{"id":129658,"date":"2026-07-14T21:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/129658\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T21:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:33:12","slug":"liner-notes-a-pretty-park-with-paige-o-torontos-ladybug-stickered-singer-songwriter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/129658\/","title":{"rendered":"Liner Notes: A Pretty Park With Paige O, Toronto\u2019s Ladybug-Stickered Singer\/Songwriter"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Liner Notes is Atwood Magazine\u2019s column spotlighting the artists who make Toronto\u2019s independent music scene so vibrant, pairing intimate conversations with vivid, personality-driven profiles that bring their creative worlds into focus. Rooted in the city\u2019s venues and communities, these stories look beyond the music to explore the influences, histories, quirks, and ambitions that make each artist worth knowing.
\nby guest writer Tyler Baigrie
\n\u2022\u2022 \u2022\u2022 \u2022\u2022 \u2022\u2022
\nToday\u2019s Liner Notes column offers a look at the personality, creativity, and quirks of fast-growing Toronto indie artist, Paige O.
\n\u2022\u2022 \u2022\u2022
\nStream: \u201cScarecrow Village\u201d \u2013 Paige O<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you feel about the new communist party of Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new what?\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 a series where I will dive into the creativity and personalities that inhabit the Toronto music scene which I\u2019ve come to be enmeshed in myself \u2013 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, \u201cher voice is angelic, but if you listen to some of her lyrics you might think she\u2019s a serial killer.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Allegedly.)<\/p>\n

The first part of that statement is indisputable. Paige\u2019s lyricism \u2013 though apparently ominous to some \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cWhat is that?\u201d I asked. \u201cLadybug stickers,\u201d was her simple response. Pressing a sticker to the wall, Paige explained that she uses the stickers as a way to \u2018mark her territory,\u2019 \u201cI almost never leave the house without them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cPoetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.\u201d But in reality, the idea to delve into her unique creative sense, her artistic quirks, and the future of her music, wouldn\u2019t arrive until some days later.<\/p>\n

\"PaigePaige O \u00a9 2026<\/p>\n

Being the first interview, and using a one-week-old phone to record, we needed a test recording: \u201cDon\u2019t answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d 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\u2019s then-newly-wedded bride, who held their wedding reception at the venue in the \u201990s).<\/p>\n

Before Paige\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Paige, taking pictures, texted them to friends asking for help in the search: \u201cThey all were like, \u2018I don\u2019t have time for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that people would still listen to my songs, no matter what age they are, and still take something out of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What attracted me to Paige O initially was the combination of her lyrical style and her voice.<\/p>\n

A student of Leonard Cohen, Paige\u2019s writing will feel familiar to Cohen fans like myself. The foundation was early-set growing up surrounded by one grandparent (on her mother\u2019s side) who introduced Paige to poetry and encouraged her to begin writing herself, and another grandparent (on her fathers side) who taught her guitar. \u201cIt was like my two passions coming together,\u201d Paige told me.<\/p>\n

Paige\u2019s song \u201cScarecrow Village\u201d reflects the same haunting beauty that Leonard Cohen became synonymous with. Her song, which references the Japanese village, Nagoro, attracts some and haunts others: \u201cI thought it was so beautiful, and everyone thought it was terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Paige may have been wrong \u2013 not everyone finds it terrifying. \u201cScarecrow Village\u201d 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:<\/p>\n

They\u2019re fighting their seclusion
with old clothes and straw
they\u2019re fighting Isolation
with puppets, my love.
\n\u2013 \u201cScarecrow Village,\u201d Paige O<\/p>\n

With \u201cScarecrow Village\u201d 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 \u2018What happened to your music?!\u2019 Fans can breathe easy now \u2013 her music is back online, with more on the way.<\/p>\n

\"PaigePaige O \u00a9 2026
\nPaige\u2019s debut EP Baby Teeth is in the works, with an expected release later this year.<\/p>\n

Additionally, fans can expect a concept album to follow, following the theme of running away \u2013 though with a few twists and turns: \u201cThere\u2019s also a murder plot in there somewhere, and the world ends at the end [of the album].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think world-building in general is really fun. I\u2019ve always wanted to make a concept album eventually.\u201d\u00a0Paige cites Ethel Cain as well as Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine as contemporary artists who have kept the concept album alive.<\/p>\n

Paige relates her music as a blend between the story-telling methods of Leonard Cohen, the raw energy of 90\u2019s alternative bands like Smashing Pumpkins, and a sprinkle of modern day indie such as Mitski and boygenius.<\/p>\n

To my friend at the start of this column \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s it like listening to Paige O\u2019s music?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like walking around a pretty park with a little thunderstorms, but it\u2019s in the distance \u2013 and no one else is in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2014<\/p>\n

:: read more Liner Notes\u00a0here ::
\n:: connect with Paige O here<\/a> ::<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2014<\/p>\n

Stream: \u201cScarecrow Village\u201d \u2013 Paige O<\/p>\n

\"PaigePaige O \u00a9 2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2014 \u2014 \u2014<\/p>\n

\"Thaw<\/p>\n

Connect to Paige O on
TikTok<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>
\nDiscover new music on Atwood Magazine<\/a>
\n\"?\"\/ \u00a9 courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n