Elyse Aeryn‘s new single is not just a song about romance, but an anthem to self-love.
The Glace Bay native released “Unstoppable” ahead of her sophomore album, due out in October 2025. Her roots-rock sound with a rebellious attitude has captivated audiences throughout Atlantic Canada and beyond, netting her the 2024 Music Nova Scotia’s Entertainer of the Year award, as well as being named The Coast’s Best New Artist in our 2023 Best Of Halifax awards.
Now, she’ll be bringing her country rock fun to the Marriott’s Patio Party on June 18, as well as the Coast2Coast Songwriters’ Night at The Carleton on Sept. 25.
“Unstoppable”, the first track from Aeryn’s forthcoming album Everybody Loves You…, is indicative of her talents as a genre-blender. While it retains the country twang of her previous work, its production sounds like that of a pop track until it cuts into the chorus with the rocking guitars she’s known for.
New meaning
The single also shows her strength as a songwriter. First coming to her as a love song about two people finding each other, it began to take on another meaning for Aeryn.
“I call it an accidental love song,” she says in an interview with The Coast. “I was writing a song that just felt good to me, but I found myself singing about somebody who maybe hasn’t seen the potential of what we could be together yet.
“I was really leaning into this idea, but like with so many songs I write, when I reflect back after the recording and production process and after playing it live a few times, you usually find that it was actually about something so much deeper than what I thought.”
That depth would come to fruition as they recorded the music video for the single, where Aeryn began to see that her song was just as much about self-love as it was romantic love.
“We uncovered a whole new perspective of the connection of somebody and their younger self,” she says. “The song has taken on this new meaning of… a love song for your inner 16-year-old, and that’s what I’ve been embracing about this song more recently.”
The single and her album were recorded and produced at Soundpark Studios in Sydney with 15-time ECMA-winning audio engineer Jamie Foulds, who helped craft Aeryn’s debut album, Joy State of Mind, released in 2023. Aeryn says the original version of “Unstoppable” sounded like it could fit with her last album originally, but with Foulds’ input, it became something uniquely its own.
“We dug a little deeper and decided to lean into some more fresh sounds,” she says. “We’ve subbed out a usual B3 organ for some synths, and we created a lot of space in that pre-chorus. We were saying it feels like the one moment on the album that you can just close your eyes and lose yourself in the moment.”
This led to the track’s pop edge, and while Aeryn promises the new album is centred around rock and roll, she feels a special connection with “Unstoppable.”
“I like that it shows my diversity, and I think at the end of the day, it all sounds like me.”
An incredible feeling
Just as important as establishing herself through her sound is ensuring she’s giving it her all—a lesson she’s taking away from professionally recording her music. Aeryn says she never wants to listen back to a track and think she didn’t give it her all, which made her partnership with Foulds special in her eyes.
“He really pushed me to lean into some vocal parts on this record,” says Aeryn. “I felt that we unlocked a whole new level of artistry in me, things that I didn’t even know I could do with my voice and just arrangement ideas that I didn’t even think I could. I surprised myself, I guess, over and over in that process, and it was really, really cool.”
What makes it even better for Aeryn is that people listen to and engage with her music, whether it’s through streaming services, radio play or live shows.
“It’s the most incredible feeling, and I think it’s the best,” she says. “It’s the best thing I could ask for. I love to create music, and I can’t not create music. It’s become everything that I am, but when someone says “Me too,” or “I feel this,” for whatever reason, there’s no other better feeling than that.”
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2025.