REBEKAH HAWKER TO RELEASE NEW EP, QUIT MY HABIT, VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS JUNE 9, 2025
WATCH / SHARE “TAKE ME BACK” HERE
BUY / STREAM “TAKE ME BACK” HERE
PRE-SAVE QUIT MY HABIT HERE
Photo Credit : Jen Squires // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
On her new EP, Quit My Habit, country-folk singer-songwriter Rebekah Hawker infuses stories of loss—of family, lovers, youth—with wisdom and resilience. Having established an impressive career at lightning pace through her late twenties—opening for acclaimed acts like The Good Lovelies, Rum Ragged, and Jim Cuddy; garnering accolades like winning Mariposa Folk Festival’s Emerging Artist Showcase in 2024; and gracing world-class stages like Massey Hall—this EP sees Hawker slowing down and reckoning with what really matters. Most of the songs on this EP were written in the sunroom off the back deck at her family’s house in the rural township of Oro-Medonte. “Writing here, it can feel like there’s limitless time to explore and play,” Hawker explains. Spending her mornings reading (finding inspiration in Linda Ronstadt memoir) and journaling, Hawker found herself with the sudden urge to grab her guitar and write, crafting quotidian songs in her distinctive blend of open-hearted country.
Hawker’s music runs the gamut of country styles—from John Prine’s lore-spinning to Emmylou Harris’ honeyed vocals, Kacey Musgraves’ resilient sheen, and the vulnerable strength of Kathleen Edwards. Whether she’s penning powerful ballads or full-blown 90s country bangers, Hawker’s songs all share a similar quality: you’ll want to blast them at full volume. “I wanted to make songs my sisters and I could sing in the car together,” Hawker explains, and when you find yourself inevitably belting the triumphant chorus of “Mad at Love” or crooning the bittersweet coming-of-age crash out anthem “Twenty-Nine”, you get it.
Today, she shares the EP’s first single, “Take Me Back”, a song that “lives in the 100-kilometer stretch between Barrie and Toronto—on Highway 400, where a late-night drive can feel like 10 minutes or 10 hours, depending on which way you’re headed,” says Hawker. “It’s a song with its tail between its legs—the kind you play when you know you messed up and there’s no denying it. So, you fill up the tank, blast whatever radio station will keep you distracted just long enough, and drive straight to the doorstep of the person you never should’ve pushed away.”
In the studio, the song was brought to life through the haunting piano moments from Thom Hammerton, the endless auxiliary guitar and banjo from Stu Weinberg, and the cry of Michael Eckert’s pedal steel. “Together, they perfectly encapsulate the feeling of uncertainty that lingers before you put your heart on the line and ask for forgiveness – knowing that, in love, someone always loses, but praying this time you might win,” explains Hawker.
WATCH / SHARE “TAKE ME BACK” HERE
BUY / STREAM “TAKE ME BACK” HERE
MORE ABOUT REBEKAH HAWKER
Crafting such tape deck-ready jams took time for Hawker. When the pandemic hit, Hawker’s life changed radically; on top of the pandemic’s inevitable solitude, Hawker’s mom passed away, and she subsequently moved back to her family home in the country just outside Barrie, Ontario. This gave Rebekah the deep time she needed to reckon with all the pivotal relationships: with her parents, her siblings, her friends, her lovers, and herself. She stopped caring about music after losing her mom, and out of the hard grind of Toronto, she embraced the forgiving flow of familial life. And, eventually, the songs began to blossom again.
“Things had changed,” Hawker explains. “Making music wasn’t about proving my worth anymore; it was about accepting what my worth is.” For a week-long recording session at Hamilton’s renowned Catherine North studios (Feist, City and Colour, Chastity), Hawker brought in an array of top-tier session musicians (including long-time producer Will Crann) to shape these songs.
The album’s honest content translated to its clear, impactful arrangements. “Taste of You”—a track that captures that feeling of “being on a third date and it’s going really well”—is a sweet bath of pedal steel (Michael Eckert) and B3 organ (Thom Hammerton), with the band gently locked into an irresistibly smooth sway. The stunning album closer “Twenty-Nine” was originally a fully rip-roaring, self-deprecating reflection on turning 29 (the way Hawker had been playing it at Toronto’s Cameron House). However, this track was last on the docket, and at the end of two packed studio days—the bittersweet afternoon sun pouring through the stained-glass windows of Catherine North—this “cowboy version” didn’t feel right. Guitarist Stu Weinberg pondered the 10 different guitars he had set up around himself at the beginning of the day, decided on a gentle baritone, and the feeling transformed. Rebekah started picking her acoustic, Julian Psihogios dropped the perfect backbeat, and the song took on a new, ponderous life of its own.
The EP’s emotional centrepiece is its title track, which flows through the simple, heartbreaking feelings that Hawker continues to deal with since her mom passed away in 2021. The song captures the feeling of grieving in isolation, and the sense that this grief fundamentally changed who Hawker was in the world. “It felt like re-meeting people in my life,” she explains. “I wanted to explain, ‘You knew me before, but this is who I am now.’” The song captures the feeling of running from your parents in your teens and early twenties, just to find yourself running towards them again later in life, as your time together becomes increasingly precious. “It’s a strange feeling,” Hawker explains, “wanting to share the song with my mom, even though the song wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t passed away.”
Much like her songwriting sensibility, life for Hawker these days is firmly grounded: some days, she’s literally crawling on her hands and knees in snowpants pulling out tires, working her day job at the scrapyard near her family’s home. While Hawker initially feared the sense of regression we associate with moving back home as an adult, the reality of the choice is more positive and nuanced: she’s singing with her sisters, showing them budding songs, and embracing quality time with her dad, aware that these moments of togetherness could only exist at this point in their lives.
Hawker is now thirty, sensibly flirty, and humbly thriving. She’s embracing the ways she’s like her late mom: leaving the house in an excited rush, only to run back to grab whatever she’d forgotten; stopping to talk (for too long!) with folks at the grocery store; and welcoming in everyone for exactly who they are. “After decades of crippling self-doubt I’ve finally arrived at this realization: insecurity is boring!” Hawker laughs. “I’m really beginning to accept myself, and feel like a main character in this life I’m building.” Quit My Habit sees Hawker making sense of life’s messy circles with a confident smile, a compassionate curiosity, and a deep acceptance of all the beautiful heartache to come. She sums the feeling up best on “Twenty-Nine" when she sings: ‘what if life is about sitting back and watching things fall?’
QUIT MY HABIT TRACKLIST
01 Mad At Love
02 Taste Of You
03 Take Me Back
04 Quit My Habit
05 Twenty-Nine
