Biography
Cassia Hardy fronts the musical project Wares, channeling folk, punk, and synth pop into bold, defiant anthems aimed at those who exist outside the mainstream. As a central presence in Edmonton, Alberta’s punk community—one of Canada’s most conservative cities—she refined her defiant approach to songcraft through early singles, notably 2013’s “Sunshine,” before expanding her sonic palette on the 2017 release Wares. The 2020 album Survival marked a further step toward raw emotional transparency that could prove both touching and painful.
Hardy has lived in the greater Edmonton region since toddlerhood, where she first absorbed the guitar lines of Megadeth and Metallica. Although she participated in multiple local groups, she discovered greater satisfaction in creating music under her own name. She launched the Wares moniker in 2013 and issued the debut single “Sunshine” that same year, mere days prior to turning twenty-one. The next May she widened the project’s scope via the acoustic EP City Kids, which fused punk, folk, and pop and was tracked at producer Blair Drover’s home studio. Two years afterward she issued the single “Missed the Point,” whose B-side “Beach Date” earned a nomination for Indie Rock Recording of the Year at the 2017 Edmonton Music Awards. Later that year the self-titled debut album Wares surfaced, captured with a complete backing band and released in September. Hardy followed it with the 2018 EP Silhouette while spending the year on the road alongside keyboardist Jamie Mclean, bassist Matthew Gooding, and drummer Holly Greaves. The same lineup backed her on the cathartic follow-up Survival, which Mint Records put out in April 2020.
Hardy has lived in the greater Edmonton region since toddlerhood, where she first absorbed the guitar lines of Megadeth and Metallica. Although she participated in multiple local groups, she discovered greater satisfaction in creating music under her own name. She launched the Wares moniker in 2013 and issued the debut single “Sunshine” that same year, mere days prior to turning twenty-one. The next May she widened the project’s scope via the acoustic EP City Kids, which fused punk, folk, and pop and was tracked at producer Blair Drover’s home studio. Two years afterward she issued the single “Missed the Point,” whose B-side “Beach Date” earned a nomination for Indie Rock Recording of the Year at the 2017 Edmonton Music Awards. Later that year the self-titled debut album Wares surfaced, captured with a complete backing band and released in September. Hardy followed it with the 2018 EP Silhouette while spending the year on the road alongside keyboardist Jamie Mclean, bassist Matthew Gooding, and drummer Holly Greaves. The same lineup backed her on the cathartic follow-up Survival, which Mint Records put out in April 2020.
Albums
Singles
