Photo credit: courtesy of Wayfinding
If you are looking for a late breaking contender for the best album of 2026, look no further than Wayfinding’s A Nest of Wrens. Formed by long-time collaborators Marek Tyler and Ryan Beattie and later joined by Matthew Cardinal and Cassia Hardy, Wayfinding is a deeply collaborative project that brings these stellar artists under one unified project.
Wayfinding’s music is different from what they make in other bands (including projects like ASKO, Himalayan Bear and Wares), as they all serve the purpose of bringing music that would suit the project of Wayfinding first above what they might normally do on their own. The songs in A Nest of Wrens are songs built off of heartbreak, songs about trying to move forward in a world that is dealing you a crappy hand, but you are persevering. Wayfinding is a project where each artist’s personal stamp is felt (Ryan Beattie’s Bob Dylan-inspired songwriting that takes you on a journey, Cassia Hardy’s guitar prowess, where she is one of my absolute favourite guitar players alive today) and they all come out of it having learned something new, which is the reason to start a band with people you admire. Wayfinding is about human connection through music and it’s a deeply moving record that gets more rewarding with each listen.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Marek, Ryan and Cassia from Wayfinding to go in-depth on some of the key tracks on A Nest of Wrens, in addition to advocating for owning albums over the streaming music glut and also shouting out some of the artists who individually inspire them.
REVERIE: I really love A Nest of Wrens, I think it’s so stellar and I want to discuss some songs individually. To set the table, discuss what led Wayfinding to recording A Nest of Wrens and how it came to be.
Ryan Beattie: Marek and I played together for decades. We have played in various other bands, like my project, Himalayan Bear, which is sort of my outlet for writing. We were having drinks one night and decided, just before COVID, we decided to have a project that was neither of us exclusively, just to start a new thing. We endeavoured to do an EP, in which Matthew Cardinal joined us for that and when we were fleshing out songs for live, that’s when Marek was like “there’s this guitar player Cassia who would fit together perfectly,” and of course she did. We started working on a full length and that’s where it went from there
REVERIE: A Nest of Wrens is such a great album, so I want to highlight some tracks individually to discuss them, beginning with track one, “Poisoner”. Ryan, you wrote this one and I love it. It’s such a great way to set the stage for the album, with some really cool percussion at the end. Talk about “Poisoner.”
Ryan Beattie: A lot of the songs on the record are about the discovery of music in my youth. In particular, “Poisoner” was about my great love of Beethoven and Bob Dylan and it’s a reflection of that. For the songs, we really co-wrote a lot of the music. I came up with the basic chords and words, but a lot of the songs are really collaborative. “Poisoner” references Beethoven writing a choral piece that is impossible to sing and the members of the choir being brought to their knees being able to not catch a breath.
REVERIE: Let’s jump to track three, and one that you wrote Cassia, called “Sister Self.” There are lots of cool effects on this one.
Cassia Hardy: I was working through some world events in the early 2020s where I was feeling that the path that I was on and the choices that were available to me were sort of taking me away from what kind of life I thought I would have. I guess, at the risk of drawing firm conclusions for the audience, I don’t really think you can get anywhere by just wishing you had been dealt a different set of cards.
I think about that song a lot, of meeting this other version of myself, of who everything might have gone right for and if I really think about it, our lives are really not all that different. I think there’s something to be said for viewing your life from a distance and your values are aligned but I think there are better things to aspire to then something that will always be a version of yourself that will be unattainable. I had “Sister Self” banging around for a few years and this is one of the ones that Ryan asked, I think it was May 2023, we flew out for a writing retreat with the band. We retreated to Marek’s basement and tried to hack out a few tunes and Ryan especially texted me asking “do you have any songs?” and I just kind of stopped. Anyone familiar with my other music knows that I tend to have a three minute attention span for my kind of music and Ryan writes these beautifully unfolding longer songs, so I thought “do I even fit in this, in a writing way?” But “Sister Self” really revealed itself to be a likely contender. I love the sound on it.
One of my favourite moments of discovery at the studio is Colin Stewart / The Hive (recording studio based out of Victoria, B.C.), there’s a staircase between the control room and live room. There are two sets of doors on either side so you are really insulated and there's a really nice microphone at the bottom of the stairs so you can use the reflections of it so you can get a reverb sound, which is really cool. However, if that sound is live in your headphones and those four doors open, you get the most insane sound you can think of. It’s like the sound of an airlock being opened, so that’s what that is at the beginning of the song, just reversed. It’s like the opening of the Reverb Zone.
REVERIE: Let’s get into track four, “You Are Not Singing,” another Ryan song. This is really nice, and as you noted that you are a big Bob Dylan fan like I am, I loved the “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” reference.
Ryan Beattie: I try to steal lines from Bob Dylan and Hank Williams all the time and insert them in. It’s like a game (laughs). It’s about feeling disillusioned with our country, about the mass graves in Kamloops. It’s about my colonial ancestry. It’s one of the first songs I wrote that never made it on an EP that is kind of the beginning of a conversation. It’s about the point of my life where things might have stopped and feeling grateful that they didn’t stop and that I am here to experience pain and express it.
REVERIE: Back to you Cassia in track five, “Shrapnel,” this song is so lovely, and is absolutely one of my top favourites from the album. It’s meditative, it’s moving, and I love how you all join in on the chorus. It’s a real knock out.
Cassia Hardy: That was kind of a difficult time in my life. I think it was pretty fresh when I brought it to the basement, I was still kind of monkeying around with the lyrics. The way Marek dropped into it with a kind of cross stick beat was really nice. I really love that it’s the moment on the album where me, Matt and Ryan are singing together, that’s my favorite. It was the first song we worked on together, because Matt and I were on the same flight to Saanich (Vancouver Island). We beat the other two guys to the studio by a few hours, so it felt like “time to get to work!” I remember Matt with his table full of gadgets, and I sat down at this really old Wurlitzer that Colin had. That’s the song where it really felt real, we came all the way over there to do what we needed to do and that was our first entry.
Ryan Beattie: “Shrapnel” is easily, in terms of heartbreaking songs, one of the smoothest jams of heartbreak I have ever heard.
REVERIE: That is such a great way to put it. I could talk about the whole album, but I want to wrap on the last song, the title track, “Nest of Wrens”, a wonderful slow burn. Talk a bit about “A Nest of Wrens”, and its connection to the Michael Hartnett poem A Necklace of Wrens.
Ryan Beattie: Michael Hartnett was an Irish poet, he was the poet laureate of Limerick. It’s just a poem about the inception of becoming a creative, or an artistic person, and how, with the metaphor of being attacked by fledging birds, that it scars you, but you bear the scars. It’s not an easy time in life but it’s a good life. It is also around the time when Mimi Parker of Low passed away and it was really on my mind when I was writing it. It’s about breaking through the mire of feeling defeated and realizing it’s worth it.
REVERIE: I strongly urge everyone to purchase it off Bandcamp, maybe wait for a Bandcamp Friday so all of you can get the most from it, as you all deserve it for such stellar work. I know you are on Tidal as well, which is my preferred streaming service, and it seems like they treat artists the most fairly, though again, I do strongly urge everyone to buy on Bandcamp above all, but if you have to stream go to Tidal, and I believe you are also on Apple Music. I also appreciate you not being on, to editorialize a bit, Garbage Ass Spotify. Talk about your decision to be on the services you are and navigating that as artists in 2026.
Cassia Hardy: I have a real bone to pick with these fucking streaming apps, man. I am going to speak just for myself, for me, it really cheapens my relationship with music. You can find some cool tracks, but it all gets muddy in this memory. I can still remember every track from every album that I have taken on tour with me on CD. The things that I have had in the van, the things I have had on walks, where I put it on my phone or cassette player, and just walk around and listen to it. For me, streaming is just an information overload. In addition to Spotify, the founder Daniel Ek’s insistence on creating A.I. drones and warmongering, it’s the crossover no one asked for.
Ryan Beattie: I also identify with that, of the physical act of owning something and having it. To some degree, streaming is helpful in some ways, but I also really rail against the idea of it in some way. Social media in general, I kind of every year I just retreat and remove myself from that world. I just finished the new Astra Taylor and Naomi Klein book (End Times Fascism And the Fight for the Living World) and all of that shit is really terrifying.
REVERIE: You recently had your A Nest of Wrens show at the Palomino. How was that and playing these songs live? Do you have any other gigs coming up you want to shout out?
Ryan Beattie: We are playing Winterruption in January in Edmonton, which we are looking forward to. We are playing the Winterruption Pizza Party on Friday January 22nd at 8pm on the CKUA Stage. The record was made with Matthew Cardinal, who was a huge part of the writing and sound of the album, but we have since parted ways. As a three piece, we didn’t know how it was going to sound until we got in the room, into Cassia’s rehearsal space and we worked it out, and luckily, I think it’s good. It sounds good. I am excited to play more shows.
REVERIE: To wrap on sort of a positive question, who are the artists that inspire you, or ones you want to shout out who are doing great work?
Ryan Beattie: I recently went and saw Big Thief. I feel like Adrianne Lenker, and I say this as a Bob Dylan fanatic, she is kind of the next in that line of profound and prolific songwriters. I am pretty into her stuff.
Marek: Leikeli47. She is a rapper and artist from Brooklyn,and to me, she is quite inspiring.
Cassia Hardy: I want to shout out the people who opened our shows in October, as those bills were hand curated with love. I want to shout out Wayne Garrett from Calgary, really excellent music. Raleigh, also from Calgary, joined us for a couple shows. Taylor Jade from Edmonton is an excellent songwriter and I encourage everyone to check her out. She has a really unique approach to guitar playing and singing. At the risk of conflict of interest, Ashley Shadow from Vancouver, really good stuff.
REVERIE: I absolutely love the album and am excited to see where you take it in the next year. Any parting words?
Marek Tyler: I have really fallen in love with this band. It’s kind of a long distance relationship over the period of five years. I can’t wait to keep going.
Ryan Beattie: I live in Vancouver, everyone else lives in Edmonton. It is a long distance thing
Marek Tyler: But it works! That part is special. You have to be open and available for it to work, because if you are not, it wouldn’t. These artists, I call them gunslingers, that’s their character, they are open and available. That’s such a strength to bring to the table.