Mills Hardware Presents Maïa Davies + Havelin Sat, Feb 15 at 8PM @ Mills Hardware
For the past four years, the award-winning, Juno-nominated, SOCAN #1 bilingual Canadian songwriter, recording artist and producer Maïa Davies has been on a mission of musical and self-discovery. Born in Montreal, Davies has devoted the vast majority of her life to the craft of music. Getting her start in the Warner Music signed folk band Ladies of the Canyon, she has released two solo albums in French and penned over 12 top ten commercial radio hits for Canadian music artists, including Mother Mother and Serena Ryder. In 2019, following the dissolution of an intense but ultimately troubled relationship, Davies also left her role at a notable Toronto-based production house and decided to shed all geographical allegiances. Taking on a nomadic lifestyle, she began traveling across Canada and Europe, as well as spending time in California, reconnecting with talented friends and producing the kind of achingly honest music that can only be generated from a wound so painful it needs space and time to heal. “Songs and writing are the best way that my body knows how to express pain,” Davies explains. “[The songs] helped me save and heal myself in multiple ways.” In her travels, she would often find herself reaching out to old colleagues and relaying the familiar beats of her recent history. In doing so, she soon discovered the songs “just kind of flowed out of me. I didn't really have much control over it. They were like a coping mechanism for my emotions at a time when I felt really quite imprisoned by them.” In recording studios across the country, she recorded these raw confessions, often enlisting her friends to lend a musical hand. On a recent travel hiatus, Davies began listening back to the recordings and discovered she’s created a chronological storyboard of her emotional journey in song. For her upcoming releases, she’s collected the compositions that best encompass the visceral throughline between euphoria, heartache, abuse, self-actualization and acceptance — a concept she jokingly refers to as the stages of relationship grief. Due out on Acronym/Universal, each new piano-driven offering instantly and intentionally recalls the incandescent baroque pop of Tori Amos and Kate Bush, as well as the Kafkaesque etherealness of Beach House. Far from a sad laminate, her new body of work wistfully weaves elements of pop and classical into well-crafted motifs, tempering the sting with nostalgic melodies and buttery vocals. Hers is a musical tale shared with empathy and composed with heart, as confessional as it is comforting in its intimacy and scope. As Davies succinctly puts it: “It's about music, but it's ultimately about honest human communication.”
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Havelin (Alex Zaichkowski) is an Alberta-born troubadour whose smooth, old-soul vocals combine with pleasant melodies and earnest storytelling to unpack complex emotions in a way that is both uniquely personal and heart-wrenchingly universal. Having started out playing small town open mics, Havelin has travelled a strange and winding road towards his latest release; including such highlights as a brief stint as a Canadian Tween pop idol and actor on an ill-fated Family Channel show, a string of the oddest odd jobs you could imagine, and playing shows ranging from empty bars to crowds of thousands. His upcoming record Who Among Us… (release date TBA) deals with themes of life, death, love, heartbreak, and identity. It’s a tribute to feeling intensely and embracing the strangeness and beauty this world has to offer.
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