Aug 17, 2026 · 27 min · 10 segments
Today I interview Ottawa singer-songwriter Malia Rogers. We talked about her East Coast roots, how she developed her songwriting tools, how she deals her audience a “heavy dose of vulnerability” at…
Malia RogersGuest
Matt GowerHost
Um, now you will be, uh, playing Friday Night Folk, uh, on September 4th at the Art House Cafe, so I'm really excited, excited to see you, uh, play that show.
I feel like a lot of my music really centers around, um, the idea of kind of being the first in a room to sort of take my walls down and encourage other people to do the same.
So I'll probably tell, you know, some kind of personal stories that hopefully connect with people.
Uh, I'll be singing about relationships and about grief and about, you know, finding your sense of belonging in the world.
And yeah, probably finger-style acoustic guitar and clawhammer banjo, and I think I'm just soloing it that night, so, so that'll be it.
... do you find that vulnerability is kind of a cure? Not a cure, I guess, but just, uh, uh, helps to kind of bring people into your, your kind of, uh, songwriting and your art?
I think, like, I'm, I'm somebody who has always really worn my emotions on my, [laughs] on my face physically and, you know, on, on, worn my heart on my sleeve, and I think it's taken, like, time for me in my life to learn how to frame those things as a strength and kind of use that as, like, a tool for, um, connecting more deeply with people, whether they be, you know, my closest friendships or people who are just meeting me for the first time through my music.
Um, now you will be, uh, playing Friday Night Folk, uh, on September 4th at the Art House Cafe, so I'm really excited, excited to see you, uh, play that show.
I feel like a lot of my music really centers around, um, the idea of kind of being the first in a room to sort of take my walls down and encourage other people to do the same.
So I'll probably tell, you know, some kind of personal stories that hopefully connect with people.
Uh, I'll be singing about relationships and about grief and about, you know, finding your sense of belonging in the world.
And yeah, probably finger-style acoustic guitar and clawhammer banjo, and I think I'm just soloing it that night, so, so that'll be it.
... do you find that vulnerability is kind of a cure? Not a cure, I guess, but just, uh, uh, helps to kind of bring people into your, your kind of, uh, songwriting and your art?
I think, like, I'm, I'm somebody who has always really worn my emotions on my, [laughs] on my face physically and, you know, on, on, worn my heart on my sleeve, and I think it's taken, like, time for me in my life to learn how to frame those things as a strength and kind of use that as, like, a tool for, um, connecting more deeply with people, whether they be, you know, my closest friendships or people who are just meeting me for the first time through my music.
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