BIO

All music is magic. It’s easy to become numb to it, but every so often that universal truth, that magic, can snap into focus. Watching Alex Maher build an entire song before your very eyes will do that to you. First a beat, then a groove. Synths, keys and guitar. He sings the words and melodies he wrote – or someone else wrote –  and then he blows the house down with his alto sax. And then he does it again, and again and again. Nothing prerecorded, all live. Live looping is still something of a novelty – Feist and Tash Sultana come to mind as some of the field’s most forward thinkers – but people are looking for something new from musicians, and what Maher does is about as futuristic as anything happening in music right now. While Maher has a body of recorded work going back twenty years, he really is someone you have to experience live to be touched by the magic, the life, that his music exudes.

Maher is just that, a lifer. He has played at the likes of Vancouver Folk Festival, Khatsahlano, Wapiti Music Festival and performed internationally, from the U.S. to Mexico. In July of 2021, he hit No. 31 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart as a featured artist on Vandelux’s “Matter of Time”, which has over 83 million plays on Spotify. With his original compositions, Maher creates a real venn diagram of modern pop sounds – R&B, electronic, jazz and hip-hop – but lyrically, they feature the kind of singer-songwriter earnestness you don’t always find in those genres.

That may be because for Maher, music is life. He has been through a lot during his time as a musician, bouncing back from a harrowing battle with addiction, to come into this moment of renewed passion and drive and purpose. He became a father in 2023, rising to the occasion of parenthood, and showing no signs of slowing down artistically. In fact, it seems like he may just be getting started.

People Are Saying…

”Music that fills your mind, body and spirit with what’s right in the world.
Genuine talent, beautiful raw honest lyrics.”

- Dana Tunney, Vancity Music Scene

“Countering the dark undertones and socially conscious lyrics, “Reason” is a groovy, jazz-infused electro-pop tune rounded out by Maher’s alto saxophone solo. With similarities to Chromeo, Hall & Oates, and more contemporary pop stylings, Maher manages to both spark conversation and a dance party.”
- Kane Wilkinson, Dusty Organ

“I had my mind blown by a guy named Alex Maher who proved that there is such a thing as a one man band…you'd honestly have to see it to believe it.
- L’enfant Von“

“An avalanche of talent when you see him live.
He’s like a one-man music army. Guitar, sax, percussion, and an incredible, soulful voice."

- Francis Baptiste

"Aether showcases [Alex’s] classy rebranding as a one-man band who performs live over loops and beats with guitar and saxophone. Considering he’s not exactly new to the game, it shouldn’t surprise that Maher comes off like a polished pro, with “No One Else” made for heat-hazed summer sunrises and “Say 2.0” giving cheeba-fried jazz a reggaefied backbeat.
- Mike Usinger, The Georgia Straight

“An impressive blend of soul, R&B, and funk…and the songs are as soulful as they are sincere”

- Adesuwa Okoyomon, BeatRoute