Sled Island Edition: Cassia Hardy - In Relation
Mint Records
Released on May 23rd, 2025
Rare are the records where a whole community went into making them, rarer even are artists who they go lengths to honour that work and influence behind-the-scenes. In Relation by Cassia Hardy is one such record, stemming from a devoted songwriter who invests all of herself to making explicit what this all means by way of sticking to her ethical and political commitments.
Cassia Hardy has been a major figure in amiskwacîy’s music scene for over a decade and half — lucky are those who had the opportunity to witness her earliest iterations of her project Wares, which she fronted and which she eventually gave way to more collective contributions from its members. Somewhere out there, one may stumble into the odd demo CD and early DIY releases which eventually paved the way for Wares’ three EPs and two LPs, Wares (2017) and Survival (2020). As a personal testimony, Cassia’s creative ethic and focus has been there from the start, with caring and careful songwriting, taking her time to devise each iteration of her music, as well as keeping in touch attentively with the subject matters of her music as people and places that she holds deep respect for.
In Relation has been an album in the works for a few years now, and it is thanks to the generous support and encouragement of audio engineer Matt McKeen that this record has been able to see the light of day. The album is also accompanied by the release of a zine that enters into dialogue with the album’s subject matter featuring the work of Kyla Pascal and Rylan Kafara, both of whose work in local advocacy and research cannot be downplayed.
At large, this album is an act of honoring these relationships that inform the community and life of Cassia Hardy. The album begins in a cheeky ambient track “Vic Spring” featuring a vignette into a misadventure that Hardy got herself into while trying to make a DIY tofu press — a bit of levity for what comes next. Tracks like the singles “Empress” and “Two Houses” act as testimonials of places that no longer exist. The Empress was once a lively bar and venue at the heart of Whyte Ave where Cassia and Kyla once worked, and which came to a close during the pandemic and due to the unyielding greed of the landlord. The ownership of stolen land remains a backdrop for the album as Hardy reflects on the story of Chess House, once a home to Cassia, a local house venue, and a hub for artists that made their way through its walls, as well as the subsequent house she and her roommates moved to — and both which were demolished by virtue of the financial speculations of their respective landlords. Along the tracks, there are various odes to various friendships and loves that shaped Hardy’s life. Among them, I want to highlight the mournful “Joshua” — a song dedicated to the late Joshua Bookhalter, a friend, musician, producer, and photographer who touched the lives of so many and whose life we continue to grieve in his absence. Hardy’s song caringly depicts the grief that remains for us while trying to hold on to everyone and all we can in a world keeps on trying to strip us out of everything.
When you go from Survival to In Relation, this is really apparent. Survival was an album dedicated to all those fighting colonialism, facism, and capitalism while featuring intimate vignettes of her coming of age into the woman she is in the present day. The attentiveness for holding close to those around you — especially when you are fighting ruthless systematic fights against all reactionary and imperialistic forces — really brings to light the precarious nature of life and the deep web of interconnectedness all around us. It is here that In Relation is an apt transition away from Wares — once a moniker for her music, then becoming a band — into now assuming her music under her own name.
You can see Cassia Hardy at Sled Island tonight, June 19th, at Shelf Life Books in discussion with fellow songwriter Rae Spoon. She plays at the Ship & Anchor on June 20th at 5:40 PM, and in the Dandy Brewing Parking Lot on June 21st at 1:30PM.
