Canadian artists share their favourite song to perform live
In this Firsts, Favourites & Facts segment, I asked seven Canadian artists what their favourite song to perform live!
Tim Hicks
“I get asked this question a lot, and I always say (with my tongue in my cheek!), “Whatever song we’ve learned most recently,” which is almost correct. Whenever we add a song to the set, I look forward to playing it cause it’s fresh! Lately, I’m really digging playing “Dodge Out of Hell” live. It’s so much fun! The guitars are gritty, it’s a great tempo, and the crowds have responded well to it. It just feels so good.”
Listen to “Dodge Out of Hell” here.
Connect with Tim Hicks:
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Janice Jo Lee
“My favourite song to perform live is “Ancestor Song” because I do it differently each time. I love the local improvisation, playing with the jazz harmonies, and really letting the flow spill out of me however I’m feeling. It’s cool to see that my Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn influences come out in the scatting and phrasing.”
Listen to “Ancestor Song” here.
Connect with Janice Jo Lee:
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Jesse Maxwell
“A song I love to play live is called “Undone.” I released “Undone” on my second studio project called Hellion, a six-song EP, and “Undone” was the lead single. People seem to connect to the song off the bat – it’s my most streamed song to date and, interestingly, one of my more personal ones. The song is about coming to terms with my sexuality, being a gay man, at a time where I was fighting to admit it to myself. The song carries internal awareness in lyrics like “what can I say? I hate that I’m in my own way, just looking for a hideaway to dodge to moon.”
Why I love playing this song live is because people know the lyrics to it. The first time this happened was at a place called Supermarket in Toronto. We started playing the song, and I could hear people in the crowd singing along. I can’t tell you the feeling that gave me. It reminds me that the support is all around me and reminds me that I’ve created something that not only is important to me but important to those it has connected with. From a technical side, the song isn’t too complicated to play, so it allows me to not think too much and just be in the moment of the live show. To whoever is reading this, I hope you can join us for a live show one day and be a part of this moment we all share together. My next performance is on November 4 at Toronto’s Bar Cathedral!”
Listen to “Undone” here.
Connect with Jesse Maxwell:
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Chris Antonik
“While I love playing all the songs from my new record Morningstar, in general, as they’re fresh and still full of exploration potential, “Grace” is my favourite song to play. It really challenges me as a vocalist. As it starts out with just piano and myself singing, I am very exposed, and I am not used to that as a singer, the bare-your-soul, singer-songwriter, sparse thing. It then escalates into this epic blues-rock guitar extravaganza by the end, so I get the best of both worlds with this one. I am also still “getting to know” the chord pockets on this one and finding all these interesting new riffs and note combination. It’s also a very personal tune about a difficult experience, so I really feel the words I’m singing.”
Listen to “Grace” here.
Connect with Chris Antonik:
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Elyse Saunders
“I love being an entertainer. For me, it’s all about creating an experience for the fans. I put a lot into my live show and think about how each song can bring them on a journey and what it’s going to make them feel.
To be honest, I truly love to perform every song I put in my set. I have so much darn fun doing it! But if I had to pick a song right now… it would be one that’s super personal to me! I recently wrote a song about my dad. He’s been an amazing rock and support to me. and I thought it was time that he got a song written for him. I had the fortune of performing it at a few shows this summer and had so many people coming up to me, giving me hugs and telling me how much the song meant to them and how it connected to their own story. It’s a great feeling to share a new song that means a lot to me and learn how much others resonate with it. That’s what it’s all about! I believe music heals and brings people together, so if I can do that through my music, it means the world to me.”
Listen to her latest single, “Famous,” here.
Connect with Elyse Saunders:
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Cold Fame
“I (Jodi) grew up surrounded by a vast array of musical influences. When I began performing, I found comfort in adding a cover song that had imprinted itself in my body so that when the nerves struck, I could use that safety net to bring me back into a comfortable headspace to continue on with the performance. One of those songs is Amy Winehouse’s “Black To Back.” That song hits me so deeply, it feels like it could be one of my own, and the vocal rests perfectly with my own. Singing this song really pulls me into the music, and I get lost in it. I’m not putting on an act or calculating my movements on stage, I am simply allowing myself to flow through the music and express it however it comes naturally. To me, this is so important for an artist to experience so that they don’t completely lose themselves in the act of performing but lose themselves in the music.
It’s been a while since I have been able to perform live, so I am very much looking forward to performing the first show with my new band, Cold Fame, at Lucky Bar in Victoria, BC, on January 20th! Stay tuned for details on our socials, we hope to see you there!”
Listen to their latest single, “If That’s Love,” here.
Connect with Cold Fame:
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Don Amero
“I would say one that always feels good for me, and the crowd is Keith Urban’s “Somebody Like You.”
It’s such a timeless song and so much fun to sing. It’s also one that always gets the listener fired up. I remember when I first heard it, and I listened to it over and over again. That song came out before I was even really playing music and now playing it for a live audience is kind of a full-circle moment for me.”
Listen to his latest single, “Ain’t Too Late,” here.
Connect with Don Amero:
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