Wayne Lavallee
Wayne Lavallee is a Métis multi-disciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC Canada. His love for music and the arts was sparked very early when he received his first guitar at the age of 5. Wayne took private lessons in guitar at the Douglas Academy of Music for many years, knowing that the arts were his calling and an extension of his spirit.
In 1991, he began training in theatre arts as an actor with the Spirit Song Native Theatre Company and was an original ensemble member of Full Circle First Nations Performance. Throughout the mid-late 90’s, Wayne continued his training in the arts, authentic movement and dance, and was performing on main-stage theatres as an actor/dancer across Canada. His training in theatre arts served him well, especially in his transition to singer-songwriter (and later to film score composer). Ultimately, music was where his heart belonged. In 2000, Wayne released his first studio solo album, and by 2010 he was a two-time Juno-nominated and multi-award-winning artist signed to an international record label in France.
In 2014, Wayne composed his first film score “Ballads Not Bullets: Tom Jackson” - a short film written and directed by Marie Clements, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Since then, he has scored 4 other feature films for Marie Clements, including the award-winning musical documentary “The Road Forward” and “Bones of Crows”, which made its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to his 2 Juno Award nominations, Wayne has received 4 Leo Award nominations and 2 Leo Award wins for the lifestyle reality series “Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet”, and Best Music Score in a motion picture co-scored with Jesse Zubot. He was co-nominated along with Jesse Zubot and director Marie Clements for their original song “You Are My Bones” from “Bones of Crows” at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards.
As a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist, Wayne brings his unique approach to film scoring by looking at the script from the actor's and storyteller’s perspectives. Story drives the music; dialogue, visual landscapes, direction and action evoke a raw spiritual, emotional and deeply authentic musical interplay. Thus, music must go where it serves the narrative, not simply filling empty space. Wayne's contemporary style is very distinctive and often mixed with stylized Indigenous sounds, from primal rhythms to stylized Indigenous vocables of the west coast and prairies. Wayne loves creating character-based themes and taking the listener on a musical, narrative-based spiritual journey. Wayne is currently scoring the new feature film by Marie Clements called "How We Stand"