Faye Blais
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2005 | INDIE | AFM
Music
Press
Faye Blais performs live and interviews on ABC Illawarra to discuss her Australian Tour with duo The April Maze. - ABC Illawarra
Faye Blais performs "Winter" from her upcoming album - Live on Balcony TV in Melbourne.
She has also appeared on Balcony TV in Toronto, in 2010. - Balcony TV
Faye Blais performs, and discusses recent Australian Tour and upcoming Canadian Summer tour. The interview is in French. - CBC Radio-Canada
Faye Blais performs, and discusses recent Australian Tour and upcoming Canadian Summer tour. The interview is in French. - CBC Radio-Canada
Faye Blais sits with Jason Turnbull on Points North to discuss the upcoming Album and Australian Tour. They also discuss Faye's Canadian Summer Tour and Commissioned works for Aboriginal Documentary "Return to Manomin" by Michelle Derosier. - CBC Points North
Faye Blais - Q & A in promotion of show at the Prince Bandroom with Owl Eyes, Gossling, and Private Live - for "Riding Side Saddle" Event. - Inpress Magazine
Faye Blais "Something's Changed": ToTD for January 26, 2010
Posted by Amanda Putz at 12:23 AM
A sweet voice and style in this tune that hints maybe Faye Blais is Sudbury's piano-plunking answer to Feist.
She's blazing across Canada right now, so keep your eyes peeled for her Cherry Pickin' Tour that will take her out of Ontario and into all four western provinces and down into the States as well. I also notice from her site that she's about to finally release a new album this spring.
This tune, Something's Changed, is from her 2008 recording Two Pieces and it's a delectable little morsel for your ears.
link: http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/blogs/2010/1/Faye-Blais-Somethings-Changed-ToTD-for-January-26-2010 - CBC Radio 3
Faye Blais visits the Radio-Canada studio for a french interview to talk about her new project - a french album about her roots - growing up a franco-ontarion in Sudbury.
http://ici.radio-canada.ca/emissions/le_matin_du_nord/2012-2013/chronique.asp?idChronique=302344 - CBC Radio
Faye performs "Winter" on Balcony TV in Melbourne, to promote her new album and Australian Tour, 2011. - Balcony TV
Faye Blais Performs Live with Lia Rose (USA) on NBC News in promotion of the Women's Stage lineup at the Oakland Art & Soul Festival - NBC News
Faye Blais performs live on Breakfast Television - Calgary, in promotion of her collaborative "Cherry Pickin' West Coast Tour", with fellow Canadian artists Sarah Burton and Jacquie B. March 9th, 2010. - City TV - Breakfast Television
Faye Blais is invited as a guest on 'Folk Routes' with Tom Coxworth to talk about her music, tours, and thoughts in general.
http://www.ckua.com/08/16/13/Faye-Blais-on-Folk-Routes/landing.html?blockID=707427&feedID=7375 - Radio
Follow the press link to listen:
http://www.fayeblais.com/press.html - CBC Radio Canda
http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/reviews/music/16703/Faye-Blais--Two-Pieces-.htm
Two Pieces is the second full-length release from Canadian singer-songwriter Faye Blais. Blais’ inspiration for this album comes not from her roots in Ontario, but from her journeys throughout Taiwan and Australia (piece one and piece two), and the multitude of different people, places and experiences that have stuck with her from each respective country. The result is a collection of deep, soulful songs that paint an elaborate masterpiece of life’s ups and downs.
Sunday’s Song, while not one of the most powerful tracks on the album, is a quirky and jangly opener that appropriately sets the scene for an album entitled Two Pieces – it darts from syncopated violin plucking and playful vocal melodies to slower verses in which Blais solemnly sighs ‘Here I go, again, again.’
Warm, floaty acoustic riffs, and Faye’s gentle ‘oohs’ sculpt Canvas as the perfect campfire song. To sweeten the deal, Catherine Brown lends her luscious voice to a couple of soul-soothing harmonies that’ll leave you on cloud nine. Pieces takes a slightly cynical turn, with Blais’ chilling vocals telling a tale of some of the harsh realities of life.
Pianist Brad Viterale works his melodic magic on A to Z, while Blais’ soaring voice is the perfect companion to the delicate piano piece. When She Was softly reminisces another time, and the nostalgic mood is emanated by dobro twangs, soulful vocals and gently strummed guitar chords.
Blais reveals another of her talents in Something’s Changed, belting out a Regina Spektor-esque tune on the piano. The song slowly builds in pace and climaxes with a jaunty explosion of chanting and reggae undercurrents. Back Home Again is Blais’ answer to the obligatory love song, and she delivers it with sugary melodies and textbook lyrics.
Standout track Of It shows us the extent of Blais’ vocal capabilities – raw, rough and heartfelt comes as naturally to Faye as does smooth and sweet. Double bass features heavily in this song, and makes the line ‘the air is thicker than water’ resonate oh so clearly. Goodthought Graveyard is an unexpected bluesy inclusion, and the use of sax throughout this seven-minute piece reveals just how eclectic Blais’ style can be.
It’s back to folk with Tumbling Down; a sombre reflection on indifference and monotony. The mood remains gloomy with the spine-tingling violin and smoky vocals in Buildings in Cities in Me, which trickles into bonus track Honey and Salt.
Each track brings something of its own to this album, so that it might have twelve pieces rather than just two. We can only hope that Faye keeps building the puzzle.
- FasterLouder
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Sudburys Faye Blais is spreading her new material around the globe, on a series of International Tours. Detailed as continuing the thread started by Joni, picked up by Ani and fashioned by Feist, Fayes songwriting, presence and personality shine through her impressive jazzy-bluesy folk style, with sweet guitar tones, and stunning, dynamic vocals, backed up by a sea of harmonies.
As a full-time musician for nearly a decade, Faye has spent half of her time overseas, recording and touring her albums throughout Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and USA. The rest of her time is spent touring in Canada, where she recorded her latest album, "On the Bright Side" (May 2012 release) at her family's cottage in Northern Ontario.
Faye has received great reviews from her releases, including CBC Radio 3's New Music Canada Track of the Day (for "Something's Changed"), nominated for 6 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards over 2010-12, and been included in Canadian Folk Festival lineups (Eaglewood Folk Festival, Northern Lights Festival Boreal, Arts Wells, Robson Valley Music Festival, North Country Fair) and invited to showcase NXNE. Faye has also been featured in a wide range of national media, with radio, TV and print interviews and placements (CBC Radio One, Radio-Canada/CBON Breakfast Television Calgary, CTV Sudbury, Balcony TV-Toronto, VUE Weekly Edmonton.), and was commissioned to write music for Native Canadian Documentary "Return to Manomin" by Michelle Derosier (Thunder Bay, 2011). She is also one of the founding members of the "Ladies in Waiting", a collective of Toronto-based artists (including Cindy Doire & Andrea Ramolo (Scarlett Jane), Sarah Burton, Melanie Brulee, Tricia Foster, Kristin Sweetland).
Throughout her years overseas, Faye has performed hundreds of shows, including international folk festivals (Port Fairy Folk Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, Illawara Folk Festival - AUS, Nannup Folk Festival - WA, USA, Spring Scream, Peacefest TW, Art & Soul Festival - USA...) and received great attention from radio, TV and print media (Triple J - AUS, ABC - AUS/NZ, Noise TV -AUS, BLTV-TW, ICRT TW, Balcony TV - AUS, CTV NZ...), in addition to compilation album features, and placements in Web and TV wordwide (including productions by Australian Red Cross and the Oak Tree Foundation).
Faye is off to LA next month with a batch of new tunes, featuring an edgier sound and some fierce pop melodies, to record with AG (The Rescues) and Garrison Starr. She is also working on a french album, due to release in 2015.
Band Members
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