author of this piece for how in such a short span of time, it really captures the essence of who Maddisun is as an artist and as a human being.
“Those are like the little jingles that I do when I start writing, I sometimes call them my ditties. It was just a quick little thing I did. I’m not saying it was a throwaway song, but it was just a quick little thing I did. And it was almost like a theme song for a TV show or something, that’s what I mean by jingles. And I wrote that riff but it came from just an exercise that I would do on guitar to kind of warm up or play around with. And then I started to write lyrics and the lyrics were me explaining that I’m multidimensional. I am all of the colours you can see. I’m yellow, happy and bright. But I’m also these deep blues. So it was this metaphor of me being many different colours. Many different versions of myself.”
‘Your Muse’ is a riposte to those, primarly older man, who have chose to criticize the young female singer songwriter who had the temerity to not only be really good, successful, well respected, but did so on her own terms, without their help and ‘guidance.’
“And that sort of thing happened a few more times where I would just have people try and tell me what to do, all men. The title ‘Your Muse’ wasn’t even really specifically related to that because I wasn’t their muse, I wasn’t inspiring their art, but it was almost like they can’t look away from what doing, like I am their experiment on a petri dish or something, where they’re like, ‘what’s Maddisun doing? What’s going on in there? What is she doing with her business?’ So it’s almost like they’re examining me, so I am, in a sense, a muse for what they wish they could be doing. And of course there are people who are just haters. I’m a friendly person and I don’t have many enemies, but I do have haters and people that judge me a lot. So it’s a different meaning of the word ‘muse.’ There’s a deeper meaning to it that not everyone would really understand. But, you know, the right ones will. When I started to get more popular and see success, I got some comments from others (mostly men) who tried to bring me down, thankfully I do have a lot of great local supporters on my side that continue to rise me up.”
“There was another guy who was a sound tech or sound guy. He messaged me just to tell me that I have shitty sound and people aren’t coming to see my shows because I have shitty sound. And that all that mattered was the technical side of it. He called me technically challenged and I was like, ‘are you serious?’ Does he think that’s what people come to shows to see? Also, my sound is not bad. I’m not an idiot. I’ve been doing this my whole life. I was in a music school; I have my Royal Conservatory training. I am not an untrained musician. He just had to find one thing to pick apart. And this attitude is not ending. It’s not going away. And it’s the worst within the music industry. It’s not the outside people, the people coming to the shows or listening to the music, it’s people within the industry that are saying these things. The people who come to my shows, they love it. They may not know anything about the music industry, but they’re always telling me that my music makes them feel good. Those are my people.”
Independence and self-reliance is deeply imbedded in Maddisun’s DNA, as is a curiosity to see the world and an understanding that life is to be experienced. Combine this with the precocious desire to be the centre of attention at family gatherings, the desire to put on shows, to sing, to play music to express herself, and it’s no surprise that travel has been a huge part of her life. At one point, barely 20 years of age, she alighted off to Europe to live, work, and again in a retro term ‘find herself.’ Living on her wits, her work ethic and her talent – three qualities that Maddisun possesses in preternatural abundance, she not only immersed herself in the various artistic and cultural landscapes, but eventually decided to settle down in the fertile and creatively fecund land of poets and playwrights – Ireland.
“I just had this crazy need to go to Europe. I was obsessed with Europe, but with Ireland, something just called me. I don’t know, it might be a planetary thing. I’m into astrology for sure, so I followed the call and went there. I didn’t really do music, but I was writing and I was playing a little bit of guitar. I really was just finding myself, if you will, and I lived there for almost three years. I travelled around a bunch of different countries, like 20 different countries. When I moved there, I was 20, back in 2016,” she said, adding that back then the phone service and her own phone were not exactly top of the line, so, backpack on, she would literally do the old-fashioned wanderer’s approach – ask locals where to go and how to get there.
“I worked in a pharmacy in my hometown when I was 17, 18 and 19 and saved all my money, about $15,000. So I sort of retired for two years when I went overseas. I went to Ireland and was having a really fun time and I wasn’t worried about money at all. I’m a pretty good solo traveler and I am also pretty frugal as it is, and can be even more so when I need to be. So I was never struggling there at all. But then I dated an Irish guy for a while and got a work visa and worked for the Bank of Ireland doing technical support; I was fixing credit card machines and debit card machines and doing quite well. I remember thriving in that job and that’s where my tech skills came into play and I realized I was pretty good at it. I was climbing up the ladder and thought I could do this forever. But then my visa expired and I broke up with the boyfriend and I knew I could stick it out there, but I also realized I wanted to come home. I felt like my time over there was over. I also knew I couldn’t fully pursue my music over there because it’s hard to start up a business anywhere, let along outside of your home country.
“I had actually started writing music again before I left. I downloaded the programs I needed onto my laptop where I was living in Dublin, got a USB microphone and started making music. It was around this time that Spotify was becoming a thing and I figured I could put out music on Spotify and I put out a little EP. But then when I realized I wanted to go all in on music, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it in Ireland”
Many of the songs, including the ethereal ‘Mountain Air’ ended up being released on what would become Maddisun’s first album Self Reflections, which was released in 2020.
As evidenced by her time abroad, the combination of confidence in one’s own wisdom and one’s own path, combined with an impressive sense of practicality, ingenuity and fearless autonomy (there’s that mountain life upbringing coming into play!) has led Maddisun to eschew much of the corporate music industry infrastructure of managers, booking agents, etc. etc. At some point, simply to alleviate the workload, she may have to bring in those sorts of professionals but it will undoubtedly be on her terms and for her purposes.
“At some point I’d like to be represented by a booking agency. Right now I have to book my own tours. I don’t think I need a manager, but I could use an assistant to do all the admin.. I believe all the best kinds of things just happen to me because I am out there and I am open to the opportunities whether it’s in Toronto, in New York, in Nashville, good things happen to me because I have that kind of personality where I am very much a go getter, but in the music industry you also have to be a good hang, someone that people want to be around. I have a good vibe, I am a good hang and I end up meeting good people and making those connections,” she said.
“What I really need right now is an assistant. I need a roadie. I need someone to be on the road with me because it’s so exhausting. Someone like a tour manager who can help with the admin and logistics and take some of that load off me.”
Now that Pages is out, the touring has begun – without a tour manager, but with a ton of enthusiasm over the new material. Maddisun will be hitting both the east and west coasts of Canada, as well as the big centres of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver well into the fall. Further afield, she said the U.K. is on the horizon for 2026, but that she is open to going anywhere – everywhere in fact – where people want to hear her.
These journeys, these adventures, these experiences will no doubt become new ‘pages’ in what is already a remarkable and robustly noteworthy life.
For more information on Maddisun’s upcoming shows and other updates visit her social media channels or https://www.maddisunmusic.com/
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
