From Georgetown to the Coronary heart: Ontario People Singer Aynsley Saxe Unveils Soulful New Single “Stranger to Myself” Forward of Summer time Exhibits and Fall Album
Aynsley Saxe’s music carries the heat of dwelling and the load of change. With the discharge of her acoustic people single “Stranger to Myself” on June 6, the Georgetown, Ontario-based singer-songwriter invitations listeners right into a quiet, intimate world formed by heartbreak, resilience, and emotional readability. The monitor is the primary launch from her upcoming sophomore album A Thousand Stars, due out in fall 2025.
Co-produced with Christian Turner at Mill City Sound in Milton, ON, “Stranger to Myself” options simply acoustic guitar, bass, and Saxe’s voice, making a stripped-down environment that pulls the listener in. “I wished it to really feel like I used to be taking part in this music in my lounge,” Saxe explains. “The manufacturing is deliberately sparse as a result of the lyrics wanted area. I used to be working by means of disorientation and attempting to grasp the model of myself that was left standing after every little thing modified.”
Saxe, who started taking part in piano at age six, brings years of songwriting and efficiency expertise to this launch. She wrote her first music at 18 whereas dwelling on a farm in New Zealand. Since then, she’s written music that spans environmental engagement, jazz-tinged enjoyable, and deeply private reflection. Her 2019 duet “Stunning Tomorrow (A Tune for Our Planet)” was recorded with 20 native youth and co-funded by the City of Halton Hills. Her debut single “Cease, Drop & Roll (The Fireman Tune)” gained consideration by means of a province-wide Saskatchewan Firefighters Calendar business.
“Stranger to Myself” highlights a shift in tone for Saxe. Constructed on themes of isolation and emotional survival, the music unfolds like a diary entry. “I’m attempting out this new life, child / Like a brand new pair of denims that don’t really feel proper simply but,” she sings. One other lyric—“barbed wire love”—has struck a chord with stay audiences, a lot of whom method her after performances to share the way it resonated.
Listeners have described the music as “haunting,” “lovely,” “truthful,” and “highly effective.” One wrote, “It’s revealing and speaks of a narrative that many people can relate to.” The suggestions affirms Saxe’s option to let the rawness keep in focus. “I’m handing the world items of my coronary heart and soul,” she says. “It feels extra private than snug.”
Saxe’s upcoming album A Thousand Stars will proceed this thread. Its songs discover emotional rebuilding, romantic longing, non secular progress, and moments of reflection. With an English and Movie diploma from Western College, and artistic previous lives as knowledgeable clown, Reiki Grasp, and ski teacher, Saxe approaches songwriting with a large lens and a deep properly of expertise.
Her hometown roots run deep—she nonetheless lives in Georgetown and continuously performs all through the Halton Hills area. She’s slated to seem at a number of native exhibits this summer time, providing audiences a preview of her new materials.
Hello Aynsley! Good to fulfill you! Care to introduce your self to the readers for these not acquainted with your music?
Thanks a lot, and I respect the chance to introduce myself. I’m a Georgetown, Ontario-based acoustic-folk sounding singer-songwriter, and I’ve been instructed I’ve a knack for taking listeners on emotional rollercoasters. My fundamental instrument is the piano that I’ve performed since I used to be 6, and that instrument seems like dwelling to me; nonetheless, I’ve additionally picked up the guitar not too long ago, which I’m loving. My sophomore album, A Thousand Stars, is popping out within the Fall and it explores the heights and crashes of romantic love. I went by means of some important private storms in my life to create the songs on this album, and I’m very excited to launch it to the world. My hope is that listeners will discover connection, therapeutic, and lightweight at the hours of darkness from my music.
You’ve stated “Stranger to Myself” seems like a music performed in your lounge. What’s in that imaginary room—in addition to a guitar?
My supreme lounge can be in an early 1900s, barely modernized, cottage-type area with a grand piano, an acoustic guitar, and a big stone wood-burning fire. The lounge can be spacious however cozy and surrounded by timber overlooking a phenomenal lake. Listeners can be sitting in snug chairs or couches, leaning towards massive turquoise plush cushions, they usually’d be capable to wrap themselves in fuzzy heat blankets in the event that they felt prefer it. There can be skylights within the room so we might have a look at the celebs. I’d invite listeners to take a deep dive into the huge and delightful world inside themselves whereas listening to my music. They might floor feeling extra in tune with themselves and extra in contact with their coronary heart.
You’ve gone from singing concerning the planet and firemen to heartbreak and non secular progress—do these themes really feel related in your thoughts, or do they arrive from completely completely different variations of Aynsley?
The themes that I write songs about appear to select me. I don’t really feel like I’ve lots of management over inspiration or the place my songs come from, and I feel if I did have management, that wouldn’t be as a lot enjoyable. For me, one of many thrilling elements about songwriting will not be understanding the place a music goes to go once I start writing it. I’ll have an inkling of the temper I’m feeling, however I gained’t know the twists and turns that happen, and typically songs begin in a single place after which turn out to be a wholly completely different music as I preserve writing. Fairly often, I’ll write three or 4 completely different songs after which amalgamate the elements that really feel like they’re alleged to be saved into one music.
I often don’t begin out with a plan for the songs I write, apart from once I wrote “Cease, Drop & Roll (The Fireman Tune)”. For that music, I wished to create a catchy, enjoyable music that was completely different than the opposite sadder and heavier songs on my first album, Take Me As I Am. I wished to lighten issues up. As I made that intention, I immediately considered the hook “Cease, drop and roll with me,” and the music got here collectively fairly rapidly whereas I used to be laughing.
Once I wrote “Stunning Tomorrow,” I might get up in the course of the evening with this sense that I needed to report the music instantly. It was as if the music wouldn’t go away me alone, and it felt like there was an enormous urgency with it. This was in February 2019, and it was just like the music was pounding on my head and coronary heart, asking to be recorded. It was a sense I’d by no means had earlier than with any music I’ve written. The urgency made sense as soon as 2020 got here round as a result of getting 20 youth collectively to sing background vocals on the monitor most likely wouldn’t have occurred if we’d waited.
With respect as to if the songs really feel to me like they arrive from completely different variations of myself, I’d say no. The songs come by means of me, and I simply attempt to get out of their means. However some songs I write are rather more private than others. Music is the place I really feel liberated to discover subjects that I really feel referred to as to, whether or not they lean into private territory or are only for enjoyable.
You’ve been knowledgeable clown, a Reiki Grasp, and a ski teacher. Which of these previous lives sneaks into your songwriting essentially the most?
I’ve had a little bit of an eclectic job historical past by means of the years for positive haha! Earlier than I reply your query, I’ve to say that you simply wouldn’t consider what number of adults are afraid of clowns. And I used to be a really pleasant clown with lengthy pink hair. I didn’t take into account myself intimidating, however many adults would see me and bolt. Perhaps they’d seen too many scary clown motion pictures. I used to be knowledgeable clown for just a few months over the summer time once I was 19, and it helped me on the performing entrance as I used to be in entrance of children and adults, making balloon animals in massive plastic purple footwear, waddling round like a penguin for hours, and attempting to maintain everybody entertained and smiling. It was lots of enjoyable and really tiring. I’ve new respect for clowns, having been one myself. haha
I might say that being a Reiki instructor has had essentially the most affect on my music of all my careers. Reiki has helped me develop my instinct enormously, and that’s now a way that I exploit consistently with my music and with my life. I’d even say my instinct is as lively as my sense of listening to. Instinct has helped me write songs, get gigs, discover the fitting firemen to attend my first album launch get together, and so forth. Additionally, after I expertise a Reiki session, I usually really feel impressed to sing or end lyrics that I’ve been engaged on. I additionally really feel like I’m meant to be sharing therapeutic vibes with listeners by means of my music and Reiki enhances that intention.
You’ve stayed rooted in Georgetown—how has that small-town sense of place formed your sound and your tales?
I grew up in Georgetown, however after going to school in London, I lived in Toronto for 15 years, so I’ve a little bit of a metropolis mouse/nation mouse factor happening. I moved again to Georgetown about 10 years in the past, and I’m very completely happy right here. It’s surrounded by lovely mountaineering trails and shut sufficient to Toronto which you can get there simply, however you may have the advantages of a small city with a close-knit group and respiratory area that I actually love. As I’ve been on the brink of launch my new album, this city has actually embraced my dream, and folks have been so useful with wanting me to carry out at their areas and supporting me in no matter means they’ll. I wrote the songs from my first album once I was dwelling in Toronto, and for my upcoming album A Thousand Stars, the songs had been written whereas I used to be dwelling in Georgetown. I’ve spent numerous hours strolling my canine whereas listening to varied variations of my songs and enthusiastic about which tweaks to make, and it seems like I’ve virtually been threading my new songs into the sidewalks and wind right here.
Upcoming Present Dates:
- June 14, 2025 – 3 PM – Terra Cotta Native Musicians Occasion
- July 3, 2025 – 4 PM to 7 PM – Acton Out of doors Market
- July 5, 2025 – 1 PM to three PM – Halton Hills Helson Gallery
- July 11, 2025 – 5 PM to 10 PM (precise time TBA) – Palooza, Foremost Avenue Competition, Georgetown, ON
- July 17, 2025 – 4 PM to 7 PM – Acton Out of doors Market
- August 11, 2025 – Acton Leathertown Competition (time TBA) – Acton, ON
- August 14, 2025 – 4 PM to 7 PM – Acton Out of doors Market
- September 11, 2025 – 4 PM to 7 PM – Acton Out of doors Market