By Jim Barber
There’s a creative storm brewing on Canada’s east coast. And it’s heading west, ready to bring with it a torrent of powerfully compelling music, high octane performances, biting and bold lyricism and a fiercely potent message of self-confidence, freedom of spirit and uncompromising badassery.
At the eye of the storm is one of the most lauded singer/songwriters to come out of Nova Scotia in years, an engaging force of nature whose energy and eloquence is matched only by her prodigious work ethic and drive to be an artistic difference maker.
Elyse Aeryn is all of this, and more – the more is yet to come, as she’s just begun to mine the depths of her creativity, with her second full-length album Everybody Loves You… set to be released in October of 2025.
Fast becoming a household name in the Maritime provinces, and especially in Nova Scotia, earlier this year after earning the title of Music Nova Scotia’s Entertainer of the Year for 2024, Aeryn made her first trek west to play a few shows in Ontario and Quebec, dipping her toes into the maelstrom of the Central Canadian music scene, taking notes, taking names, and making armloads of fans at each stop. She was accompanied by her partner in life and in music, guitarist Garret Taylor.
“It was a blast. I just keep telling myself that this is the life for me. I loved getting to play my songs for new people in new venues. I loved being in a different city every day, seeing the stops along the way, trying local restaurants, you know, drinking a different craft beer in a different town every evening. It was really fun, and I can’t wait to do it again,” she said.
“I felt that we brought the east coasters out to most of the venues we went to. We even had people from my hometown [on Cape Breton Island] at our Hamilton show, which I just thought was so funny. Beyond that, I think it’s just people who are excited and hungry for new music, and that’s the same no matter where I’ve played. It’s just that out west there, there’s so much more of it. The east coast is a pretty small place outside of Halifax. It’s pretty much all small towns and a few small cities. So, it was cool to be in places with such a large population density, which just meant more music fans interested in more unique sounds and looking for more fresh artists.
“But it was also a pretty good learning experience. I made a little Tik Tok video at the end of the tour and talked about a lot of the little things that I never really considered as to how they would work out until I was in the moment. For example, we wanted to drive a little bit after a couple of the shows to get closer to the next location, but what I didn’t think about was if you don’t have a hotel booked, you have nowhere to go when you get there. I just had so much going on with the single coming out and working on a music video. I had also just been at a songwriting conference on Prince Edward Island so, I had a million things on my plate and then I jumped into this tour. At one point we were on the way to Stratford knowing that we were staying in Oshawa that night, but then what do we do all afternoon, where are we going to get ready? ‘I guess we’re going to hang around Stratford for the afternoon and get changed in the A&W parking lot, and brush my teeth in the green room at the venue.’ So, I guess maybe we won’t do that next time. That was one of many takeaways and another is routing: if you can do it in a straight line and not be zigzagging back and forth, it will definitely serve you better. I think I will plan the next trip more in advance so that I could be a little more selective with my routing, and not have to change in any fast-food parking lots.”
The powerhouse first single from the new album, ‘Unstoppable,’ is a gentle but still anthemic polemic against self-doubt and the importance of connection – with others, but most significantly, with yourself.
“I’ve been calling it an accidental love song because I’m not really one to write a love song. It’s just not something that I really was ever inspired to do. But ‘Unstoppable’ started to form as a bit of a love song. I was thinking about the potential two people could have by being together and how I think a relationship is about so much more than just the two people. I really believe there’s a bigger universal force at work when it’s bringing people together, whether it’s in a friendship or romantic or in any way,” she explained.
“But you know, as with so many of my songs, and I think this is a universal thing that happens with artists, you reflect back after the song is complete and you think, ‘maybe I was actually going through something else that I didn’t understand at the time.’ I found myself singing this song to myself or even singing it to my younger self and how the relationship a person can have with themselves is what really makes you unstoppable in life. My inner 16 year old loves music and art and dance and if she could see me now, she would be so proud and so grateful that I decided to pursue this dream. I am giving it my all. I’m not going to look back and say I could have tried harder.
The next single is filled with even more swagger and s*** kicking bravado. ‘Kinda Don’t Mind’ is an all-out rocker that, when played by her full band and with Aeryn in full stage-dominating mode, will be a killer track in a live setting.
“I wanted to write a rock song. I wanted to write something with a lot of energy that I could put my all into when we were onstage. We have another tune called ‘Rock Me Up’ that we’ve been closing our shows with for a little over a year now. And the band loved it so much, they kept asking for another tune like it and now this one is their favourite one to play,” Aeryn said.
“I went in with the intention of writing a rocker. And at the time I was listening to what is usual for me, classic rock. I was listening to a lot of Heart, Ann and Nancy Wilson. I thought, ‘man, I want to write a song that was something that Heart might do.’ It’s got kind of bluesy notes in the vocal line, and it’s got a really interesting chord progression that’s not really in the key of E, but it’s not really in the key of E Minor either. It’s a little bit of E neutral. And it’s just got a lot of punch, but it’s also a lot of fun. So, it’s a rock song for sure, but it’s kind of sassy and it’s got something real fun about it.”
Write what you know. That’s the advice given to everyone from screenwriters to novelists to poets and songwriters. Knowing oneself is fundamental to creating art that not only adds an element of authenticity and emotional integrity, but which is easily identifiable to others in the potential audience. Aeryn always writes what she knows, even if it’s not always easy.
“It’s all from personal experience. I have written stories and created characters and sometimes I’ll meld a character into a true story if I think it’s going to deliver the message. But the songs that tend to get released and tend to be most special to me are the ones that are from personal experience,” she said.
“I oftentimes can’t help but bring a positive message or put a positive spin on it. I want to leave someone feeling good. And I think I did that with ‘Unstoppable.’ I also did that with ‘Cowboy’ and even my song ‘Criminal’ [both from her 2023 debut album Joy State of Mind] there’s a little bit where I’m like, ‘that’s cool, I’ll be the criminal.’ I’ve got lots of songs that maybe don’t so much go that way, but I think at the end of the day, I want to leave somebody feeling good after they’ve been listening to something I wrote.”
In general terms, it’s a melody that seems to come first in Aeryn’s songwriting process.
“I only wrote a song from a title idea one time and that was with the song I was telling you about called ‘Rock Me Up.’ I wanted to write a song with that title and I did, but generally I either have a lyrical melody come into my head, which is what happened with ‘Unstoppable.’ I was getting in the shower and I was hearing this line, ‘maybe we could be unstoppable.’ And I just kept hearing ‘unstoppable’ and I built the song out from that, which is hard to do. It’s hard to be married to an idea and be like, ‘this is the chorus. It has to be something; I have to build around this.’ But it’s fun. It’s fund to dig at it and massage it and get it to be what you want it to be,” she said.
“Lots of times Garret brings me an interesting chord progression and there’s something about it that sounds so cool that I want to write to it, which is what happened with ‘Kinda Don’t Mind.’ I was leaning into the Heart vibe and he brought me that chord progression. He’s got an interesting ear and he comes up with interesting sounds.”
Using the conduit of a full LP as a tableau for ideas, for digging deep into a theme, or series of episodes that have some sort of connective lyrical or spiritual tissue is something Aeryn believes is important to how she not only processes life during the time the album is being penned, but also gives the listener a cohesiveness of tone and vibe and emotion that they too can delve into more comprehensively.
“Again, I find it easier to understand that when reflecting back. I was looking back on Joy State of Mind as I’m working on this next record and I remember being asked, ‘what does Joy State of Mind mean to you?’ And it was hard for me, at the time, to explain it, or articulate it. But when I looked back, what I can see is what I wanted out of life was to not be happy, because I think happiness is some kind of destination. I wanted to feel joy. I just wanted to wake up every day and feel like I’m living the life that I’m meant to live. And through pursuing music, that’s what I get to do. I feel that I am living a life now where I wake up every day and know this is what I want to do. It’s never, ‘oh, I guess I’ve got to go to work.’ I wake up and know I’m literally living the dream and that’s what I was going through and trying to talk about all through Joy State of Mind. I was trying to create that life for myself,” she said.
“And with this new record, I think I was trying to be the fullest expression of myself despite what I thought anyone else might say or might think. I didn’t worry this time if I wrote a song and I knew someone would know it was about them. Or I didn’t worry if I sang a lyric that was so honest, because there’s a couple of songs that there’s no denying who they’re about and I know these people will hear them. But I don’t want to not express myself in this way, or not put out this song because I’m worried someone might hear it. No, it was like, ‘if you were part of my life, you’re part of my songs and you’re part of my record.’ I was completely honest on this record and I dug into everything that makes my sound unique. And I didn’t worry about what genre I thought it was or what people would say about any of it. I figure that one day it’s going to be all over and then who’s going to care? So, I might as well be exactly who I want to be right now. And I think that theme is it bits and pieces of all the lyrics on this album.
“You’ll hear repetitive lyrics from song to song on this theme. There’s one song that’s called ‘On The Edge’ and I keep saying, ‘I’m dying to be living on the edge,’ and ‘I don’t want to live in vain.’ There are lyrical ideas throughout the different songs. They’re about different things and different experiences I’m going through as I’m writing them. But they’re all connected. And I know they resonate with other people too. I want to be that kind of artist who makes people feel the way my favourite artists make me feel.”
There is a compelling subtext to all the talk and writing about living the dream, and not listening to what others say about that dream. Aeryn had a day job for a decade – a good day job, one that had a career path that could lead to great pay, benefits, respect within the industry. But it wasn’t fulfilling, so she took the proverbial leap of faith, believed in her talents and skills and focused determination to be an artist of some significance. And it worked.
“I went to school for chemical engineering at Dalhousie University and I worked in the pulp and paper industry for almost 10 years when I left to do this. I was burnt out. I was unfulfilled and uninspired. A change was a long time coming. I just don’t think that I’d ever seen anyone pursue their art successfully. I grew up in a small town and people didn’t do that,” she said.
“I wanted to have freedom and independence so I thought, okay, I need a professional degree and I need to make my own money and I’m not going to do that with a guitar. But then after you live a little bit of life, you wonder, what’s the point of anything if you’re not doing the thing you love? Like, the more money you have, the more money you spend. I don’t know, it’s just like I had an awakening. But, I mean, my family was not impressed, they said, ‘you’re throwing everything away, your education, all the work you put in to get here.’ Over time, my mom knows I put my heart and soul into anything I do, and I think she was just concerned for my safety and security. But once she saw me flourishing, doing this thing that I love to do, she’s been my biggest fan.”
There is a stereotype, one fostered by the large number of Celtic-inspired acts from the east coast who made waves in the Canadian music industry in the 1990s (The Rankins, Ashley MacIsaac, Rita McNeil, Great Big Sea, Natalie MacMaster et al) that all musicians were weaned on kitchen parties and ceilidhs. These stereotypical thinkers often forget about a little band out of Nova Scotia called April Wine.
“I didn’t grow up listening to the traditional stuff. It wasn’t what my parents were into. I was introduced to it a little later in life, but it just didn’t strike a chord with me – pun unintended. In my house it was April Wine, and later Haywire [from Prince Edward Island]. I have vivid memories of April Wine music playing in my household. My parents had an 8-track player and a vinyl record player and they listened to everything from Rod Stewart to The Beach Boys, The Eagles. And as we moved into the 1990s, my mom was listening to Cher, Shania Twain. Women’s country music of the 1990s was so different than what country is today. There was Tanya Tucker, Lorie Morgan, Reba McIntyre – all that had an influence on me,” she said.
“My parents loved to dance, so they were always listening to the Rolling Stones and Elton John. They went out every Saturday night and their thing was to rock and roll. That was the music they loved. And when we’d be in the car on road trips or even just around town, I wanted to listen to something that everyone was enjoying. And those records and songs became my favourite ones, and I still listen to them. I mean, I am looking at my record collection right beside me and we’ve got Aerosmith, Don Henley, Meatloaf, the Matt Minglewood Band, the Oak Ridge Boys. And then Fleetwood Mac – they’re one of my favourites. I have a tattoo of Stevie Nicks on my right arm. They were really the band the made me think about how iconic some artists can be. I love Stevie because she made so many cool solo records after Fleetwood Mac, I loved all that stuff. And she’s also so current. She’s collaborated with Sheryl Crow, now Haim and Maggie Rogers, a bunch of my current favourite artists, and Taylor Swift too. She’s such a support system and an example for young female artists today. I just love who she is. And she grew so much with the music over time. Her sound changed in the 1980s and then into the 1990s. I feel like she’s always maintained some kind of current nature about her music and herself. And I think through her music she let us in a little bit more than other artists did, and maybe that’s what’s it for me. She’s just an icon.
“Maggie Rogers is my favourite new artist of the last decade or so. I love the kind of show she puts on. I love the way she writes. She’ll never say anything predictable or expected. She makes you think about everything in her lyrics. It’s vague, so you can derive your own meaning from the songs. And I’ve found that she hasn’t given into the trends and having to be whatever on Tik Tok or social media and how important it is to have ‘followers.’ She’s never given in to that. She’s always just been herself and done her own thing. And now she’s selling out arenas. I’m so inspired by someone just being totally themselves and being successful doing so. I also love Chris Stapleton. He’s a little more of a mainstream example. And another great artist, more on the rock side, is Marcus King. I’ve loved watching his journey as well. He’s a great guitar player, really making amazing music that’s not mainstream, but having a lot of success doing it and touring and releasing records. I just think it’s possible. You don’t have to be trying to write hits to be making great music and have people wanting to listen.”
Great music, on her own terms, is something that Aeryn not only admires, but with the forthcoming release of her second powerhouse album, is something that she has indubitably achieved – with lots more on the horizon.
For more information on Everybody Loves You… upcoming shows and more, visit https://www.elyseaeryn.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.
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