Braden Lam Completes a Hat Trick With “Wide Open”

Braden Lam Completes a Hat Trick of Singles on “Wide Open”

The country-inspired duet with Michaela Slinger is inspired by a story of an unbreakable real-life relationship.

by Ben Boddez

Published on January 16, 2025

Halifax indie-folk singer Braden Lam is leaning into the classic country roots that inundated his childhood growing up in rural Ontario with his latest single – so much so that you can find him parading around a truly enormous cowboy hat in the accompanying video.

Welcoming Vancouver-based singer Michaela Slinger onto the track for an old-fashioned duet, the two sing about heartbreak and reconciliation while pushing through the toughest of times and coming out strong on the other end.

In the video Lam is seen driving around through the open plains of rural Nova Scotia in a pick-up truck wearing a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, ultimately ending up in a barn with hay bales stacked high – where Slinger opts to turn the hat into a comfortable seat for acoustic strumming. The two soft-spoken vocalists prove to be a great match for each other, blending their tones together as they tentatively venture requests to start taking the slow steps to fully opening back up emotionally.

Following up on his singles “Beautiful Neighbourhoods” and “Highway Jesus,” the track is among those to be included on upcoming album The Cloudmaker’s Cry. We caught up with Braden Lam below to talk about the real-life inspiration behind the song, carrying the torch of folk’s history and how they moved that giant hat around.

What was the vision for this music video and what was it like being on set to shoot it?

Fun & challenging! This is the third new single so we had to go with a really BIG concept to top the last couple videos, which included trippy moments like magic portals, dancing mushroom people, and my head floating in a sea of flowers and pastries. The giant cowboy hat was designed and constructed in Halifax by my friend Cameron Roberts. It was too big to even fit in a Uhaul, so it had to be driven up to the farm an hour out of the city in two pieces. Then Cameron assembled it on set. It was quite cold during the shoot, at the end of November, so staying warm between takes was a priority and also strapping down the cowboy hat so it wouldn’t blow away in the wind. The hat is still hung up in the barn to this day! Maybe it will make a good roadside attraction one day, really boost the economy of Middle Stewiacke ya know?

What are some of your favourite lyrical moments on “Wide Open?” What inspired these words and what do they mean to you?

“I still think of you, when you’re not just looking my way / I still love you too, like it’s not just something we say”

Fai, my wife, had some serious health issues in 2023 – a cancer scare and a massive surgery due to severe Endometriosis – it was a stressful time that really strained our relationship and the small business we own together, plus it didn’t help that I kept on with an album release and tour plan shortly after the surgery. I could have supported her much better. These words are an invitation to keep trying, letting her know that I’m still deeply in love and willing to keep going. For me, writing this song has been a way to apologize, communicate, and heal some emotional wounds from that year.

I really enjoyed the quote that came with the song about how you create “music reminiscent of a bygone era set to lyrics pulsing with the urgency and anxiety of today.” What do you think is the power of this combination?

I think it has the power of being very accessible to many musical palettes, touching on some ’60s/’70s influences, all while standing on its own two legs in the 21st century and delivering a relevant message. I’m singing about who I am in this moment in time, and the world today – songs about love, loss and grief, climate anxiety, religion, the affordability crisis, seeing our cities transform into these bland mono-cultures – there’s a lot of ground covered. Music has and always will be a driving force in cultural change and I’m always going to carry the torch of all the folk protest songs before me in my own way.

Photo: Paul Atwood

This is a song about pushing through the tough times and reconciling in a relationship. Do you have any advice for making it work?

Support each other’s dreams, believe in each other more than anything else, that makes getting through the hard stuff always a certainty and never a question.

What was it like collaborating with Michaela Slinger?

Michaela is so real! I think that makes all the difference when you co-write with someone. We wrote this song the first day we met in Nashville, and having only been Insta pals prior, by the end of the day we were old friends. She lives in Vancouver, so it was lucky we ended up in the same place at the same time. And again in Toronto during a pre-pro session for the tune, she happened to be in town for a conference and we got her into the studio to start recording the duet performance. Even for the music video, she happened to be on tour in Montreal, so thankfully she was willing to fly out to Nova Scotia and put up with the freezing temperatures on our video set between show dates.

What have you been listening to lately?

Ian & Sylvia, Ben Vallee, and Angel Olsen on the turntable. Christian Lee Huston, Alice Phoebe Lou, MJ Lenderman on streaming.

What can we expect from the rest of the upcoming album?

It’s a super cohesive sound and tracklist, so I hope listeners get in and stay for the full story. There’s a lot of references to life and history on the East coast of Canada. The opening track is a sonic masterpiece and you can expect some more fiddle and banjo throughout!

What’s next for Braden Lam? Anything else you’d like us to know?

I’ll be back in Nashville later this month for a couple shows and to start writing my next album! Then touring down the North-East coast of the US in Feb/March before the new album comes out on April 11, 2025. Folks can pre-order/save The Cloudmaker’s Cry here.