If you’ve had the chance to see Loviet live, you would know that she carries the energy of a ’90s era alt rocker who couldn’t care less about what you think of her. In other words, she’s cool. Really cool.
Loviet, based in both Halifax and Toronto, is becoming a touring tour-de-force, frequently tackling gigs and festivals nationally and internationally. Her backlog of indie pop-rock is sweet with a hint of spice—tracks with a dose of longing and a dash of attitude.
Yet, an essential question has been stuck in her mind: Is this the music she envisioned herself making?
“I took the recording program (at NSCC) when I was 19, and that was always the goal, or the plan,” says Natalie MacIntosh, who goes by Loviet on-stage. “The time that we came up, in 2016-2017, there wasn’t necessarily a lot of female support to produce, or just in general starting out.”
This discouragement she experienced has been reversed on Loviet’s latest single, “Stiffy”, dropping on Friday, September 19, as MacIntosh can confidently say she produced this track to her liking, striking the indie pop-punk sound she’d always wanted to master.
Forging a path
While collaboration with producers and music industry professionals can often lead to solid outcomes for artists, in the case of Loviet, she felt it stifled her creativity. She did it because she felt she had to, but now, with fans across Canada and the United States backing her up, MacIntosh finally feels like she can truly express herself.
“Here we are, right now, making this record, writing it ourselves, producing it ourselves, and everything feels good again,” she says. “There was just a lot of turbulence during that time and a lot of experiences that I just felt like a square trying to fit into a circle twenty-four-seven because I just didn’t feel like it was a fit.”
And while not every experience was like that, it had built up to a point where MacIntosh felt she had to get it off her chest.
“I think that’s why it’s a little bit angsty,” she says, speaking of the songs she produced for her new record. “I’m hoping we’re going to have our moment with this and be angsty, and then hopefully this will be like therapy, and we’ll be able to breathe with less pissed-off energy.”
With this new sense of ownership of her sound also comes the realization that there’s no one else to blame if it all goes up in flames. She didn’t take anyone’s advice or go with anyone else’s choices, and yet it’s that fear that makes the freedom all the more real for Loviet.
“It’s funny,” she says. “This is so much like the music I always made when I was in my bedroom… so, literally years of working and working and working and coming back to that is so crazy.
“I’m really thankful that this record is the record that it is,” she continues. “I just want to be able to play my guitar… I got pushed into pop a lot, and I think about it now and I’m like, man, when did anybody ever picture me, like, I should’ve known that I’m not somebody that would want to be dancing. I’m not a dancer, and I don’t really even know if I do great microphone work.
“This just feels more natural. It’s pretty cool. I’m excited about it.”
An evolving scene
With so many experiences behind her, MacIntosh is also grateful for the music scenes across Canada that she has gotten to be a part of. She went from listening to Simple Plan as a teen in Shelburne, to going to school and establishing herself as an artist in Halifax, to getting opportunity after opportunity in Toronto. Even though the pandemic halted music scenes globally for several years, she’s happy to see that there’s been a return to basement-dwelling rockers giving it their all.
“More bands than ever are coming out everywhere that I love, and I’m excited to hear. And they’re bands again. It’s not like the other era that we’re talking about. I don’t feel like everybody’s trying to learn how to do a fucking move or whatever on stage. It’s just a couple randoms in their basement, playing guitars, and suddenly their friends and now they’re on tour. It’s really cool. I’m really glad that’s happening.”
For now, Loviet will be taking her time releasing songs from the new album over time, starting with “Stiffy”, all of which was recorded at Fang Studios in Dartmouth. As she releases these tracks, she’ll continue bringing them to stages all across North America, including RiotFest in Chicago on September 19 and Halifax’s first Loud Women Fest on October 18 at Propeller Arcade.
“We don’t have a god complex, we’re just really happy people show up, and we’re still doing our best to just make every show a good time,” says MacIntosh.
“Stiffy” comes out on Sept. 19 with a music video shot at the Seahorse Tavern in Halifax. The song will be released on all streaming platforms. For more on Loviet, check out her Instagram and Bandcamp pages.
