Nova Scotia raised, Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Malia Rogers has a clear musical mission: be the first person in the room to drop her shield, and in doing so, move others to lower their own. With sonic references like Feist, Dan Mangan and Aoife O’Donovan, her conversational folk offerings carefully balance melancholy and hope, touching audiences with precise lyricism and warmed-honey vocals supported by fingerstyle guitar and clawhammer banjo. Malia’s debut EP, which was released at the end of May 2025, explores enduring themes of identity, relationships, grief, growth, and the stories we tell ourselves – all the while imploring listeners toward kindness, forgiveness, and self-compassion. The six-song collection was hailed as “a sonic snapshot of becoming—a musical tide chart that captures the motion of identity, grief, and love in all their patient, persistent forms”. ?Through stories told with compassion and gentle wit, Malia invites you into the corners of her heart the way she would invite you into her family home on the East Coast: put down the heavy bags, stay as long as you need, and take something with you when you go.
