Graven / Ace of Wands

Graven (Matty McKechnie) is a Nepean, Ontario, Canada-born indie folk musician and songwriter who used to make bedroom rap casettes in his teens under the name “Man Of Steel”. His newest album Simple Complex was mixed by Joel Plaskett and made in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Ace of Wands played their first show in 2017, but the music had been simmering in Lee Rose’s mind for years before that. A classically trained violinist and having played in bands since she was sixteen, Rose started experimenting writing some new songs on her own in 2016. It was during a cross-Canada tour playing violin with Ron Hawkins and The Do Good Assassins, opening for Blue Rodeo, that Rose had a pivotal realization: she wanted to pursue her own musical vision seriously. “It was my first real tour, and it completely blew my mind,” Rose recalls. “It made me realize this is exactly what I wanted to be doing.” With the addition of collaborators Anna Mernieks and Jody Brumell, the final pieces of Ace of Wands came into place. Their chemistry elevated Rose’s music to new heights, infusing it with depth, grit, and an emotional catharsis that had been waiting to be fully realized.