INDUSTRY TEAM

North America

Manager: Liam Prost - Tamarack Records

Label: Jocelyn Greenwood - Fierce Panda Canada

UK

Press: James Barker - Mystic Sons Media

Netherlands

Agent: Simeon Pranger - Treetop Agency

Germany

Agent: Hanna Doring - Kumpels & Friends

highlightED performances

2024

May 14 @ ENKI Canadian Music Showcase – London, UK August 3-5 @ Canmore Folk Music Festival – Canmore, Alberta

May 15-18 @ The Great Escape – Brighton, UK August 31 @ Eastern Slopes Music & Arts Festival – Calgary, Alberta

May 26 @ Komedia Fest - Bath, UK September 6-8 @ Purple City Music Festival – Edmonton, Alberta

2023

September 1-30 @ Artist in Residence Inn – Calgary, Alberta

June 15-17 @ NXNE – Toronto, Ontario

July 8 @ Calgary Stampede Coke Stage – Calgary, Alberta

May 27 @ East Town Get Down – Calgary, Alberta

March 8-13 @ Junofest – Edmonton, Alberta

2021

September 16-18 @ Norrköping Music Days  Norrköping, Sweden

September 22-26 @ Reeperbahn – Hamburg, Germany

August 9-12 @ Tallinn Music Week – Tallinn, Estonia

September 8-10 @ FOCUS Wales – Wrexham, Wales

October 15 @ King Eddy – Calgary, Alberta

BIOGRAPHY

In the Fall of 2017, while working to finish his Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, Ian St.Arnaud’s first musical group, Americana-folk trio North of Here (St.Arnaud, Luke Jansen, Will Holowaychuk), were hard at work on their debut album, ‘The Cost of Living’, with producer Graham Lessard (Timber Timbre, Basia Bulat) safely in tow. Tragically, on October 6, 2017, Jansen, while out for his morning run, was struck and killed by a passenger train. 6 months later, as Ian struggled to complete his studies and pick up the pieces of his life, a nearly fatal incident of his own: a pharmacist’s error resulted in St.Arnaud being mistakenly provided with a large amount of oxycodone, resulting in an overdose which landed him in hospital. To honour his late bandmate and their shared ambition, St.Arnaud reworked and rewrote the bulk of North of Here’s never-completed record, again with Lessard, self-releasing the now aptly titled ‘The Cost of Living’ in October 2019.

“For the first time since 2017/18 when I was kind of forced to sit and regroup, I carved out real time and space to ‘just write’. I bounced around Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, blew out my bank account, and what came out of it all was this funny collection of experiences that ended up (obviously) in a global pandemic, with an increasingly uncertain career path, but a promising and fulfilling new relationship. I wanted to capture moments from all of that, and create an album that showed that trajectory lyrically. Ultimately, I feel like this batch of songs represents a lot of growth from the first album and lets my optimism shine through. I hope the record speaks to people on a fun-loving and personal level, and that we will get the chance to play the songs live for those who appreciate them.”

Working alongside his brother and fellow creative, the YouTube animator GingerPale, the brothers St.Arnaud devised an animated music video for lead single ‘A Sweet Song’ (2019), amassing millions of views overnight. With a newfound loving home on YouTube and Spotify with legions of eager listeners, St.Arnaud was swept up in dozens of tour dates across Canada, Europe, and a brief foray into the USA before being grounded in New York City as it became the global COVID epicenter in March of 2020. His debut album was a DIY tour-de-force of fun-loving melodies overlaying themes of death, loss, and anxiety. His new album, 2022’s Love and the Front Lawn (Fierce Panda Records) continues the sad lyrics/happy melodies framework but with a new instrumental palette and a heartier dose of optimism. St.Arnaud has performed with Basia Bulat, Reuben and the Dark, and Lucy Rose among countless others and has performed at stages across the world including at Reeperbahn, New Colossus Festival, FOCUS Wales, and Tallinn Music Week. St.Arnaud has been featured on Exclaim!, BeatRoute Magazine, Indie 88, CBC, and more.

“I want the album to continue the thread of self-reflection, vulnerability, and rawness” that made up The Cost of Living (2019) says St.Arnaud, “but with notable departures in texture and form.” Steeping in the likes of the raucous and fun-loving 70s’ Big Star and Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, the ghostly and intimate Damien Jurado, and the wandering and clever narratives of Charlotte Cornfield, Ian didn’t forget about his innate talent for writing singable hooks and to practice his sha-la-las.  

Moving through self-doubt, loving, leaving and being left, and anxiously wasting away through some of the best years of one’s life, Love and the Front Lawn is the catchiest self-reminder to be kinder to yourself, to let go and try to enjoy where you are. Working with producer Graham Lessard (Basia Bulat, Timber Timbre, Stars) brings out the texture and dark corners of the songs through slippery slide guitar and keyboards throughout. Harkening back to 60s protest folk and 70s early indie, Ian’s beaming, clever lyrics belay the more cerebral themes of the songs. Simply orchestrated and impeccably composed, St.Arnaud takes head-on themes of death, loss and resilience with sardonic humour and heart-on-the-sleeve, puppy-love honesty. 

Catching Flies

“Catching Flies is, somehow, St.Arnaud’s covid song, if there’s going to be one. Dropped into an inner monologue of feigning amusement and a sigh of complacency, a tone of equal parts smoky and cheeky set the scene of a twenty-something’s life and love on pause.”

enjoy yourself

“Written sometime in early 2020, Enjoy Yourself consists of the timeless cycle of guilt-ridden hangovers and self-soothing affirmations, laughing off the scrapes and bruises, and encouraging others to do the same when taking stock in the dreaded landscape of comparison.”

loving

“I’m really proud of this one. I wanted to take my songwriting in a more personal, story-telling direction. Once the backdrop was set with the syrupy-sweet chorus, I felt like I could colour and create contrast with scenes from my day-to-day life, including the (unfortunately true) August morning, waking up to find a stranger’s defecation by my car door.”

Praise for the cost of living