I’ve gotta say I love Canadian musicians. I’ve interviewed Terra Lightfoot, The Beaches (back in 2018) and The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman to name a few. Honestly the list goes on. I don’t know what it is about the disproportionate numbers of Canadian artists I follow. The latest top emerging Canadian talent (on my radar) making waves is Nova Scotia-born, Toronto-based alt-indie powerhouse Natalie Lynn aka Loviet. Following up with major EP releases in recent years (777 and The Nighttime Is All In The Timing) and international performances at festivals such as Loolapalooza, Loviet is set to have another big year in 2026. Hot on the heels of her angsty punk-adjacent rock song Stiffy (about loss and friendship) and glam-rock single Cheerleader (about being your own kind of artist), Loviet’s momentum has crystallized in her latest track Plush. With Plush, Loiviet continues to write with emotional intensity and honesty. In a recent press release she said, “I wrote this song about the frenzy of falling in love and my own experiences and insecurities that being soft is inherently more attractive as a woman. The narrative is a battle of yearning and self-awareness – figuring out what lengths you’re willing to take while trying to stay true to yourself despite the emotional chaos of wanting someone.”
Without further ado, Iet’s turn up the volume on one of Canada’s most promising musicians and artists to watch. Here is some of what we talked about.
Natalie, please tell me a little bit about your community and the music scene you grew up in? I believe you moved to Toronto later to focus on your musical aspirations?
I’m from a small east coast province in Canada – Nova Scotia and spent a number of years playing with friends in bands before making the move to Toronto, where things really started moving.
The scene on the east coast and in Canada feels full of talented cool artists and musicians, and I think everyone is really community oriented here, supporting each other and always down to collaborate!
What kind of music did you grow up on? What musicians inspired you and which artists do you look to now for inspiration?
In Canada, we had our own music channel on TV called Much and it pretty much raised me. Also a lot of rock / pop / punk came out of the Canadian music scene so I definitely felt that influence and still do love that early 2000s sound.
I’m actually noticing a lot of Australian bands popping up my playlists these days that I am super into including Bellair Lip Balms and Royal Otis. I’m also stoked to be sharing stages with Last Dinosaurs next month in Canada, who we also adore.
What do you like to do outside of music that you feel contributes to the creativity that you tap into for your own music?
I love to thrift and watch old movies. I go straight to the leather and jeans sections when I’m at the thrift. I’m inspired by different styles and looks.
Just over the Christmas break I found a bunch of new-old movies that I’m now obsessed with – Casablanca, Ghost World, All I Wanna Do, The Godfather Trilogy. I feel like the storylines and imagery are so inspiring and keep me creatively stimulated.
When did your love affair with the electric guitar start? Can you tell us a surprising story about your first guitar? And what’s your go-to guitar nowadays and why?
I took piano first when I was really young and wanted to switch to guitar only a few years in because all the music I was listening to had guitars in it. Once I finally switched I was pretty obsessed and still quite young so I honestly feel like it’s engrained in me, and it’s weird when I am not playing guitar while singing.
My first guitar was a used white Peavey and I scrapbook-style taped pictures all over it. I think my parents bought it for me from a local music store for $100 back in the day.
I’ve been playing a Fender Telecaster now for a while, which I love because they’re so indestructible, I can be my messy chaotic self on stage all I want with a tele in my hands.
How do you cope with the pressure of following up with a song like STIFFY? I guess what I am trying to say is how do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and embracing the expectations of fans?
I feel like I’ve had such an interesting past trying to navigate and translate who I am as an artist but fan expectations have never really been the disruption. I think I get a little nervous when whatever I’ve made it coming out about a week or two before, but up until then, I just like to dive deeply into the process and only really let in a few other voices while I’m making whatever it is I make.
It’s been really rewarding for the last couple of releases and just discovering fans, while they’re discovering us. I still can’t believe how lucky I feel and how cool it is to be able to share something I like and I’ve made and actually have it connect.
You have performed some big festivals such as Lollapalooza, Riot Fest, Summerfest and Ottawa Bluesfest to name a few. What has been your most memorable live show and why?
Riotfest just passed in September and it’ll be one of my all time fave experiences for sure, including those mentioned on the list! Our experience at Riot was just so great having so many bands that we grew up listening to playing while we were there. I think also because we’re from a small place in Canada and never really had a chance to hit these kinds of fests growing up, it always feels more insane joining the audience after, we really try to soak everything up on and off stage!
What are some ways you convey your songs differently live on stage, say compared to what we hear on your records?
One of the things we say a lot about our latest material compared to our older catalog is that it’s finally bridging this gap between our sound recorded compared to live. We’ve always had such an energetic live show, and my vocals tend to hit much harder in a big room and through loud speakers versus an isolated, polished studio mix. I think it’s still always a compliment when anyone sees the set and tells us it wasn’t what they expected or it blew them away but ultimately we definitely want it to grab right out of the gate on all platforms and will keep pushing to do so!
You’ve got a new song out called PLUSH – tell us a bit about how the track came together. Do you have any standout memories from writing and recording it?
I just know when we first started working on this song, we were really excited about it and could not decide if it was going to lean more pop or rock, it was so scarily able to go either Kylie Minogue or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but we ended up somewhere in the middle and really happy with the choices we made.
I think the funniest story about the songwriting of this song is that the very first verse and line about the “he likes it better when he’s doing drugs” was inspired by my manager and one of the hilarious conversations we had while we were watching a Lana Del Rey concert…definitelyyyy sober.
Do you think your songwriting and/or sound has changed much between (song) releases, particularly say your EPs and now with PLUSH? If so, what was the motivation behind some of those artistic choices?
This new record connects me to my own music probably more than any of the previous records I’ve made because I produced it myself and I wrote it entirely with my longtime bandmate/drummer Ryan Perry, so it’s truly just ours and unaffected by any outside thoughts or influences this time round. The motivation to do it was honestly sort of by accident, a strange turn of events but also I had been sort of manifesting it for such a long time.
I think because the sound is actually more like the music I was making when I was just starting out, it makes sense that after some time, and some challenges, I got to come full circle. It feels cathartic for me to say my piece with this bit of music – to a lot of people telling me how and what I should or shouldn’t do/create, so apart from what I feel the strengths or weaknesses are on this record or how it compares, I just feel like it’s great to get this out of my system having been kind of delayed the opportunity maybe in previous years.
Finally before I let you go, which Loviet song was the toughest to write and which one was the easiest?
PLUSH might have taken the longest out of this record. When we first wrote the music and made the demo, we felt really precious about it and that pressure made us take a little extra time to get things just right. Easiest song to write was STIFFY because it was sort of a one shot all at once write and so much relief getting those feelings off my chest. Also finally writing a straight ahead rock song, which I feel is something we’ve been well versed in but holding back.
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