Rae Spoon Interview
Rae Spoon is an award-winning Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, and author. A multi-instrumentalist, their albums span folk, indie rock, and electronic genres. They have toured across Canada and internationally, playing everywhere from folk festivals and house shows to rock concerts and theatres. In 2013, Spoon was the subject and composer of Chelsea McMullan’s documentary-musical, My Prairie Home. The film explores Spoon’s queer and musical coming-of-age as a transgender youth raised in a Pentecostal household in Calgary, Alberta. An outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Spoon continues to raise awareness about transgender issues at home and abroad, and has been proclaimed by NOW magazine as “one of the most important musicians working in Canada today”.
Career Highlights
Spoon has released nine studio albums, superioryouareinferior (2008), Love Is A Hunter (2010), I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets (2012), My Prairie Home (2013), Armour (2016), Jump With Your Eyes Closed (2016), They with Plastik (2016), and My Side Of The Mountain with Clyde Petersen (2017), and bodiesofwater (2018).
They were the subject and composer of the documentary musical, My Prairie Home, which was produced by the National Film Board, and premiered internationally at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.
They have composed musical scores for a number of film and television productions including Float (2015), The Valley Below (2014), Trans Parents Documentary (2014), My Prairie Home (2013), Deadman (2010), and A Bold Effort: MKULTRA (2009).
A published author, Spoon’s works include How to (Hide) Be(hind) Your Songs (2017), Gender Failure (2014) and First Spring Grass Fire (2012).
Spoon has been nominated for two Polaris Prizes, a Lambda Literary Award, a Western Canadian Music Award, a CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award, and a MOTHA Transgender Musician of the Year Award.