For Cottage Life subscribers: Use the code CottageLife20 to receive 20 per cent off festival tickets. Get them here.
Canadian musician JJ Wilde is preparing for her upcoming performance at Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival in Gravenhurst, Ont. next weekend by unwinding at a special place that has inspired some of her music: her family cottage on Lake Huron.
“It’s not fancy,” says the award-winning artist. “It’s just this tiny little log cabin in the woods, and my favourite place in the world.”
The Kitchener-born artist has been on a steady climb over the past few years, with her debut single “The Rush” hitting number one on the Canadian rock charts and scoring a big win at the Junos. In 2021, she took home the award for best rock album of the year—making her the first woman to win the award since Alanis Morissette in 1996.
Fresh from a paddle on the lake, JJ sat down with me from her family cottage to talk about the making of a rockstar, how she unplugs and dials in at the lake, and some of her most memorable cottage memories.
Sara Romano (S): First off, you have to tell me about the beautiful cottage behind you.
JJ Wilde (JJ): We’ve got a beautiful little sandy bay here. This cabin has been in my family since I was five. When I was a kid, we’d come up here almost all summer. It was this interesting dynamic of a split life because I had my life at home during the fall with my friends, and then I had a different life at the cottage. There was something really cool about the freedom that we had up here as kids. Our parents weren’t really worried about us getting into trouble in such a remote area so they would kind of just let us go free. But it’s nothing fancy. It’s just this tiny little log cabin in the woods and it’s my favorite place in the world.
S: Do you go up to the cottage as an escape from your work, or do you draw inspiration from your time there?
JJ: I will escape up here, but I also draw inspiration for writing here. So it works both ways. My dream is to take three months and lock myself in, and just kind of go slightly insane but have that come out in my music.
S: Are you ever out on your paddleboard and get a great idea, then run back to the cottage to write it down?
JJ: This morning I went out for a paddle on the lake. It was just me out there and I could really be alone with my thoughts. When I have that pure silence, I have the most in-depth thinking.
S: In a couple of weeks, you’ll be performing at Tall Pines. Why are you excited to play this festival?
JJ: I can’t wait. I haven’t been to the festival yet, but I’ve seen stuff from past years and it seems like more of an intimate festival, which I think is really cool. It’s in cottage country and to me it just kind of screams summer festival. If we could find an Airbnb on the water and jump in the lake and then play a festival that day, that would be sweet. City & Colour is a massive influence and just an amazing Canadian legend of an artist, so I’m very excited to be able to watch that show after our set.
S: One of your newer songs, “Takes Me Back,” has a nostalgic, cottagey vibe. What was your inspiration for that song?
JJ: The cottage was definitely a part of it. It was all about the feeling of nostalgia and my childhood, and trying to get back to that place of being a kid. I’ve found that over the past couple of years, I’ve really gotten in tune with that part of myself again. It was just me remembering what made me happy before the complications of society and expectations. It took me back to when I was a kid and all I cared about was running on the beach with knotty hair.
S: How would you describe your music in a few words?
JJ: It’s emotional. It’s storytelling. I think that lyrics are important because I draw a lot of inspiration for my songs from my life, so brutally honest is a word that comes to mind.
S: You’ve had some pretty incredible musical success over the last few years. Back in 2021, you were the first woman to win the Juno for Rock Album of the Year since Alanis Morissette in 1996. As a musician, how does it feel to get recognized like that?
JJ: It’s pretty surreal. It was at a strange time during Covid, so that was kind of weird because I didn’t actually go to the Junos. I accepted the award in my parents’ house. But now I just feel very grateful. It’s great that people are enjoying the art that I make, and that they’re relating to it enough to listen to it.
S: Has music been a life-long journey for you?
JJ: I started writing songs when I was 16. That’s when I learned how to play guitar and write songs; I was going to open mics and stuff. I had a folk band when I was in my early twenties called The Royal Streets. When that band broke up, I really thought that it was the end of my life. I ended up bartending at a music venue, which is very bittersweet because it made me that much more hungry to pursue music, but at the same time I was so heartbroken because my band had just broken up, and I was walking people to the stage being like, ‘I want that to be me’. So there were a few weird years there where I was kind of finding myself again musically, and then I did the solo thing for a while and started JJ Wilde.
S: Do you have any upcoming music?
JJ: There’s definitely new music coming.
S: Any favourite cottage traditions or memories?
JJ: Every May long weekend, when we were kids, you had to run into the lake—no matter what. Sometimes it would be snowing and stuff, so that was interesting.
We also had a thing called “summer feet”. The road out here is a full gravel road, so the kids would compete to see who could walk the farthest on the gravel. By the end of the summer, the coolest people built up their summer feet and could just walk around barefoot on the gravel road. It was a badge of honour. Now, I go for pedicures to try to get rid of that!
S: Okay, I’ve got some rapid-fire cottage questions for you. First up—cottage mornings or cottage nights?
JJ: Morning, but both are great!
S: Swimming or boating?
JJ: Swimming.
S: Favourite drink on the dock?
JJ: If we’re going non-alcoholic, matcha. Otherwise, red wine or a crisp Sleeman. And, it has to be in a glass bottle!
S: And of course—plain, raisin, or pecan butter tarts?
JJ: Pecan and raisin. I’m not a huge butter tart person, to be honest. I’m a doughnut gal, through and through.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Related Story City and Colour to headline Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival in Gravenhurst, Ont.
Related Story The KEE to Bala: cottage country’s most rockin’ venue
Related Story Arkells frontman Max Kerman talks campfire songs and the cottage