WAVERLEY: Maggie Andrew has come a long way in her still young, blossoming musical journey.
The Lockview High alum went to the West Coast to get a start in performing and writing music, working to make a name for herself and making contacts along the way. With that learning and experience in her back pocket, Andrew has recorded two singles that have been released and is putting on concert performances.
Now she’s back home and gearing up for a live performance that friends and family will get to attend at the first-of-its kind Crescendo festival on Aug. 5 at Grand Parade Square in Halifax. It was created to amplify and showcase black artists and celebrate black music.
“It’s going to be a great time, so people definitely don’t want to miss it,’ said Andrew of Crescendo.
Andrew is set to hit the stage at Crescendo at 7 p.m.
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Andrew has been kept as busy as a bee over the past year writing and recording music and finding inspiration for future songs.
“I’ve really just been working on writing and recording a lot of new music as well as working on my live show,’ she said from Halifax.
She said it feels like she’s all over the map but loves it and has grown so much as a musician and person since the early days.
“Definitely loved the west coast and I enjoyed living there,’ she said. “Of course it’s worth it because it’s what I love doing. I’m proud of myself but I’m not at the finish line yet.”
Andrew, who hails from Waverley, said people can grab her music from Spotify; Apple Music; Amazon; YouTube.
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Speaking of her music, she just recently released two singles over the past few months—Biting Ice Cream and Better Than You.
Andrew spoke of where the inspiration for both of the songs came from.
“Biting Ice Cream was just a fun song that was written about feeling good, confident about yourself,’ she said. “We were experimenting with different sounds and tones/genre blending.”
“Better Than You was a bit more out there and relays a message about being better than an ex or an old flame in your life and instead of being sad about it, changing the narrative,” said Andrew. (The link is to the clean version of the song off YouTube.)
She said when writing in general where she gets inspiration comes from experiences she’s had or things that have happened in her life, etc.
“It all depends, but definitely inspiration comes from everywhere,” she said.
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Andrew said Biting Ice Cream was written on a trip to Los Angeles, Calif. with another artist by the name of ‘sunsetto’, then it was reworked with producer Corey LeRue.
She said Better Than You was written at a song camp with Carleton Stone and Willie Stratton.
“It was the first time the three of us wrote a song together,” recalled Andrew.
“We wanted to write something fun to sing and had the idea in our heads of writing something that would be fun to perform as well.”
She said with Willie in the room of course they had to utilize making something with really cool guitar parts. LeRue and Carleton really beefed up the production.
“It became a super fun pop song with a bit of rock and punk influence,” said Andrew.
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Andrew feels people from back home in Waverley are proud and interested/invested in what she’s doing and what is going on.
“It definitely feels good to hear people saying they like my songs or sharing my stuff on the internet,” she said.
“It was really cool hearing people sing my lyrics back to me at my first show back in May.”
She said she always has new music on the way so people can keep an eye out for that on her socials and encourages friends and fans to drop by to say hi. Her handle is @maggiedandrew on all social media platforms.
