Breathing new life into the Canadian music landscape, Vancouver Island “swoon rock” artist, Maillot, takes listeners on a journey through lava-lamp-lit bedrooms and rain-soaked roads. Spinning sonic motifs of acoustic wonder and electric drive, Maillot’s sound is familiar yet refreshing - a favourite transistor radio playing classic vibes with a contemporary twist. With gritted, nuanced vocals reminiscent of Stevie Nicks, nostalgic narratives paired with the electro-pop playfulness of Alanis Morissette circa Jagged Little Pill, Maillot has been steadily gaining momentum in a post-genre era. Their debut album Time garnered national radio attention and widespread critical acclaim, and now, the budding of a new chapter begins with their full-length sophomore release, Benevolence.
If southern rock, dream pop, and R&B were blended together and baked in a grungy Easy-Bake oven, it might come out sounding something like Benevolence.
Benevolence features seven new sonic offerings along with two bonus tracks etched into the vinyl edition. In the lead song, “I Never Liked Your Friends”, Maillot’s controlled, evocative vocals find a path through the beautiful chaos of instrumentation—lush strings, gruff guitar riffs and resounding layers of crushed-velvet background vocals. “Lose My Mind” is fierce; an intimate inner dialogue, excavating the precariousness of human impermanence alongside the existential dread in a day-job. “Messed It Up”, Maillot’s first single from this album, is an open wound desperately yearning to be mended.
Many of these songs chronicle a period of change in the artist’s life. In 2017, Maillot left the noise and grind of the city- a slow burnout that led to moving back to their childhood playground, Vancouver Island, in search of refuge inside of a cabin in the backwoods of the Comox Valley, void of cell service or Wi-Fi. These songs attempt to make sense of diverging roads—urban vs. rural, loneliness vs. solitude, chaos vs. control. At times smooth and harmonious, jarring and discordant, Benevolence surprises, as life does.
An active artist since the age of seven, Maillot has amassed an impressive list of accomplishments in the 20 years that followed. Early accolades included performing with Jann Arden at the Royal Ontario Museum, appearing on the Oprah Winfrey’s "World's Smartest and Most Talented Kids" program, cutting vocals for Randy Bachman, playing festivals across Canada, Europe and Africa, and having a song “Revolution” featured on Swiss artist Stefanie Heinzmann’s album Masterplan- all before the age of 14. Recently, Alexandria debuted three singles off of Benevolence for CBC Q’s Thursday Headliner series with Tom Power. They have placed several songs in TV/film (MTV, Hallmark, Netflix),and toured extensively throughout North America and the EU, including performances at Reeperbahn Festival, Rifflandia, Riverfest Elora, Dawson City Music Festival, Make Music Pasadena, and many more.