Nothing is typical about an artist’s schedule. Often, their best work happens when “the nine-to-fivers go to bed.” Nonetheless, when offered a chance to experience a “normal” workweek, most artists are thrilled. That’s the case for singer-songwriter Maggie Andrew, who had a memorable — and productive — sojourn in Calgary this past January as the latest NMC Artist in Residence Presented by Partake Brewing.
The alt-pop star, who was born and raised in Nova Scotia, was the grand-prize winner of the CBC Music Searchlight 2024 contest; the prize included the weeklong National Music Centre (NMC) residency. Past alumni of the NMC self-directed program include: singer-songwriter Shawnee Kish, indie pop act Rich Aucoin, two-time Polaris Music Prize winner Jeremy Dutcher, and DJ-producer duo A Tribe Called Red.
Before returning to the East Coast during the pandemic, Andrew lived and worked in Los Angeles collaborating with the likes of Blackbear, Ash Riser (Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul) and Yeti Beats (Doja Cat, SZA). To date, Andrew has amassed more than six million global streams; her last EP Day Job received five East Coast Music Award nominations and won in the African Canadian Artist of the Year category.
NMC Amplify caught up with Andrew on the road in St. John’s, N.L., where she had just arrived to attend and perform at the 37th annual East Coast Music Awards.
Months before arriving in Calgary, Andrew started planning to ensure that once she entered NMC’s studios, no time was wasted. She also gathered a few fellow East Coast musical collaborators — producer Corey Lerue, along with songwriters Carleton Stone and Kyle Mischiek.
“I wanted to make sure that once we arrived in Calgary, we spent the week just working on stuff we had already written, rather than trying to write some brand new songs,” she explains.
Late last fall, Andrew travelled to Toronto and wrote a batch of new material. Then, in January, she and her three musical mates arrived in Calgary ready to work and fine-tune these creations with the help of National Music Centre’s full-time audio engineer Eric Cinnamon and using some of the incredible inventory available in NMC’s world-class living collection of more than 200 instruments.
“I used to live in Los Angeles, and when the pandemic happened, I moved back to Nova Scotia,” Andrew says. “Going to the National Music Centre for this Artist in Residence program, working in their amazing studios, and having access to all of these historically-significant instruments, was so incredibly cool, and they added a brightness and bigness to our songs.”
Cinnamon guided this week-long residency — introducing Andrew and her team to all the cool toys available and making suggestions throughout the recording process.
“Eric is fantastic,” Andrew says. “I consider him one of our friends now since he got to experience four best friends in the studio working and he was there with us. He was so helpful throughout the week; we knew what we needed to do, but Eric works with the collection, so he knew what instrument was available that might work with each song we were recording.”
A few highlights of the instruments from NMC’s living collection Andrew and her collaborators used include: a microphone and amplifier Neil Young once owned; Anne Murray’s custom-built CBS Masterworks acoustic guitar; and drums that belonged to late April Wine frontman Myles Goodwyn.
“To sing lyrics that I wrote into a microphone that Neil used to sing into was nothing like I’ve ever experienced before,” Andrew recalls. “Anne is from Nova Scotia, which was a cool hometown connection for all of us … oh, and April Wine started out in the Halifax suburb of Waverley, which is where I grew up!”
In March, Andrew released “Fall Like a Feather,” a song about never giving up. Earlier this month, her latest single, “How to Sing for Money,” arrived on all streaming platforms — one of the eight new songs recorded in NMC’s studios for her upcoming EP set to be released this fall.
“I’m so excited to be rolling out all of this new music,” Andrew says. “Without that residency, I don’t think that this would have happened so fast: from writing these songs last November to finishing the project in January at the National Music Centre to the full EP arriving in September.”
The new songs created through her residency showcase the variety of Andrew’s influences: from rock to pop with all shades in between. The sounds lean most into the vibe she heard and felt after seeing 2025 Grammy-winner Sabrina Carpenter live. For Andrew, the best part of the NMC Artist in Residence was that they had a complete run of the studios, which made them feel like VIPs.
“Working nine-to-five in a studio is the best thing ever,” the singer-songwriter says. “If you want to be an artist, to know that you can wake up and just be creative all day … there’s nothing else you need to do or no other obligation other than going to the studio with your collaborators and finishing a project, that is the greatest thing in the world.”
