Faith Healer

The psych-pop project Faith Healer emerged from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, as the creative partnership between singer/songwriter Jessica Jalbert and Renny Wilson. Jalbert had issued an earlier solo album in the early 2010s before joining forces with Wilson to produce the project’s well-received 2015 debut, Cosmic Troubles, issued on the Vancouver indie label Mint Records. Their second album, Try ;-) from 2017, earned further critical praise and earned a spot on the Polaris Prize longlist. Having previously operated strictly as a duo, Faith Healer broadened its roster for the first time on 2023’s The Hand That Fits the Glove, yielding a more animated and fluid sonic character.

Jalbert launched her recording career independently, shaping delicate chamber-pop songs that appeared on several singles before the full-length Brother Loyola surfaced on the Old Ugly imprint in 2012. She also performed in the garage-rock trio Tee Tahs and joined Renny Wilson’s group Punk Explosion. To sidestep being categorized solely as a folk singer/songwriter, she chose the Faith Healer moniker for subsequent endeavors. Bringing Wilson aboard as producer and co-creator, the pair tracked their debut entirely themselves, releasing Cosmic Troubles through Mint Records in March 2015. The record’s colorful fusion of psychedelia rooted in the 1960s with melodic indie-pop elements drew favorable notices, prompting immediate work on new material. Now officially a band, they maintained the self-contained approach on the tighter, classic-rock- and pop-oriented Try ;-) in 2017, again performing all instrumental duties. Augmented by extra players for concerts, they appeared at the Montreal Pop Festival, and the album received a 2018 Polaris Prize longlisting.

An extended interval preceded their subsequent release. Faith Healer incorporated additional contributors for the first time, enlisting touring bassist Jenni Roberts along with drummer Conor Donaldson and multi-instrumentalists Mitch Davis and Ross Nicol. Their presence lent the sessions a broader, more layered ensemble texture. Mint Records issued the resulting third album, The Hand That Fits the Glove, in late 2023.