When We Wake with Andrew Shaver

On today’s episode, I chat with St. John’s, Newfoundland’s Nico Paulo .      Nico Paulo is a gem in the crown of Canadian songwriting. Her debut , self-tilted, album came out in April of 2023 on Halifax’s Forward Music Group to rave reviews, including this beauty from MTV: “your new favourite vocalist lives in Newfoundland.”  She sure does. Although, Nico didn’t always call Newfoundland home. She...

Kylie Fox is a singer-songwriter based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her latest album Sequoia was recorded in producer Daniel Ledwell’s idyllic lakeside studio just outside of Halifax. The album is a terrific mix of tunes that runs the gamut stylistically: it’s jazzy at times, it’s folky at times, it’s a little like Sesame Street at times. And we get into that in our chat - what it was like for K...

On today’s episode, I chat with the pride of (or, at least, one of the prides of) Prince Edward Island, Lennie Gallant.  Lennie Gallant is not only a member of the Order of Canada , but he's also had a song ( Peter's Dream) inducted into the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame . My goodness, he’s almost royalty.  Speaking of which, in our chat, we talk about the origin of his last name, which has s...

With a family heritage that goes back to the early 18th century in Witless Bay, Newfoundland, Con O’Brien is one of the province’s great musical treasures. He is the only remaining original member in The Irish Descendants , a band that was at the heart of bringing the traditional music of Newfoundland to the rest of Canada and, indeed, the world. The Irish Descendants are celebrating 35 years of b...

Mike O’Brien grew up loving the process of writing a song. Or, as we find out in this chat, what he prefers to call making up a song . He began his career in Toronto at the turn-of-the-century playing with his high schools pals, one of whom was Afie Jurvanen. Mike and Afie would go on to form the band Paso Mino , which became a go-to backing band in the early oughts Toronto indie rock scene, most...

James Clayton (aka Clay Pigeon ) is a terrific songwriter, living in Montreal these days. He’s originally from Peterborough, Ontario, he went to a jazz school out in Nelson BC, and he cut his teeth at open mic nights in Berlin. Early in the Pandemic, he and his now wife Tosca, decided they wanted to come back to Canada. James had seen a documentary on the Montreal music scene and thought, uh, yeah...

Gatineau, Quebec's Mia Kelly is an exciting recent addition to the Folk and Americana scene in Canada. Two albums in, she’s shared the stage with the likes of Jeremie Albino , Julian Taylor , The Franklin Electric, and, previous When We Wake guest, Aysanabee . She’s also taken home two pieces of hardware at the Canadian Folk Music Awards , and, between you and me, I suspect there’s a few more comi...

On today's episode, I chat with the Big Turnip himself, Dylan Jewers. Born and raised in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, young Dylan was sure of two things: his love of Micheal Jordan, and the fact that, under no circumstances, would adult Dylan have a job working for anyone else. To his credit, and the edification of other likeminded youngens, with the exception of the odd job slinging beers at music venu...

Lisa Haller enjoyed a homecoming in 2022 when she took over as Director of Programming at the Atlantic International Film Festival , in Halifax. She had spent the previous 15 years honing her game at film festivals across North America, including; the Whistler Film Festival , Aspen Film , and TIFF in Toronto. In our chat, we discuss the festival's opening night film, Jason Buxton's hotly a...

With 10 albums under his belt, including an album entirely written for a stage musical, another in collaboration with his sister Jill Barber, a couple Juno nominations, a handful of Canadian Folk Music Award nominations, and multiple songs placed in TV shows and films, Matthew Barber is one of Canada's most respected contemporary songwriters. I have known Matt for so many years now that I have spe...

Trombonist, radio show host, and Artistic Director of the TD Halifax Jazz Festival , Andrew Jackson , is coming off a monster year at the Music Nova Scotia Awards . They saw him taking home the honours in 3 categories: Jazz Album of the Year for New Doors , his collaboration with guitarist Sam Wilson ; the Media Arts Award for his work on his long running radio program The Outer Edge on Dalhousie...

Joel Gregorio lives in Toronto. He is an incredible designer and graphic artist. He's the founder of State Goods , which, as he puts it, is an evolving art study in nostalgia, memories, and connection. I have had the terrifically good fortune of working with Joel on both of the Clever Hopes albums. If you have a look, on whatever your streamer of choice is, under Clever Hopes, what you'll...

Eva Foote was born in Louisiana, but she moved away with her family as a kid and grew up in Edmonton. She still thinks a lot about Louisiana and what it means to her - what home means to her.  Is Edmonton home? Is Louisiana home? Is Toronto home? Vancouver? Is it Berlin? Or, is it, maybe all of them? We talk about the life of an artist on the road, and that feeling of never really landing anywhere...

Kyle Cunjak is a musician, photographer, and, as we’ll come to find out, an avid surfing enthusiast. He loves surfing the Atlantic so much so that he can’t even really imagine leaving Nova Scotia. I’d say that’s definition enthusiast. Originally from Fredericton NB, he now calls Halifax home. He’s a terrifically in demand bass player, playing with the likes of David MyIes , Jenn Grant , Wolf Castl...

Originally from New Brunswick, Joe Grass is a multi-instrumentalist producer and songwriter now based in Montreal. Over the past 15 years, I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with Joe on a handful of projects, including a few pieces of theatre and, now, a couple of albums.  I release music as Clever Hopes and Joe has played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and the pedal steel on both of my albu...

Nicolette Hoang is a first generation Canadian, born in Guelph, Ontario to Vietnamese parents who fled their homeland during the Vietnam War. She is also the eponymous Nicolette of Nicolette and the Nobodies .  Nicolette released her latest album, The Long Way - which you’d be forgiven for thinking is her debut, although it isn't, and we get into that in our chat - on April 12, 2024. I specify...

JJ Shiplett is a Calgary based singer-songwriter who really staked his claim in the world of Americana music with his debut album the 2017 release Something to Believe In . Both it and its 2020 follow up, Fingers Crossed , were nominated for Canadian Country Album of the Year at the CCMAs. JJ just released his new album, the breathtakingly personal, A Way through Time . It finds him looking back a...

Triple Bill?! It's true. Today's episode is a bit of an anomaly for the podcast, mostly because there are 3 guests on the show. But, also, because this episode is more overtly tied to a specific event than any of my previous chats have been - namely, a concert I am playing in Halifax on April 4, alongside all 3 of my guests today. I release music as Clever Hopes and I’m really excited to share the...

Allegra Swanson grew up dreaming of the Broadway stage, which is not at all surprising, given that her parents met onstage in a production of Anne of Green Gables at, of all places, The Charlottetown Festival on Prince Edward Island. Allegra didn’t end up becoming that musical theatre star, but she did end up in Montreal in the Classical Music program at McGill University, singing a little opera h...

Originally from Montreal, Blanche Israël has called Dartmouth, Nova Scotia home since 2019. She grew up in a musical family and when her mom, a folk singer, decided to pick up the fiddle, so did 5 year old Blanche...and all of her sisters. It wasn’t long after that Blanche discovered the cello. After a persistent year of pestering mom, Blanche started playing the cello and hasn’t stopped - includi...

Born in Cameroon, Clerel moved to North America with his family after high school and, at the time, thought that he was probably going to be a doctor.  Spoiler alert right here off the top: he is not a doctor. He was, however, a chemist for short spell before deciding to give songwriting a go. And as much as I know a good doctor is not to be overlooked, having Clerel operating in this world as a s...

Wyatt C. Louis is a Métis Cree singer-songwriter from Treaty 6 territory who calls Red Deer, Alberta home. And, man, can they write a tune. I spoke with Wyatt in between their tour dates as he criss crossed North America with Noah Reid. In our chat, we speak about the importance of taking care of one’s mental health, especially when when one is on the road...criss crossing North America, with or w...

My guest on today’s episode, Montreal’s Loryn Taggart, released her debut full length album, the at once tender and beautifully bombastic, Lost Art of Pulling Through at the end of September.  In our chat, we speak about the circuitous route she took recording it, her time spent as David Bowie, couch surfing across the States, and the death of her father.  Loryn has said that she didn’t want the a...

There are just some singers that, as soon as they open their mouth and sing, make you think, my god, this could only be that one person. And that's the situation with my guest this episode, Aysanabee. From the moment I heard the songs from his formidable debut album Watin, I was struck by the power of his songwriting and by the incredible shape his voice gives to the songs. Aysanabee just released...

Born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik which is only accessible by plane, Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Now based in Montreal, the Juno Award winner recently released her fourth solo record, the incredibly moving Inuktitut. On this album, she covers ten classic rock and pop songs translated into Inuktitut, her mother tongue. She's stripped them down to...