Alexandra Levy, known under her alias Ada Lea, is constantly at the crossroads between painting and music. On the cover of her new album, when i paint my masterpiece, she poses surrounded by some of her paintings. It’s as if those two languages had found a way to communicate with each other.
“I often paint by letting the image come to me, so I thought, “how do I do that with music?” she explains.
After years spent on tour from one continent to the next, Ada Lea wanted to take her rhythm back into her own hands. “I wanted an album that wouldn’t sound like a machine. I wanted it to sound human,” she says.
With her band, consisting of Tasy Hudson, Summer Kodama and Chris Hauer, as well as producer Luke Temple, she recorded live, without a click track, in a resolutely organic approach. “’We did several takes in one go. We had played together a lot, so I wanted to capture that sound… the one that’s alive.” As a result, we hear the imperfections, both desired and desirable, giving each of the sixteen songs a sincerity that is hard to match.
The writing took on a sense of letting go: “Stream of consciousness… the surrealists did that,” she says. “You write and let whatever comes to mind flow. I felt my exhaustion subtly seeping into the lyrics, like a need for rest, but also a lot of light and powerful images.”
This summer, in Europe, she felt carried forward. “In the UK, maybe it’s because I have three albums out, but people have had time to become fans. I was really surprised because people were celebrating me,” says Ada Lea.
Although she was the opening act for most of her recent European tour in London, she learned the same day that she was headlining. “I was worried that no one would stay, but it was sold out. People were there and they really liked my music.” The London digital magazine When The Horn Blows described her new album as a “masterpiece of storytelling.
Ada Lea at the FME in Rouyn-Noranda on 31 August 2025 (credit: Élise Jetté)
But the European experience is a far cry from what she is experiencing in Québec. “I wanted to perform in Québec City in 2022, but the show was cancelled because we sold exactly zero tickets,” she recalls. “That’s just one example, but it’s as if there really isn’t an audience for my music in this province. I feel a bit isolated.”
While no one is a prophetess in her own country, the singer-songwriter dreams of recognition at home, in Québec, because, even in the United States, the success of her albums is resounding. Pitchfork gave 7.3/10 to when i paint my masterpiece, noting that it was her most “balanced album overall.” Another respected American media outlet, Paste Magazine, refers to Ada Lea’s writing on her third album as “so idyllic that it approaches surreality.” New York media outlet Stereogum has showered her latest album with praise: “The album strikes a difficult balance in that it feels like an outpouring of Levy’s heart and soul but is also carefully considered at every turn.”
In Montréal, where she lives, Ada Lea struggles to find the support that many of her Francophone peers enjoy. “I do my own thing. It’s DIY. Most of the Québec artists I know are surrounded by several people who seem to know the recipe for making their projects work here. But I often feel like I’ve got 25 hats on my head.”
She realizes that language may be working against her. “I think it could be that English is a deal breaker. Maybe I should write in French more and do more collaborations. But for the moment, it’s still more natural for me to write in English,” she says. She still has role models like Leonard Cohen in mind: “His image is everywhere in Montréal, he’s on stamps and buildings,” she says. “And like me, he’s Anglophone… I’m of the mind that if the music is good enough, the linguistic barrier will become meaningless.”
The artist is well aware of the fragility of her position. The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec funds between 3 % and 5 % of English-language musical projects every year, » she explains. “It’s hard to be one of the chosen few.” But she will not give up despite the obstacles. “Even if it’s difficult now, if I keep writing, reading and developing my musical skills, eventually I’ll be recognized here.”
Click to watch the video for “something in the wind” by Ada Lea
Before releasing her third album in August, Alexandra Levy took a step back, went back to school, took more painting classes and read more books. She still draws whenever she can, even on tour. “I always bring pencils. Drawing allows me to let go,” she explains. This visual practice helps her to conceive her songs in a different way. “I realized that I was letting the image present itself and that I was following the flow. I want to bridge the gap between songs and visual art.”
His songs become delicate portraits of situations or vivid emotions which, when you close your eyes, become great frescoes that you can imagine and reinvent with each listen.
when i paint my masterpiece is not an album that strives for perfection—it’s an album that breathes, that lets mistakes slip through, that feeds off their humanity. “The songs can breathe. We’re not robots, so it’s okay to keep those moments that are a bit sketchy, not perfectly perfect.”
By allowing herself to draw outside the lines, Ada Lea offers a work in which each note is a brushstroke, sometimes spontaneous, sometimes extremely precise. Her songs are the testimony of a process. And if they refuse to be perfect songs, it’s to better assert their truth.