Arts & Entertainment

Home is where the heart is

While travelling is necessary to earn a living, talented artists still find their inspiration here in Halifax

It has been quite a year for music in Halifax. From last spring’s Juno Awards to the autumn Rolling Stones mega-spectacle on the Commons and through to this February’s East Coast Music Awards, the city hasn’t stopped shakin’. Suddenly, our best-kept secret, our music scene, has become both renowned and revered across the country, and around the world, as the hot-bed of all things sonic.

Halifax wasn’t always this noisy. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that things were much quieter here on the harbourfront.

When local alt-rock legends Sloan packed their van for good and took off to Toronto in the mid-1990s, many believed it signaled the start of a mass exodus towards the bright lights of the big cities. Sure enough, as a slew of local acts followed suit, Halifax quickly fell off the national sonar.

Still, some artists chose to remain and rebuild, while others have come from away over the last decade to do their part to kick-start the heart of Atlantic Canadian music.

It would appear that all of these minor efforts have struck a major chord, as the city enjoys a harmonic renaissance unheard of elsewhere in the country.


Folk songstress Jill Barber is at the forefront of that rebirth. The multi-ECMA winner moved to Nova Scotia from her native Ontario three years ago, drawn by both the mystique and history of the area.

“I feel like I am a part of something special here. This region has the richest musical diversity of anyplace in Canada, if not the whole world. The Maritimes have always bred great musicians and creative people because folks here work together and support each other. That sense of community is vital and makes all the difference in the world to artists like myself who are trying to make a living doing what we love.”

Hot on the heels of her sophomore release, For All Time, Barber has been busy touring the country in recent months and says that she brings her homegrown collection with her wherever she goes.

“I’ve always been into East Coast music. Going back to my teens I was a huge Sloan fan, and Hardship Post was also top of my list. These days I am listening a lot to Amelia Curran, David Myles and The Museum Pieces. I also like Mardeen and Two Hours’ Traffic and the new Rose Cousins album is just amazing.”


PEI native Cousins first arrived in Halifax in 1995 to attend Dalhousie University. Leaving her studies behind, she was so taken with the city’s culture that she stayed on to pursue her musical aspirations.

“I love Halifax. It is a great combination of the big city and the small town where I grew up. I find myself very inspired living here because the scene is thick with talent and, for a small place, we are producing an eclectic array of artists in many genres. Maybe it’s because there has always been a lot of music in this part of the country and we are brought up on it in some form or another. The cycle feeds itself and it’s also fed by artists who move to the region from everywhere around the world.”

Cousins has a busy summer planned, weaving her way across Canada and the US in support of her latest release, If You Were For Me.

“I’ve learned that music keeps growing the more it moves around so traveling is the key to a long career no matter where your home base is. Still, I love coming home to that familiar Maritime feeling.”

That Maritime feeling is also familiar to Dartmouth rootsrocker Joel Plaskett.


Known as much for his outspoken hometown pride as he is for his indie-pop sensibilities, Plaskett admits that his decision to settle down in the area was based as much on pragmatisms as it was on nostalgia. “The music scene here is stronger than it has ever been, with more bands and venues popping up all the time. Actually, I’ve never seen it this active. And it has helped that the infrastructure of the regional music industry has matured a lot in recent years. The number of labels, managers, agents, studios and media in the area is now such that there is no longer the need for an artist to go elsewhere to develop a career in Canada.”

Barber agrees.

“I’m not convinced that as an artist I am better off working in a big city environment than I am in a smaller and warmer community. And with technology, there is not much more that I can do there that I couldn’t do here. I like the slower pace, being by the ocean, seeing the stars at night and knowing that all my musician friends are just minutes away. This is my home.”


Originally published in the Spring 2007 issue of Lifestyle Nova Scotia Magazine.