SHEAL Explores Motherhood, Nostalgia, and the Meaning of Home on New EP home-going

Nova Scotia-born, Toronto-based singer-songwriter SHEAL is inviting listeners into a deeply personal exploration of memory, motherhood, and belonging with her latest EP, home-going. Released September 24, the four-track project reflects on the emotional distance between where we come from and who we become.

Produced by Eric Vanier, home-going blends beautiful piano arrangements, intimate vocals, and cinematic folk-pop influences to create a listening experience rooted in vulnerability and reflection. Recorded largely around SHEAL's voice and upright piano, the EP embraces simplicity while allowing its storytelling to take center stage.

Opening track “Falling Asleep” captures the bittersweet emotions of motherhood, particularly the desire to slow down time as children grow. “Press Rewind” transports listeners to SHEAL's Nova Scotia upbringing, revisiting familiar landscapes, childhood friendships, and memories that continue shaping her identity.

On “Grow,” SHEAL shifts toward themes of uncertainty, personal development, and learning to embrace life's unexpected changes. Closing track “Back Where I Started” brings the journey full circle, revisiting musical elements from her previous EP, golden hours, while examining the complicated relationship between past experiences and present choices.

What makes home-going resonate is SHEAL's ability to transform deeply personal reflections into universally relatable moments. Rather than presenting nostalgia as something entirely comforting, she acknowledges the vulnerability that comes with revisiting our roots.

With previous support from CBC Radio and SiriusXM, SHEAL continues developing an authentic artistic identity, delivering a thoughtful reminder that home isn't always a destination, but something we carry within us.

The title home-going suggests that returning home is more about the journey than the destination. What inspired that perspective, and how has your definition of home evolved since becoming a mother?

All of my childhood memories are in Nova Scotia, where I grew up, and although I call Toronto home now, the East Coast will always feel like home to me too. I think part of the journey “towards home” is figuring out how to carry some of my past experiences with me as my life changes.

Becoming a parent has added another layer to that, because while I’m looking back on the places and experiences that shaped me, I’m also in the process of creating that sense of home for my own daughters here in Toronto. This is where their formative memories are being made, and where they’ll have their own childhood to look back on one day.

I like that the term home-going is an action word, and as you said, it’s more about the journey itself, not the resolution of that journey. 

“Press Rewind” revisits your Nova Scotia upbringing through memories and familiar places. Was there a particular memory that resurfaced during the songwriting process and changed how you viewed your childhood?

I started writing “Press Rewind” when I was back visiting the East Coast last summer. I’m not sure there was one particular memory that surfaced in the writing -I think I was more interested in this idea that so many of our memories are tied to a physical place.

For the last couple of years, whenever I visit Nova Scotia, I’ve been making a point of driving past old haunts (like my high school or a childhood friend’s house) just to see what memories get evoked. I find it super interesting that people who grow up somewhere and continue to live there carry their memories in a different way than someone who leaves. For me, it sometimes feels like those memories are locked into the place itself, if that makes sense. Living in Toronto, I can’t quite access them in the same way, but when I go back East, I find that these memories come to the surface much more easily, whether through visual reminders or familiar smells (like the ocean air, for example). 

Motherhood plays a significant role throughout this EP. How has raising your daughters influenced the stories you choose to tell through your music, and has it changed the way you approach songwriting?

I think motherhood has made me more aware of time passing and how fragile life actually is. That’s something I’ve been exploring in my songwriting for a while, including on my previous EP, golden hours, which was all about gratitude, paying attention, and the desire to be more fully present in life. 

My song “Falling Asleep” on this new EP really leans into those feelings as well. There’s this line in the song, “How sunlight hits your face on a lazy afternoon,” which I wrote during the fall, watching the afternoon (golden hour) light on my daughter’s face in the backyard, and feeling this overwhelming gratitude for her life and for my own.

I’m not setting out to write songs about motherhood, but I think it inevitably finds its way into my writing because it shapes so much of how I experience the world. It has certainly made me more conscious of how fleeting life is, and I think that increasing awareness has become a big part of the stories I want to tell.

You intentionally revisited uncomfortable memories while creating home-going. Was there anything you discovered about yourself during that process that you weren't expecting?

I’d like to think that this process has helped me be a little more able to sit with discomfort. I certainly think I’ve become more curious about exploring who I was at different points in my life. I think age, and also becoming a parent, has given me a different perspective on my own childhood. Watching my kids grow up has made me more compassionate towards younger versions of myself. When you’re younger, it can feel as though your experiences are entirely unique to you, but as you get older, you start to recognize how much of who you are is shaped by the circumstances you’re born into, most of which are beyond your control.

I think that perspective has made me a little less judgmental of my past self and more curious. Rather than trying to resolve or explain everything, I’m increasingly interested in understanding those earlier versions of myself or my life at that time with a bit more compassion and perspective. 

“Back Where I Started” revisits a chord progression from your previous EP, golden hours. What inspired you to connect these two projects musically, and what does that creative decision represent about your growth as an artist?

When I was writing for my EP golden hours, I had been inspired by Daniel Caesar's song “Cool”, which was written with just four chords. I decided I wanted to give myself the same parameters. I remember having a couple of different voice memos from the beginning of that writing process. One of them eventually became “Unraveling,” but another had a completely different melody and feel to it. 

This time around, I was excited by the idea of going back and revisiting that other voice memo, and those same chord progressions, just to see what other possibilities could be explored. This is where my new song ‘Back Where I Started’ came from. 

I like to think about art as a series of creative decisions. Making a decision means choosing a certain direction to explore - which also inevitably means leaving other paths unexplored. I like the idea that two songs can come from the same starting point and end up in such different places. This is something I’d love to (and plan to) continue exploring in future projects.