By Jim Barber
A break-up of any sort of relationship is heart-rending, stressful and filled with emotional tumult. When that relationship was at one time romantic as well as creative, one that lasted for literally a quarter of a century – well, saying ‘it’s complicated,’ is not only trite, but an underwhelming understatement.
The critically acclaimed and fan beloved musical group Madison Violet was a creative partnership for that extraordinary length of time, but enmeshed within that relationship was the fact that two humans – singer/songwriters Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern -were also a couple, and so it’s little surprise that there is still a slight frisson of tension during our three-way Zoom conversation.
As for the reasons for the ending of Madison Violet, it’s best to allow the two parties to talk about it in their own words without any unnecessary editorializing.
“This is the end of an era, the end of a chapter. It’s been coming for quite a while. Lisa and I were romantic partners for 10 years. That had a rough ending. At the time we were touring so much, we were booked two years in advance and were constantly on the road. And so we couldn’t really afford to back out on any of those shows. So, we just kept barrelling through, and it’s been 15 years of, you know, ups and downs since then. We get along great out there, but we also have this sort of need, I think, to really recalibrate and figure out what the future holds for Madison Violet. And right now, that means coming to a full stop to see what can happen down the road. Do I feel it’s full stop forever? No. I’ve never felt like it needed to be over forever. I don’t think Lisa did ever either. But I think we both have come to realize that we need to do some sort of growing and self-reflection on our own, and then come back and hopefully make some magic in the future. But that could be 10 years from now. It could be five years from now. It could be … well, I don’t know. And of course, when you let something go, you don’t know where each of us might go. Lisa may find that she’s found something bigger, better, perfect for her heart, and I might too. I think, right now, I don’t want to have any major attachments to anything,” said MacEachern, from the Airstream trailer creative space on her property north of Toronto. She talked about how it’s also logistically better for the ‘business’ side of the music business for Madison Violet to make a clean break.
“If you don’t say no, and it doesn’t come to a complete end, it leaves things hanging. We have so many different agents all over the world. We’ve always worked with boutique agents because that’s what’s always worked for us. We like to cultivate really strong relationships, close relationships with our agents. So, they’re always writing and pitching us gigs and that would continue unless we were able to just close the door. And we’ve always had such a hard time saying no. When I look back on our career and I think about how many weddings I missed, and funerals and parties and going to the cottage. At least for the past five years if there’s a wedding, we’d book it off. It’s important for me to have more control over the ability to say no and take on just what makes your heart thump, you know?
“And also, we’ve still got some pent-up stuff here and there. Like, we know each other better than anybody. We know exactly what it takes to trigger one another. And I’ve actually been doing a lot of research into this whole question of why I’m so hypervigilant about things and why I get so affected by a small thing. And it’s not because of what’s happening now. It’s because of all the history attached to it. So, it’s a lot. Sometimes we’re out there and it’s like, I want to be connecting. It’s hard to disconnect. We are connected. We walk on stage and we could have just walked out of a fight, and it may take us a little while where we’re like, ‘I’m not going to look at her,’ or whatever. And then inside I’m saying, ‘Bren, just f***ing let it go. Right now. You gotta let it go!’ But then you’re in survival mode and I don’t want to be connected in survival mode, because we have to be because we’re on stage. I want to be connected because we’re connected. And I am noticing the difference. I think that our show is, and maybe we’re tooting our own horn, but I know how good we are. I just know how good we are together. And I can see it in the audience’s faces when we are connected. And when we are just in survival mode, I see that too in their faces. So, I want to only be connected in the way that the audience can feel how strong the connection is.”
And to be clear, there are no ‘sides.’ There’s no good and bad, winners or losers. It’s two people who have come to a point in their lives where they need, for their own well-being and happiness, to be separate.
“It was a long discussion. And I think, especially for the last couple of years, and I don’t mean to speak out of turn, Brenley, but there was a decision that Brenley had made. The pandemic hit and we sort of lost that year or two years, as everybody else did. And Brenley wanted to spend more time with family, with her parents, because our parents were aging. I don’t want to tell her story, but that was a big thing, she was wanting to spend time with her family. And sadly, over a short period of time, she lost both of her parents. And I think that put things into perspective even more, like knowing that if there are things that you want to do in life, there’s no better time than the present. Seeing her grow as a woman and as a woodworker and an artist, as well as doing solo music – I get that. I see that. But did I want this band to come to a close? No,” MacIsaac said, from her home in downtown Toronto.
“That was a thing we had to work through and we continue to work through. I think this year has been incredible. I think we’re very lucky to make this a celebratory year. I think we both experienced it in the U.K. where we were on stage and it was magical and it was electric. I was like, ‘oh my God, there are so many people in the audience singing these words back to us that have been fans for 15, 20 years. And that’s magic. And I will miss that for sure. And there were so many new fans who were saying, ‘I can’t believe we’ve just discovered you now as this chapter comes to a close.’ That part breaks my heart. So, did I want this to end? No. Do I think it’s the right thing to do? Yes.
“I know the joy we get from it, but I also know that we both need to explore other things. And Brenley is a true artist in so many different ways. I’m sort of stepping back to a role at times that I was in before we met, in terms of doing work with other artists. I just played a festival last weekend in both Heather Rankin’s band and Catherine McLellan’s band. And I actually enjoy that. It stresses the hell out of me because I want to make it perfect, but I’m sort of tapping back into that part of who I am in the role as a musician. Do I think that Brenley and I have more music in us, collectively? Yes. We’re not tapping into that at the moment, but I think some time and space will maybe allow us to rekindle that dynamic.”
That the decision to step away from Madison Violet happened in the band’s 25th year makes the moments of reflection even more poignant. Regardless of the circumstances, it is a landmark, a milestone, an achievement in a frighteningly fickle industry to last a quarter of a century, both popularity and creative relevance still at an all-time high.
“On things I really learned in the early days was that if you really want something to happen, you’ve just got to start. If you really want to do something and you put your heart and your mind and everything into it, then that’ll happen. We didn’t make it big. We’re not in the top two per cent of the people who are rolling in dough as musicians. And I think that was probably by design because every time I got panicked about fame, that something would happen, I would wonder what that would look like. My body language, my mind didn’t align with that. I wanted the money. I wanted the success, but I never wanted what comes with that. We made a living from it. Have we banked tons of cash? No, but we made a living for 25 years doing it at a pretty significant level, which is great. So, I think what I’ve learned is that if you want it to be a certain way, everything that your body aligns with, that is what’s going to happen. It’s not what you think you want; it’s how your body reacts to it,” said MacEachern.
MacIsaac looks back on the offstage antics, the travel, the time spent with MacEachern and bandmates along the highways and byways of North America, Europe and Australia.
“It was a great way to go and explore all these countries. For me, it wasn’t only about being onstage, it was the whole experience. I nap a lot in the van and I’m exhausted all the time, we’re all exhausted being on the road. But it is also that time when you’re laughing your ass off because of the silliest things. And that happened all the time. Brenley and I played together for 25 years and Jake Zapotoczny has been in the band for 11, so he’s family as well. I think the dynamic between the three of us was special. We’re three Libras and when we toured with a drummer, he was also a Libra. I loved the time off stage. I loved the banter between us. I loved going to find the best coffee or food. We’re all foodies, all love coffee, all love to laugh and explore. And those were the big things for me. And the cherry on top was getting to be on stage at the end of the day whether you’ve had a good day or a bad day, that was the best moment,” she said before talking about the body of recorded work, which includes 11 albums and a number of popular singles (their last album, eleven, came out in 2022). The music created by Madison Violet deeply touched the souls, spirits, hearts and minds of fans all over the world. The authenticity of MacIsaac and MacEachern as artists, their inimitably compelling craft as songwriters, the connection between them on stage and the collective connection with audiences so eloquently described above, makes for an indelibly important legacy.
“Proud. I would have to say, in a nutshell, I’m proud of that. We never left anything unsaid. It was how we connected with each other. It is how we connected with fans. It’s how we grieved, how we loved. We spent 25 years putting our hearts on our sleeves, and funnily enough, when we did write outside of that box and tried to write from a different perspective, that wasn’t from right here [points to her heart] those are the songs that never got played on stage and even though they were written from an authentic place, the never connected. We connect with our fans, and they connect to the songs that just we just ripped our hearts out writing.”
Madison Violet did not make a big deal out of the current tour being their last other than the title page of their website saying simply, ‘Last Call and Final Tour’ under a black and white photo of the pair. They have done little to no press, nor are there currently any big plans for a career retrospective release of music, as so many bands do when they close a chapter or hit a significant career milestone. After a short break back home in Canada for a number of dates in the Maritimes and Ontario, they are off again to Europe, with their last ever advertised show being Dec 6 in Wetzikon, Switzerland. MacEachern and MacIsaac are still contemplating if, let alone when, a final farewell show may happen in Toronto.
“We’re supposed to do a last Toronto show but we haven’t booked it and I think one of the reasons we haven’t is because I’m worried about that maybe we’ve already done our last Toronto show and that we just end things in Europe. Then we’re going out to The Carleton [in Halifax around Thanksgiving], and we’re doing four shows in a row there because all of them sold out so fast. I can’t believe how much traction this is getting. We have done zero press, zero, literally zero about this last year. We spent zero money on a publicist, marketing, anything. And we have seen 95 per cent of our shows sold out. It’s been beautiful and I think that just goes to show that, wow, we have these fans who’ve been following us for 25 years. They don’t always come out, but they’re coming out now. And they must be the ones spreading the word. But, yeah, we don’t know that the Toronto show is going to happen because I feel like it’ll be a heartbreaker,” said MacEachern.
“We talked about either having friends or everybody who’s ever played with us over the last few years come out to that show. That was an idea we have bounced around. I love that idea, but I also love just the thought that we may have already done the last Toronto show. We played Hugh’s Room Live earlier this year. That was one of my favourite shows we’ve ever done. The audience, the energy in the audience was electric in a way that we’ve never felt before. We always feel something special in Toronto, but this was different. I feel that energy in Toronto. I feel that energy in Halifax and there are a couple of cities in Germany that I feel it as well. They’re so special. They make doing what we do worthwhile,” added MacIsaac.
When did it hit them that the shows they have for the remainder of the year, and the shows they’ve already performed in 2025 are likely the very last they will ever do in those communities, in front of those fans?
“What’s interesting is, for the most part, I haven’t been experiencing that. I’ve experienced being in the van the next day going, ‘holy shit, I cannot believe the energy in that room!’ For me, we did put the work in. We did build a following in X.Y and Z city, but I haven’t been in that mindset of this being the last time, except the last show on the U.K. tour that we just came back from. That tour was amazing, and it felt so good on stage. The very last show, which was the Wickham Festival, about an hour and a half from London. It’s funny because we usually like to pick a cover song on every tour, an old tune and then make it our own. One of the last ones we did a couple of years ago was ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,’ by Leo Sayer. We went on at Wickham and then he went on. He was the headliner. I stood side stage watching him and it was so strange and I just welled up with tears and was like, ‘what are we doing?’ It was a nice moment,” said MacIsaac, with MacEachern also admitting that this conversation is just now bringing the sense of finality home for her as well.
“I’m kind of with you, Lisa. Sometimes we’ll finish the show, like the one we did in London and I would think, ‘oh, these people are into this. They’re in this room knowing it’s our last time,’ but we’re not really playing that way. It’s almost like we’re not allowing ‘the end’ to enter into the show. We totally said this was our last call, and the last call is usually supposed to be fun, it’s the last drink of the night or whatever. And so, this is how we’re going into it. And, actually, it’s funny when you asked how we get through that night after night, it’s actually the first time it landed on my chest, almost like this heaviness, that oh God, it’s the end. I’ve never experienced it that way.”
The next big question is what now? What does life and art and music look like for Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac starting in 2026?
“I’m working both sides of the stage now. I’ve been playing, as I said, with Catherine MacLellan and doing some stuff with Heather Rankin and Sarah MacDougall. But I’m also working at a desk for the first time ever a few days a week at Starfish Entertainment [a management company representing the likes of Blue Rodeo, The Sadies, Skydiggers and more]. It’s four women in the office, including myself, all badasses. I started earlier this year when I’ve been off the road. I’ve been learning copious amounts about the other side of the industry and luckily I am happy that I have because Brenley and I, for years, we have done our own booking and advancing and show stuff, and we know the road, and we know what artists like and don’t like and know the things to look out for. So, there are very many transferable skills,” she said with a chuckle.
MacEachern spends a great deal of time at her rural property, hunkered down over her woodworking equipment, as well as other creative endeavors, which still includes making music.
“I’ve been interested in woodworking for years and years and years, but I never had enough time to dedicate towards it. Because when you learn a skill, you have to practice it, just like playing a guitar or anything else. So earlier this year I went to the Rosewood School of Woodworking in Perth, Ontario for five days and took a course on excellence with hand tools. I’ve been slowly building up this workshop, but I still don’t really know what is driving it. All I know is that I’m in a major flow state when I’m working in there, and when I sit down to write songs, it comes really fast. I’m finding myself to be super prolific right now as well. It’s really bizarre because there’s no pressure to write. And that may be why. So, it’s really coming out of me and I’m sure it’s because I am at the end of this really tough time. There’s been a lot of grief. I lost both my parents and my dog in a six-month span,” MacEachern said.
“In 2023, two years ago, my mom died. Four and a half months later, my dad died. And then two months after that, my dog died. I was going to take 2024 off to spend with them, but I didn’t get to spend that time with them. So that was a real jolt to the heart. And that is definitely when I said, ‘okay, I got it, this has got to come to an end.’ And I think the woodworking is almost putting me into a meditative state, and there’s the idea of taking something and stripping it down and that stuff. Like, I’ve been using a hand plane all morning. I bought a desk off Marketplace. I paid about $225 for it and it would have cost me $1,500 to build it from scratch, with time and materials. So, I am redoing the top and, I just love it.
“I also got back into painting. I used to paint a lot and now I have time to paint again – mostly abstract work and landscape stuff. And I’m really enjoying that. So, I guess if I were to say I was attached to anything, my wish would be to turn all three of music, painting and woodworking somehow into a brand that I can survive on. In a perfect world I would be doing all three things and I could make enough of a living doing that. But I am still not quite sure how to make it all work just yet.”
Both as Madison Violet and individually, MacEachern and MacIsaac were beloved by many within the tight-knit Canadian music industry, especially in Toronto where they bonded and collaborated with many of the cities’ best and brightest female artists. How did they, and the legion of MV fans around the world take the news of the ‘end of an era?’
“From my perspective, I would say the friends have been sad and supportive. The fans, again, are supportive and there’s lots of public messages out there of support. But it’s the private ones that are really intimate and tell us about how our music has affected their lives, has been a part of their lives, has got them through challenging moments. Those are the stories that affect me. Obviously, we do this because we love it, but it’s about connection and hoping that people will connect and relate to the stories you’re putting out there. What I am seeing a lot of is people relaying their stories of connection – everything from getting through grief, to playing our music as their wedding song. It’s full circle. That, for me, has been beautiful, but very hard to read because it’s bittersweet, it’s a bit of a gut punch, but it’s also an elevator. It elevates my heart,” said MacIsaac.
“I wonder if we would even have gotten half of these stories out of people had we not made this announcement. I was at a cottage and met this guy, and we didn’t know each other. My partner is a friend of his wife and we’re sitting on the back deck and my partner and the guy’s wife go inside, so we start talking and he asked what I do. And I said that I was getting out of a band after 25 years and blah, blah, blah, and he asks what’s the name of the band. And I told him it was Madison Violet. He starts welling up with tears and he goes, ‘oh my God. I used to listen to your song ‘Crying’ on the radio all the time and I loved it.’ So, without having this conversation, I would never have known that. It was just such a nice connection and it does make me feel sorry it has to come to an end. But it’s happening and I’m kind of done apologizing. I’ve gone through that stage. No more apologizing, it’s just like, okay, let’s get on with this,” added MacEachern.
So, to riff on another cliché, it’s definitely goodbye, but perhaps not ‘farewell’ for Madison Violet. What is assured is that the chances to see this remarkably talented, compelling, prolific and enchanting duo are limited … so get out to see them while you still can.
For more information, visit www.madisonviolet.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
