"The wolf of time is snapping at your bum. Don't wait." That old saying from singer-songwriter Amanda Rheaume's grandfather rang true last year when her friend and bandmate Fraser Holmes was diagnosed with leukaemia.
"He was only 28 and then he passed away on New Year’s Eve," she told CBC TV's Our Ottawa host Adrian Harewood. "I mean, I’m always aware that time’s passing and that we need to love each other and say what we feel and everything — but that really hit home for me, that particular experience with him."
Her song "Wolf of Time" is Rheaume's musical response to that ordeal, and she'll perform it and other tracks from her latest album, Holding Patterns, on Canada Day at 12 p.m. at Major's Hill Park in Ottawa.
Watch Harewood's full interview with Rheaume below.
She also talks about the risks and rewards of managing her own career, her perspective as a Métis artist, and she drops some useful advice to up-and-coming singer-songwriters: "Just play. Play, play, play. Go to every open mic that you can. Make friends that are doing music. Share things together. Play music for each other."
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