Fans who have been with her from the beginning as emerging singer-songwriter in Halifax have watched her transition from her soulful folk sound when she toured with lesbian heavyweight Melissa Ferrick, to her newer pop sound, with her single "Clothes Off" which catapulted her to the attention of Sony music and earned her a Juno nomination in 2016. Since then she's been on tour with Canadian queer favourites Tegan and Sara across European and is wrapping up a cross-Canada tour with Scott Helman.

Mae has joined the ranks of openly LGBTQ+ identified musicians in Canada making their mark on the music scene and becoming inspiration for other queer musicians. From her lyrics to her music videos, Ria Mae provides a space for the LGBTQ+ community to see themselves in her music.

" Most of my songs don't really have gender in them."

Her music video for 'Gold' from her self-titled album 'Ria Mae' has been welcomed by our community as one of the few music videos depicting a relationship between two women outside of the male-gaze and 'Clothes Off' remains one of the hottest lesbian anthems of 2016. In this episode of Rainbow Sessions, she talks about what it's like as an openly queer artist and how the media sometimes focuses on her sexuality and not her talent.

"I'm lucky that my genre allows for this kind of music and artists like Tegan and Sara who went before me... made it normalized a little bit for me. Hopefully society will get better and people won't have to make that choice."

From 'Broken' featuring Tegan from Tegan and Sara, where the beat and her voice tugs at you and keeps you hooked through the smooth sound, to 'Bend' which gets you on your feet dancing in the living room as you defiantly sing along, this latest offering will keep you wanting more. All the queers out there will delight at the lines interspersed that call to us, such as " ...cross town to smoke with my straight friends/Downtown to drink with my gay friends.." from 'I'm on Fire'.

Whether you have been listening to Ria Mae's music from the beginning, stumbled onto her through Classified's 'All My Life' or a new fan with her release of "Clothes Off", her new album 'My Love' is one you want to own.

Ria Mae's latest EP - My Love is available now for purchase or download from Itunes

or you can Listen  to the EP on Spotify now!

Here’s a condensed version of the interview:

RR: You have a new album out and you're on tour. How has it been?

RM: I've been on tour with Scott Helman for the past 5 weeks. It's been 5 solidly packed weeks. We started in Toronto went to the Maritimes and then out to the West Coast and it's been great! We've had a lot of great shows and we're definitely tired but its a great tired.

RR: How does it feel to be back in London and performing at Western?

RM: We love playing London. My drummer grew up in London and his parents are there so it  feels like one of our homes when we come here. We've always lucked out with really crazy awesome festival spots or shows when we're here and it's good vibes.

RR: You are an openly queer artist which is great to see in mainstream media. You've talked a little about being referred to as a musician and not an lgbt musician. What would you want to say to folks who participate in this pigeonholing to artists?

RM: I'm from the Maritimes and there are some really big artists out there and one time someone tweeted that they're really excited for this festival, we have Juno award winning Joel Plasket and Juno nominated Classified and LGBT Ria Mae... and its one of those things that in that context its not important.

In the context of being yourself and visible it is important...but both of those things exist. In that particular context it was not important unless you're saying straight performer Joel Plaskett and gay performer Ria Mae.

Sometimes we play these university shows and its nice that younger kids are getting so well educated on these things. I went to Bishops University a few months ago to play and the first thing we were asked was 'what's your preferred pronouns?' and its the first time someone has asked me that!

RR: You've toured all over. Have you encountered a lot of homophobia in places you've been or do you think because you have folks around you you are protected a bit from it?

RM: I'm protected a little bit. it's been relatively easy for me to be myself and be on radio. there are a lot of elements that I'm a white person and from Nova Scotia and its pop music, my music is pretty safe, most of my songs don't really have gender in it... so there are a lot of reasons why it hasn't been difficult but it's been pretty easy in that way and I am thankful for that because i think its powerful that it's not been made a big deal of. Its nice to talk about this stuff on shows like Rainbow Radio but with pop stations sometimes I don't want to talk about my sexuality and it rarely gets brought up anymore and I'm thankful for that.

RR: You have a lot of queer fans out there and you did a shift in the type of music you play and transition into pop and with the success of clothes off which seemed to become a lesbian anthem. What are you thoughts on that?

RM: It became a lesbian anthem and also an anthem for straight moms... there was a time before the gold video came out that straight women were like finally a song that empowers us! and i was like oh... ok? and then the gold video came out and people were like ..oh!.. that's what this artist is and then the queer people started signing on . There were a few groups of people who took ownership of it which is great.

RR: What would you tell other aspiring queer artists out there especially in light of recent articles where musicians have been revealing that their management advised them not to come out for fear that it would ruin their career?

RM: It's one of those things where you have to trust your gut. For my music and the way I look it would be too difficult. It's hard enough with my busy schedule to have to also hide my personal life. I wouldn't be able to do it. It's different for everyone. I don't judge people who stay  in the closet to do certain things, it's hard, I've been the closet before, everyone's been in the closet. I'm lucky that my genre allows  for this kind of music and artists like Tegan and Sara who went before me, made it normalized a little bit for me. Hopefully society will get better and people won't have to make that choice. I've been lucky right from the get go with my label and management that it wasn't even a conversation.

RR: What would you say were the influences for your new album?

RM: This new EP was songs that I've been playing live and was writing on the road. I'm a guitar player, I'm not good with piano but I experimented more with writing with piano and beats and tried to reach out a little more and go with my writing. one of my track features Tegan from Tegan and Sara and she kind of raps on it and I think people who like my other albums will love this one.