Michael C. Duguay Announces Album 'Saint Maybe'

Ontario-based songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Michael C. Duguay’s today announces his new album Saint Maybe, and shares the track “Ain’t Apathetic”. Inspired by recovery, Saint Maybe is a collection of agnostic hymns posing questions to the universe, seeking guidance and support. Saint Maybe is set for release on July 7th.

“Ain’t Apathetic is a song about the limitations of language,” explains Duguay, “about being awed into silence, being silenced into desperation, and about being desperate enough to cast caution aside. It’s about inarticulate prayers said without knowing their meaning, and apologies offered without knowing their worth.”

The video for “Ain't Apathetic” is composed of footage shot by Michael C. Duguay while he was an artist in residence at Gamli Skóli on Hrísey Island in northern Iceland in January, 2023. The video depicts tractors and plows pushing snow through a snowstorm, actions analogous to the song’s theme of futile action and meaningful intention.

Duguay began his music career in the mid-2000s as a multi-instrumentalist in a number of high-profile touring indie bands, but his musical journey was interrupted by mental illness, homelessness and addiction for the better part of ten years.

He recommenced his artistic practice in 2018, self-producing and releasing his sophomore album The Winter Of Our Discotheque in 2020, which chronicled years of tumult and established him as one of Canada’s most enigmatic and honest emerging voices. 

In between recording and releasing Discotheque Duguay relapsed and it became clear to him that he had to choose between using and making music. Duguay returned to rehab, got clean, and wrote half of the songs for Saint Maybe. Inspired by recovery and recorded collaboratively in Whitehorse, Yukon, Saint Maybe is by turns experimental, anthemic and poppy, Duguay’s song-writing personal, poetic, and heartfelt; his vocals sometimes punk rock and sometimes near-spoken, yet always clear and warm. 

Saint Maybe is out on July 7th  2023. Watch the new lyric video here:

Photo Credit: Dave Rideout