Elyse Saunders
This past summer we had the chance to chat with Peterborough, ON native and musician Elyse Saunders on the heels of her performance at one of the largest music festivals in our area – Boots and Hearts.
I asked her what she thought of the Boots and Hearts energy and she responded “It was a blast there. I did an emerging artist showcase with them a couple of years ago, but it was during COVID time, so it was definitely not the regular Boots experience. To me, it doesn’t quite count <laugh> The full Boots and Hearts experience definitely happened this time. It was so much fun!”
Elyse grew up in the Peterborough area attending North Shore Public School and TASS for high school. With family still in the area, she loves it when she makes it home for a visit.
When asked if there was something about her childhood here in the Kawarthas that inspired her to pursue music she said “Peterborough Musicfest definitely had a big impact on me. We would spend basically every summer there growing up, you know, running around on the stage when they didn’t have people on it. It definitely made an impact.” Elyse recalls seeing so many local and international artists performing at Musicfest and says “I was like, this is so cool, that’s something I wanna do when I get older. And then when I was just a teen I had this opportunity to open ahead of Derek Ruttan and that was my first time getting the full festival experience.”
Next I asked Elyse: If you were introducing someone to your music, your sound for the first time, what song would you choose to show them?
“Never Have I Ever. That one we released earlier this year, it became my very first hit. It really represents where I’m at as an
artist right now in my current chapter and my sound and how far I’ve come. That one went to Top 30 radio here in Canada and then number six in Australia. I’ve released songs over the years, but that was the one that really hit and made an impact. So that would be the one that I show people for sure. It’s pretty special to see what a song can do, the journey of a song and what it represents.”
Elyse says one of her biggest and proudest achievement to date is being chosen as Female Artist of the Year for 2024 at the CMA Ontario Awards. “They (Never Have I Ever and the CMA Award) kind of go hand in hand because Never Have I Ever was the reason, was a big reason why I won that award this year. So it’s just amazing what a song can do and open all these doors; it’s these moments where I’m like, oh my gosh, wow, things are starting to really happen and I’m starting to really live my dream.”
I asked who in her wildest dreams would she jump to collaborate with and with zero hesitation she said, “I would love to collaborate with Shania Twain, ’cause she’s my icon, my hero. Yes. That would be so cool. It would be awesome just to sit down and talk with her and hear about her stories in the industry and be able to write a song together. I think that would just be awesome. But also, I love Carrie Underwood. I love Miranda Lambert, Kelsey Ballerini, she’s killing it. All these artists have just, you know, opened so many doors for us female artists. And someone that is current right now that I love is Lainey Wilson. Oh yeah. I would love to work with her too. She’s just such a powerhouse!”
When I asked what it was like performing live, Elyse responded with, “The best thing about performing live is just being able to connect to people with my music, I love being an entertainer and so I love kind of bringing the art, the crowd into my songs with me and creating moments. ‘Cause I feel like that’s my job as a creator entertainer is just to give people an experience, kind of bring them joy, take them out of, you know, whatever’s going on in life for that moment. So I love that. And there’s a special connection that happens with music and how music brings people together.”
With new music launching this past Fall else Saunders’s excited for what the next year holds. It is important to note that Elyse Saunders is also a proficient songwriter and was signed to her first publishing deal as a songwriter earlier this year with Arts and Crafts Publishing giving her the opportunity to write music for other artists as well as TV and film.
When asked what it is like to write music for others Elyse said, “It’s really cool. It’s really neat to hear how someone else expresses songs. It’s different than I would . I love sitting down in a writing session and before I do the writing session with the artist, I really like to look at their socials and, and see their personality. I try to figure out like what makes that artist special, who they are as a person, their unique essence, and then when we sit down with each other, I’ll ask them what they are going through in life and what’s happening. So I try to really get my head onto who they are and what we wanna bring out in the song that makes them unique – how would we say this from their perspective? I write a lot actually with a pop punk band, their name is Sucker Punch out of Montreal and they’re amazing. As a country writer, there’s things I wouldn’t say that I could say in pop punk. So it’s like this whole other freedom as a writer, which is really fun.”
With newly released songs ‘Dirt’ and ‘Neon Cowboy’ climbing the charts, Saunders powerful vocals and impressive songwriting are a powerhouse combination and we cant wait to see what the 2025 year will bring for up-and-comer Elyse Saunders.
