Canadian songstress POESY lands in Red Deer Feb. 14th as part of Matthew Good’s ‘Solo Acoustic’ tour at Bo’s.
Last October, the Toronto-based singer unveiled her much anticipated new single Strange Little Girl via Big Machine Records. A full-length project is in the works and expected for release later this year.
Blessed with a stunning, powerful voice, POESY had an early start in music, having been born in the musically-rich culture of Canada’s east coast.
“I remember when I was in pre-school I used to get in trouble all the time because my parents are really big Great Big Sea fans, so I knew all of the words to all of the pub songs,” she explained.
“I’d sing The Old Black Rum, and they would call my parents and say, ‘Would you please tell her to stop singing about rum in front of all the other kids?’
“My dad also showed me lots of old, classic rock and got me into a lot of the music that I think inspires my music now,” she added. “My favourite band of all time, to this day, is Queen. I also really liked the Cranberries, and then when I got a little bit older I found Florence and the Machine and I really liked her voice.
“Basically I like people with unique voices that are strong and powerful because I feel like, as a woman, there isn’t a lot of representation of that,” she said. “So it was really cool to listen to all of these people that had these huge voices because my talking voice is very quiet and reserved, so it’s nice to be able to be really loud (onstage),” she laughed.
By the time she was in Grade 4 she knew she wanted to be a singer.
“Teachers would say, ‘That’s very nice, but it’s pretty rare’. At that time in my life I didn’t care what anyone said. I just thought I’m going to do this, I’m going to win five Grammy Awards someday and it’s going to be amazing,” she added.
“I also think I watched too many Disney movies as a child so I thought you had to sing about everything that happened to you,” she said with a laugh. “So I just fell in love with it and I’ve been doing it for more than half of my life now.”
But during her high school years, she changed course a bit and opted to study English and creative writing at university. She even considered law school. But that urge to sing never wavered.
“Every time I thought about doing something else, I would always go to a concert or something and I would think I love this too much to do anything else.”
She has since worked to carve out her own sound and presence in the industry. She also recorded an EP back in 2016 as a means to introduce herself to promoters around the Greater Toronto area.
Meanwhile, as the season one/week four chosen artist on CTV’s The Launch, POESY, 24, also debuted at number one on the iTunes ‘All Genres’ chart with her single Soldier Of Love, captivating audiences with her soaring vocals.
“I think the biggest thing I took away from that was basically just to trust myself. I feel like all the people that I worked with on that show really made me trust myself .”
As to her latest single Strange Little Girl, POESY said the tune was partly born out of her own frustrations and the fear of being misunderstood or wrongly categorized.
“But it grew into something much larger and more unifying. It’s a song and a story that I know will really bring people together, despite their differences,” she explained. “I wanted to write something that reclaimed all of those parts of ourselves that we might be embarrassed about or ashamed of – all the things that make us strange – and show that it’s okay to fail, it’s okay to be yourself and more than that, it’s okay to love yourself in a really unapologetic way,” she added.
As to the coming release, POESY can’t wait to introduce fans to the new material. Audiences for the coming tour will hear much of what’s going to end up on that album.
”I really believe that there’s a track in there for everyone — the people who love to dance, the ones who need a song to have a good cry to and the people who want to feel on top of the world — and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.
“I also haven’t played acoustically since I was a teenager, so it will be a nice breakaway for me and a good way for people to get introduced to all of the songs.”
