Shaina Hayes is a Canadian singer‑songwriter whose music blends folk‑pop clarity with alt‑country warmth, carried by a voice that is intimate, distinct and powerful. Since releasing her 2022 debut album to coax a waltz, Hayes has become known for songs that move with a gentle precision — attentive to emotional nuance, grounded in lived experience, and shaped by a deep sense of place.
Before her first album, Hayes spent several years in Montreal, studying agricultural science at McGill University while gradually finding her footing within the city’s music community. She sang in country-blues cover bands, explored jazz, and collaborated with the rock trio zouz, whose members Francis Ledoux and David Marchand would later become her closest creative partners. Though their musical aesthetics differ, the trio discovered a shared sensibility that would anchor Hayes’ early recordings.
Hayes began work on to coax a waltz in late 2019, recording in her rural hometown of Shigawake, Quebec, with Ledoux and Marchand. Built around her graceful vocals and acoustic guitar, the album introduced her thoughtful lyricism and understated melodic instincts, earning her a steadily growing audience and invitations to open for artists such as The War on Drugs, The Barr Brothers, and Elisapie.
She followed her debut with Kindergarten Heart in 2024, an album that expanded her sonic palette while preserving the clarity and emotional steadiness that define her work. Drawing on influences like Feist, Big Thief, and Blake Mills, the record moves between intimate folk‑pop, playful alt‑country, and more expansive arrangements, all unified by Hayes’ reflective songwriting and quietly magnetic presence.
Alongside her musical career, Hayes continues to operate a vegetable farm in her rural hometown of Shigawake. The land remains a grounding force — a place where rhythm, patience, and attention are practiced daily. That dual existence, split between touring and tending the soil, informs the balance and spaciousness in her songs. It’s a life shaped by cycles of motion and stillness, solitude and connection, and those tensions subtly animate her creative work.
With each new release, Hayes deepens her exploration of emotional detail and the small, luminous moments that define everyday life. Her music invites listeners into a world where clarity emerges from quiet reflection, where presence matters, and where the natural landscape remains a steadying companion. It’s a body of work that continues to evolve with intention, rooted in both the soil and the stage.
