Great Aunt Ida

Best known as singer-songwriter behind Canadian indie-folk ensemble Great Aunt Ida as well as vocalist/multi – instrumentalist with the Violet Archers and Buttless Chaps, Ida Nilsen moved to Toronto from Vancouver in 2007 citing a desire for different flavoured tap water and unrestricted access to the Gardiner Expressway. Her songs have been described as being "fraught with admonishment, yet somehow avoiding flat out misanthropy", however she is still incapable of writing a song that does not include the word 'heart'. When not preparing for Great Aunt Ida's third recording, (tentatively titled 'Nuclearize Me / Something Less Melancholy') Ida can be found wandering up and down Roncesvalles Ave looking for kind children willing to help push her van off the side street ice sculptures.