C/O Rania Saxena
Singer-songwriter Rania Saxena discusses her musical journey, passion for outer space, and upcoming EP
By: Edwin Thomas, Contributor
This article marks the beginning of Behind the Beat, a new series highlighting Hamilton-based music artists, their musical journeys and recent work.
Emerging singer-songwriter Rania Saxena’s creative journey began when she was very young. Growing up as an only child, Saxena took to making up games and drawing to keep herself entertained. Looking to explore new creative outlets, she also began taking guitar lessons. Her guitar teacher encouraged her to sing while playing to improve her technique, which unintentionally improved her vocal abilities as well.
In high school, Saxena surrounded herself in a group of friends who wrote original songs and performed at their school. Her peers inspired her to start writing her own songs. Her first few performances were as gifts for her close friends and family, with the most notable being a song she wrote and performed for her father’s birthday. She received a lot of praise from people attending the event for how relatable the song was, which encouraged her to continue writing and performing songs.
“I realized that music can not only be a way for me to express myself, but for other people to find some of their truth in my words . . . that was pivotal,” said Saxena.
“I realized that music can not only be a way for me to express myself, but for other people to find some of their truth in my words . . . that was pivotal.”
Rania Saxena, singer-songwriter
She continued playing original and cover songs for her friends and family, which eventually led to her performing original songs at her high school’s talent shows.
In 2018, Saxena began attending McMaster University’s Health Sciences program. She found the atmosphere to be very welcoming, encouraging her to grow and try new things. She found herself surrounded again by musically inclined peers as part of the Health Sciences Musical. She recalled the excitement and energy she felt performing in her first performance in 2019, and later on in her 2021 performance in BHScreentime. She considers her peers in the musical her family and an integral part of her university experience.
Saxena started publishing her music to Soundcloud during her time at McMaster, using the microphone on her earphones to record and Garageband to produce. Her early songs involved only her voice and a ukulele as they produced the best quality given her resources at the time. These songs were heavily influenced by artists such as Lorde, Hozier, and Dodie. Later on, in songs like don’t you need a break, Saxena expanded her musical repertoire, incorporating drum loops, piano chords, and a plethora of other sounds in her songs.
She began to develop her writing style, incorporating events from her life, such as heartbreak, and her admiration of nature into the lyrics. Another major influence on her writing style came from her grandfather’s passion for poetry. She started with couplets which later evolved into free-form poetry that she used as a foundation for her lyrics. Her songwriting process typically begins with either the poems she has written or the melodies she has recorded in Voice Memos on her phone. Additionally, she made original album covers for her singles using paintings and digital art she created. After releasing her first few singles, she performed mini-setlists in fundraisers for the Health Sciences Musical at the McMaster University Student Centre.
In her songwriting process, she often draws inspiration from her fascination with space. The imagery in her lyrics is used to illustrate the likeness between the grandeur and vastness of outer space to her experiences with love and heartbreak, seen in the song cosmic avenue. She often uses space-related symbols to signify the importance of events in her life, such as comparing her mother’s love and care for her to the moonlight that wraps around the earth at night, in mama moonlight, a birthday tribute to her mother. Cosmic Queries by Neil deGrasse Tyson in particular has been an important inspiration for songs in her upcoming EP.
Over time, her music has evolved to include a variety of themes, including self-conflict and frustration in her most recent single, speculation, where she described an inner turmoil during a darker time in her life. She found her relationship with music became a therapeutic outlet for her.
“What started out as a fun hobby has turned into a form of therapy for myself. What started off as me just goofing around and trying out different things has ended up with me using song-writing and composition as a way for me to process my emotions,” explained Saxena.
The new circumstances of the pandemic, however, limited her access to the resources she used during her time at McMaster, so she invested in a midi keyboard, guitar and microphone to continue making music. Though the pandemic hindered her plans, she used her spare time to teach herself how to produce, mix, and master records using Logic Pro through YouTube tutorials. She found the experience to be very valuable to her musical comprehension. It was also at this time when she started writing songs for her EP.
When asked about advice that she would give to future artists, she said it is important to find your voice.
“Why aim to be the second Billie Eilish when you can be the first you?” she asked.
“Why aim to be the second Billie Eilish when you can be the first you?"
Rania Saxena, singer-songwriter
This is a mantra she has taken to heart to find her own music style. She encourages other artists to experiment with rhythms and sounds outside of their comfort zone to help them find their style.
Her first EP is set to come out later this year, drawing influence from Sarah Kinsley, Lorde, and Clairo. She has kept most of its details under wraps but revealed there will be rock-influenced songs as well. As for her future after McMaster, Saxena plans to continue her music career, hoping to make a debut album. Additionally, she has not been able to perform in-person since the pandemic but looks forward to more performances in the future.
Her music is available on most music platforms and can be found here.
Bridges Café is a hallowed McMaster destination for thoughtful conversation and inspiring performances. On Oct. 16, Toronto singer-songwriter Josh Taerk continued both of these traditions by bringing his musical storytelling into the space as part of the Coffee House Tour for his latest album, Beautiful Tragedy.
The tour will take Taerk and his band to university towns across North America where he’ll play stripped down versions of his rock-influenced music in campus coffeehouses. He was inspired to tour coffeehouses after playing shows at universities in the United Kingdom.
[spacer height="20px"]“Really it was a matter of getting in front of the right people…[U]niversity students really loved the music and they were getting behind [the] stories and they could connect with the things that I was saying and the experiences that I was presenting to them in the songs,” Taerk explained.
Taerk uses music as a communication tool. As a songwriter who writes from his own experiences, the connection to the stories in his songs is important. He wants his audiences to feel the full range of emotion that drives his songwriting and life itself.
There were a lot of experiences and emotions that were poured into Beautiful Tragedy as Taerk underwent changes in the three years since his debut, Here’s to Change.
“[D]uring that time it was… more of a self-discovery process than it was a musical discovery process… I learned so much more about the kind of artist that I wanted to be and the person that I wanted to be… The songs on that album and specifically the title track [were inspired by] that change of thought and that change of approach,” said Taerk.
One of the milestones from Taerk’s first to second album was his involvement in production. This provided him a chance to put forth his specific vision for three of Beautiful Tragedy’s tracks.
Like any new undertaking, this role came with challenges. Going from the perspective of an artist making music that he likes, Taerk found that the role of co-producer forced him to look at his songs collaboratively and feature multiple interpretations and skillsets.
Taerk also approached this album with the desire of paying his respects to the music that inspired him growing up. Some of his earliest memories consist of his parents playing their favourite records from artists like Hall & Oates and Bruce Springsteen. These musicians inspired him to start playing guitar.
“I'm a really big believer that everything happens for a reason…[T]he first guy that ever taught me how to play was more interested in teaching me the fundamentals of structuring chords before he taught me how to solo… I realized very quickly that in order for people to know what song I was playing… I would have to sing over it,” Taerk recalled.
“I started to write my own lyrics… [T]o to be able to take experiences that I was having and people very close to me were having and be able to put them into these little two, three minute stories and send them out into the world, it was just the best feeling in the world. And so I just knew that I had to keep doing it.”
By continuing to tell stories through music, Taerk has had the opportunity to travel to cities across the United Kingdom and North America. One of the stops still on his list is the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He would love to play the venue where Bruce Springsteen made a name for himself in his hometown as an homage to his father’s love of Springsteen.
For now, Taerk will keep writing, playing and singing in coffeehouses and bars across North America. Plugging himself into these various cities and cultures only fuels the creative and lyrical storytelling that Taerk produces.
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Hamilton singer-songwriter Shanika Maria knows how to make a presence. In a t-shirt from Hamilton-based brand Girls with Guns and shoes that she bought ten years ago and thought she outgrew she describes herself as all over the place but it’s these items, memories and influences that she funnels gracefully into her music.
In the summer of 2017, Maria released her debut EP, Childish Games. The five-song record is soft and acoustic, with Maria’s haunting voice singing lyrics that could be interpreted in a million ways. It’s a snapshot of where her abilities and creativity were at the time.
“Mouth Eaters” is the last track off the EP, it started off as a poem and then became part of her debut project. It was reworked and re-released on Sept. 28, 2018. Maria celebrated the release with a performance at the Mule Spinner the following day.
[spacer height="20px"]The reworked track is more upbeat than the original and includes collaborations from several people in Maria’s musical circle. It introduced new instruments and production that lend the familiar lyrics a brand new meaning. Maria has always supported the idea of her art being read in many different ways.
“I don't think it's…fair for me to tell anybody how to interpret what I've created. I feel like once I created it, I put it out there. It's now for the audience to interpret in whatever way they feel fit. I feel that's art in general…We all have our own lives and that's how we're going to come to art,” Maria said.
The single is the first off her upcoming album, Subtle Uncertainties. Like her EP, it is a picture of where she is in her life right now and describes her outlook on life. Currently in her mid-twenties, she is facing a version of adulthood where not everything is figured out.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoMszE1BYBy/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
[spacer height="20px"]Maria isn’t pursuing music full-time and while she is balancing other work and jobs, she believes that where she stands right now is what’s best for her at this time. She is not yet sure if she’d like to do music full-time but that is something she’ll have to navigate when the opportunity arises.
“As I've become older and as I've navigated everything, things are really uncertain, things are really ambiguous. The things I thought I wanted, I don't know if I want them… Life is very uncertain, and everything is uncertain and I don't think that that's a bad thing,” explained Maria.
Maria meets that uncertainty with the support of good people, from her family and friends to her mentor Kojo Easy Damptey and her label Celestial Voodoo. Damptey took her under his wing and helped to bring about the recording and release of her EP. Maria loves that she is part of an artist-run and collaborative label.
[spacer height="20px"]The good people that she has found in the music industry let her know that her contribution has value. Breaking into music, she faced the challenge of having to interact with people who based her worth as a performer on her ability to bring in audiences.
Genuine connections with artists and listeners helped her to overcome doubts that her work lacked value. These connections are also what she loves about performing in Hamilton.
“I have community here and I feel like people are being pretty receptive to what I've been doing so that's always a nice feeling…And I also just really like performing with other people…Live performance really gives an emotional and intimate look into their creativity,” explained Maria.
Maria’s creativity takes multiple forms. She writes fiction and poetry in addition to creating music. In the same vein, she takes inspiration from several forms of art other than music, from film to poetry to books.
She is looking forward to the newness that comes with putting out a fresh batch of music. She’s tried new things on the guitar and is excited about the new sound and vibe on her new album. Her excitement is accompanied by some fear, however, because life after all is uncertain.
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