There’s nothing better than a good surprise! Quite often when booking new artists, we take a chance on someone. Most often it is a rewarding risk. When we sit back and observe the experience of coming to a music venue or festival, however, isn’t it beautiful to think that a new experience can enlighten? I find huge enjoyment in this, and I also find a lot of enjoyment in harvesting the collective response of the concertgoers!

Case in point, Mikhail Laxton at the recent MUSICwestport festival. It’s almost like being an archeologist and finding a treasure. Be smooth, gentle, inviting yet supremely ear bending sounds of this man, and his trio were a gift to all that were in attendance. Just ask Lisa Williams. Mikhail performed with his trio at the festival but will be playing solo on stage at The Cove on Saturday, September 6, 2025 from 5 to 8 PM. Please don’t miss it. Details and reservations here: web link

Seamus Cowan: The first thing I heard about you was that our mutual friend Erin Coyle said I just had to hear you, and then it was suggested that we should set up a show asap. Finally we made that happen. Have you been finding lots of success since living in Canada?

Mikhail Laxton: Hmmm… good question. Success. From the things I’ve been wanting to happen in my career at different times… Short answer Yes! I have been. One of the lesser reasons I wanted to come to Canada was my desire to A. Simply be in this Country and B. I wanted to sing my own songs.
Australia is not very kind to singer songwriters and I have found since moving to Canada, ya’ll seem to go out of your way to find and champion the new kids coming up! So yeah, success in finding people that actually want to listen to me hollering on stage, absolutely.

Q: Moving your life and your musical career to another country is a major upheaval and a big role of the dice. I know that you did it for Love as well! Can you tell us the story behind that?

Mikhail: This is gonna sound weird but when I was about 17 years old, I was in a lecture of sorts. I wasn’t paying much attention out of my mind, kind of drifted off into a bit of a daydream. By the time I snapped out of it, I felt like I had seen a vision and for some reason, I just knew that one day I’d be living in Canada.

Long story short: I spent the next nine years travelling around Australia pursuing music and I kind of forgot about that vision. Eight years gone by and I joined an organization that I had spent a lot of time at over the years and this time I met an amazing woman from Orleans, Ottawa. On February of 2016 my skinny little rainforest butt that had never seen snow touched down in Ottawa in the middle of a -28°c blizzard and the rest is history.

Q: We have all seen The Voice on TV. A few of us around here have seen the Australian version which you were featured on. What was it like being on that show and what do you think you learned from it?

Mikhail: The Voice was a really good experience for me. What I learned?!…
I grew up not having a whole lot of opportunity and so my personal experience may have been I bit biased. I had the time of my life man.

I got to meet and make friends with some really cool people and it opened my eyes to the more commercial side of my hustle. My experience on that show was also one of the big factors that led me to making the decision of leaving Australia sooner rather than later.

Q: I understand that when you finally decompressed from your travel and all transition to moving to Canada, you experienced a deluge of artistic output. What happened there?

Mikhail: Yeah, I reckon just having a bunch of free time on my hands for the first time in a long time had a lot to do with it. There was also quite a huge (and unexpected by me) emotional transition that happened and music has always been a way for me to sort through what’s going in inside me.So I just poured my thoughts into lyrics.

Q: Writing records and finding your sound is not easy for everyone. You seem to really have hit your stride with that. What is your true influence to keep you going and do you see your writing heading down the same path moving forward?

Mikhail: Well, first of all thank you I appreciate that. I have taken my writing very seriously over the years. And to be real with you, I think I’ve cared too much about it. At essence it’s just forming sentences that happened to rhyme. There are infinite ways to write a song and I’m still figuring it out. Posted: Sep 3, 2025