Cassia Hardy — best known as the driving force behind Edmonton-based rock outfit Wares — has returned with her most personal and boundary-pushing project to date: In Relation, her debut solo album. But unlike many artists seeking mass visibility on digital streaming platforms, Hardy is turning her back on Spotify and plastic-based formats in favor of a radical, analog, and community-focused release strategy.
Over ten years in the making, In Relation is a deeply introspective and sonically diverse collection shaped by loss, resilience, and transformation. Hardy began stockpiling songs that didn’t fit the Wares sound as far back as 2014. The first of these was “See You Around,” a delicate acoustic track that ultimately became the album’s closing piece. “It was just clear to me that this is not a band song,” she recalls.
After the release of Wares’ acclaimed 2020 LP Survival — which couldn’t be toured due to the pandemic — Hardy found herself in a creative and existential reset. She spent a month in Dawson City, Yukon, as a songwriter-in-residence at Macaulay House, sorting through personal memories and artistic identities. It was here that In Relation began to truly take shape.
Hardy cites influences like Rae Spoon, Ivan Coyote, Cindy Lee’s Patrick Flegel, and Fiver’s Simone Schmidt as key to her evolution, not just musically but in approach and intention.
“They just ask, ‘How else can we do this?’” Hardy says
This ethos informed her rejection of traditional music distribution models. In Relation won’t appear on Spotify, Apple Music, or even in CD or vinyl form. Instead, Hardy is releasing the album on cassette tape, embracing analog formats in the spirit of indie forebears like Steve Albini and Ian MacKaye. It will also be available as a downloadable link via a QR code, included in a limited-run zine featuring lyrics, personal photography, and social commentary essays by Edmonton writers Kyla Pascal and Rylan Kafara. The album will stream on Bandcamp, one of the few digital platforms that aligns with Hardy’s artist-first values.
“I’m not trying to make it difficult to listen to my music,” Hardy says. “I just want to explore what an alternative culture really looks like when we stop feeding the giants and start building something real — something ours”
While the album captures the sorrow of lost friendships, homes, and community spaces, it’s ultimately a reflection of hope — of surviving change and choosing to connect again, differently. “We can talk about it together,” she says, emphasizing the communal power of music and storytelling.
Cassia Hardy’s In Relation is more than a debut solo album — it’s a manifesto for independence in an age of corporate platforms, and a reminder that meaningful art doesn’t need a middleman to resonate.
