Loving Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine is Easy

Even while electro-pop duo Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine gains more fans around the world, they had the chance to meet one of their favourite bands in September 2019.

Woods and Fine had a studio session with Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger where they wrote a song together. The moment, which Fine described as a “crazy experience,” was exciting for the Ottawa singer who has been a fan of the band for years.

“When we went to their concert the next night, he pulled me on stage,” said Fine. “It was pretty surreal to sing one of my favourite songs with one of my favourite artists.”

This collaboration is just the latest win for the songwriters from Ottawa, whose stardom is steadily rising. After being nominated at last year’s Juno Awards for the “Breakthrough Group” and “Fan Choice” categories, the duo was recently nominated for the “Group of the Year” and “Pop Album of the Year” categories for the 2020 iteration of the awards.

Having reached success on the national level, Woods and Fine have their sights set on the United States and the European market. As part of this effort, they will be performing at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany and The Great Escape in Brighton, U.K.

“Canada has shown us they love music and accept us [for] who we are as creatives and people,” said Fine. “We have done what we wanted to do domestically, and now [it’s] time to branch out to other markets.”

While Woods and Fine are looking to take that next step, they never forget where their music dreams started. Ottawa’s local music scene is essential to Woods and Fine. It is where they met and where the music all started — even before they won CTV’s The Launch in 2018 and released “Ain’t Easy.”

Although Fine admits she does get tired of singing their hit song, that feeling only persists until they perform it for their fans.

“You put your microphone up, and you don’t have to sing a word — it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world,” she said.

Initially, “Ain’t Easy” — which was written by Ryan Tedder, Zack Skelton, and Camila Cabello — was tough for the duo. It was the first time they were part of a song they did not wholly write themselves.

“Being pitched the demo was new to us,” said Fine. “It was harder for us to connect to that song. Once we started singing it and performing it on stage though, it was so us,” she added.

Ottawa has been a significant support system to the pair and they are grateful to the city that played and pushed their music to new heights.

“We were releasing music that was primarily played in Ottawa, and we were still hitting a million streams on Spotify,” Fine said. “It showed how much Ottawa had our back.”

Woods echoed that sentiment.

“We developed a real sense of community in Ottawa because there are a lot of great people,” said Woods. “They are generous, giving, and very supportive of what we are doing.”

Woods and Fine will be counting on that support as they are gearing up for an upcoming release.

“We are excited about it,” said Fine. “We want to start the year off, in terms of releases, on a more energetic note. Give people a more energetic side to Elijah and me.”

Their objective is for the feelings that they convey in their music to impact their fans.

“Our goal anytime we write a song is to have somebody engulfed in that emotion, whatever that emotion is,” said Woods. “Taking whatever the song means and performing that to the tenth degree.”

The ultimate goal is to create something that feels timeless, new, exciting and emotionally driven,” Woods continued.

At the end of the day, Woods and Fine are grateful to be on that creative journey together.

“We are two people who love creating, and we love what we create together,” said Woods.

Updates on their upcoming 2020 Canadian tour will be available on their official website.