Alexander Gallant is one of the sharpest, most honest songwriters I know. His new album Rubber Monster Suit is funny, it’s sad, it’s weird, it’s beautiful - kinda like Alex - and it picks up where his 2023 debut, Waiting Table Blues, left off.

Waiting Table Blues was a stripped down and deeply honest record written in the early days of his sobriety. Rubber Monster Suit is still intimate and personal, but the album feels bigger in scope. It’s got flashes of psych county, jazz, cinematic folk, and, of course, the trademark wit and lyricism that, once you’ve been introduced to Alexander Gallant’s music, well, you come to expect from it.

In our conversation today Alex, opens up about his songwriting process, the writers that shaped him, and the clarity that came with getting sober. Be sure to hang around all the way to the end to hear the story behind the hit song that never was.

@alexanderthegallant

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When We Wake with Andrew Shaver is written, hosted, edited, and produced by Andrew Shaver. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated on nine stations across Canada.

Theme song Got You by Noah Reid

In this episode I chat with Dartmouth, Nova Scotia’s Mo Kenney.

Now, I say Dartmouth because that’s where Mo lives and that’s where I met them, but as you’ll hear in our chat, Mo is actually from, as they put it, somewhere just outside of Nowhere, Nova Scotia.

Something they made abundantly clear by the title of their most recent album, their 5th, From Nowhere.

Before moving to the big bad city at 11, and learning to play the guitar at the Conservatory (at Long & McQuade not the Royal Conservatory, which was, you know, what I thought), Mo lived in the country where their best friend didn't live across the street, he lived across the field. Mo’s beloved childhood pet was, in fact, not a dog, it was a goat, named Nicky.

Since then Mo has become one of Canada’s finest songwriters. They have picked up a couple pocketfuls of awards along the way, including several Nova Scotia Music Awards, some East Coast Music Awards, a Canadian Folk Music Award, a SOCAN Songwriter Award and a Juno Award nomination - among others.

I’m such a big fan of Mo’s and, I hope, if this is somehow your introduction to them, that you will be too.

mokenney.com

@mookenney

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠

Or find me on Instagram

@whenwewakeradio & @theandrewshaver

When We Wake with Andrew Shaver is written, hosted, edited, and produced by Andrew Shaver. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada.

Theme song Got You by Noah Reid.

Dan Mangan is one of Canada’s most beloved singer-songwriters - a moniker he’s newly embracing. So much so, in fact, that he considered calling his new album Schminger Schmongwriter - a nod to Harry Nilsson’s classic 1971 LP Nilsson Schmilsson.

In the end, Dan went with Natural Light as an album title, and as you’ll hear in our chat, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours as an album reference, in that, he calls Natural Light his Rumours, AKA a modern classic.

And why not. The album is a thing of beauty.

Recorded over 6 days in a cabin in the woods with 3 of his best buds (Mike O’Brien, Jason Haberman, and Don Kerr), Natural Light wasn’t even supposed to happen.

With a recording session lined up in LA a few months later, the session in the woods with the buds was intended as more of a songwriting retreat in between lake jumps and egg scrambles.

Instead, the songs and their recordings “unfolded like a miracle” and, as you'll hear, Dan's never been prouder of an album.

danmanganmusic.com

@danmanganmusic

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠

Or find me on Instagram

@whenwewakeradio & @theandrewshaver

When We Wake with Andrew Shaver is written, hosted, edited, and produced by Andrew Shaver. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated on 9 stations across Canada.

Theme song Got You by Noah Reid