We all have those artists and songs we hear that strike the right chord and make us fall in love at first listen. They’re the reason we refresh social media pages, tour schedules, and Spotify profiles — because we can’t miss a single release. This is Love at First Listen — a series introducing you to the emerging, and established, artists with new music guaranteed to upgrade your playlist.
With the release of his 604 Records label debut (home to Canadian mainstays like Marianas Trench and Carly Rae Jepsen), breakout Indigenous artist Chevy Beaulieu poses a lighthearted but equally aspirational question: “Where’s the fun in life without a little adventure?” For Chevy, life, and his artistic evolution, have been exactly that. Based in Airdrie, AB, he comes to the Canadian country scene with deep musical roots from his father—a three-time Canadian fiddle champion—and their family band. But as he tells Love at First Listen, he took his time (close to 15 years, in fact) cutting his teeth, broadening his influences, and refining his craft. The result: “If We Want To,” a high-energy, feel-good, country festival-ready anthem about embracing spontaneity and living life to its fullest.
To celebrate the single’s success, we caught up with Chevy to talk about achieving bucket list dreams, “aha!” moments, and becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable.
You recently returned from all the JUNO celebrations out in Vancouver. How was it getting to perform at the JUNO Block Party and mingle with the Canadian music community?
It was my first JUNOs weekend and it was wild. I knew all the other artists that were on the block party; they are all labelmates. So, for that day, it was nice to perform and show people what I can do, and not a lot of them have seen me play live. It was also nice to play some of my newer songs that are not out yet.
“If We Want To” is receiving major fan love, it’s the trending track at Stingray New Country, and it’s on top of all the Breakthrough Country playlists—not to mention it cracked top 40 at Canadian country radio. What has been the best part of all this great reception to the song?
It’s nice to see. I put a lot of hard work into this. The music is rewarding on its own—like it makes me feel happy—but just to get a little bit of recognition, I don’t care what anybody says, it’s a really good feeling. I was really stoked when I first broke top 50. When I was in Vancouver [for the JUNOs], someone from my team was like, “You’re about to check something off your bucket list.” Now [I’ve] broke top 40, which is pretty wild to think about because there [are] so many great artists in this country, and I’m just really grateful.
And it’s still going up and up! We’re expecting top 30, top 20… it’s fantastic. With “If We Want To” being your label debut, how did you decide that this song was the right one to kick off a new era in your musical journey?
We had a handful of my songs that I was already recording, and then I had a handful of songs that were pitched to me, and this was one of the pitches. Not very many artists admit that [their music] was written by somebody else, but I like to give recognition to the songwriters because a good song is not good without good songwriters. Big shout out to my producer, Bart McKay. He’s helped me out a lot with finding my sound.
You’ve said this song is different from what you’ve released before, but still “you.” Can you elaborate on that? What about this song when you were pitched it resonated with you?
I like the whole premise of the story—you can do whatever you want, we can do whatever we want, if we want to. … [I]f it doesn’t work out, you can always go home. That’s what my parents always told me; my dad said, “I bought this house so my kids will always have a place to be, and if you want to go off and do your own thing, you can always come home.” I’m very grateful for my immediate family. They are my biggest supporters and I miss them every day, but I can’t quit now—not until I get bigger. It’s kind of a pipe dream, but I would really like to retire my mom one day.
How would you describe your sound?
I call myself and my music Heinz 57, so like 57 varieties. I’m a little Scottish, a little French, a little Cree, a little Chippewa, and my last name is huge. It’s all the way from the east to the west, and I have a lot of stories, lots of family and history. But going back to the music part, my music is a mixture of everything; almost every sub-genre of country besides rap. I take lots from rock and roll, Honky Tonk music, and outlaw. I grew up on Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley, and I listened to a lot of bands like Default when Dallas Smith was still doing his rock band and Nickelback. Now, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dwight Yoakam, Koe Wetzel, and pop artists as well. It’s just all over the place. So, I have one or two poppier songs on this record that I’m working on, rock and roll tunes, outlaw tunes, Honky Tonk tunes, and I can go on and on about it.
Given all the music in your life, did you always know you wanted to be a musician or did it take some time to lock in?
It took a while. I started picking up guitar when I was younger, played bass on my dad’s first record when I was 12 or 13, and then didn’t do anything with it. Around 15 years old, I got my first guitar, a Heart Attack Mini G series, which was the most indestructible guitar I’ve ever seen. I dropped that thing like crazy, and around then I started writing poetry and learning covers. I was about 18 years old in the summer of 2012 when I got to open for Shane Yellowbird, and that was kind of my “aha!” moment. It was really sad when he left this earth, but he showed us that we can compete, we can play, and we can put music out at the same level as everybody else. There are not very many role models for young Indigenous boys that had the same impact as that guy, and it showed they gave a lot of kids hope, and I was one of them. Shane got on stage after me and I told him, and I told myself, “I can do that.” Ever since then, I’ve been pushing towards it.
You talk about how an artist like that can impact your life. What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received that you could pass along to the next generation of country artists?
Don’t give up. You may sound like crap now, which I did in the early years. … I was listening to some of my old videos I put out. My voice was weak, I was out of key, but you eventually find your sound. It took me until about 2016 to first start finding my voice. And even then, I’m still finding my voice. I love country music; I’m a country artist. I grew up on this stuff, but … [m]aybe down the road I want to do a rock record, maybe down the road I want to do a pop record or go sing the hook on some rap song. I don’t know. Who knows? … You don’t have to put a label on most music anymore.
You mentioned that you’re working on an upcoming project, so what can you tease for the year ahead? Are we looking at an EP, an album…?
I have 12 songs on the go. Like I said, just like myself, [there’s] a little bit for everyone, and different subgenres of music, but somehow it all fits together. I was really happy with that because, honestly, nobody’s harder on yourself than yourself. I was worried that it wasn’t going to meld, and then I was listening to it and it moves, it’s cohesive, and I was pleasantly surprised. I have a new song coming out here in the next couple months and a music video to follow for it that I shot last time I was in Van. That’s about as much as I can talk about. But I have 12 songs on the go—lots of party tunes, lots of two-stepping songs, and a couple of crying songs.
We’re heading into the summer concert season, and the first time we heard “If We Want To,” we thought, “Get us into the field at a festival immediately!” Do you have any performances coming up that you can highlight?
I have a couple acoustic shows. I do a few parties during [Calgary] Stampede, but I’m just focusing on the single right now and getting all my interviews done—all the stuff that I was very uncomfortable with before, but I’m slowly getting better at.
