Shaina Hayes to Release 'Kindergarten Heart' LP This Friday

This Friday (2/23), Montreal-based folk singer Shaina Hayes will release her highly anticipated new album Kindergarten Heart via Bonsound. A captivating blend of enthralling vocals, inviting melodies, and thought-provoking lyrics are braided together across the sophomore project as Hayes celebrates and honors the rekindling of childlike wonder and simple bliss through pensive nostalgia.

The album has earned acclaim spanning Consequence, KCRW (NPR), Under the Radar, The Line of Best Fit, Uncut Magazine, and beyond, as well as being featured on the Spotify playlists Fresh Finds and Fresh Finds Folk.

Ahead of the release, today Shaina shared a final glimpse into the project with the album's focus track + visualizer, “Kindergarten Heart.” The title track is an exercise in getting back in touch with the childlike, carefree parts of oneself that may have been abandoned. With delicate restraint, the song begins with sparkling fingerstyle guitar over an ambient pedal steel as Hayes' angelic vocals describe the patient act of peeling back the inhibitions of adulthood in order to recover the magic and ‘'kindergarten heart'' at one's core.

With a steady accumulation of energy, the pedal steel eventually bursts from the background to carry forward the melody of the verse one more time before the song gives way to a brand new, vocal-heavy, feel-good chorus. With its playfulness, “Kindergarten Heart” lays the table for the journey down memory lane that Shaina guides us through across the album.

Shaina Hayes will also be attending this year's SXSW as an official artist, with showcase performances listed below.

Raised on a farm in a tiny town called Shigawake on the Gaspé peninsula of Quebec, Hayes grew up listening to singer-songwriters like Feist, Joni Mitchell and Regina Spektor, traditional country artists like Hank Williams and Dolly Parton, and modern country stars including Shania Twain and The Chicks.

After studying agricultural sciences at McGill University in Montreal, she returned to her rural hometown and recorded her self-released debut album, to coax a waltz (2022), co-produced with Francis Ledoux and David Marchand of the band zouz. Following the release of her album, Shaina started recording new songs while also performing across Quebec and opening for bands like The War on Drugs and The Barr Brothers. 

On Kindergarten Heart, Shaina once again teamed up with Ledoux and Marchand as co-producers and together, the three worked to gently weave elements of nostalgia, wonder, and lightheartedness into the collection of songs. After a focused effort from Hayes to tap back into joy and play following the pandemic, the initial theme of Kindergarten Heart began to take shape: the rekindling of childlike wonder.

As the album began to unfold, this evolved to encompass all memory – not simply those of childhood. In its final form, the album is about the act of looking back, either through an active lens to inform the current moment, or through a more passive lens, as a means of honoring these memories and the people they contain. The result is a sophomore album which is both whimsical and earnest, and whose soothing charm is reflected in the design of the record. 

While she still maintains some engagement with her farming endeavors, Shaina Hayes has made the shift to devote herself fully to her music, and Kindergarten Heart guarantees she'll be a full-time musician for the foreseeable future as the world discovers this charismatic performer.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Fafard