Wendy McNeill

The Canadian folk-noir singer, who candidly shares insights into her music and thoughts as well as back-stage scenes from her European tours on social media, finds inspiration predominantly in the expansive natural landscapes of her homeland, which she explores on long walks with her two hounds. No wonder her forthcoming new album First There Were Feathers is all about the plumed inhabitants of the forest, first and foremost her beloved owls. The fauna of her last album Hunger Made You Brave included robins, dogs, wolves, foxes and bears, around which McNeill weaves her stories from looped vocals, accordion and guitar. Her quirky and profound stories – which have been described by The Globe and Mail journalist Robert Everett-Green as “dispatches from a post-rock cabaret” – oscillate between almost masochistic devotion and angelic not-from-this-world choruses, only to ultimately unite into one at times eccentrically colourful, at times downright macabre, but always wonderfully whimsical whole.