Haley Blais is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has turned out defiant scream-into-your-pillow songs since 2014. Blais developed a community and fanbase as a teenager with her diaristic YouTube videos and tender ukulele covers. Since then, she has traded the solo ukulele for a guitar and a five-piece band. I
Haley Blais is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has turned out defiant scream-into-your-pillow songs since 2014. Blais developed a community and fanbase as a teenager with her diaristic YouTube videos and tender ukulele covers. Since then, she has traded the solo ukulele for a guitar and a five-piece band. In 2020, Blais released a debut full-length album of jangly pop anthems, Below the Salt, produced with indie staples Tennis and Louise Burns. The debut amassed millions of streams and avid press support, leading to sell-out tours in the UK, Europe and USA. Now signed to iconic indie label Arts & Crafts, Haley’s signature sound has matured into a distinct new voice. Her lyrics riff on the joys and banalities of the everyday, the need to break apart and away from an uninspiring life, radical acceptance, and manifesting a world where you feel proud of yourself and who you’re surrounded by.
Wisecrack, her sophomore album, is textured and wryly poetic, oscillating somewhere between cherished childhood memories and the creation of a new self. The existential, everyday worries we all contain but rarely share are laid bare across eleven songs exquisitely performed with profundity, grace, and humour earning her a place on the 2024 Polaris Long List. Can I be responsible for things that I did years ago? / I guess it could be good for just a laugh, Blais sings — that’s Wisecrack in a nutshell. Funny and raw at the same time.
