By: Bridget Sinden
Canadian born up and coming artist Baby Nova is about to have her much deserved moment.
Her sound can be described as many different things but her roots stem in the folk pop sector. She just played her very first festival earlier this month at the inaugural All Things Go in Toronto, alongside some of country’s current biggest names like Kacey Musgraves and Noah Cyrus. She describes the feeling of the festival as “thrilling” with it being the biggest stage she’s played in her career (so far) saying, “it was just inspiring honestly, being on that lineup with those girls. Who are a bunch of artists I’ve looked up to for a long time…I kept having imposter syndrome, just thinking what the f**k am I doing here.”
Her voice and lyricism are charged with many cross-genre musical influences, she notes to us that, “As a music listener I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but I would say that artists who are lyric focused tend to be my inspirations, which that comes from a lot of different places…I grew up listening to Joni Mitchel in my house, as well Johnny Cash was a huge influence for me growing up. But in my teens I discovered Lana and fell in love with her, and then towards university I became obsessed with kendrick…These are all people that my brain puts in the same category because they’re all masters of lyricism.” She claims that lyricism is where her passion for music comes from saying she “grew into being a musician to support that love.” Which is something that really shines through in her work as she weaves a musical thread of raw storytelling throughout her songs.
Her latest single “Virgin Heartbreak” is a more upbeat track than the rest of her recent discography all while staying true to her melancholic narration. She tells us that this track was important to her for a few reasons saying, “I hear how much healing happened…it was probably the first day in the studio I was having fun again, I was just flying around the room that day. So it’s exciting to share it.”
When asked what this track is about and what it meant to her to put it out she told us “Virgin Heartbreak was one of the last songs I wrote for this record, and Killed for sport was the first one, it’s really interesting to me because I wrote Virgin Heartbreak about the same situation. I was kind of a bit of an industry castaway because there were some rumors about my mental health, which weren’t true…which was very painful for me because I felt ostracised a little bit socially…so a lot of the record is based on that. But what I find so interesting about it is that you can really hear how healing the making of the record was for me. Because at the beginning its like very dark and sad and by the time I got through writing about it and you get to Virgin heartbreak it was silly and I was able to laugh about it.”
Although her music centers around more folk elements, her work is full of country influence both visually and sonically. She has a very unique take on the western aesthetic and plays with it in her storytelling. She features it heavily in her music video for Virgin Heartbreak as well as making lyrical nods to western culture like “pulling rabbits out my stetson hat”. We asked her about what draws her to this, and she recalls to us that her Nova Scotian upbringing played a large role “I grew up in nova scotia…and we had a lot of influence from country music and folk..its rural so I really grew up with a touch of country with a maritime flavour to it. I’ve always been very obsessed with older country…the darker cowboy aesthetic…thats just a vibe that I’ve always really loved and I’ve taken a lot of influence from it, I wouldn’t call myself a country artist because I have a lot of respect for that, but I’ve definitely been heavily influenced by country music my entire life… It reminds me of being home. ”
Ahead of her album announcement and release, she’s playing her first ever headline show in Toronto at the Drake Underground on December 5th. She’s teased on social media that the show will be a sneak peek at the unreleased record. “It’s going to be very very fun..I’ll be playing some of the stuff that didn’t make the cut…I haven’t played these songs for anyone yet so it’s going to be very exciting”
Baby Nova is an artist that is moving the bar creatively and crafting a new sound all while holding true to the pillars of classic storytelling. In her words “I’ve been lucky enough to be exposed to so many different kinds of music being a writer, that I’ve kind of taken in all of those different genres and made my own thing.” She’s definitely an artist to watch and she’s finally starting to get the recognition she deserves. You can stream “Virgin Heartbreak” on all major streaming platforms.
Stay wild, Stay authentic, Stay bold
