The last time Shaina Hayes spoke to Montreal Rocks, in May 2022, she was a vegetable farmer with a self-released debut album, to coax a waltz, recorded in her home village of Shigawake, and she was on the road singing backup for the noise-rock band zouz.
Four years on, she has signed to Bonsound, released Kindergarten Heart and opened for The War on Drugs, The Barr Brothers and Elisapie. She still has the farm. Her third album, Take the Case of a Rose, comes out this Friday, 13 November.
Hayes grew up on the Gaspésie coast in a family that loved music. She studied jazz voice at Vanier College in Montreal and agricultural sciences at McGill University before starting a community-supported agriculture vegetable farm, and has described the creative side of growing food as closely tied to her wish to make art. Her first song, Hollow, came out in 2018. The influences she has named include Joni Mitchell, Feist, Dolly Parton, Shania Twain and, more recently, Big Thief and Blake Mills.
In 2022 she told us that farming and music fed each other, with the winters left free for writing. Her 2027 tour runs through March and April, straight into planting season. “For the moment, yes,” she says, when asked whether that balance has held. “I have employees who oversee seedlings and other spring farm things while I am away. Luckily, the Gaspésian spring melt tends to come on a little slower than it did when I was farming in Montreal, which gives me a little more time to give to the spring touring!”
The title and the songs
The album takes its name from a line in the song Acid Rain, about letting a rose be brilliant and then letting it go. “I called the album Take the Case of a Rose because, for one, I liked the idea that the title sounded like a sort of invitation to the listener,” Hayes says. “Secondly, the album as a whole is about accepting impermanence – both with regards to positive experiences (romantic love, being in the presence of something beautiful) and negative ones (anxiety, guilt, loss). Time will work its magic, and all you can do is learn to accept this and cultivate gratitude for the beautiful things around you whenever you’re able.”
The third single, after Flourish and Timid, was Tempest. “Oddly, Tempest came about from an unlikely writing prompt: my uncle Mike bought a stunning vintage 1978 speedboat with the name ‘Tempest’,” she says. “When I saw the photos of it, I really wanted to shoot a video on the boat, so I joked that I should write a song with the same name. While this began as a trivial desire, the phrase ‘tempest in a teapot’ started to intrigue me. When I found myself writing a song about anxiety a few weeks later, I worked the phrase into the song, and the rest is history.”
Two songs on the record leave English behind. Make You New ends in Irish Gaelic. “The Gaelic was a bit of a surprise for me,” she says. “Quebec’s incredible Cédric Dind-Lavoie co-produced Make You New with me and had decided to bring the oooh melody from intro back again at the end of the song. I initially found the repeated ooohs a bit too lifeless and redundant, but felt that I had said all I wanted to say in the middle section. I had recently done a solo trip to Ireland, had indeed been reading John O’Donohue, and had been thinking a lot about heritage, lineage and legacy (I am of Irish descent), and so it struck me that it could be beautiful to simply repeat the last line of chorus for this final section, but to do so in Irish Gaelic.”
The other is Say What You Mean, which has a verse in Quebec French. “For the French verse on Say What You Mean, I knew I wanted to add a little French on the album,” Hayes says, “so my other co-producer, Francis Ledoux and I wrote the verse during a drive from MTL to the Gaspésie.”
The album was written during a period of personal change, and not every song on it came easily. “Pining was probably the hardest to finish, but mostly because it was one of the very first songs I had ever written,” she says. “We had unsuccessfully tried to get it onto each of the albums, but I couldn’t quite get it to a place I was happy with. So this time around, I only kept certain aspects of the melody and structure, but scrapped all the lyrics, arrangements, etc. The resulting song ended up being one of the most vulnerable pieces on the album and finally felt right.”
The digital album has ten songs. The LP and CD add SANCTUM, a suite of three more that opens with Gray, where Hayes sings about having avoided her saddest sounds. “Looking back on my previous albums, I realized that if ever I did write a sad song, I seemed to always make sure to bring it to a place of resolution or hopefulness in the songwriting,” she says. “SANCTUM: Gray aims to let the sentiment of sadness just sit in the air with no resolution, sugar coating or romanticization.”
“As for why I kept it on the physical form only, the idea of tangibility and presence felt very important to me for this record,” she says. “The artwork itself was a film photo, and the scarf piece I am wearing was handmade by my mother. To continue the theme of tangibility, it felt important to offer a version of the music that was as tangible as it could be. Making a vinyl-exclusive piece felt like a fitting way to do so.”
Three albums with Ledoux and Marchand
Ledoux (drums) and David Marchand (guitar, bass, pedal steel) have worked on all three of Hayes’ albums. Both are members of zouz, the band she was touring with when we last spoke. “I no longer do backup for zouz, but loved every second that I did,” she says. “They’re off to join Angine de Poitrine for their US tour in a few weeks – wish them luck!”
The way the three of them divide the work has shifted on this record. “Working with them feels as natural as ever,” Hayes says. “This time around though, we opted to give each of them certain songs to focus on individually. So some songs really are more produced by David, while others are more Frank, whereas in the past we tended to split things pretty evenly.”
Brad Barr, Dind-Lavoie, Lysandre Ménard and Arielle Soucy also play on the album. “I don’t think we really ended up going anywhere too unexpected,” Hayes says of the guests. “Each of them brought exactly the colour and energy that I dreamed they would. That said, Brad did play some strange instruments that I didn’t anticipate ever putting on a record! The most prominent example being the Fron (worth a google!).”
Shigawake, Montreal and the road between
The Montreal launch for the album is at the Fairmount Theatre on 22 April 2027, part of an eleven-date Quebec tour that starts in Sherbrooke on 11 March and also stops in small towns such as Frelighsburg and Waterloo. Do the rural shows feel different from playing Montreal? “Quite honestly, no,” she says. “I love doing all of the shows and haven’t recognized a huge difference in the audiences of each. They always tend to be appreciative and attentive – all I could hope for!”
Back home, Hayes has been involved in the Shigawake Agricultural Fair and Music Festival since 2009. “The event has mostly taught me that you are nothing without community,” she says. “And that collective enjoyment is always a labour well worthwhile!”
As for what she is listening to right now: “At the moment I am OBSESSED with Remi Wolf‘s new record Mud. She’s an absolute beast. Twiggy is my fave.”
Photo credit: Flavie Lemée
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