Liner Notes is Atwood Magazine’s column spotlighting the artists who make Toronto’s independent music scene so vibrant, pairing intimate conversations with vivid, personality-driven profiles that bring their creative worlds into focus. Rooted in the city’s venues and communities, these stories look beyond the music to explore the influences, histories, quirks, and ambitions that make each artist worth knowing.

by guest writer Tyler Baigrie

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Today’s Liner Notes column offers a look at the personality, creativity, and quirks of fast-growing Toronto indie artist, Paige O.

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Stream: “Scarecrow Village” – Paige O

“How do you feel about the new communist party of Canada?”

“The new what?”

I sat down with Paige O at a cafe located on College Street, Toronto, less than a ten minute walk from the heart of Kensington Market. At the inception of this column, Liner Notes – a series where I will dive into the creativity and personalities that inhabit the Toronto music scene which I’ve come to be enmeshed in myself – many artists bounced around my brain. Paige was a natural first choice, with her layered and poetic lyricism, her unique personality, and as one friend of mine decisively stated after watching her perform, “her voice is angelic, but if you listen to some of her lyrics you might think she’s a serial killer.”

(Allegedly.)

The first part of that statement is indisputable. Paige’s lyricism – though apparently ominous to some – is what first drew me towards her music. Reminiscent of a favorite artist of mine, Leonard Cohen, Paige lives up to that bar and even vaults over it with a unique voice that could match the greatest vocalists of any era.

As to her personality: While chatting at a local music venue, Paige reached into her pocket and removed what looked like a roll of tape. “What is that?” I asked. “Ladybug stickers,” was her simple response. Pressing a sticker to the wall, Paige explained that she uses the stickers as a way to ‘mark her territory,’ “I almost never leave the house without them.”

I wish I could say it was at this instant that I knew I would begin this column with Paige O. Leonard Cohen once said, “Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.” But in reality, the idea to delve into her unique creative sense, her artistic quirks, and the future of her music, wouldn’t arrive until some days later.

Being the first interview, and using a one-week-old phone to record, we needed a test recording: “Don’t answer that question.”

I’d last seen Paige at the Horseshoe Tavern (where the aforementioned ladybug sticker interaction occurred), one of the most iconic Toronto venues, where she performed a half-hour set alongside three other acts. The Horseshoe Tavern has cemented a legacy in Toronto music with a list of alumni that includes The Rolling Stones, Bon Iver, Talking Heads, The Strokes, and even Gord Downie (and Gord Downie’s then-newly-wedded bride, who held their wedding reception at the venue in the ’90s).

Before Paige’s set, we scoured the old green room, situated in the basement across from the public lavatories, for notable signatures amongst the litter that arrayed the walls, ceilings, and counters. I imagined Keith Richards dog-like with all fours on the ground, as Mick Jagger stands on his back to scrawl his name on the ceiling of the musty basement room.

Paige, taking pictures, texted them to friends asking for help in the search: “They all were like, ‘I don’t have time for this.’”

However, Paige was content with finding the signature of the North Carolina alt-rock band Wednesday, and after her set, leaving her own trace to be found by future generations:

“I hope that people would still listen to my songs, no matter what age they are, and still take something out of it.” 

What attracted me to Paige O initially was the combination of her lyrical style and her voice.

A student of Leonard Cohen, Paige’s writing will feel familiar to Cohen fans like myself. The foundation was early-set growing up surrounded by one grandparent (on her mother’s side) who introduced Paige to poetry and encouraged her to begin writing herself, and another grandparent (on her fathers side) who taught her guitar. “It was like my two passions coming together,” Paige told me.

Paige’s song “Scarecrow Village” reflects the same haunting beauty that Leonard Cohen became synonymous with. Her song, which references the Japanese village, Nagoro, attracts some and haunts others: “I thought it was so beautiful, and everyone thought it was terrifying.”

But Paige may have been wrong – not everyone finds it terrifying. “Scarecrow Village” has over 84K streams on Spotify, and the small Japanese village, where scarecrows outnumber residents ten to one, has blossomed into a tourist attraction over recent years. The origins of the story formed with a Nagoro resident who, upon returning home after decades away, found the village ravaged with death. Building a scarecrow to resemble each deceased resident, the village soon filled with scarecrows occupying the spaces which the living used to dwell. It is a story of isolation, remembrance, and loss:

They’re fighting their seclusion
with old clothes and straw
they’re fighting Isolation
with puppets, my love.

– “Scarecrow Village,” Paige O

With “Scarecrow Village” and two other singles released, Paige has grown a large and loyal following with her career still in its infancy. After her songs were temporarily removed from Spotify, her comment sections flooded with a litany of ‘What happened to your music?!’ Fans can breathe easy now – her music is back online, with more on the way.

Paige’s debut EP Baby Teeth is in the works, with an expected release later this year.

Additionally, fans can expect a concept album to follow, following the theme of running away – though with a few twists and turns: “There’s also a murder plot in there somewhere, and the world ends at the end [of the album].”

“I think world-building in general is really fun. I’ve always wanted to make a concept album eventually.” Paige cites Ethel Cain as well as Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine as contemporary artists who have kept the concept album alive.

Paige relates her music as a blend between the story-telling methods of Leonard Cohen, the raw energy of 90’s alternative bands like Smashing Pumpkins, and a sprinkle of modern day indie such as Mitski and boygenius.

To my friend at the start of this column – Paige O is not a serial killer. She is an artist with a strong imagination, a passion for storytelling, world building, and someone who has a taste for the poetic.

And what’s it like listening to Paige O’s music?

“It’s like walking around a pretty park with a little thunderstorms, but it’s in the distance – and no one else is in the park.”

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