INTERVIEW – Holding On To Ria Mae: Queer Singer on latest single and tour

It’s been a whirlwind few years for Halifax artist Ria Mae. The singer, known for hits like Clothes Off and Oh Love recently released her latest single Hold Me. Mae performs this week in Edmonton November 22nd and Calgary November 24th.

"I wrote that song with Frank Kadillac, he's the lead singer of Neon Dreams, they're a band also based outside of Halifax. It was just, basically I'd known Frank for a while and the song sort of started as a conversation about sort of the fact that everyone has anxiety in 2018 and just like with all the bad news we're getting and all the social media accounts we all have, just how easy life used to be when we were kids. And that's kind of how the song started."

Mae sings from experience. In a world of "fake news" and the ability to hide behind a keyboard, people can be quite cruel in comments.

"It's pretty crazy. YouTube, I think is the worst for that. And I didn't notice it until like I released the video for "Clothes Off" and I think when "Close Off" had about 5000 views that's when I got the first bad comment. So, you know at first, it's your aunts and your uncles and your cousins being like "Good for you!" And then you just get that one stranger who's like "Your voice sucks!" And it's like you just have to choose what your boundary is...