Interview with Lee Rose of Ace of Wands & her "Magical Mind"
photo credit: Mike Gillespie
I’ve always been a big fan of Toronto based dream rock trio Ace of Wands, but when I heard their latest single “Magical Mind” I just knew that Lee Rose needed to be our first guest as part of our new artist interview series about revealing the hidden parts of the creative process that all artists inevitably go through. This interview series pulls back the covers to reveal the shadows, the dreams, the demons and the inspirations that lead to the creation of art. Magical Mind was written by Lee after she pulled a Tarot card from the Cosmic Comfort deck by artist Yumi Sakugawa which helped bring a period of creative block to an end.
Please be sure to check out Ace of Wands new single Magical Mind and her other amazing music on Bandcamp or anywhere you listen to music.
photo credit: Sam Bishop Green
Please let us know who you are! What is your art form, how long you've been doing it for and what’s something that you've created that you are proud of or that you consider your biggest accomplishment?
Hi! My name is Lee Rose, and I’m a multi-instrumentalist and artist here in Toronto. I am the band leader and songwriter of the Dream Rock trio Ace of Wands. My art form is primarily music and songwriting, but I am also a horticultural garden designer and bookbinder. These three forms of art making intersect in all sorts of interesting ways for me.
Music has always been the biggest part of my creative life. I began playing violin when I was 10, later studying it at York University for my undergrad. As a rock musician, I’ve been playing in bands since I was 16 – singing and teaching myself to play bass and guitar along the way. But songwriting came much later. It wasn’t until I started Ace of Wands in 2017 that I really dove headlong into songwriting and finding my voice in lyrics.
Ace of Wands has released two full length albums, with our third album coming out in 2026. I am incredibly proud of this music. Working on Ace of Wands has been a very rich experience, and I’m always approaching it from the perspective of full immersion. From the songs themselves to the visual media we make to accompany them, each step along the way is very intentional and fully formed.
I have always seen music in a visual way. The songs I write conjure up imagery and colour, as I’m trying to immerse my listeners in a world. This approach has lent itself very well to the visual aspects of the music. I put a lot of time into making music videos and planning out costumes – trying to visually capture the energies and imagery in the music. Over the years this has taken many forms: fabric installations, paper mâché masks, glass and mirror sculptures. I’m always looking for new ways to convey the meaning and sensation of a song to the listener, while keeping up a strong sense of play and accessibility.
How do you access your creativity? Tell us a bit about your process. Do you experiment or take risks in your creative practice, and at what stage of the creative process do you notice your inner critic appears or is the loudest?
photo credit: David Bastedo
I feel most able to access my creativity when I am the most devoted to my practice. This level of devotion is deeply connected to how loud my inner critic is at any given time. When it stays quiet, I can most effectively experiment, take creative risks and live out creative fantasies free of judgement. When I’m in self-judgement, comparing myself to others or trying to achieve a creative end that think other people will like is where I get hung up.
The inspiration for a song generally comes from two places: a preconceived idea of a subject (and setting that to music), or the free playing of melody and finding the sounds within myself that feel good with the music. That literally means singing along with vowel sounds and phrasing, and then later finding words that closely resemble the way it felt in my mouth. The words always land somewhere meaningful, but they start from a place of physical resonance in my body that feels good. I find this approach gives me a certain level of comfort within the song. If the words feel good to sing, I will sing them better.
What type of things does your inner critic say to you? What’s the meanest thing your inner critic has ever said to you? How does that affect you in your creative journey?
My inner critic doesn’t always have a clear voice with words. It more feels like a creeping feeling of despair that everything is terrible, and I am terrible hah. When my inner critic is in the creative space, it holds me back from completing anything. It’s like a detour in a road that leads to a dead end. I have started many ideas that have petered out because of my inner critic, mounting that despairing energy and putting up roadblocks. While I feel like experimentation without completion isn’t always a negative, when it’s linked to a critical voice it feels particularly harmful.
What coping mechanisms tools or techniques do you turn to, to help you overcome your inner critic? What are some unhealthy/ unhelpful habits that you turn to? What are some healthy or supportive tools that you have discovered?
When I started Ace of Wands, I also started therapy for the first time, and it was like an erupting volcano. On the one hand, I was experiencing a massive decline in my mental health, and in the same moment an enormous burst of creative energy. My depression was deep and traumatizing, but it wasn’t immobilizing. I was extremely driven to a sort of catharsis – writing songs to exorcize the hurt and sadness I was feeling.
My inner critic was at the forefront of this depressive period – and I had named it for the first time for what it was. Before starting therapy, I don’t think I had ever considered what an inner critic was, or what it was doing to me and my sense of self. In therapy, I was able to identify the feeling, it’s place in my body and the sort of messages it was sending me. Simply being able to name it, helped quiet its overwhelming presence.
When it emerges in my creative practice, I admit that sometimes it can still take me days to recognize it. I’ll get bogged down in feelings of inadequacy and self-hatred before I realize what I’ve been doing to myself. The unhealthiest habit I have is feeding the inner critic with endless social media scrolling and comparing myself to others. The healthiest habit is probably turning to my friends and family for support and reassurance. It is amazing what community can do to lift you up.
Do dreams play a role in your creativity? Do you keep track of your dreams and have you ever had a dream that impacted your life? Is there a dream or dream image that you can share?
I think my dreams do play a role in my creative journey, but their influence is a little bit tangential. I have always had vivid dreams, and a lot of nightmares. Having such an active sleep cycle has helped grow my imagination, and that has enlarged my world in general. Imagery from dreams will sometimes appear in my song lyrics, but I think their influence is more in the felt sense of each song. One of the dreams I have when I’m feeling anxious is one where I am lost in a huge crowd of people, trying to find my way out or through. The sense of being disconnected from people despite being surrounded by them is the kind of loneliness I have worked through a lot in my music.
I also find a lot of inspiration in daydreams. When my waking mind can wander around in different images, making new connections and ideas, I feel very inspired. It’s harder to make space and time for daydreaming, with all the noise of the waking world, but it’s a rich place when I can access it. Daydreams can often come when I’m doing something with my hands, like gardening or cooking or even playing my instruments.
What are you working on now, how can people find you and is there anything else you'd like to share?
I’m working on releasing Ace of Wands newest album, which should be ready in the new year. I am also working on a solo set of music for the first time. I’ve had then chance to play a few shows by myself this year and it’s been a very interesting (and scary) experience. I’m experimenting with violin loops and synths in addition to guitar, and it’s cool to see where the music is going. You can find Ace of Wands anywhere you get music and online @aceofwandsband. And you can find me at @leearose.
Links to Selected Press:
https://canadianbeats.ca/2025/10/03/ace-of-wands-share-new-single-magical-mind/
https://globalnews.ca/news/9670109/undiscovered-gem-of-the-week-ace-of-wands/
https://nowtoronto.com/music/ace-of-wands-mix-music-and-mental-health-activism/
Website and Socials:
https://www.aceofwandsband.com/
https://www.instagram.com/aceofwandsband
https://www.facebook.com/aceofwandstoronto/
https://www.tiktok.com/@aceofwandsband