My guest today is singer-songwriter Lucy Clearwater, whose debut full-length album is called People Not Possessions. It's a title that tells you quite a bit about who she is before you even hear a note.

Lucy started playing violin at the age of 4 and by the time she was 12 she was teaching the instrument. Then she started writing songs on guitar, and she hasn't looked back.

Lucy grew up in the Bay Area, moved to LA, and spent some time in Berlin. She even learned enough German to write and record an entire album in the language.

At the heart of this new record is something simple: a belief in community, connection, and the people who shape our lives.

In our chat, we get into the long road to making a debut full-length; recording live to tape with producer Tyler Chester; writing songs about friendship, grief, and love, including one specifically about the perils of the intersection of friendship and love; and how a casual song-sharing night in her living room grew into an international network of musicians gathering in cities around the world.

It's a record about relationships, and a conversation that keeps circling back to the same idea: that our lives are shaped far more by people than possessions.

www.lucyclearwater.com

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

Tyson Ray Borsboom is one of those songwriters who seems decidedly less interested in polishing the edges than he is in just telling the truth.

Born in Winnipeg, shaped by Alberta - Lethbridge then Calgary - he’s now living out on the West Coast in Vancouver (at last, for the time being). His thoughtful blend of country, folk, and Americana feels built for long drives, which he’s done his fair share of driving trucks, and late-night reflection, which, quite frankly, with a couple kids at home, I’m rather partial to.

We talked about everything from getting inspired to write songs watching Canadian Idol as a teenager, to falling in love and proposing to his fiancée Charlotte along Vancouver’s seawall at sunset, where, rudely, no-one seemed to care...except for Charlotte, thankfully. He tells us the story.

We also get into his complicated relationship with co-writing and the way collaborative songwriting can feel a little bit like therapy, even while part of him wonders if asking for help is somehow cheating.

His new album These Days came out June 5th in the midst of a 30-day Canadian tour in support of it.

@tysonrayborsboom

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠

You could say that Kelly McMichael took the long way round to using her own name. Born in Peterborough, Ontario and now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, she spent years making music under different monikers and inside other people’s bands, touring with artists like Sarah Harmer, Gentleman Reg, The Hidden Cameras and The Burning Hell.

Along the way she made her own music as Rouge and then Renders, before eventually stepping forward using her name with her Polaris Prize shortlisted debut album Waves, and its Music NL award winning (and Polaris Prize longlisted) follow-up After the Sting of It.

In today's episode, we chat about those different musical lives, the process of finding her own voice, the winding path that led her to the front of the stage, and about sharing vocals on one of my new Clever Hopes songs, Long Way Round...which she absolutely, positively, knocks out of the ballpark.

KellyMcMichael.com

Wanna get in touch?

Send an email to ⁠⁠whenwewakeradio@gmail.com⁠⁠

Or find me on Instagram ⁠@theandrewshaver⁠

⁠When We Wake with Andrew Shaver⁠ is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠⁠Andrew Shaver⁠ of ⁠Clever Hopes⁠⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by ⁠Noah Reid⁠