SayWeCanFly

Braden Barrie, a Canadian singer-songwriter who rose through social media, directs the introspective acoustic emo associated with Dashboard Confessional into his solo outlet SayWeCanFly. He first circulated material under the alias in 2009 and, across the following eight years, delivered three full-length albums plus more than twice as many EPs; among them was 2016’s Blessed Are Those, which entered the Top 50 on the independent albums chart. On the same October 2018 date, he issued his debut under his own name, Limitless, alongside SayWeCanFly’s fourth album, Beautiful Mess.

The name SayWeCanFly began as the title of his social-media channel, the platform where he posted early demos as a teenager starting in 2009. Although his listening habits centered on hardcore punk and My Chemical Romance, the music he creates unfolds at a measured, expansive pace more suited to coffee-shop settings than basement punk shows. The Sleepy Time EP appeared in mid-2011 and was followed before year’s end by the Home EP; Dandelion Necklace EP arrived in 2012. Still self-releasing while still a teenager, he added the EPs Heaven Is Hell and Anything But Beautiful in 2013.

In 2015 he signed with Epitaph, joined the Warped Tour, and released his first full-length, Between the Roses; Epitaph also put out the Darling EP later that year. He subsequently toured with the Ready Set, Tonight Alive, and Set It Off. His second album, Blessed Are Those, reached stores in 2016 and debuted at number 15 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart while also registering on the independent albums chart.

After parting ways with Epitaph, Barrie offered the acoustic EP Storyteller Unplugged as a free download in 2017. Two years later he returned with a pair of albums on his own Purewolf Records label: Limitless, his first release under his given name, and SayWeCanFly’s Beautiful Mess, which again appeared on the Heatseekers and independent albums charts.