QSC Aspiring Interview: CJ Wiley on ‘So Brand New’ & being a non-binary cowboy

A self-described ‘non-binary cowboy’, CJ Wiley is a Canadian artist effortlessly blending the sounds of lo-fi indie, country and Americana. With debut album So Brand New being released in February, they chat with Headliner about mixing acoustic ballads with grungy indie, being a queer musician in the country genre, and heading to the UK for the first time to perform in London, the Great Escape Festival, and Focus Wales.

Drawing favourable comparisons to the likes of Courtney Barnett, Orville Peck, and Sharon Van Etten, Wiley has been emerging from Toronto’s busy music scene. So Brand New has been named one of Exclaim’s Most Anticipated Albums of 2025, and Wiley has been spotted on Toronto billboards. 

Besides their solo music, Wiley has been making big contributions to Toronto’s LGBTQ+ arts scene as the founder of Big Gay Night Toronto, and is a member of the brilliantly named Shania Twain country covers act, Shania Twink. The CJ Wiley solo project was announced to the world with the debut single, All Our Love, in 2022.

With the UK starting to show the odd sign of Spring being on the way after a savage Winter, Wiley joins the Zoom call and says, “We [Toronto] are covered in snow, and it's been snowing all weekend, and every single car is snowed in. Nobody's going anywhere right now. But as a whole, Toronto is pretty awesome for many reasons.

“I've really cultivated a community here. I have my own concert series called Big Gay Night Toronto, where I showcase queer and trans musicians that are emerging here. So within that community, I feel like I've got to see many people shine and take their art into these spaces that are safe and also really supportive. And there are other facets of the music industry in Toronto that I feel really helped me as well.” 

If you ever grow tired of the music industry being riddled with people getting into the industry thanks to being born into wealth, privilege, or just being a plain old nepo baby, this does not apply to Wiley, who is open about having a difficult childhood and struggles with addiction. 

“I got a late start,” Wiley says. “I had a pretty rough youth. During that time, even though I wasn't focusing on music, I was always writing songs. That's been part of my life since I was 12 years old. It’s like something inside me, I dream songs. I can't even help it. It just comes out. 

"When I started taking music seriously and decided to dedicate my life to it, it was a process of finding my musical identity. I was in a band for a while, and I was listening to what the producer was telling me to do. 

"I started listening to a lot of Shania Twain and Boy Golden, who is an Americana and roots artist from Winnipeg, Canada. When I listened to his album Church Of Better Daze, something clicked within me and I realised that was the kind of music I wanted to make.”

The state of diversity within country music has been a big talking point in recent years. On the positive side, Beyoncé's double Grammy win for Cowboy Carter, her country and Americana-inspired concept album, is proof of progress in recent years. 

However, many US country radio stations still almost exclusively play music by white, male country artists, and female, gay, and black country artists complain of persistent gatekeeping and bigotry against them. Wiley certainly has thoughts on being part of a genre where a portion of its fanbase is resistant to diversity with an undeniable element of rightwing thinking being dominant.

“I feel like queer people, and also all different types of marginalised folks, are just being able to take up space where they where it feels right for them,” Wiley says. 

“That's really been happening with country music and Americana. Of course, there's a huge history of underrepresentation and so it's almost coming full circle now. I know that there's a lot of really fucked up stuff happening in the US right now for many marginalised groups. 

"So there's pushback, but it's almost like we’re saying, ‘We're here, we're going to make the kind of music we want to make. We're going to have these spaces.’ It's important that these spaces that are dominated by white CIS dudes are being broken into and taken back.”

One of the recent singles teasing the upcoming album is Adelaide, a ballad combining acoustic Americana and country with some of the fuzzy guitar sounds Wiley is known for. Its charming one-take music video sees Wiley singing, guitar in hand, in the back of a truck, going through a leafy and idyllic Toronto neighbourhood, with close friend Marina hitching a ride and joining in towards the end. The tasteful touches of the banjo are irresistible, whereas so many country songs seem to plaster banjo parts in to tick a box.

“The person in the video is my best friend Marina, who I wrote the song about,” Wiley says. “That was an incredible experience to have together because we've been best friends for 15 years. We were driving up and down those country roads to get those shots. It was so beautiful and really emotional. 

"You have no idea how much I cried writing that song because just thinking back on all of the years that I have loved this person so much and how we both changed so much. But through all of that, we're still in love as best friends. So writing the song and making the video was just a fulfilling and loving, nurturing experience.”

If Adelaide is all warm and fuzzy, the latest single Don’t Die Charlie sets a different tone. Speaking to Wiley’s experiences of struggling with addiction and grief, the sound palette leans much more on lo-fi indie, while still packing in an uplifting chorus despite the subject matter.

Looking back on that period of their life, Wiley reflects: “That song holds very vivid memories of the time I spent in addiction for those 10 years. And it's me wishing I could spend just one more night with the people that I lost during that time. People passed away — sorry, this is a trigger warning — from overdoses. 

"And I guess I didn't realise how dark it was until I was looking back. So when I was writing this song, I wished I could just see them again, one more time. I'm getting emotional talking about it!”

Despite how dark and bleak that long addiction cycle was for Wiley, they are nonetheless happy to open up about the experience in the hope that it might help anyone else who is going through it.

“I would say it was a really, really long road of trying and failing to get out of it,” Wiley says. “I fully didn't expect to live past 25 years old. I just kind of accepted that. Which is a really dark and sad thing to look back on. 

"But somehow I made it through, and for the folks that are experiencing that now: life can be better, and maybe you haven't experienced love or support, and that's how I felt. I didn't have the support of a family. I did have supportive friends, but those folks were in their addiction as well.

“But life can be amazing, and it's worth living, if not for yourself, then for others. Because if you don't want to live for your own life, then maybe think about your community and who you want to see supported and put your energy into that. 

"Getting out of it was because I had the support of a partner — I don't think I had really experienced love like that before, so that's how I was able to finally get out of it. There's definitely a song in there.”

Seeing the way Wiley effortlessly blends these different genres, going from an acoustic ballad to an indie song, the release of their debut album So Brand New on February 28th is certainly something to be excited about. Wiley agrees: “I can't wait. Oh my god. I feel like so much of my identity is in this record.”

And in terms of what the phrase Play Out Loud means to them, Wiley says, “Being completely yourself loudly and especially with trans people being so repressed in America right now. 

"So being authentically you and making sure that we take up the space that we can. The time will come when we will need to support the folks who are being repressed. So I think showing up as yourself as much as you can and being as loud as possible in your identity as queer and trans people.”

Beyond the album release, there is one other source of excitement for those of us in the UK: CJ Wiley is crossing the Atlantic to perform in London and at the Focus Wales and Great Escape this Summer. 2025 is shaping up very nicely for this cowboy in particular.