tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16900182615973563002024-03-13T06:44:27.053-07:00The Writerly LifePop culture / Film / Music / Theatre / Interviews / News / Features / Short StoriesAndreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.comBlogger459125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-13466066807967261052012-10-01T19:07:00.001-07:002012-10-01T19:11:44.118-07:00Beach HouseMy interview with Victoria from Beach House appeared in the Charleston City Paper in May, and now that they're visiting Vancouver tonight, I've realized I never posted it. Correcting my mistake right now.<br />
<br />
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4066644">
<span style="font-size: small;">Pop duo Beach House finds time to grow </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: small;">In bloom</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="EmbeddedSidebar">
<div class="sidebar">
<div class="Sidebar ContentMusic " id="ArticleTools">
<div class="tools" id="ArticleToolsTools">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="Sidebar ContentMusic " id="ImageFlipBook">
<div class="flipBook" id="ImageFlipBook:flipBook">
<div class="photoMain">
<a class="zoomable" href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/not-your-average-east-coast-beach-bums-beach-houses-alex-scally-and-victo/b/original/4067298/4ef4/BeachHouse2_thumb.jpg" rel="ImageFlipBook_imgGroup" title="Not your average East Coast beach bums: Beach House's Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand - Liz Flyntz"><img alt="Not your average East Coast beach bums: Beach House's Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand - Liz Flyntz" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/story/4067298/4ef4/BeachHouse2_thumb.jpg" /></a>
</div>
<ul>
<li class="l0 credit">
Liz Flyntz
</li>
<li class="l0 caption">Not your average East Coast beach bums: Beach House's Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
<br />
There's a big difference between indie pop duo Beach House's <i>Teen Dream</i> and singer Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream." Fans of the former can exhale that long breath they've been holding since 2010: <i>Bloom</i>,
Beach House's fourth album (due May 15 on the Sub Pop label), is as
magical as it is morose, an atmospheric and evocative wonderland. Fans
of the latter — well, enjoy the Perry karaoke.
<br />
<br />
Since 2004, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have been the somewhat
mysterious forces behind Beach House. Rising up out of Baltimore's
increasingly relevant DIY arts scene, the pair make music befitting the
arch loneliness and beauty of director Wes Anderson's film. If <i>Bloom</i>
were a movie, it might be about the terrible ways we learn to live in
the moment, the kind of lessons that come from a loss so sudden it
unhinges your grip on life and forces you to think about making the most
of things — that is, if Legrand was the type to disclose her private
life to the press. She's not, but upon hearing some personal reflection
about what the record meant to this listener, the notoriously private
singer/songwriter admits that recording <i>Bloom</i> was Beach House's biggest challenge yet.
<br />
<br />
"Each album we've made is a moment in our lives," Legrand says. "Some
people have a scrapbook or a journal, and we have these records. I'm 30,
and now it's been a long time making music, but <i>Bloom</i> has been
one of the more intense experiences of making an album for us. That's
probably the most personal information I can give about it."
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Legrand says she and Scally usually let their guts guide them — the
album took shape once the songs revealed themselves. It's not an unusual
way to work, but her reverence for the process is unique.<br />
<br />
Some songs
can take months to write; it's a process that she says can't be rushed.
<br />
<br />
"If I wanted to make a concept album about spaghetti, I'd know exactly
what the album was going to be about, but that's not how we go about
making things," Legrand says. "It's always about following the instinct
or playful moments or inspirational moments, the melodies that talk to
us, and seeing how big we can make them or how far they take us. It's a
combination. It can be tortuous and euphoric."
<br />
<br />
Beach House has never really had hit songs, but they do have several
great songs that people like. "It's always about respecting the
songcraft and the song and the album format," Legrand adds. "It's about
the record now more than ever, because it seems like the attention span
of the world is diminishing every minute."
<br />
<br />
The nation's collective ADD has also played its role in celebrity and
fame trumping art. Legrand knows this all too well. During one of the <i>Teen Dream</i>-era
concerts, superstar couple Jay-Z and Beyonce were in attendance — a
happenstance that's now often referred to as a turning point in Beach
House's success.
<br />
<br />
"Celebrities appear at your show and I'm like, 'Go away,'" Legrand
laughs. "It's like doing them a service more so than it's doing us a
service. I think they [Jay-Z and Beyonce] watched every single band that
day, so it wasn't a question of us being particularly more enticing or
anything like that. But that's part of our obsession with celebrities
and useless information. Like a news headline or a headline at all, or a
reference point. I hope it's something that becomes a little less
important or we're pretty close to all starring in that film <i>Idiocracy</i>, which should be required viewing for all schools."
<br />
<br />
Legrand believes that she can make her life different than people say it
has to be. She and Scally took a risk with Beach House, and it's paid
off in a way that satisfies them. She admits that they've had their
share of luck, but she points out that their work ethic is "undying."
She also credits Beach House's sparse beginnings, such as shows where
they played for just five people, as vital to the band's growth.
<br />
<br />
"One of my favorite words is 'gestation,'" Legrand says. "You need time
as an artist to be an artist and develop. Not just get hyped and then
put a lot of pressure on and then flop. The best things in life have
time to grow."
<br />
<br />
It's fitting, then, that <i>Bloom</i> is possibly Beach House's best
record yet. It might be a time capsule of the duo's most difficult
years, but that's what makes it resonate so deeply. They're not trying
to break your heart, but Legrand admits she'd be happy to hear about it
if it did.
<br />
<br />
"The best moments are met with someone on the other side and that we can
connect," Legrand says. "That's definitely why we're still making
music. For some reason or another, what we do seems to mean something to
people, and we're very grateful to anybody who finds themselves in our
music. It makes it seem worth doing."
</div>
</div>
Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-80069755850641870912012-09-27T16:20:00.001-07:002012-09-27T16:20:45.866-07:00Delta Rae<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4144262">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Charleston City Paper, Aug. 22, 2012 </span></h1>
<h1 class="headline headline-4144262">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Eric Hölljes talks about Delta Rae's surprising success </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Surreal Life</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="MagnumImage">
<div class="magnumContainer no-foundation-imgeditor">
<img alt="Delta Rae's Eric Hlljes (far right) finds it strange to be on VH1" class="magnum" height="166" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/magnum/4144263/cec6/deltaraeMAG.jpg" width="320" />
<div class="caption">
Delta Rae's Eric HÖlljes (far right) finds it strange to be on VH1</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="EmbeddedSidebar">
<div class="sidebar">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
After playing music for years, brothers Eric and Ian Hölljes decided to
start a band, but not just any band. It would have rock and soul and
folk and some alt-country elements, and they wanted four-part harmonies
with two women. It was to be called Delta Rae. And so they enlisted
their sisters, Brittany Hölljes and Elizabeth Hopkins, the former by
birth and the latter by honorary status. They wanted an innovative
drummer who could switch seamlessly between a traditional kit and a
garbage can/metal chain combo, and they found one in Mike McKee. Of
course, they also needed a fluid bass player to flesh out the sounds of
their guitars and Eric's piano and keys, so in stepped Grant Emerson.
But Eric and Ian Hölljes never dreamed about making money doing what
they loved.<br />
<br />
"When we started the band we had humble expectations," Eric says with a
laugh, still sounding a bit dumbstruck. Last year around this time, the
band had raised $28,000 from 293 backers through Kickstarter to make
their first record, <i>Carry the Fire</i>. By February 2012, they were signed to Sire Records, a division of Warner Bros. Records.
<br />
<br />
"We were hoping we could make a life out of it and that felt very
ambitious in and of itself, and it still does — to make art and be able
to survive off of that. But we really threw everything we had into it,"
Eric says.
<br />
<br />
Some more than others. Eric adds, "My brother bought a house and we all
moved in together in North Carolina. Right from the first week we were
rehearsing, and Ian and I had been writing songs together for the band,
just like, imagining what it would be like. Then we had our first show
within a month, and after that we'd pile into a couple of cars and drive
anywhere we could get a gig, and that was three years ago. It's been an
amazing trip."
<br />
<br />
Although his childhood dreams are coming true, Eric finds the whole
experience to be a bit surreal. "We're going to be on VH1 tomorrow
morning. We all grew up watching MTV and VH1 nonstop, so the fact that
we're going to be on that channel — that part doesn't feel real. That
part feels pretty strange and amazing. I don't think I imagined this. I
maybe dreamed of it and hoped for it, but this is exceeding a lot of
what I imagined."
<br />
<br />
And it happened fast. After capitalizing on a chance connection to Sire
Records co-founder and Warner Bros. Records head honcho Seymour Stein,
the six-piece went to his Manhattan office and sang a few bars. Stein
ran out the door, but he wasn't being rude. He was insisting his
colleagues and underlings come listen. Delta Rae had arrived.
<br />
<br />
But between the successful Kickstarter fundraiser and a special CD
release party in their hometown a few weeks ago, there have been plenty
of heady, heartening reminders that Delta Rae has cultivated a dedicated
following — all without the major label support.
<br />
<br />
"We have the most amazing fans," Eric says. "It was such a risk. We were
trying to raise $20,000, which just seemed so ambitious to us. When we
started, we thought we could definitely fail. But the fans exceeded all
of our expectations and hopes. We're so grateful. And they're part of
this record and this process and this band."
<br />
<br />
At one recent show at the Cat's Cradle in the band's hometown of Chapel
Hill, N.C., the members of Delta Rae discovered exactly what they meant
to their fans. "They made over 350 paper torches, little lanterns, and
we had no idea about it. But then when they called us back for the
encore, the whole crowd had lit these 350 torches and were cheering us
on, and it was a very powerful, almost magical, experience. It blew us
away."
<br />
<br />
That feeling, it seems, is mutual. The raves online don't just praise
Delta Rae's music, but their live shows as well. All six have been known
to leap off the stage and work their way into the center of a huge
crowd and belt out a few songs. YouTube videos capture the energy and
urgency of their harmonies, pushing each other louder and larger until
the entire room feels pressurized, like a balloon about to pop. Think of
it as an epic campfire: accessible, catchy, and engaging. And
miraculously, <i>Carry the Fire</i> captures that feeling.
<br />
<br />
"I love music, but I find myself sometimes getting distracted or, dare I
say, bored, at shows," Eric says. "As a band we wanted to be exciting
and wanted to keep it interesting for the audience. We really embraced
that with our live show, and we wanted to translate that onto the
record, so we bring horns and strings and trash cans and try different
things vocally. It's a bit more experimental. We try to be exciting."
<br />
<br />
Mission accomplished.
<br />
</div>
</div>
Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-32299323436467420582012-08-29T14:14:00.000-07:002012-08-29T14:14:42.345-07:00Blitzen TrapperMy interview with Blitzen Trapper appeared in the Charleston City Paper. (Apologies again for so much delay in reposting here!)<br />
<br />
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4114884">
Eric Earley hints at a past tragedy on Blitzen Trapper's latest </h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
Dark shadows</h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="MagnumImage">
<div class="magnumContainer no-foundation-imgeditor">
<a class="zoomable" href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/magnum/4114886/e517/blitzentrapper2_TylerKohlhoff__mag.jpg"><img alt="Blitzen Trapper" class="magnum" height="129" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/magnum/4114886/e517/blitzentrapper2_TylerKohlhoff__mag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
<br />
Blitzen Trapper's Eric Earley isn't a talkative man. He's a mumbler on
the phone, not terribly forthcoming, and uncomfortable, it seems, with
getting too much attention, but he laughs a lot. It's a sound that comes
up frequently when he's faced with questions that make him look at his
life, which has been mostly spent in and around Portland, Ore. It's a
strange but charming sort of reaction, given Earley's concession that
the band's latest album, 2011's <i>American Goldwing</i>, is "pretty nostalgic."
<br />
<br />
"I don't really think about the past," he says. "I think there's a
reason for whatever songs I was writing at the time. It's not
necessarily a matter of confidence, but knowing yourself better as you
get older." He pauses, then laughs. "Besides, there's good things and
bad things about getting more confidence as you write songs."
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
The new album is certainly more country-rock and AM Gold than Blitzen Trapper's previous country-folk albums, <i>Destroyer of the Void</i> and <i>Furr</i>,
and Earley likens the new sound to running down the center in American
music. The first three tracks have an aggressiveness most of the rest of
the album lacks, which is ultimately a good thing, as the band tends to
excel in more vulnerable, story-driven territory. "Girl in a Coat" is
quiet and restrained, with Celtic influences and Earley thoughtfully
declaring, "I've been used and abused by these lesser deities." "My Home
Town" has a chilled-out, rambling folky-ness. Things get ratcheted up a
notch on the '70s-influenced title track and on the glorious
"Astronaut."
<br />
<br />
None of this sounds like it would add up to a songwriter who loves
hip-hop, but to hear Earley talk about the genre is to realize it has
played a formative part in his narrative approach to songcraft.
<br />
<br />
"I listen to it a lot," he says. "Hip-hop is the American folk music.
It's one of the two types of music invented solely here in America. And
it's all story-based, it's all rhyme-based. To me, it's like a lot of
old-time music, a lot of violence and stuff."
<br />
<br />
Like many writers, Earley obviously takes his inspirations from
disparate sources. He's open to disclosing what those are, but he does
so on his own terms. The lyrics on <i>American Goldwing </i>are a murky
reflection of where he's been, though he opens up more in Blitzen
Trapper's band bio (which he wrote himself), hinting at <i>American Goldwing</i>'s
dark source: "A certain tragedy struck me, a death of which I can't
speak, and I began writing." He details reaching into his past and talks
about feeling stuck and the difficult nature of moving on. Over the
phone, he's reticent to elaborate or revisit those places. "I think a
lot of the record, when you look at the lyrics, has a lot to do with
somebody being in a place where they can't figure out how to get
themselves out of," he says.
<br />
<br />
He references songs like <i>Goldwing</i>'s "Fletcher," which was
inspired by guys he grew up with, and "Taking it Easy Too Long," about a
guy who can't get over a girl, to illustrate his point. "Fletcher, he's
obviously runnin' drugs, and he's in this place where his life doesn't
have much meaning," Earley says. "He's the guy trying to figure out how
to get out of this situation. 'Takin' it Easy,' same thing."
<br />
<br />
Earley does admit that writing these songs helped dislodge him from the
place in which he was stuck, but at the beginning it was difficult to
live with them and sing them every day.
<br />
<br />
"For a while, some of the songs were hard, just because they were about
very specific people and things," he says. "But it changes with time.
You always get disconnected with something you do repetitively. It's
good. It allows you to move on."
<br />
<br />
Though on some level, it must be strange for Earley to finally be moving
toward the end of this touring cycle, preparing to let this record go.
After all, for the longest time, he couldn't play it, even though he
desperately wanted to. Earley wrote <i>American Goldwing</i> while touring Blitzen Trapper's last album, 2010's <i>Destroyer of the Void</i>.
<br />
<br />
"[<i>Goldwing</i>] was the record I wanted to be playing, but I had to
wait a year to put it out," Earley remembers. "It was more the record I
was connecting to for a longer period of time. It was all written within
three or four months, and there was a consistency to it at the time
that made sense to me."
<br />
<br />
Earley doesn't go into any further detail. Details, it seems, are to be
revealed on his own terms. But what about his lyrics? He's a thoughtful
writer. Doesn't he want to guide the listener toward revelations? Or is
he content with his fans scrutinizing and inferring at will? "You're
always trying to figure out what someone's saying, what their meaning
is, but you're always going to just project yourself onto everything,"
he says. "But that's good. That's how people understand themselves in
relation to everyone else."
</div>
</div>
Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-34547125780180290052012-08-29T14:08:00.002-07:002012-08-29T14:14:51.297-07:00Sara WatkinsMy interview with Sara Watkins originally ran in the Charleston City Paper.<br />
<br />
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<div class="headline headline-4111746">
<b>Sara Watkins joins forces with Jackson Browne </b></div>
<div class="subheadline">
Sunny songwriters</div>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="EmbeddedSidebar">
<div class="sidebar">
<div class="Sidebar ContentMusic " id="ArticleTools">
<div class="tools" id="ArticleToolsTools">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="Sidebar ContentMusic " id="ImageFlipBook">
<div class="flipBook" id="ImageFlipBook:flipBook">
<div class="photoMain">
<a class="zoomable" href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/sara-watkins-formerly-of-nickel-creek-warms-things-up-for-jackson-browne/b/original/4111748/df54/SaraWatkins.press-photo1_thumb.jpg" rel="ImageFlipBook_imgGroup" title="Sara Watkins, formerly of Nickel Creek, warms things up for Jackson Browne this weekend - provided"><img alt="Sara Watkins, formerly of Nickel Creek, warms things up for Jackson Browne this weekend - provided" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/story/4111748/df54/SaraWatkins.press-photo1_thumb.jpg" /></a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="Sidebar ContentMusic " id="AudioPlayer">
<div class="audioPlayer">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
<br />
A few things stand out when you listen to Sara Watkins' latest album, <i>Sun Midnight Sun </i>(Nonesuch):
heartbreak and heartache are plentiful, her famous friends are out in
full force (including Fiona Apple, Jackson Browne, and Benmont Tench),
and for a fiddle virtuoso coming off 20 years as one-third of famed folk
band Nickel Creek, she sure does love to let her pop star shine.
<br />
Watkins knows this new record is a departure from her 2009 eponymous
solo debut. It's all part of the new reality she's been cultivating —
growing up, getting outside her own mind, and challenging herself.
<br />
<br />
"The first record was establishing a home base, collecting the sources,
the places I came from musically," Watkins says, speaking just before
the start of a summer tour with Browne. "A lot of my past is represented
on the first record. I knew that's what I was doing, establishing a
base camp. Making my second record, I got to enjoy stepping away from
that, and I got to enjoy collaborating with some new people, namely
Blake Mills [from Dawes], who produced the record. We could explore and
discover each song as we were recording it."
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Watkins says Mills was able to push her well beyond her comfort zone, allowing <i>Sun Midnight Sun</i> to evolve in ways she couldn't fathom.
<br />
<br />
"He brought some fresh ears to a lot of the songs," Watkins laughs. "I'd
brought the songs to a place I was comfortable with, but I wanted to be
a little less comfortable with them. I wanted to have outside
influences on my songs. So much of those songs just came out of my
brain, which can be really boring. I wanted to have the kind of
collaboration that I grew up with with the band. Blake, being not as
familiar with the ruts that I had gotten in, he heard these songs with a
lot more potential than I could see and I got to benefit from his
creativity."
<br />
<br />
Watkins met Mills through mutual friends at the famed Hollywood venue
Largo. Watkins had spent years there co-hosting the Watkins Family Hour,
a monthly musical showcase with her brother Sean, also of Nickel Creek.
She credits Largo with fostering the partnerships that made <i>Sun</i> possible.
<br />
Largo is also where Watkins developed relationships with Browne and Apple, and both add touches of brilliance to <i>Sun</i>.
The standout is the blistering duet between Watkins and Apple covering
the Everly Brothers' "You're the One I Love." It's a tense, invigorating
number — the vocal equivalent of a smack to the face — that leaves the
listener breathless by the end.
<br />
<br />
"Good!" Watkins laughs at the suggestion. "We were breathless, too."
<br />
<br />
The creative community that's arisen around the venue, paired with her
years as a driving force in the folk music scene, have made the
31-year-old a sought-after collaborator, including stints with the
Decemberists and <i>A Prairie Home Companion</i>, among countless others.
<br />
<br />
"I'm very lucky," Watkins says, still awed and humbled by her good
fortune. "I feel like I've been in the right place at the right time on
many occasions. My whole life, maybe."
<br />
<br />
Apple and Watkins had sung the song live a few times in the past during
the Watkins Family Hour, but this was their first attempt at recording
it — and very likely their last.
<br />
<br />
"We each had our own microphones and were facing each other in this
small room and we sang it eight or 10 times," Watkins recalls. "It's a
short song, but it thrashes our voices. The last four passes through the
song, we got into a pretty good groove and it got more and more intense
and more fun to sing. We knew what our last pass was for sure. It was
the last two tracks, right back to back, and I'll never forget the
feeling after that last pass. I was elated. And she and I just started
laughing and we were like, 'OK, we're done.' "
</div>
</div>
Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-69202250211344859892012-08-29T14:05:00.001-07:002012-08-29T14:15:01.184-07:00XanaduI've been absolutely terrible about updating my site, but I'm going to try to be good going forward!<br />
<br />
This is my piece on Xanadu, originally published in the <a href="http://www.straight.com/article-714241/vancouver/cheese-served-skates">Straight</a>.<br />
<br />
<h1 style="font-weight: normal;">
Xanadu is cheese served on skates</h1>
<div class="subhead">
Xanadu is a campy ode to, and sendup of, the ’80s roller-disco movie musical</div>
<div class="subhead">
<br /></div>
<div class="contributor-line">
By <a href="http://www.straight.com/archives/contributor/23351">Andrea Warner</a>, <span class="date-line">June 21, 2012</span></div>
<div id="article_body">
<div class="photobox article_image_inline_container">
<a alt="" class="thickbox initThickbox-processed" href="http://www.straight.com/files/images/inline/ARTS_xanadu2_2322.jpg" title="Marlie Collins and Gaelan Beatty get kitschy in <em>Xanadu</em>."><img class="article_image_inline" height="320" src="http://www.straight.com/files/images/inline/ARTS_xanadu2_2322.jpg" width="225" /></a>
<br />
Marlie Collins and Gaelan Beatty get kitschy in <i>Xanadu</i>. </div>
<br />
“And you’re skating away, looking over your shoulder at him while he watches you…” <br />
<br />
Glide, glide, backwards glance, bang! As director Dean Paul
Gibson guides her, Marlie Collins, the tall blond star of the Arts
Club’s production of <i>Xanadu</i>, stumbles on her rollerskates and
botches her exit from the Granville Island Stage. Gibson barely pauses.
“Perhaps a bit more gracefully next time?” he suggests playfully without
missing a beat. <br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
There’s knowing laughter all around, and the loudest giggles are
from Collins and Gibson. Bruised bums (and egos) are something of a rite
of passage in <i>Xanadu</i>. The musical is based on the campy
film—starring Olivia Newton John as a goddess who inspires an artist to
open a roller disco—that was universally panned on its release. A study
in early-’80s excess, the movie was a bewilderingly fun fusion of Greek
myth, musical theatre, fantasy, and leg warmers.<br />
<br />
In the three decades since its debut, it’s become a cult
favourite thanks to its kitsch factor and earnest message about art
triumphing over greed. Everyone was baffled when it received a Broadway
makeover in 2007. But more surprising? It was a hit. <br />
<br />
Gibson admits that when the Arts Club’s artistic managing
director Bill Millerd approached him about taking the helm, his first
reaction was, “<i>Xanadu</i>?! The so-bad-it’s-good movie?”<br />
<br />
“We went to see it and it was just—you know that thing when you
see something and you’re like [his mouth gapes, and his eyes open wide]?
So fuckin’ bad!” he laughs. “I think we’d smoked a bomber or something
and thought, ‘This will be fun.’ I went to see it with my best pal,
who’s creating the props for this production 32 years later, and there
we were watching it and going, ‘Oh my god, that was so stinky!’ So
stinky. Bad, bad, bad.” <br />
<br />
Obviously, he’s come around. It helps that Douglas Carter Beane’s
book is a frothy delight, and Jeff Lynne and John Farrar’s music and
lyrics pay winking tribute to the celluloid source material. <br />
<br />
“It is so much fun,” Gibson says of the production. “It’s just
ridiculous and super gay. But it’s not just for the gays, God knows.
There’s a little something for everybody. There’s the nostalgic aspect
for anybody who’s middle aged, with the Electric Light Orchestra
[songs], and the whole thing about the ’80s again, and it’s so bad it’s
good now. And they harken back to the war, too, so there’s some stuff
for an older generation. And then there’s stuff that’s more current for
the younger ones, who’ll just go because the ’80s have become so cool.”<br />
<br />
But delve below the disco-dazzle surface, tantalizing awfulness,
and pouffy pop numbers, and there’s an even better reason why this
fabulous failure found its home on Broadway. <i>Xanadu</i>’s earnest,
heartfelt assertion that art matters validates every person, patron, or
performer, in the theatre. The importance of art is a topic that hits
close to home for many Vancouverites right now, and the musical’s
unexpected, underlying resonance isn’t lost on Gibson. <br />
<br />
“It’s so current! Ding, ding, ding!” he says. “God bless the
developers who are getting bonus density so they can get the space
inside the condos.…When you’re building, make sure you’re thinking of
the community, too. That you’re creating opportunities for us to
socialize and, again, have arts and culture in our lives.…It’s the
muses. ‘I’ll inspire you and you’ll do good art and that will be true
happiness.’ The message of <i>Xanadu</i> is exactly that. In a very
silly, fun, good-times framework, there’s a profound message, and it’s a
wonderful revelation that’s not a revelation at all.” <br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.straight.com/timeout/listing/vancouver/new-15014">Xanadu</a> runs at the Arts Club Theatre’s Granville Island Stage from tonight (June 21) to August 4.</b></div>
Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-73371659358571242932012-06-10T18:01:00.001-07:002012-06-11T16:38:07.577-07:00Sin PeaksFrom the <a href="http://www.straight.com/article-696526/vancouver/sin-peaks-deftly-handles-surprises">Georgia Straight</a><br />
<br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Sin Peaks deftly handles surprises</span></h1>
<div class="imagetest">
<div class="article_image_wide_container">
<a alt="" class="thickbox initThickbox-processed" href="http://www.straight.com/files/images/wide/ART_SinPeaks_2319.jpg" title=""></a><br />
<div class="article_image_wide_inner_container">
<a alt="" class="thickbox initThickbox-processed" href="http://www.straight.com/files/images/wide/ART_SinPeaks_2319.jpg" title=""><img class="article_image_wide" height="158" src="http://www.straight.com/files/imagecache/wide_article/images/wide/ART_SinPeaks_2319.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<a alt="" class="thickbox initThickbox-processed" href="http://www.straight.com/files/images/wide/ART_SinPeaks_2319.jpg" title="">
</a>A colourful cast of characters brings weekly scandal to the Waldorf with the improv soap opera <i>Sin Peaks</i>.<br />
<div class="article_image_wide_credit">
Peter Holst</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="links_wrapper">
<div class="top_social_media_icons">
</div>
<div class="links_icons">
<a href="http://www.straight.com/print/696526" rel="nofollow" title=""><br /> </a></div>
</div>
<div class="contributor-line">
By <a href="http://www.straight.com/archives/contributor/23351">Andrea Warner</a>, <span class="date-line">May 29, 2012</span></div>
<div class="contributor-line">
</div>
<div id="article_body">
It’s
10:30 a.m. on Victoria Day, the star of your show is in Portland,
Oregon, and the border lineups to return to Canada are already four
hours long. Any other theatre company would be screwed, but the weekly
improv soap opera <i>Sin Peaks</i> is all about deftly handling surprises. After all, the first rule of improv is “Never say no.”<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
It’s a principle that’s permitted <i>Sin Peaks</i> to evolve wildly
since opening night, five “episodes” ago, when it introduced its
audience to the 1979 all-inclusive Tahitian paradise Sin Peaks Resort
(aka the Waldorf Hotel’s basement cabaret room). The island’s awash in
soap hallmarks like sex, betrayal, and scandal, but there’s also an
active volcano, a hunt for a “double-barrelled-assholed” primate, a
corpse in the resort’s boiler room, and the bomb dropped at that fateful
Victoria Day show: a woman is back from the dead! <br />
<br />
“I didn’t even know her mother was dead!” says <i>Sin Peaks</i> director Aimée Beaudoin, laughing as she speaks to the <i>Straight </i>the next day over chips and guacamole at a Main Street diner. Stephen Keppler, <i>Sin Peaks</i> codirector and actor, nods in agreement. <br />
<br />
“It’s all improvised, so the director has to improvise as well,” he
says. “That’s what makes the show kind of unique. You can’t control what
people are going to do on the stage, so you have to just go with it and
hope it’s going to go somewhere.” <br />
<br />
Keppler knows this all too well. He’s spent the last three weeks directing <i>Sin Peaks</i> in Beaudoin’s absence (she was busy playing the lead in her new vampire film, <i>Truckstop Bloodsuckers</i>, for Bite TV) and had to handle the Victoria Day debacler. <br />
<br />
As evidenced by that show, the big risks that come with sudden
upheaval can have brilliant payoffs. To fill the gap left by their
lead’s absence, Keppler and Beaudoin crafted a one-night-only role for
Beaudoin as Mrs. Beverly, the viciously funny, elderly mother of two
prominent resort guests. It was a memorable debut: hilarious one-liners,
moments of heartfelt growth, and a full-on same-sex make-out session
with the island chief, who channelled Mrs. Beverly’s recently deceased
husband. <br />
<br />
But this is just one of at least 14 characters to inhabit the Sin
Peaks Resort. It’s an impressive feat: the cast members have to
negotiate the myriad plots and develop their characters in 90 minutes
and 18 scenes. The pace is brisk and while not every joke lands, there
are more hits than misses. <br />
<br />
It helps that many of the young actors have roots in improv. Most are
long-time friends from Edmonton who met at that city’s Jubilations
Dinner Theatre and have since relocated here, and a few Vancouver actors
and comedians round out the cast. But it’s still a relatively new
experience for most to produce a weekly show. According to Keppler, it’s
a lot of trial and error, but they’ve received friendly tips from
like-minded improv companies across the country, including Edmonton’s
Die-Nasty, the long-running weekly soap opera that counts Mike Myers and
Nathan Fillion among its alumni.<br />
<br />
“Die-Nasty have been doing it for 21 years and they’re our heroes,”
Keppler says. “At first we were trying to emulate what they were doing,
but now it’s becoming its own thing.”<br />
<br />
With just weeks until the first season wraps on June 25, Beaudoin and
Keppler are already thinking about the next iteration, which starts in
September: westerns, fairy tales, and space odysseys have all been
floated as possible genres. But first, how to steer <i>Sin Peaks</i> towards its first finale? <br />
<br />
“There will be more death and sex in the next few weeks,” Beaudoin
predicts. “I don’t think anybody’s safe. But I don’t want to get
everyone bogged down with, ‘Oh, we have to tie everything up.’ Soap
operas don’t really do that anyway. There’s still mysteries. We’ll just
keep having fun. And hopefully, something will happen with that
volcano.”<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.straight.com/timeout/listing/vancouver/new-13914">Sin Peaks</a> runs at the Waldorf Hotel on Monday nights until June 25.</b></div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-90619537687816743972012-06-10T17:59:00.002-07:002012-06-10T17:59:53.543-07:00Susana BeharFrom the Charleston City Paper<br />
<br />
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4085077">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Susana Behar shares songs from her Sephardic ancestry </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Oh Susana</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="MagnumImage">
<div class="magnumContainer no-foundation-imgeditor">
<img alt="The Cuban-born, Miami-based singer shakes up the spotlight concert series" class="magnum" height="129" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/magnum/4085078/e584/OhSusanaMAG.jpg" width="320" />
<br />
<div class="credit">
<a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ImageArchives?oid=4085078">Amy Pasquantonio/Amatistaphoto.com</a></div>
<div class="caption">
The Cuban-born, Miami-based singer shakes up the spotlight concert series</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent" id="EmbeddedSidebar">
<div class="sidebar">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
If Susana Behar looks familiar, chances are you might have seen her in
the audience during previous Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto festivals.
After all, she's been attending them for the last eight years. That's a
long time to hold on to a dream, and finally Piccolo Spoleto attendees
will be privy to the acclaimed vocalist's exotic repertoire — the
Sephardic music of her ancestors, Latin American folk, and a brief,
passionate pit stop in flamenco — a set list that ultimately unfolds
like a timeline of Behar's incredible life.
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Born in Cuba and based in Miami, Behar's musical influences were
familial; her father shared his love of Cuban music, while her
grandparents and mother shared the Turkish Sephardic songs of their
Jewish culture.
<br />
<br />
"Unfortunately I didn't have my grandparents for too long," Behar
recalls, over the phone from her Miami home. "But I did have them for a
bit as a young girl and I remember them speaking Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)
and my grandmother singing ... Sometimes during Jewish holidays my
mother and my aunt would sing the traditional songs."
<br />
<br />
When Behar was still a child, the family opted to leave Cuba, but only
Behar and her mother made it to Venezuela. Due to the Castro regime and
its mandatory military service, Behar's 15-year-old brother was
forbidden from leaving the country. Her father stayed behind, thinking
they would be reunited soon.
<br />
<br />
"We were separated for many years, almost 15 years," Behar says. "My
brother came out of the army already married and with a child and he
decided to come to Miami. Then my mother and I followed. We were
separated for many years already, and we would not continue being
separated. It's perfect, it's been great. I love this place."
<br />
<br />
The intervening years found Behar performing in choirs at a Jewish
school, often as a soloist, then enrolling in a university specializing
in sciences where she earned her masters in biology and in her downtime
found a thriving music scene amongst the other academics.
<br />
<br />
"There were a lot of people that were very artsy," Behar laughs. "There
were great musicians going to the school at the same time as me,
studying biology or chemistry, and were either singers, guitarists, or
piano players, so I did a lot of music in my years of studies. We had a
little plaza in the center of the school and we'd spend hours there just
singing in between classes and exams."
<br />
<br />
Venezuelan folk and Latin American traditional numbers took up the bulk
of Behar's focus, but upon graduation she found herself revisiting the
Sephardic music of her roots.
<br />
<br />
"I find the music to be beautiful, and the Sephardic culture is very
rich," Behar says. "I found my niche. I continued doing Latin American,
folk, and Cuban music, but I started working more, researching more and
more the Sephardic music traditions."
<br />
<br />
For much of the last six years, Behar has performed Sephardic music
almost exclusively. The inclination toward embracing her ancestral music
seems equal parts conscious choice and instinct, a desire to pay
tribute to and preserve her family's immigrant history.
<br />
<br />
"We have been a family of a lot of separation, unfortunately," Behar
says. "It's a way to honor them. It's a way to honor my grandparents who
left Turkey and never saw their parents again. Never saw their families
again after they immigrated, like so many people in the world ... I
feel it's a labor of love to keep that culture alive. The only way I can
contribute and keep the musical tradition and the language tradition
alive, is by singing."
</div>
</div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-66271181466766732212012-06-10T17:55:00.001-07:002012-06-10T18:00:06.065-07:00kd langFrom the <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/kd-lang-resurfaces-with-a-sexy-swinging-sound/Content?oid=4084858">Charleston City Paper</a><br />
<br />
<b>k.d. lang resurfaces with a sexy, swinging sound </b><br />
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sing It Loud</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="MagnumImage">
<div class="magnumContainer no-foundation-imgeditor">
<img alt="k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang make their much-anticipated Spoleto debut at The Gaillard" class="magnum" height="114" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/magnum/4084859/9561/SingItLoudMAG.jpg" width="320" />
<br />
<div class="credit">
<a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ImageArchives?oid=4084859&by=1811366">Provided</a></div>
<div class="caption">
k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang make their much-anticipated Spoleto debut at The Gaillard</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
It is possible that one may never again experience the kind of
soul-fulfilling bliss that accompanies hearing k.d. lang's rich and
resonant cover of Leonard Cohen's ubiquitous "Hallelujah." Unless, of
course, you already possess tickets to her sold-out show June 3 at the
Spoleto Festival.
<br />
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
<br />
After years of laying low, the 50-year-old Canadian singer/songwriter,
born Kathryn Dawn Lang, made a splashy return to the public eye in 2010,
streaming into millions of homes around the world during Vancouver's
opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Her stunning rendition of the
aforementioned Cohen staple triggered a collective recollection: Oh
yeah, k.d. lang, what's she up to? Where's she been?
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Well, that's a two-parter. Since last year's release of<i> Sing It Loud</i>, her first album of new material since 2008's <i>Watershed</i>,
lang's been on the road, performing to sold-out crowds around the
world. The songs are gorgeous and fun, brimming with sexy swagger,
taking liberal deviations between her staples: alt-country and
swing/torch numbers. <i>Sing It Loud</i> marks her return to form in
another way as well. It's the first time in more than 25 years that
she's employed a backing band — the Siss Boom Bang, in studio and on
tour — since her humble beginnings fronting a country-twanged Patsy
Cline-inspired tribute group.
<br />
<br />
k.d. lang and the Reclines released their debut album, <i>Friday Dance Promenade</i>,
in 1983. It's an entirely different lang than the one most people know,
with '60s-style hair, cute dresses, and a voice just starting to find
its niche. In 1984, lang and the Reclines ditched the covers and
released their first proper studio album, <i>A Truly Western Experience</i>,
catching the eye of American record label Sire, owned by studio heavies
Warner Bros. In 1987, the band made its jump across the border, making
its American debut with <i>Angel with a Lariat</i>. The critically
acclaimed record established lang as a force in country music, and
Tennessee came calling, offering lang the opportunity to make the leap
to solo artist. <i>Shadowland,</i> a thoroughly country affair, featured guests like Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, and Kitty Wells.
<br />
<br />
She reunited with the Reclines in 1989 for what would ultimately be their last album together, the Grammy Award-winning <i>Absolute Torch and Twang,</i>
a title that accurately predicted lang's musical future. That same
year, Roy Orbison hand-picked her to duet with him on a remake of his
hit "Crying," exposing her uniquely soulful voice to a much broader
pop-rock audience.
<br />
<br />
Poised for crossover success, lang released her second solo album, <i>Ingénue</i>,
in 1992, and the ubiquitous tale of lust and longing, "Constant
Craving," became her hallmark, securing another Grammy victory, this
time in the pop category. Going against the industry's advice, she came
out the same year, and in 1993 became something of a provocateur after
appearing on the cover of <i>Vanity Fair</i>, sitting in a barber's
chair in a man's suit, shaved from behind by a bathing suit-clad Cindy
Crawford. Lang was suddenly a folk hero to a vocal minority and public
enemy No. 1 to staunch conservatives, but nothing could slow<i> Ingénue</i>'s momentum. It's still her best-selling album to date, reaching double platinum status on both sides of the border.
<br />
<br />
After that glorious peak, lang rode out the rest of the '90s with another album of originals (the mostly filler <i>All You Can Eat</i>) and <i>Drag</i>,
a covers album ostensibly about smoking — and a winking salute to her
self-professed "butch" attire. And though that 2010 Olympic performance
jogged a lot of memories, it wasn't as though lang disappeared entirely
or retreated into hiding throughout the Oughts. She quietly plugged
along, releasing new material, compilations, and covers albums with
little fanfare. In a decade that savored diva pop and hip-hop and its
inverse of bearded alt-folk and indie-rock, lang's country
crooner-meets-jazz standards slow burn got lost in the shuffle.
<br />
<br />
Until now. Seeing lang reclaim her rightful place in the spotlight
restores one's faith in the value and appreciation for good music. It
helps that <i>Sing It Loud</i> is the perfect sonic time capsule of
someone truly settling back inside herself, digging deep and reveling in
the freedom she's worked diligently to attain. Her voice, pitch-perfect
and unadorned, bolstered by the Siss Boom Bang, is bigger and bolder.
After almost 30 years in the business, this is the sound of confidence
and determination, of making music her own way. Sing it loud, sing it
proud.
</div>
</div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-12448649033322829472012-06-10T17:47:00.001-07:002012-06-10T18:00:17.384-07:00Danny KalbFrom <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/danny-kalb-powers-through-health-issues-to-make-a-comeback/Content?oid=4084847">Charleston City Paper</a><br />
<br />
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4084847">
<span style="font-size: small;">Danny Kalb powers through health issues to make a comeback </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A Second Chance</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="MagnumImage">
<div class="magnumContainer no-foundation-imgeditor">
<img alt="Danny Kalb is still bridging blues, rock, and folk styles" class="magnum" height="163" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/magnum/4084848/ebe3/ASecondChanceMAG.jpg" width="320" />
<br />
<div class="credit">
<a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ImageArchives?oid=4084848">Meeta Ganhi</a></div>
<div class="caption">
Danny Kalb is still bridging blues, rock, and folk styles</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent" id="EmbeddedSidebar">
<div class="sidebar">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MainColumn SpoletoContent " id="StoryLayout">
<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
Life hasn't always been kind to overlooked blues guitar legend Danny
Kalb. After an all-too-brief burst of fame in the '60s as founder of the
Blues Project, Kalb found himself out of the spotlight. He continued to
make music, but failed to achieve the high-profile recognition of, say,
his friend Bob Dylan or even his former Blues Project bandmate, Steve
Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears. But now, at almost 70 years old, Kalb
is gearing up for a comeback, which includes a tour stop at the Piccolo
Spoleto Festival. When the blues is your life, why let something like a
recent stroke get in the way?
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
"God has been good to me," Kalb says over the phone from his home in
Brooklyn. Three months ago, he wasn't sure what his post-stroke future
looked like. Now he's almost fully recovered. "It's a funny thing when
you think the worst has happened, that your career is over, or that
you're never going to be happy, or not going to play again, and it's the
opposite."
<br />
<br />
Kalb's faith — in himself, his music, and God — has been a guiding principle that's helped him navigate years of uncertainty.
<br />
<br />
"I believe that you have to try," he says. "I think that the universe
wants everyone to be happy and giving. When I was given the gift of
guitar playing, I felt wonderful. Later on, when there was a lot of
trouble in my life, I kept playing the guitar and I got through. I've
been through a lot of hard stuff, but so has everybody else. One way or
another, we get through ... Beauty reigns."
<br />
Not that Kalb was always able to identify the beauty right away.
<br />
<br />
"I had my moment of fame as a rock 'n' roll musician with the Blues
Project," he recalls. "That was a wonderful time, but then it fell
apart. It was a difficult time for years, but I kept playing the guitar,
and I went through some more stuff, but it didn't kill me. I've always
played the guitar through good times and bad, and I believe it was God's
gift to me to keep me going. You don't even have to call it God, you
can call it will to live."
<br />
<br />
Kalb eventually elaborates on the mental challenges that threatened to
derail him. "I "It's a lot of effort, a lot of therapy, which I
recommend."
<br />
<br />
In fact, Kalb partly credits blues music with showing him how that
change is possible, and it continues to play a starring role in his
life. It brought the Blues Project together almost four decades ago, and
now it's helped heal Kalb's relationships with his former bandmates. He
recently reunited with Blues Project bandmates Al Kooper and Roy
Blumenfeld, coming full circle to record together again for Kalb's
forthcoming album,<i> Moving in Blue</i>.
<br />
<br />
"There had been some falling outs, but love is powerful," Kalb says.
"The blues is our basic coming together point. It's not a sad music —
it's a triumph music, gettin' past anything. Also, when you get older,
you realize disagreements are not forever. If you're a person of faith,
you realize reconciliation is the name of the game. Even if you're not
formally religious or any of that stuff, you know, if you're a
grandfather for instance, you know that babies are being born and maybe
there'll be transcendence with that son that you didn't get along with.
There are so many ways to get back to the garden, as Joni Mitchell would
say. There are so many ways to actualize the good and find peace."
</div>
</div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-51629731869411615552012-06-10T17:44:00.000-07:002012-06-10T18:00:28.821-07:00Cold SpecksIn the current June issue of <a href="http://exclaim.ca/Interviews/FromTheMagazine/cold_specks_emerges">Exclaim!</a><br />
<br />
And click <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/cold_specks_discusses_her_rock_star_secret_streams_debut_album_on_exclaimca">here</a> for the link to the related online news story. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/Interviews/FromTheMagazine/cold_specks_emerges"><img alt="Cold Specks Emerges" height="224" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/Cold-Specks-3---c1.-of-Arts-&-Crafts.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="author"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="author">By Andrea Warner</span><span class="bodytext"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext">"I tend to lie in interviews. But I haven't lied today."<br /><br />Al
Spx's confession comes about three-quarters into our meeting. I can't
help but laugh. So far, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Toronto
has been guarded yet candid, and funny as hell. Could she be playing me?
Sure, but there's such sincerity in her statement, it's like she's
surprised herself by letting me in on the joke.<br /><br />Spx is the bruised-but-beating heart of her own six-piece band, Cold Specks, and about to release her debut album, <i>I Predict a Graceful Expulsion</i>.
It's a mouthful and a mind full ― and arguably among the most original
records to come out of Canada since the Arcade Fire's debut almost a
decade ago. It chronicles a messy number of years in Spx's young life: a
falling out with God, depression, suicidal thoughts. Every single word
wrenched from her bones in a last-ditch effort at preserving her sanity
and sating her loneliness.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="bodytext"><br />Juxtapose <i>Expulsion</i>'s gutted
honesty with the questionable tactics of some tabloid rags and Spx has
had a bitch of an introduction into navigating the PR demands on an
emerging rock star, hence the lying.<br /><br />"This interview the other
day, well, I didn't expect him to print it because it was just
absolutely ridiculous," Spx laughs over coffee at a cafe in Vancouver.
"The headline was something like 'Cold Specks gets her inspiration from a
wooden duck and a demon named Hector.' And it ends with, 'When asked if
she's going to be nervous about her upcoming shows, Specks says, "All
nerves have been instructed to kiss my black ass."' They printed it!"<br /><br />She's
learning quickly to make the best of bad situations, mocking the
laziness and casual racism she's endured at the hands of stupid people.
As often as not, <i>Expulsion</i> has been written as <i>Explosion</i>. Several publications are on her shit list for that error, as well as the time she was referred as the "black Adele."<br /><br />"I
found that really offensive," she says, shaking her head. "I'm sure
she's a really lovely person, but our music isn't very similar at all...
But I've just completely removed myself from that. I don't pay
attention to it anymore because I was getting really worked up over
nothing. People will make whatever comparisons they want to make and I
just have to be comfortable with what I've created."<br /><br />Which in
itself has been a challenge. Before this, Spx almost never shared her
music with her friends or her parents. Her mother only recently
discovered the truth about her daughter after turning the channel and
seeing Cold Specks perform on <i>George</i> <i>Stroumboulopoulos Tonight</i>.<br /><br />"Because
no one was listening initially, I'd always been brutally honest with my
songwriting," she says of her unsuccessful bid for anonymity. "I didn't
intend for anyone to hear the songs, so I would just sing what I was
thinking. It's a pretty brutally honest album. A song like 'Lay Me
Down,' it's just about wanting to die, really. I wasn't very happy. It's
dark."<br /><br />Any good fairy tale ending has plenty of darkness at its
core, and Spx's evolution from DIY acoustic folkie to Cold Specks is
worthy of a Grimm plot. Spx worked up the nerve to send her demo to a
friend in Wales. His brother, record producer/engineer Jim Anderson (Los
Campesinos!), overheard and after months of cross-Atlantic phone calls,
eventually convinced Spx to come out and make a proper album. The
result is a gorgeous and gloomy collection that could be called cold
soul, though Spx's joking description of doom soul is better. Her voice
is the warm centrepiece of each song, husky and glowing and solid amidst
arrangements that play fast and loose with convention, incorporating
horns and strings and an assortment of unusual instruments like the
phonofiddle.<br /><br />"It's all I ever wanted," Spx says. "The record was
written mostly in 2009, and some songs were written years before 2009
even. For a long time I didn't share the songs because I knew they were
incomplete ideas. I wanted to have this wall of sound but I didn't want
it to overwhelm the songs. I wanted it to be subtle but still powerful."<br /><br />Which
turned out to be easier in theory than practice. After six months in
London, Spx returned to Canada under the auspices of renewing her visa.
What was supposed to be a quick trip home turned into half a year of
second-guessing herself.<br /><br />"It was really tough at first," she
says. "I'd done everything on my own to begin with. It was tough getting
used to collaborating with other people." Later she elaborates. "I
didn't know if I wanted to go back. I was frustrated with myself as a
songwriter. Things weren't progressing fast enough because I didn't know
what to do. It took ages."<br /><br />Spx says once she embraced a
less-is-more philosophy, the album wrapped up quickly. Then she just had
to deal with the lyrical content and her misguided hopes that using a
pseudonym could keep <i>Expulsion</i>, which details her frustrations with religion and family, death, and sadness, from her parents.<br /><br />Spx
says it's simple respect for her family that keeps her from discussing
specifics about them, and downplays any gossipy talk of estrangement or
familial strife. "My parents are great, big respect to them," she says.
"They were refugees who worked minimum wage jobs and were raising seven
kids. They're amazing people. We do get along, we just see things
differently."<br /><br />What may help is that Spx says much of <i>Expulsion</i>'s
darkness is behind her. She laughingly admits she's "over" the songs
now, which is part of why she can play them night after night. She
smiles, almost fondly, remembering who she was and how far she's come.
The title of her album, once hopeful, perhaps, is now beautifully
prophetic.<br /><br />"Yes, I was depressed. But most people in their 20s go
through some strange period of natural growth. You go through
frustrations; I just happened to be writing songs about it," Spx says.
"I'm 24 now and I've figured some things out. I'm really happy with who I
am and where I am and what I do. I'm in a different place. Next
record's going to be a pop record. There'll be synths. And back-up
dancers." I catch the mischief in her eyes.<br /><br />"Are you lying about the back-up dancers?" I ask.<br /><br />"Yeah," she laughs. "And the synths as well."</span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-73905637084781427532012-06-10T17:39:00.001-07:002012-06-10T17:40:40.893-07:00Suckers ExclaimFrom April 13 on <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/suckers_explain_their_shrinking_lineup_with_candy_salad">Exclaim.ca</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/suckers_explain_their_shrinking_lineup_with_candy_salad"><img alt="Suckers Explain Their Shrinking Lineup with 'Candy Salad'" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/suckers1.jpg" /></a><span class="author"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="author">By Andrea Warner</span><span class="bodytext"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext">Since their self-titled debut EP in 2009, <a href="http://suckersmusic.com/">Suckers</a>
have laid claim to all the key descriptors befitting of a "buzz band":
Brooklyn-based, art pop, sampler happy. Riding the high of acclaim, the
three-piece (cousins Quinn Walker and Austin Fisher, and childhood
friend Pan) expanded to a four-piece with the addition of drummer Brian
Aiken and released their first full length, <i>Wild Smile</i>, in 2010.<br /><br />After
lengthy tours honing their performance chops -- and often upstaging the
headliners for whom they were opening -- Suckers retreated to work on
their follow-up album. The result? The catchy and clever <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/suckers_prep_candy_salad_north_american_tour"><i>Candy Salad</i></a>, and the surprisingly casual reveal that Aiken has left the band.<br /><br />"There's just three of us at the moment," Pan tells Exclaim! as <i>Candy Salad</i>'s late April release date approaches. "We never made a major announcement or anything."<br /><br />"Brian
is moving to Thailand to start a new life. He bought a one-way ticket,"
Fisher adds, by way of explanation that this is a permanent change to
Suckers' lineup. <br /> <br />They don't go into any further details, but
say that the end result "has worked out nicely," and they've added a
drummer and keyboardist to their touring band to fill Aiken's void.<br /><br />"We're
just now starting to play all the songs and promote them, so nothing
else is really going to change immediately," Fisher says. "Until we
start writing again."<br /><br />Pan explains: "And I don't think that will change. If anything, with just three writing songs, it will make it faster."<br /> <br />As previously reported, <i>Candy Salad</i> is due to arrive April 24 via <a href="http://www.frenchkissrecords.com/">Frenchkiss Records</a>. In support of the new album, Suckers will be out on a North American tour come May. You can see all the stops listed below.</span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-37305491976828190412012-06-10T17:34:00.001-07:002012-06-10T18:00:41.708-07:00Ting Tings ExclaimIn-depth Q&A with the Ting Tings for<a href="http://exclaim.ca/Interviews/WebExclusive/ting_tings"> Exclaim!</a><br />
<br />
And click <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/ting_tings_stand_by_sounds_from_nowheresville">here</a> for the online news story that ties in to this article.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/Interviews/WebExclusive/ting_tings"><img alt="The Ting Tings" height="246" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/ting1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="author"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="author">By Andrea Warner</span><br />
<br />
<span class="author"> </span><span class="bodytext">The Ting Tings' multi-platinum debut, <i>We Started Nothing</i>,
offered catchy, frenetic pop ditties that proved fun for club
freak-outs, cross-training and everything in between. Jules de Martino
and Katie White became overnight sensations thanks in equal measure to
their sound and the ethos behind it. In almost every interview, the
Manchester-based duo eschewed popularity and commercialism in favour of
art and creativity. In kind, their live shows proved a real <i>Breakfast Club</i> of champions, with the art-school chic bouncing alongside power-poppers, DIY post-punks and second gen emo-lites.<br /><br />So, could de Martino and White make lightning strike twice with their long-awaited follow-up, <i>Sounds from Nowheresville</i>?
In short, not yet. The record dropped about six weeks ago, and though
it might not be what the industry or Ting Tings' fans expected, de
Martino says it's exactly what he and White envisioned when, halfway
through the recording process, they deleted six songs the label loved,
fled the country and started fresh. Pretentious, self-destructive snots
or idealistic, uncompromising artists? You be the judge.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<i>You were on Pink's </i>Funhouse<i>
tour, which seems very focused on spectacle, whereas you and Katie seem
quite focused on music. Did that influence how your thoughts about how
to approach this record?</i><br />
Jules de Martino: Well, the reason why
we did the Pink tour ― even though we love pop music, we're a real DIY
indie outfit. There are just two of us and we play everything on stage
ourselves and write and record all our own songs ourselves in the
studio. Doing something like the Pink tour where an artist like Pink ―
who is probably completely different in terms of the way she sets up her
career... like she writes with a lot of writers, works with a lot of
producers, on stage with a lot of musicians ― it's the complete opposite
way to work. A lot of people who know the Ting Tings know that we love a
challenge, and doing something we wouldn't normally do, and going out
on that tour, seeing a massive production, working in arenas everyday, I
mean it was an experience. I don't think it was how we would like to
put our show together, but it was such a great experience to do it.<br />
<br />
<i>It's definitely a different scene for you guys.</i><br />
After
the third or fourth show, we knew if we were ever going to put on big,
big tours, what we wouldn't do and what we would do. In fact, it's kind
of interesting you ask that question, because we obviously felt after
the first album was so successful, we felt quite pressured in terms of
our record company and management expecting this band could be this big
pop phenomenon. And the problem is with the pop music is that a lot of
celebrity is born out of being out, showing your face, selling out,
branding and it's one of the sides of this industry that I think bores
us the most. As far as being creative, writing songs, playing live and
finding ways to play it live, and interacting with the audience on the
internet, the actual red carpet stuff is really frustrating. We don't
have a lot of friends in the industry because the parties just aren't
that fun. We kind of steer clear of that a lot and I think with this
record, we realized after some of those experiences ― the red carpets,
the Pink tour ― could be great fun, but they meant we couldn't be so
creative musically because there's a definite margin between running
your life as a celebrity and writing the songs you want to write. In
that celebrity mode, you have to write songs that are for radio and we
just found that really difficult. I studied fine art, Katie did fashion,
we just really wanted to go in the studio and make a record we wanted
to make. When we started the second album, the whole thing was very
similar, just obviously it blew up. We wanted to make sure we toured all
the great clubs we loved touring, like we've been doing, the best
venues in the world and we just missed it so much playing festivals
every night. We really missed having that control. We've been on tour
for four weeks now in the U.S., and we've already become an amazing
act... [With stadium shows] you don't actually become that much better a
band, but in these clubs, my God, it's just been an amazing trip.<br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext"><i>When you were touring with </i>We Started Nothing<i>, you were on the road a lot and you hit a wall pretty hard at the end of 2009. Did that influence how you began writing </i>Nowheresville<i>?</i><br />Yeah,
I do think we're quite an organic band. Anything we write has to be
real ― ah, that sounds weird, but it's very difficult for us to sit down
in a studio and be like, "Let's write a song! You go on piano, I'll go
on guitar." It doesn't work like that with us. We have to be
spontaneous, we have to be influenced. Just like when I was in college
doing fine art, you can't think, "Oh, I have to paint a picture." Where I
studied, you aren't tested by having to paint a picture in 25 minutes,
It's not that kind of degree. The whole concept of studying fine art was
finding out about artists and styles and fabrics and textures and
formats and experimenting with them. Your grade is basically determined
over the course of the year or two, depending on what you're doing, your
commitment to art, your portfolio. And Katie's very much the same.
Neither of us can actually wake up in the morning and say, "Okay, we
need to get to work." We're blessed. As much as this is really finicky,
hard work, being on tour, it takes its toll, we don't treat it like a
job. If we did, we couldn't be creative. Each day something drives us to
write a new song, to play the guitar differently and to try something
new with the audience that night and to want people to feel that energy.
If we don't have that when we perform or when we write, than we can't
write. Our tour manager says to us each day, "You're the weirdest band I
ever worked with. You get so much done and yet you don't have a
schedule!" We don't have a piece of paper up on the wall telling us
where we need to be. Imagine as artists that you had ten notes that you
have be here, you have to be here, you'd never write! You'd never feel
the freedom to be creative! So as much as we do interviews and stuff
like that, phoners, that's great. If I'm writing a song and have to put
the guitar down, that's great, you're going to get a better interview
out of me and Katie than if we're sitting at a table with 20 phoners,
one after the back of each other.<br /><br /><i>Obviously everyone asks
about scrapping six of the ten original recordings. Did you feel that
was about crafting something more creatively true to you guys or were in
a bit of self destructive phase?</i><br />Umm, I don't know. At the time
we were getting a bit frustrated about the position that we found
ourselves in. People have to appreciate that the first record was ― once
you sell a couple million albums and you have so many singles and we
toured for two years with audiences going crazy ― the problem is that
your record company and everyone you work with multiplies. It's no
longer just us two in the studio. Suddenly you have 25 people who seem
to know you better than you do. (Laughs) It's just part of the process
and we love and adore a lot of the people we work with, but
unfortunately, it's really hard to tell people, "This is what we do and
this is the way we do it. We don't need limousines. I've got my own
studio with Katie. This is the way we work. It's shambles and it's
chaotic and it's crazy, but this is the way we work. I'm sorry to say,
but no." And they don't like that. Nobody likes being told, "No."<br /><br />We
left the U.K. because we couldn't deal with explaining to people what
kind of record we were making. We just couldn't. We shouldn't have to
explain the record. Why do we have to tell anybody what song we're
recording today? It was just bizarre. We never did that with the first
record. We just wanted to create music and we wanted to do that again.
When we went to Berlin, it was the first real move we made to, well, I
wouldn't say escape, but to get some distance. We couldn't stay in
Manchester anymore because things had changed and that's really sad, but
when we got to Berlin, we felt free and liberated. There were still
record companies and management at your heels and flying in and taking
you to dinner and loving you, and again, they're beautiful and lovely
people, but at the end of the day it's about finances and selling
records for them and nothing else. Nothing else counts. And for us it's
about being creative. There's a slight difference between selling
records and being creative. If we can sell records because we've been
creative, then that's an amazing situation. If we're selling records
without being creative, then we're in a problem zone and that is we're
doing music we don't want to do. The tour's finished, the band's
finished, our career's over even with hits. It means we're going to
start arguing and doing songs we can't perform live because they've been
produced in a studio with writers and producers that just have a hit,
so we had to get over that stumbling block. The only only way we could
do that was the way we work. We listened to the songs that we had and
everyone was going crazy, like they'll be our biggest hits for radio and
everyone's going to love them because it's, like, dance music that
everyone is going crazy about. We just laughed. We looked at each other
and said, "It's not what we do." We're just not into having to make
music in this way, so we erased it. That's what we do. When we make
decisions like that about pressing the button, that's me and Katie at
our best. We can live and die by the sword and we're not ashamed or
frightened at all. We're on the bus going across the States, we have
luxuries, but it's chaotic and we rock every night and that's how we
like it.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext"></span><br />
<span class="bodytext"></span><br />
<span class="bodytext">It's exactly what happened on the album. We
looked at each other and we were like, "What are we worried about? Let's
just get rid of it." This is music that we don't love and that's all
that matters. That's got to be the most important thing. So, when we
pushed the button, they were gone. We didn't save them on another disc,
we didn't have them in our back pockets or put them under the carpet,
they're gone and it means we have no baggage to carry around. We're
free. At that point, the label and everybody were very worried because
they'd lost what was selling, I don't know, and we had this idea: write a
record that is different because we wanted to surprise ourselves. We
wanted to write a record that represented how we're listening to music,
which is our MP3 player, because touring I can't carry around my
records. I didn't want to be nostalgic about one form of music, with
everybody saying, "You're the new punk band of the bloody decade." I
didn't want to be told I was a punk band. Whatever band I've listened to
in the past, punk or whatever, I adore it, but I didn't want to be
subject to being one band. Me and Katie both felt doing music to wear a
certain style of clothing in particular, what we feel is music today ― I
mean, we go around the world and people dress in certain fashions or
styles, but listen to music that is completely opposite to what they
look like. That's what I feel music's become. There are people that look
like punks but listen to boy-band music. We meet them every day, we
think that's fascinating. People that download music that doesn't
actually correspond to what they wear anymore. People are mixing up
fashion in such a random way, it's hard to know what they listen to or
what they're into. I think that's amazing. And we wanted to make an
album that wasn't just confusing for confusing's sake, but actually
said, "This is the decade you can do anything you want."<br /><br /><i>And there are such massive shifts on </i>Nowheresville<i>; it takes me to so many different places.</i><br />That's
the objective. The objective is that you're allowed to. We go on stage
every night and are having these great, great shows. I know why we're
having these great shows. On the first record, we did exactly what we
wanted because there was nothing else to do. Now we have options, but
did exactly what we wanted and we're having a great time. That will win.
If people listen to music and they're not swayed by press saying, "It
doesn't sound like the music on the radio, it doesn't sound like Ting
Tings' first album," if you can move beyond that and go, "Well, I'm not
really looking to follow anything, I'm looking for a piece of music I
actually enjoy, I want to have this record and play track eight or nine,
I want to be surprised," then we are the band you need to listen to. If
you need to read the papers and see what's current and you need to be
involved in the new fashion, then this is not the band to follow. We've
always said this. Everyone thinks we mean to be a really cool band, but
we're not cool. We don't try to be cool. We don't follow anything. We're
not massive music fans. We love art. I have a massive record
collection, but I don't profess to be the biggest Led Zeppelin ― well, I
have three of their records, sure ― but if I was to go on air and say
Led Zeppelin were my favourite band, that would be lying out loud. I
like Michael Jackson just as much.<br /><br /><i>One of things I was struck by is that the songs on </i>Nowheresville<i>
could almost be in any order. It's almost like a mixtape, in that
there's a purpose to the arrangement, but you could shift things around
if you wanted to.</i><br />You're absolutely nailing it. I'm not going to
go into the depths of what this whole album represents or whether it's
right for you, but you're absolutely right. Again, the Ting Tings were
borne out of mixtapes. We're a band that loved music and we loved
feeling and energy and attitude and fashion, but we don't like being one
of one hundred things we're able to do. It's evident in the way Katie
dresses more than me. When she's going out, it's fucking weird. It's
like she got dressed in the dark. But it works and it's her thing. She
just doesn't conform to like, "Oh, well I have to wear this top because
it matches, it's in vogue." She just fucks things up, man, like I've
never seen anything like it. And yet, if I or my friends tried to fuck
things up as much, we'd look terrible. You know what I mean? But
musically I can do that. In the studio, I totally get that. Me and Katie
will try to fuck things up, mess things up, make things not right. Not
as in change things so dramatically that it's unenjoyable, but we want
you to have fun and say good things, but we just didn't want every song
to sound like the first album... We wanted people to listen to it and
go, "What the fuck?!" And it might take people three or four months to
get it. It's not an album ― well, there are still pop songs on there,
there are hits on there. We're not trying to be underground, diverse, or
so experimental with instrumentation it's inaudible. We're still
writing what we think are catchy songs. We just didn't want to sound
like anything else that we've sounded like. We were inspired by TLC on
"Day to Day" for example, and that's a track that if somebody else had
recorded it in a very L.A. production style, it would probably be a top
five hit and no one would question it, but we get a lot of people
saying, "That track 'Day to Day' is a fucking great tune but it doesn't
sound anything like the Ting Tings." It's like, "Exactly! That's the
point!"<br /><br /><i>That was one of my notes, actually, about that song.
Katie's talked in the past about having that sing/shout style, but
there's a lot more pure singing on this record. There's more
vulnerability, perhaps, with putting her voice out there. Was is a
conscious decision to step up the vocals?</i><br />I guess a little bit.
When we were in the studio, there's obviously some rehearsal stuff that
you deal with, the way we write and record, it's a working ― I won't say
it's a formula, because it doesn't go according to plan and that's what
we like about it, it's quite random, but at the same time, when it
happens, we know when we're actually enjoying it, being real, playing
our instruments properly and finding the gold. It runs hot and cold, and
when it's hot we record and when it's cold, we just get frustrated and
throw instruments around and leave the studio. It's a natural
environment for any artist to work in.<br /><br />However, with the vocals,
what was really interesting is before we started to find our momentum on
this record, every time Katie went to sing something in the studio, it
didn't work and she was getting really frustrated, because we didn't
have good songs at the time and like I said, we had that problem where
we were trying to write for the wrong reasons. And in that experimenting
period where we were like, "This is so fucking dull!" and Katie was
like, "I don't want to be in a band that just has another hit record. We
just gotta do something we want to do." We were looking. But what a lot
of people don't realize about this band is that Katie has an amazing
voice. And the one thing she hates is singing. It's phenomenal! In the
studio it's amazing. I play guitar and we write something and she's just
humming away. It's fucking unreal. It's like she's a diva, she's got
these amazing vocals, and of course when I'm on the other end of it in
my headphones, I'm like, "Do you realize you've got the most amazing
voice?" and she's like, "That's fucking horrible you said that!" She
hates it! She hates these big divas, these big voices from these solo
artist queens, but she really doesn't like it. In a record collection,
it's all gotta be quirky and kind of thrown away and punky. Almost like
there's no effort. Any time there's a lot of planning or effort in a
vocal, she can't stand it. She just feels like it's a fake. So I just
said, "I just want to hear you sing, like a three-minute version, it
doesn't have to be on our record." That's what happened on a few of
these songs, like "Day to Day." She was brought up on TLC at school, so I
think that helped her get over this issue of not wanting to sing. I
remember, we played it for some people and they were like, "Who the
fuck's singing?" And it's her! And "In Your Life" at the end [of the
record], okay, at that moment we were stoned and in the studio, having a
little bit of fun with a track that had some personal attachment to it
for her, and when she sung that in one take, I was like, "Fuck. That's
amazing." To be in a band where we feel like we can do that as well, it
just made us feel like this is the album we have to make.</span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-56616934564033937622012-06-10T17:31:00.001-07:002012-06-10T18:00:53.814-07:00Norah Jones Questionnaire ExclaimFrom the May issue of <a href="http://exclaim.ca/Features/Questionnaire/norah_jones">Exclaim</a>!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/Features/Questionnaire/norah_jones"><img alt="Norah Jones" height="320" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/norah.jpg" width="314" /></a><span class="author"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="author">By Andrea Warner</span><span class="bodytext"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext">Norah Jones has never quite shaken off the wide-eyed ingénue persona of her debut, 2002's Grammy-winning <i>Come Away With Me</i>. But her new record <i>Little Broken Hearts </i>―
chock full of grown-up problems like messy break-ups, murder fantasies,
and infidelity ― should shatter any preconceived notions about the
33-year-old singer/songwriter.</span><br />
<span class="bodytext"></span><br />
<span class="bodytext"><br />"I wrote a few songs that were a
little mean, but it's not like I'm such a bad girl," Jones laughs. "I'm
an adult. I'm not a little kid. I don't really mind when people have a
misconstrued perception of me. It's not like I'm pulling one over on
people. I am a nice person." But she and collaborator Brian Burton, aka
Danger Mouse, have a lot of fun playing with that "nice girl" image. The
two met years back and talked about recording together, but it kept
getting pushed back. Finally when they were ready to sit down, Jones
arrived at his studio, freshly wounded from a defunct relationship,
armed with only a couple beginnings of songs. She and Burton started to
talk and they built <i>Little Broken Hearts</i> from the ground up.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="bodytext"><br />"I
never really intended to write about [my breakup] and it's still kind
of encrypted," Jones says. "We've all gone through things and had those
moments. It became more about me and Brian being a little bit more
philosophical about relationships. We definitely got inside each other's
heads. I wouldn't have been able to write these kinds of songs with
somebody I didn't know that well. We would take a feeling and kind of
run with it... The album's not a diary. I was never nervous about
writing it, because I know what's real and what's not."<br /><br /><br /><i>What are you up to?</i><br />I'm
in Europe playing some shows with my band and doing some promotion.
It's very fun. I have a new band and we're all just startin' out.<br /><br /><i>What are your current fixations?</i><br /><i>Iron Chef</i>. I've been watching a lot of <i>Iron Chef</i> for some reason. America. I love the Japanese one, too.<br /><br /><i>Why do you live where you do?</i><br />All my friends live in New York and I've just lived there for so long I think I'm just there.<br /><br /><i>Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art?</i><br />Well, I'm sitting here in Cologne, Germany and I have a view of the Gothic Cathedral here. It's pretty amazing.<br /><br /><i>What has been your most memorable or inspirational gig and why?</i><br />We
did a free show in San Paulo, Brazil. It was in a big park and I knew
it was a free show, it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I thought there
would be a lot of people there for free music, but I could not believe
it. There were, like, 40,000 people there. Not only was it so crowded ―
people couldn't even get into the park ― they were all so into the
music! It was like they knew all the songs actually. I was just so
surprised and touched by that. I felt like a total rock star. (Laughs)
It was so wild. It wasn't something I usually experience. And I remember
when we left there were a couple girls following our car, pounding on
our car, and I felt like the Beatles. It was very sweet. I mean, nothing
dangerous. It was only, like, three girls.<br /><br /><i>What have been your career highs and lows?</i><br />Highs?
It's always fun making records. Every time I make a record, I feel very
happy. I don't know if I've had any lows. It's been pretty good so far.<br /><br /><i>What's the meanest thing ever said to you before, during or after a gig?</i><br />I actually don't think I've had anything really mean said to me.<br /><br /><i>What should everyone shut up about?</i><br />Well,
just anything trivial. I don't know. People over-analyze everything... I
don't know. God. No, I didn't mean God! Don't print God. [Laughs]
People should just shut up about gay marriage and let them get married
already.<br /><br /><i>What traits do you most like and most dislike about yourself?</i><br />I wish I was more patient. And... I don't know. It's hard to say something good about yourself.<br /><br /><i>What's your idea of a perfect Sunday?</i><br />No plans. Making breakfast. Hanging out with my dog and my boyfriend and just taking a long walk, nice day, you know, typical.<br /><br /><i>What would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed, and have you?</i><br />(Laughs) Never so quickly. I guess being an asshole. Being dishonest or using you. Just being a dick.<br /><br /><i>What do you think of when you think of Canada?</i><br />Neil Young. The Band. Hockey. (Laughs) I'm pretty obsessed with Neil Young.<br /><br /><i>What was the first LP/cassette/CD/eight track you ever bought with your own money?</i><br />I
think I bought the Digital Underground tape. (Laughs) I liked "The
Humpty Dance" song. I didn't know what it meant, but I thought it was
funny.<br /><br /><i>What was your most memorable day job?</i><br />I waited
tables at a restaurant in the West Village in New York, but I did the
breakfast shift and had to get up at six in the morning. It only lasted
about a month. I couldn't keep it going. I had to get a later day job.<br /><br /><i>If I wasn't playing music I would be…</i><br />Like, a professional roller skater or something. Honestly, I don't know. I've never not played music.<br /><br /><i>What do you fear most?</i><br />Unhappiness. Just that feeling when you're so unhappy. It's always nice to get out of that.<br /><br /><i>What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?</i><br />I
got to meet Carrot Top. That was pretty fun. It wasn't that strange. I
just never thought I'd get to meet Carrot Top. He's very nice.<br /><br /><i>Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?</i><br />I guess somebody who likes to eat, right? I don't know. I'm over-thinking it.<br /><br /><i>What does your mom wish you were doing instead?</i><br />Nothing. She's happy.<br /><br /><i>What song would you like to have played at your funeral?</i><br />I used to have an answer to that. But I don't know if I do anymore. "Hands on the Wheel" I guess.</span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-68649645190192994612012-06-10T17:29:00.000-07:002012-06-10T17:30:07.700-07:00Norah Jones Exclaim online news storyFrom April 27th on <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/norah_jones_sheds_light_on_losing_her_good_girl_rep_working_with_danger_mouse">Exclaim.ca</a><br />
<br />
<span class="author">By Andrea Warner</span><span class="bodytext"> </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/norah_jones_sheds_light_on_losing_her_good_girl_rep_working_with_danger_mouse"><img alt="Norah Jones Sheds Light on Losing Her "Good Girl" Rep, Working with Danger Mouse" height="320" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/norah.jpg" width="314" /></a><span class="author"></span><br />
<br />
<span class="author"> </span><span class="bodytext"> </span><br />
<span class="bodytext">There were plenty of raised eyebrows when it was announced that <a href="http://www.norahjones.com/index.php" target="_blank">Norah Jones</a> would be making her next album with Brian Burton, aka <a href="http://www.dangermousesite.com/" target="_blank">Danger Mouse</a>. She's ruled the adult contemporary airwaves since her 2002 Grammy Award-winning debut, the softly pleasing radio staple <i>Come Away with Me</i>. Jones's talent is indisputable, but there's been plenty of scorn levied her way about what she does with her gifts.<br /><br />Her upcoming record, <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/norah_jones_details_her_danger_mouse-produced_little_broken_hearts"><i>Little Broken Hearts</i></a>,
is a defiant middle finger to her critics and the man/men that have
done her wrong. Not that Jones really cares what anyone thinks. But she
knows that once people have come out of <i>Hearts</i>' other side, her
"good girl" reputation may not be intact. The album dwells in some dark
and dangerous corners, including the stellar "Miriam," a spooky
stand-out that finds Jones sweetly singing a fantasy about killing the
woman who stole her man.<br /><br />"Obviously I care a little bit about
what people think, but I try not to," Jones tells Exclaim! "I feel
pretty secure in who I think I am and what I know I do. It's not like I
do anything crazily different [on <i>Hearts</i>], just a couple of songs
were a little mean. It's not like I'm such a bad girl. I'm an adult.
I'm not a little kid... It's not like I'm pulling one over on people. I
am a nice person."<br /><br />Plus, Burton's own fingerprints are everywhere
on the album, including on the actual song composition. Jones says it
was an unusual experience, sharing songwriting duties with another
person, but feels the record benefitted from their mind meld.<br /><br />"Since
we wrote all the songs together, there were definitely things in the
songwriting that are different from what I would normally do, which is
great, and made it a collaboration," Jones says. "But also the sonic
landscape. I went out to L.A. to record in his studio with his
engineers, because I wanted whatever he had. I wasn't really sure what
that was because he's so versatile. I just knew he had a different sonic
language that he used. <br /><br />"He's kind of a gear head, they know how
to turn a lot of knobs and make a simple acoustic guitar sound really
different. But they never go too far, it always sounds interesting and
beautiful. You can go too far with that stuff sometimes, but I just
never heard him do that. He's so good at striking that balance of
playing natural instruments and producing in a way that kind of feels
right."<br /><br />The two had talked about making an album together for
years, so it was a twist of fate that when the timing came together;
Jones happened to arrive in L.A. fresh from breakup.<br /><br />"I never
really intended to write about [my breakup] and it's still kind of
encrypted," she says. "We've all gone through things and had those
moments. Whether you're going through a breakup that's serious or casual
or you're jealous of something. We've all had twinges of these feelings
at some point. Or, the older you get, you will. <br /><br />"It became more
about me and Brian being a little bit more philosophical about
relationships. We definitely got inside each other's heads. I wouldn't
have been able to write these kinds of songs with somebody I didn't know
that well. We would take a feeling and kind of run with it... but the
album's not a diary. I was never nervous about writing it, because I
know what's real and what's not."<br /><br /><i>Little Broken Hearts</i> arrives May 1 through <a href="http://www.bluenote.com/" target="_blank">Blue Note</a>/<a href="http://www.emimusic.ca/" target="_blank">EMI</a>.</span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-79095064048899352402012-06-10T17:24:00.002-07:002012-06-10T17:25:40.239-07:00Aida reviewIt's been ages since I properly updated this account with everything I've been publishing. I'm going to aim to fix that now!<br />
<br />
From Apr. 23: <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/aida-a-few-hiccups-take-shine-off-three-hours-of-grandeur/article2410845/">The Globe & Mail</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<header class=" medimg" id="leadheader">
<div class="articleleadphoto">
<img alt="A scene from "Aida" at the Vancouver Opera - A scene from "Aida" at the Vancouver Opera | Handout" height="169" src="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01398/WEB-Aida_full_s_1398583cl-4.jpg" title="A scene from "Aida" at the Vancouver Opera | Handout" width="300" />
<br />
<div class="typephotooveralymed">
</div>
</div>
<h4 class="heavyseriflbl heavyseriflblbold sm" id="articlelabel">
Opera review</h4>
<h2 class="regserif entry-title" id="articletitle">
Aida: A few hiccups take shine off three hours of grandeur
</h2>
<div id="articlemeta">
<h4 class="heavyseriflbl sm byline author vcard">
Andrea Warner
</h4>
In closing its season with the “grandest of grand” operas, Vancouver
Opera is taking a calculated risk: stumble under the weight of Giuseppe
Verdi’s beloved <i>Aida</i> or triumph over its epic tale of doomed love across enemy lines. </div>
<div id="articlemeta">
</div>
</header><br />
<div class="articlecopy s6of12 fl entry-content">
The lengthy standing ovation following opening night on Saturday proved that the company’s gamble paid off – for the most part.<br />
<br />
The production begins unevenly, both despite and because of the
extraordinary power of Morris Robinson. As Ramfis, the high priest,
Robinson’s bass is so deep and assured it’s as if a vibration goes
through the audience every time he opens his mouth. Arnold Rawls as
Radames, the Egyptian army captain, doesn’t have the same command. His
tenor sounds thin throughout the earliest scenes that attempt to
establish Radames as a noble warrior and lover. Eventually Rawls’ finds
his footing and digs into the role with relish, rising to the intense
vocal challenges presented in Acts III and IV. <br />
<br />
The women, Mlada Khudoley and Daveda Karanas, are gloriously gifted as
Aida, the Ethiopian prisoner (and secret princess), and Amneris, the
Egyptian princess, respectively. As mismatched rivals for Radames’ heart
– Aida having the upper hand despite being Amneris’ servant – it’s
fascinating to see how Karanas reveals Amneris’ unhinged longing,
allowing a steely hint of madness to permeate her mezzo-soprano. <br />
<br />
Khudoley conveys Aida’s unending turmoil with great beauty. Her voice is
remarkable, and it’s put to the test in Act III when Aida’s forced to
betray her beloved Radames, lest her father disown her. As the Ethiopian
King, Quinn Kelsey’s presence is both suitably royal and paternal. He’s
particularly effective as he shames Aida for turning her back on her
country, his words invoking the spirit of her dead mother made all the
more resonant by his booming baritone. <br />
<br />
When Radames realizes the extent of Aida’s betrayal, the devastation is
real: Aida flees and Radames is sentenced to death. But only when
Amneris begs Radames to renounce Aida does the incredible trick of
Verdi’s writing reveal itself. The declarations of love between Aida and
Radames carry little weight. After all, they’re just words. The opera’s
legendary romance comes out of sacrifice: Radames would rather die than
accept Amneris’ offer, and the scene is an incredible showcase for both
singers. <br />
While many individual moments stand out, they don’t call <i>Aida</i> a
grand opera for nothing. It’s big, bold and opulent, much like the
ancient Egypt in which it’s set. When the entire cast comes together,
all under the masterful eye of director David Gately, it’s nothing short
of electrifying, particularly at the end of Act II as Egypt celebrates
its victory over Ethiopia. The story arcs converge in a messy apex as
the sprawling company crescendos to a roar, creating a palpable buzz
throughout intermission. <br />
<br />
But eight principal singers, 12 dancers, 35 extras, 60 choristers, and
an orchestra of 64 make for a crowded, busy production, meaning a few
things that should have been dealt with in dress rehearsal make it to
stage. For instance, the large-scale victory celebration after Egypt
defeats Ethiopia features countless soldiers marching out of time. The
few who do fall in line highlight the imprecision of their counterparts.
<br />
<br />
And while set designer Roberto Oswald has crafted some truly impressive,
large-scale replicas of iconographic Egyptian landmarks, costume
designer Anibal Lapiz’s occasional use of gold lamé fabric jarringly
recalls ’70s disco rather than ancient times. In contrast, the dresses
he’s created for <i>Aida</i> are stunningly beautiful, and he injects a wonderful amount of Amneris’ personality into the character’s bold garments. <br />
<br />
The orchestra, superb under conductor Jonathan Darlington, has to share
some of the burden for Rawls’ disappointing first act, drowning out his
voice several times in the opening 20 minutes. But the combative nature
between the pit and the singers mellows into something beautifully
copacetic after the initial rough patch, so perhaps it won’t be an issue
in the remaining performances. <br />
These are niggling details for only the fussiest among us to dwell on, but it’s a luxury <i>Aida</i> affords its audience by falling just shy of masterpiece status. <br />
<br />
<i>Special to The Globe and Mail.</i>
<br />
<i>Vancouver Opera’s Aida plays at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre at 7.30
p.m. Tuesday, April 24; Thursday, April 26; Saturday, April 28; Tuesday,
May 1; Thursday, May 3.</i>
</div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-60852576864287058502012-04-27T16:54:00.000-07:002012-05-14T14:28:53.545-07:00Punch Brothers<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
My piece on the Punch Brothers is in this week's Charleston City Paper.<br />
<h1 class="headline headline-4062598">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Punch Brothers' Noam Pikelny discusses Earl Scruggs </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<a class="zoomable" href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/the-punch-brothers-are-a-dapper-bunch-l-to-r-noam-pikelny-gabe-wit/b/original/4062600/5a5a/Punch-Brothers-2_thumb.jpg" rel="ImageFlipBook_imgGroup" title="- The Punch Brothers are a dapper bunch (L to R): Noam Pikelny, Gabe Witcher, Paul Kowert, Chris Thile, and Chris Eldridge - provided"><img alt="- The Punch Brothers are a dapper bunch (L to R): Noam Pikelny, Gabe Witcher, Paul Kowert, Chris Thile, and Chris Eldridge - provided" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/story/4062600/5a5a/Punch-Brothers-2_thumb.jpg" /></a>
</h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Remembering Scruggs and more</span><br />
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite><br />
<cite class="byline"> </cite> <br />
Progressive bluegrass or alt-folk? Indie rock or barn-door classical?
For years, people have been attempting to properly classify the Punch
Brothers. In part, it's a composition issue: In addition to the usual
guitar and bass, the Punch Brothers' instrumentation also features a
mandolin, a banjo, and a fiddle. They also make foot-stomping, complex
music informed by everything from mountain songs to avant-garde
instrumentals.
<br />
<br />
The band's newest album, <i>Who's Feeling Young Now?</i>, could find a
home wedged between Bon Iver and the Decemberists. Arguably, guitarist
Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, mandolinist Chris Thile, banjo
player Noam Pikelny, and fiddler Gabe Witcher deliver straight up indie
rock, and they've further expanded their audience, thanks to a starring
spot on the <i>Hunger Games</i> soundtrack. Despite all that's going on
for the band right now, Pikelny has other things on his mind — chiefly,
the recent death of banjo legend Earl Scruggs and his Nashville funeral.
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
"I met him 10 years ago in his home, thanks to a very gracious invite by
Bryan Sutton, who was playing guitar in Earl's band," Pikelny recalls.
"They were rehearsing, and Earl asked for me to get my banjo out for the
last tunes. They passed me a solo despite the fact they were still
rehearsing."
<br />
Following Scruggs' passing on March 28, musicians of many genres have
reflected on his impact on American music. Pikelny certainly has. "Banjo
players, particularly right now are asking very existential questions:
where would we be if it wasn't for Earl, what would I be doing with my
life?" Pikelny says.
<br />
<br />
The last time Pikelny saw Scruggs was while filming a mock <i>Funny or Die</i>
promo for Pikelny's solo album last year. Despite a video that's
populated with comedy legends (and fellow four-and-five string
aficionados) like Steve Martin and Ed Helms, Scruggs got the best lines,
showing off a sharp comedic timing that belied his 87 years.
<br />
<br />
"I saw him there with Gary, his son, who's a wonderful musician and was
really generous in getting his father to participate in this silly
video," Pikelny laughs. "I'm really proud he's part of it. It's a
self-promotional video, but I love the fact that Earl Scruggs got to
participate in a <i>Funny or Die</i> video and that there's a whole
audience who possibly wouldn't stumble upon him on that site. He's the
funniest person in that video. He gives the most quick-witted responses.
Gary told me he got a kick out of seeing it. I'm happy he got some
enjoyment out of that."
<br />
<br />
Scruggs was a lifelong innovator, so it's no real surprise he took to
acting with such ease. And his eagerness to adapt and change has long
inspired the Punch Brothers' own deft hand at experimentation.
<br />
<br />
"Despite the fact that people associate Earl with codifying the most
traditional form of bluegrass, the Scruggs-style banjo, he was
constantly innovating," Pikelny says. "In interviews, he talked about
how he loved traditional music but how he was ready to play new music,
and that's why having his son come to him with these new musical
opportunities was one of the most gratifying experiences of his life.
That's important to take note of. We're not a bluegrass band. When
someone calls us bluegrass, I'm not offended, but we're not just trying
to recreate music crystallized in the 1940s."
<br />
<br />
No one is likely to make that mistake after listening to <i>Who's Feeling Young Now?</i> Pikelny says that it's a result of the band having evolved beyond being Thile's brainchild — assembled to help him perform <i>The Blind Leaving the Blind</i>, a suite he'd penned in 2007— to a collaborative project.
<br />
<br />
"People refer to [<i>Who's Feeling Young Now?</i>] as an indie rock
record, and that's fair," he says. "There are some departures from the
past, especially in terms of how the album was recorded. We made this
record without having any kind of rigid system about how we wanted to
capture the sound, but there was never a decision to change the format.
If we'd recorded <i>The Blind Leaving the Blind</i> in a much smaller room, it probably would have had an indie-rock vibe."
<br />
<br />
The Punch Brothers find themselves in good company with their hybrid
style. A natural manifestation of widely available diversity, theirs is a
contemporary sonic landscape shared by many of their peers on the <i>Hunger Games</i> soundtrack, which was produced by acclaimed studio wiz T Bone Burnett.
<br />
<br />
"T Bone's an amazing guy to be around," Pikelny says. "He's a walking
encyclopaedia of American music. We walked away from those sessions much
the wiser."
<br />
<br />
Now might be a good time to place bets about what direction the next Punch Brothers album takes.<br />
<br /></div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-38781615001575149462012-04-27T16:47:00.001-07:002012-04-27T16:50:03.890-07:00Mayer Hawthorne<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
My piece on <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/mayer-hawthorne-steps-away-from-the-turntables-and-grabs-the-mic/Content?oid=4058191">Mayer Hawthorne</a> ran in the Charleston City Paper Apr. 18.<br />
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4058191">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mayer Hawthorne steps away from the turntables and grabs the mic </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<a class="zoomable" href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/mayer-hawthorne-2012/b/original/4058193/518a/MayerHawthorne_2115_RET_thumb.jpg" rel="ImageFlipBook_imgGroup" title="Mayer Hawthorne, 2012 - provided"><img alt="Mayer Hawthorne, 2012 - provided" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/story/4058193/518a/MayerHawthorne_2115_RET_thumb.jpg" /></a>
</h2>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sexy soul fun</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite></div>
<div class="storyHead">
<cite class="byline"> </cite>
</div>
</div>
It's no surprise that Mayer Hawthorne has built a name for himself as
the latest heir apparent in the great Motown revival. After all, he grew
up in Ann Arbor, Mich., just a few well choreographed steps from
Detroit. His acclaimed debut indie album, 2009's <i>A Strange Arrangement</i>,
won him plenty of admirers thanks to his gift for complex arrangements
and a keen marrying of sexy retro-soul with contemporary urban flavor.
After that, his shows began selling out and the major labels came
calling.
<br />
<br />
Now, Hawthorne's back on the road supporting his recent follow-up, <i>How Do You Do</i>,
which also marks his major label debut on Universal Republic. He admits
he had plenty of reservations about taking that next step.
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
"I record, write, produce, and arrange. In some cases, I'm mixing or
co-mixing, and I'm playing most of the instruments and singing
everything myself," Hawthorne explains. "Creative control is a big issue
for me. I was terrified of signing to a major label. I pretty much
turned everybody down. Then Universal Republic came along, and I was
convinced they really understood my business and they weren't trying to
turn me into something that I was not. I'm definitely happy that it's
worked out so far. I'm majorly relieved. But we have a long way to go."
<br />
<br />
His cautious optimism is telling. Despite having just two albums to his
name, Hawthorne has been involved in the music industry for years. The
33-year-old was an accomplished DJ (a.k.a. DJ Haircut) and producer
before he became an established singer/songwriter, and he concedes that
the transition is still a work in progress.
<br />
<br />
"I've been a DJ much longer than I've been a singer," Hawthorne
explains. "I actually consider myself a better DJ than a singer still.
I've been DJing my whole life, and I've only been singing for about
three years, so it's not really something — you know, singing is still
very new to me, but with DJing, I can just do it blindfolded."
<br />
<br />
In fact, Hawthorne's well aware of the detractors who have come down on
his vocals. Despite his obvious achievements and plenty of famous
friends tweeting his praises (Snoop Dog and Kanye West chief among
them), a contingent of naysayers and critics have taken issue with
Hawthorne's admittedly limited range. He has a penchant for falsetto,
and his lyrics can weave wildly between cheeky/sexy and embarrassingly
amateur.
<br />
<br />
"I don't make music to be the most popular artist in the world,"
Hawthorne says. "That's never been my goal. I make music that I think is
fun and I think is good. Whoever likes it, that's fantastic, I love
you. Whoever doesn't like it, then I love you just the same. There's a
million other bands out there you can listen to if you don't like Mayer
Hawthorne."
<br />
<br />
Hawthorne's goal is a simple one that's a holdover from his DJ days: Get
people dancing and having fun. His happy-go-lucky hedonism is reflected
throughout <i>How Do You Do</i>. The opening moments feature him doing
his best Barry White impression with a few familiar, soulful chords to
amp up the seduction. Save for a few kiss-off songs, the entire album
plays like one epic bedroom romp. In fact, it would be perfect if he
were asked to spin at a really classy orgy.
<br />
<br />
When told this, Hawthorne says, "I take that as a compliment. I make
music for people to have fun to and for people to make love to. It's
definitely about bringing people together, however that goes on. There's
no rules, there's just fun."
</div>
<span class="StoryTagsLabel"></span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-73735239131790056942012-04-27T16:42:00.001-07:002012-04-27T16:49:32.079-07:00Candlebox<div class="page1" id="storyBody">
<br />
<div class="MainColumn ContentMusic " id="StoryHeader">
<div class="storyHead">
<h1 class="headline headline-4055320" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">My piece on <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/candlebox-moves-beyond-the-maverick-heyday/Content?oid=4055320">Candlebox</a> ran in the Charleston City Paper April 15!</span></h1>
<h1 class="headline headline-4055320">
<span style="font-size: small;">The return of Madonna's grunge-era chart-toppers, Candlebox </span></h1>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<a class="zoomable" href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/candlebox-2012/b/original/4055322/2018/Candlebox2.jpg" rel="ImageFlipBook_imgGroup" title="Candlebox, 2012 - provided"><img alt="Candlebox, 2012 - provided" src="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/imager/b/story/4055322/2018/Candlebox2.jpg" /></a>
</h2>
<h2 class="subheadline">
<span style="font-size: small;">More musings from Kevin Martin and co.</span></h2>
<cite class="byline">by <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ArticleArchives?author=1072564">Andrea Warner</a></cite></div>
<div class="storyHead">
<cite class="byline"> </cite>
</div>
</div>
Seattle was a crowded place for emerging bands in the early '90s. Choked
with flannel and attitude, the city became synonymous with grunge music
by the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden.
<br />
<br />
And then there's Candlebox. Who? You know, that song "Far Behind?" Oh, them. Exactly.
<br />
Lead singer/songwriter Kevin Martin is well aware that at this point his
band is little more than a footnote. But there's satisfaction to be
had. After all, two decades later, Candlebox is back with a brand new
album, <i>Love Stories and Other Musings</i>. It's a day few people thought they'd ever see — including Martin.
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
"We've had some hard times as a band," he admits, over the phone from
his home in Los Angeles, where he relocated in 1998. "We've been a
punching bag for a lot of people for a long, long time."
<br />
In fact, from the very beginning. With only an eight-song demo to their
credit, the four-piece (Martin, drummer Scott Mercado, guitarist Peter
Klett and bass player Bardi Martin) signed to Madonna's Maverick Records
and released their eponymous debut in 1993. The album was huge, if
polarizing: critics and peers decried the record's lack of cohesion,
whereas fans loved the mixtape quality of what would become Candlebox's
signature recording style: a motley collection influenced by punk,
grunge, glam, metal, blues, rock, and pop.
<br />
<br />
Two more records followed, but none quite matched the success of the
their debut, and a collision of outside forces were looming. Ego,
alcohol, drugs, touring and internal changes at Maverick prompted Martin
to break up the band in 2000 as a last-ditch attempt to get out of
making Candlebox's contractually obligated fourth album.
<br />
<br />
"When I started the band back in 1990, I wanted to be the Rolling
Stones, U2, all these bands that are still kicking ass and taking
names," Martin confesses. "And I thought I was going to lose all of that
in 1999-2000, because of the frustration with the label, and some of
the guys were having drug and alcohol problems, and some of the guys
couldn't be around those problems so they left. It seemed like I was
going to lose it all and I was very frustrated."
<br />
<br />
Six years later, Martin and the crew got the call from Rhino Records,
which wanted to release a "best of" Candlebox compilation. The band
reunited after an emotionally grueling and candid reckoning with their
rocky past, and released its first album in 10 years, 2008's <i>Into the Sun</i>.
Since then, Martin's life has undergone a total overhaul — he's nothing
short of Disney/Deepak Chopra happy — and that's reflected on <i>Love Stories and Other Musings</i>.
It consists of the Candlebox's trademark seismic shifts in genres
song-to-song, but Martin's new unencumbered bliss and vulnerability
fills every lyric. It's a big leap into the bright side of life, and
Martin admits that sometimes it's a struggle to stay positive.
<br />
<br />
"I get angry or frustrated or upset. Why has my life gone in this
direction? Why did Maverick Records go through the changes it went
through? Why did I let management, early on, not protect the band from
itself? I have those moments where I get angry about it," Martin admits.
"But at the same time, I look at the music we've created and my family
and my son who is four years old and just every ounce of joy I could
ever imagine, and I think to myself, you know my life is pretty great.
This job is my day in and day out, I do what I love, and I couldn't be
happier."
<br />
<br />
So it's perfect?
<br />
<br />
"Well, we're still working on it," he laughs. "But, can you just write,
'Everything is absolutely perfect'? Just do that for me. I'd like to see
that in print."
</div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-61511761204765330442012-03-26T11:17:00.002-07:002012-05-14T14:29:04.074-07:00Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers<span style="font-size: x-small;">My last piece for WE! It was edited down substantially, so I've posted the entire interview here. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers </span></h1>
<div class="media" style="text-align: center; width: 728px;">
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: x-small; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="MUSIC_FlyingFox.jpg" border="0" height="193" src="http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/25677westenderMUSIC_FlyingFox.jpg" title="MUSIC_FlyingFox.jpg" width="320" /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Jesse Krause is a shy, awkward interviewee — a total contrast from his onstage persona as the lead singer of larger-than-life, gypsy-pop six-piece Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers (at the Railway Mar. 28). He’s polite and friendly but sounds pained, as if with every question I’m also squeezing drops of lemon juice into an open cut. It puts his band’s music into a new perspective: Flying Fox’s penchant for theatrics, self-invented mythologies and puppets is as open, wild and outlandish as Krause is quiet and reserved. But he knows the value of showmanship and a good narrative. As he says, “I did go to bible college.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.13149253177750486" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Did you think it was feasible or wise grow up and be a musician?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It never actually occurred to me that I was growing up to be a musician until I arrived at university. I think I always wanted to be an engineer or an inventor of some kind. My first memory of what I wanted to be was a banana bread chef. (Laughs)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is a delicious food. Well, you could combine engineering and music and create new instruments.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ve started working on that, actually. Sometimes it’s more successful than others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What’s been your greatest success so far?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, I was trying to build a C chord. I teach a lot of guitar and the C chord is a particularly hard one to play, so I wanted to build an instrument that a child could sit down and play easily. So it turns out that it’s a D chord. But it’s a log with a whole bunch of strings on it that’s hooked up to a set of bicycle pedals and there’s an electromagnetic pick set up. So you just sit in a chair and pedal and the log spins around and plays this chord as an amplifier so it’s pretty easy to do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There’s a lot of theatricality in your music and it’s very distinctive. Where did that sound come from?</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A lot of places. Two things, maybe: in high school, I was taught very, very well that music is not just an auditory experience. Audiences see with their eyes. We don’t say we’re going to go listen to a show, we say we’re going to see a show. I think we’re all on the same page about that: how things look has a huge impact on how things sound, or at least the interaction of our senses isn’t something we should forget. And I suppose my theology training at the bible school I went to — well, university, I guess, not just a bible school — but I grew up in a Mennonite church and then went to the university for music, but one of the requirements was a whole bunch of theology. The thing I took from that was the importance of a story and a narrative in the formation of a people. Which is maybe heavier than what Flying Fox is dealing with, but I see the value of that in music: having a narrative makes things more powerful.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You’re in Winnipeg. Is it the community that keeps you there? When I listen to you I’m reminded of seeing weird bands in New York City basement clubs, places that are much more urban and open to avant-garde than one imagines in Winnipeg.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You’re right that it’s the community that keeps us there. Winnipeg is a fairly small place and everybody knows everyone. But everyone in the city has a great deal of respect for our music culture. It’s sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that respect: everybody believes we’re all making good music in Winnipeg so we’re all making good music together.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ve heard that it’s a really vibrant arts community.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes, and I suppose also there’s a lot of funding for these things than in other provinces. Winnipeg just happens to be the biggest concentration of things in Manitoba. The government giving a lot of money to these things makes it possible for us to do this. If we had to be making more consistent day jobs then we’d be making less music.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are a lot of beautiful orchestral flourishes that should allay the criticism that Flying Fox’s sound is gimmicky or one-note.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ve always felt like the job of musicians is to make music and not worry too much about issues of style. I find that can be fairly consuming. Some bands talk about influences and who they’re sounding like and I suppose that’s never really interested me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers play Mar. 28 at the Railway, 8pm. $8 at the door.</span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-28263303411282748142012-03-26T11:10:00.000-07:002012-05-14T14:29:15.592-07:00Sharon Van EttenThis ran in WE Mar. 15<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uWUs4ZxMRWs" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
The last time WE spoke with <a href="http://sharonvanetten.com/" target="_blank">Sharon Van Etten</a> was almost exactly a year ago. She had just transitioned from opener to headliner and was making the final rounds of her second album, <i>Epic</i>. Her venue? The Media Club. It was crowded, but not sold out. Fast forward to now: Van Etten’s third album, Tramp, has stunned critics and peers alike and her co-headlining show at the Biltmore, Mar. 24, is already sold out. WE spoke with Van Etten via email a few weeks before her show.<br />
<br />
<b>The title, Tramp, is provocative. Why that word with all its various connotations?</b><br />
In my mind that was the only word that fit. I was doing a lot of travelling. I was displaced. I am a joker. I am a lover.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<b>Tramp’s sound is more aggressive, the lyrics a little angrier in some places. How has your confidence grown over these three albums?</b><br />
I am much more confident. I’m glad that translates.<br />
<br />
<b>Your writing has always felt somewhat confessional. How much of this album is written from your personal perspective versus crafting a narrative arc?</b><br />
All of my writing up until now has been stream of consciousness. Even when I turn things around and try to relate, it somehow comes from a personal space. No matter how narrative a songwriter is, a lot is coming from personal experience.<br />
<br />
<b>Your choral background is more evident in the layering of the voices, particularly on “All I Can.”</b><br />
I wrote that song in Japan. I toured there solo in December of 2010. I was writing deliriously at 4am or 5am, reflecting on the ridiculousness of the path I have chosen and how it has affected me and the people around me. Everything I have been through up until that point (good and bad) had gotten me to that very moment. Looking out over Tokyo, in a random hotel, unable to sleep, I wrote very freely.<br />
<br />
<b>How are you measuring your growth as an artist on this record?</b><br />
I’m learning to collaborate with other people. I’m more open to other musicians’ ideas and less territorial with my songs.<br />
<br />
<b>There’s a great sort of droning quality to some of the vocals throughout. What was the creative decision behind that?</b><br />
For my first two records, the mood was set by the emptiness of the space and the bleakness. I wanted to eliminate the starkness and replace it with clouds of darkness to create a mood. Also, in creating a minimal drone, there is more freedom to circle around the drone melodically. It frees up space.<br />
<br />
<i>Sharon Van Etten and The War On Drugs play Mar. 24 at Biltmore, 7pm. SOLD OUT. </i><br />
<span style="font-family: 'ITC Stone Serif',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i> <br />
</i></span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-9925661760930258162012-03-26T11:07:00.000-07:002012-05-14T14:29:30.337-07:00Veda HilleI'm a little behind posting my published articles. After all, it's been a busy month!<br />
<br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">MUSIC: Veda Hille - Do you HE[A]R what I hear?</span></h1>
<div class="media" style="text-align: center; width: 364px;">
<img alt="MUSIC_Veda_Usethis-web.jpg" border="0" height="450" src="http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/63810westenderMUSIC_Veda_Usethis-web.jpg" title="MUSIC_Veda_Usethis-web.jpg" width="300" /> <br />
<div class="byline">
Veda Hille</div>
<div class="byline">
</div>
<div class="byline">
By <a href="mailto:listings@wevancouver.com?subject=WE%20Vancouver%20-%20MUSIC:%20Veda%20Hille%20-%20Do%20you%20HE[A]R%20what%20I%20hear?">Andrea Warner - WE Vancouver</a><br />
<b></b> </div>
</div>
<br />
Coming off a successful run of her critically acclaimed debut musical, <i>Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata</i>, <a href="http://vedahille.com/products-page/" target="_blank">Veda Hille</a> is anxious to get back to basics. For the longtime East Van musician that means reuniting with her band, and kicking off V<a href="http://newmusic.org/" target="_blank">ancouver New Music’s</a> HE[A]R series, billed as “sound events for the active listener.” Each weekly show, beginning Mar. 8 and wrapping up Mar. 22, will run the gamut of contemporary music, from electronic and indie to experimental and avant-garde. Hille spoke with <i>WE</i> last week about playing on <a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/" target="_blank">International Women’s Day</a>, creating her own arts centre, funding cuts and eking out a viable living as a musician in Vancouver.<br />
<br />
<b>Why did you want to be involved in HE[A]R?</b><br />
I’ll do anything Georgio [Magnanensi, VNM’s artistic director] asks. He’s been such an incredible collaborator, friend and presence in my musical life. Whatever he wants, I will do and it always works out well.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<b>He’s reinvented a lot of your older material and encouraged you to branch out as well.</b><br />
I like also that he’s way out there in the musical world, but he still loves song and melody. That’s something that I always aspire to: the composers that I like the best, even if they go to crazy, faraway places, they still retain a love of beauty and melody. Georgio has that quality of insanity plus sweetness. (Laughs)<br />
<br />
<b>You’re playing on International Women’s Day with a host of other amazing women.</b><br />
I’ve always loved Elizabeth Fischer’s work. She’s a very strong artist and always surprises. I don’t actually know Skeena Reece, so the only way I get out to see anyone these days is if someone puts me on the bill, so I appreciate meeting some new people. And I love the Waldorf, too. And Soressa and Janine, they’re doing really cool stuff, some really great electronica. It should be a pretty fascinating night, plus they make excellent cocktails.<br />
<br />
<b>Are there musical frontiers you’ve yet to broach?</b><br />
I have been thinking about making a pure electronica album. That’s mostly my husband’s prodding. Something like David Bowie’s Low or Brian Eno. I’ve been working with JCDC, the recording team, and they’re ready good at that kind of manipulated MIDI sound. Other than that, I think I’ve become really clear that I’m not interested in doing scores for films or anything like that. I used to try and do everything and now I’ve narrowed it down. I’m really just interested in writing songs. I continue to be fascinated by the way words and music intersect. I’ve realized that’s just what I’m going to concentrate on and that will do me for the rest of my life. In some ways it feels good to clarify that that’s what I do. And I’ll write songs for anything — if it’s interesting.<br />
<br />
<b>That’s the caveat.</b><br />
Yeah, I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to say yes to just the things that are interesting. And something seems to happen that once you’ve done some interesting things, you get offered other interesting things. Or, maybe I’m just a slut. Who knows? (Laughs)<br />
<br />
<b>Vancouver has a reputation as a city where it’s hard to live on your art, so it’s inspiring for a lot of people to see that if you’re willing to experiment and try new things, there’s a path you can make for yourself.</b><br />
It’s true. I also could not have done it without arts funding though. Most of which I get from the federal level, not the provincial. One of the reasons that it’s so hard in B.C. is that our arts funding is atrocious. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to access funds from the Canada Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs, ‘cause I wouldn’t have been able to do all my wild experimentation without that support. That said, I’ve also thought about moving many times, but I do keep being interested in this part of the world. I think I’ll always make forays into other cities, but similar to admitting I just wanna write songs, I do just wanna live here, so I will work hard to make sure that keeps happening.<br />
<br />
<b>Vancouver wins!</b><br />
So do I, hopefully! (Laughs) Hopefully someone hears this and gives me a house. Actually, I don’t want a house. I want a space. This has been one thing that’s very frustrating to me lately: I have this idea for a space that’s a rehearsal space for a number of music groups, and a tiny music school where I can teach creative music to three-and four-year-olds, and where Ivan [E. Coyote] can do writing workshops, and where we can do tiny shows for 30 people. I’ve been looking around and just the cost of real estate here is implausible. That’s what I want someone to give: the space to do that kind of thing.<br />
<br />
<b>That sounds amazing</b>.<br />
And I’m not just begging here. I’m working on it. But that’s the thing that’s so sad about living here: you can’t just have the idea and start it up like you could in Halifax or seemingly in Portland. I just feel like now is the point for the city to eke out spaces for the arts because it just makes things better for everyone. I know not everyone believes that, but I certainly do.<br />
<br />
<i>The Vancouver New Music series HE[A]R kicks off Mar. 8 with Veda Hille, Skeena Reece, Elizabeth Fischer and more at the Waldorf Hotel, 7:30pm, and continues Mar. 15 (Kaija Saariaho) and Mar. 22 (The Lappetites). Full schedule and performer lineup: <a href="http://newmusic.org/" target="_blank">NewMusic.org</a>. $15-$20 or series pass $50 from <a href="http://www.brownpapertickets.com/" target="_blank">BrownPaperTickets.com</a>.</i>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-44943696314419890232012-03-06T21:49:00.000-08:002012-05-14T14:30:00.506-07:00Sinead O'ConnorMy timeline of Sinéad O'Connor is in this month's Exclaim and <a href="http://exclaim.ca/Features/Timeline/sinead_oconnor-nothing_compares_2_her">online</a>.<br />
<br />
<div id="headline">
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;">Sinéad O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2 Her</span></h1>
</div>
<div class="articleimage">
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/Features/Timeline/sinead_oconnor-nothing_compares_2_her"><img alt="Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 Her" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/SineadOConnor.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span class="author">By Andrea Warner</span><br />
<br />
<span class="author"></span><span class="bodytext">Has there ever been a more conflicted, tragic, talented musician than the bald child advocate, bipolar-afflicted, anal-sex-loving, Pope-picture-tearing, angel-voiced former-priest Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor? In short, no. And though she's been recording and making music since she was 14 years old, O'Connor's actual artistry has mostly taken a backseat to her highly publicized personal problems. Appropriately enough, her new album is entitled <i>How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?</i> But after the last few months O'Connor has experienced ― a quickie Vegas marriage (her fourth!) already on the rocks mere hours after saying "I do," a suicide attempt, public cries for help on Twitter, and her subsequent hospitalization ― she might like a chance to be somebody else for a while. Love her or loathe her, it's impossible to argue: it's tough work being Sinéad O'Connor.<br />
</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="bodytext"><br />
<b>1966 to 1982</b><br />
O'Connor is born on December 8, 1966 in Dublin, the third of five children for Sean and Marie O'Connor. Sean and Marie's troubled marriage dissolves when O'Connor is eight years old. Though she's initially sent to live with her father, O'Connor ultimately returns to her mother's home, only to move back in with her father at age 13. In a 1991 interview with <i>Spin</i>, O'Connor will reveal that she and her siblings endured abuse their entire lives at their mother's hands. "I've been beaten with all things with which you can beat a child," she'll tell <i>Spin</i> founder, Bob Guccione Jr. "I didn't get food, I was locked up for days in my room, without food and without clothes. I had to sleep in the garden at night. An entire summer I slept in my home's garden... I was always told that I wasn't all right, that I was a piece of shit, that it was my fault that my parents had separated. That I was filthy, that I was dirty, that I was crazy. I was mostly a piece of shit because I was a girl and because I never did anything right. My whole life I was always terrified. Just the sound of my mother's footsteps on the stairs was enough to let us tremble of fear. We were neglected, we were beaten and we were psychologically and emotionally abused."<br />
<br />
O'Connor will offer more more graphic and disturbing details about the abuse in a 2001 interview with <i>The</i> <i>Independent</i>: "It was that kind of psychological destruction. On a regular basis I'd be made to take off my clothes and lie on the floor while she kicked me here [gestures towards genitals] and spit at it. And make me say things like 'I'm nothing,' and ask for mercy. There was a lot of sadism. The violence was sexually abusive."<br />
<br />
Living with her mother, O'Connor misses school, never does homework, and finds herself complicit in her mother's theft and fraudulent activities. In an interview with Fred Dove on the BBC's <i>Outlook</i>, O'Connor will recall how her mother used to drive her and her sister around with collection boxes pretending they were for charity. They go into pubs and collect hundreds of pounds, with their mother pocketing the money. Her mother also encourages her to shoplift, which continues until she's caught at 14 and sent to An Grianán Training Centre (one of the infamous Magdalene asylums), an institution in Dublin for girls with behavioural problems, for 18 months. In the <i>Outlook</i> interview, O'Connor calls her time at the asylum traumatic, but also admits "it was the best thing that ever happened to me actually. The nun that ran the place was the person that bought me my first guitar." After a volunteer at the asylum hears O'Connor singing, she recommends the 14-year-old join her brother's band, In Tua Nua. O'Connor records the band's debut single, but is forced out when she's deemed too young to tour.<br />
<br />
<b>1983 to 1989</b><br />
O'Connor's father sends her to an exclusive Quaker boarding school. A teacher sees that the young teen has no interest in traditional education, and encourages her to record a four-song demo, two covers and two originals. She drops out in 1984 after forming a band with Columb Farrelly, which they call Ton Ton Macoute. The reviews praise O'Connor's onstage magnetism and voice, but her time with the band is cut short when her estranged mother dies in a car accident in 1985. In her 1991 interview with <i>Spin</i>, O'Connor will offer details about a conversation she had with her mother about the abuse before she died. "I said 'Why did you hit us?', and she said, 'I've never done anything to you.' She believed that she had done nothing, because it was too shocking for her to deal with it. Now I'm very sure that she was very sad when she had hit us, because my father told me that afterwards she was always completely upset. I think that she ― and my father thinks the same by the way ― was destined to be unhappy. She had to be abused as a child, one way or another. She really couldn't show love. She just couldn't handle it. I love my mother. I've always loved my mother. I've always understood that she didn't mean it that way, even when she hit me. I've never hated her; I've never had a grudge against her. I've always understood that she suffered herself and that she didn't know what she was doing."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext">In 1985, O'Connor signs with Ensign Records and relocates to London. She lands her first major gig: vocals and co-writing duties on the song "Heroine" with U2's the Edge for the soundtrack to the film, <i>Captive</i>. In 1986, she begins work on her own debut, <i>The Lion and the Cobra</i>, but everything comes to a screeching halt when she becomes pregnant by her drummer, John Reynolds. She tells <i>Hot Press</i> years later that when she confesses her pregnancy to the studio, they send her to a doctor who pressures her to abort. "I was only 19 and freaked and all, this doctor said to me, 'Your record company has spent one hundred thousand quid recording your record, and you owe it to them not to have the baby.' And then he tried to convince me that terrible things would happen to the baby, for example, if I went out on tour while I was pregnant, or got on an airplane or whatever, that the baby would be ill. Not that it would die, but that it would be born mentally handicapped. I swear on a stack of Bibles that that's literally what happened." O'Connor bows to the pressure and goes to have the abortion, but decides at the last minute to keep the baby and returns to work on her record. The original recording is deemed "too Celtic" and scrapped, so O'Connor, seven months pregnant, produces the album herself. Her son Jake and <i>The Lion and the Cobra</i> both made their debut in 1987, the same year that O'Connor starts to cement her reputation as a shit disturber, calling out U2 repeatedly over the next few years as she does press for her album, becoming the new face of Irish music. She denounces Bono and the band as hypocrites and frauds.<br />
<br />
Adam Clayton responds to <i>Hot Press</i> in 1989 about O'Connor's onslaught of attacks and is sceptical about her chance for success in the future. "The fact of the matter is that we went to a lot of trouble to help Sinéad's career in the early days. And that's what you do, if you can," Clayton says. "Now, for some reason, she cannot accept that and has had to lash out. But Bono in particular pioneered Sinéad. He went to a lot of trouble encouraging her; the Edge used her on the soundtrack for <i>Captive</i>; there were various negotiations with Ensign Records that Ossie Kilkenny was involved in ― so she's talking crap. I don't know why she's doing it. It's stupid. It's immature. She'll learn. But I know damn well that she won't be making records in ten years. I was interested in her because I thought she was a great talent and I thought she had a future. That's why you support people. Now I'm not so sure that she has what it takes to last."<br />
<br />
<b>1990 to 1992</b><br />
Though O'Connor earns one Grammy nomination for her debut, her major breakthrough arrives courtesy of her second album, <i>I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got</i>, and her cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," the signature break-up song of Generation X. Its accompanying video is simple but devastating for the time: mostly just a close-up of the bald beauty's sweet, elf-like face, tears welling up in big, sad eyes until two artfully escape down her cheeks. She speaks the devastation of the soul, she wears a big black trench coat and isn't one of those ugly criers. Overnight, O'Connor becomes the unlikely symbol of countless members of the disenfranchised: sad waif; angry rebel; new feminist; raging bitch; defiant politico. She begins to speak publicly about the childhood trauma of her abusive mother and child advocacy. She capitalizes on her increasing fame, using it to leverage her political and social beliefs, likening herself to singer/songwriters from the '60s who spoke out against Vietnam and in favour of civil rights. In May, she backs out of a scheduled <i>Saturday Night Live</i> appearance because shock-douche comedian Andrew Dice Clay is hosting, and in August refuses to allow the national anthem to be played before her concert in New Jersey (Frank Sinatra, who is performing the next night in the same venue, publicly threatens to kick her in the ass).<br />
<br />
In 1991, despite being nominated for several awards, she boycotts the Grammy Awards on the grounds of "extreme commercialism." According to CraveOnline, it is the first time in Grammy history that an artist refuses to accept the awards. In July, she releases a four-song EP, <i>My Special Child</i>, benefiting the Red Cross program to help Kurdish children. In September, in a <i>Spin</i> interview, she admits the boycott is also in protest of the bombing in the Middle East and reveals that the song "My Special Child" is about an abortion she had in 1990, which was preceded by three miscarriages. A few weeks later, on Sept. 22, she releases her third album, <i>Am I Not Your Girl?</i>, a collection of jazz standards that she grew up singing. Critics accuse her of squandering her fame because the album, a total departure from her breakthrough, fails to build on that momentum.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext"></span><br />
<span class="bodytext">The album is eclipsed thanks to O'Connor's career-defining/derailing performance on <i>Saturday Night Live</i> on Oct. 3. At the end of her rendition of Bob Marley's "War," O'Connor holds up a picture of Pope John Paul II, tears it in pieces, and says, "Fight the real enemy." It is a stunning moment ― for both the audience and the <i>SNL</i> crew ― that results in massive public outrage. A few people throw their support behind O'Connor, praising her bold efforts to raise awareness about the massive corruption in the Roman Catholic Church and its disgusting cover-up of widespread sexual abuse within the diocese. Most, though, see her act as sacrilege, and the outcry reaches a feverish point of almost mass hysteria two weeks later when she's scheduled to perform at a Bob Dylan tribute concert. The audience turns on her so harshly that she's forced off the stage in tears. Legendary singer/songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, who was organizing the tribute, shares his recollection of that night in an interview with the <i>Charleston City Paper</i> in 2010, while doing press for his newest album, <i>Closer to the Bone</i>, which contains his song "Sister Sinead," a tribute to freedom of speech and the Irish singer/songwriter. "I've never ever seen everybody boo somebody. I'd never heard anything like it," Kristofferson recalls. "The guy who was runnin' the stage came up to me and he said, 'Get her off the stage ― now.' It shocked me so bad, I walked up there to her and said to her, 'Don't let the bastards get you down.' And it went over the microphone! She said, 'I'm not down' and sang this other song, and then she wheeled around and she was so shocked I guess by what they were doing, she threw up on the stage. She may be wrong, but she may not be, you know? I've never seen an audience turn on a person like that."<br />
<br />
The Roman Catholic Church may be O'Connor's public enemy number one, but Madonna does her best to ingratiate herself into the debacle. The singer/songwriter, who's often accused of sacrilegious behaviour herself, repeatedly attacks O'Connor in the press and tells the <i>Irish Times</i>, "I think there is a better way to present her ideas rather than ripping up an image that means a lot to other people." When Madonna appears on <i>SNL</i> Jan. 16, 1993 she holds up a picture of Joey Buttafuoco and tears it up, saying, "Fight the real enemy."<br />
<br />
<b>1993 to 1999</b><br />
The long-term fallout from O'Connor's actions shuttles her out of the limelight, at least in North America. In Ireland, she continues to be a polarizing figure for her criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and its complicity in prolonging the suffering of children through sexual abuse. She tours and records with former Genesis singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel and the two become romantically involved. It's rumoured that the rocky nature of their relationship (O'Connor later tells <i>Hot Press</i>, "I was his weekend pussy. I wasn't a girlfriend.") drives O'Connor to a breakdown and suicide attempt. She opens up about the suicide attempt to <i>Q</i> magazine the following year while doing press for her fourth album, <i>Universal Mother</i>, explaining how she broke down in a hotel room and swallowed sleeping pills and a bottle of vodka. "When I woke up, I was glad that I was alive." In the same interview, she divulges more details of her mother's abuse, which is alluded to on the album's second track, "Fire on Babylon." She recalls how her mother would "make me take all my clothes off and force me to lie on the floor and she would stamp on my abdomen with the intention of bursting my womb. That's what she said, 'I'm going to burst you.'" The album fails to reignite her career and she tours with Lollapalooza but leaves the festival when she becomes pregnant with her second child. Daughter Roisin is born in 1996, and a bitter custody battle begins the following year with the father, Irish journalist John Waters.<br />
<br />
O'Connor further retreats from the public eye to explore her spirituality. She reveals a softer side on her 1997 EP, <i>Gospel Oak</i>, telling <i>The New York Times</i>, "If <i>Universal Mother</i> was a prayer, then these are the answer. In that sense, the songs are also hymns. I also like the idea of calling it <i>Gospel Oak</i>, because the oak is a symbol of the worship of the mother. So it's the gospel of the mother.'' O'Connor's seemingly volatile relationship with Christianity peaks in 1999; seven years after tearing up the Pope's picture and derailing her promising career, O'Connor becomes Mother Bernadette Mary, an ordained priestess of the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, an independent Catholic group. In a BBC interview she apologizes for the <i>SNL</i> debacle, saying "I'm sorry I did that, it was a disrespectful thing to do. I have never even met the Pope. I am sure he is a lovely man. It was more an expression of frustration." Her new religious designation does little to quell the troubled singer's personal life. She and Waters continue their war of words over Roisin, and O'Connor attempts suicide again on her 33rd birthday.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext"> </span><span class="bodytext"><b>2000 to 2003</b><br />
In the liner notes to O'Connor's fourth album, <i>Faith and Courage</i>, she writes "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the Beginning. Is now and ever shall be. World without end. Jah! Rastafari! Read I! This record is dedicated to all Rastafari people..."<br />
<br />
The album is eclipsed again by O'Connor's personal life. A week before the record's debut, O'Connor announces her homosexuality on the cover of lesbian magazine <i>Curve</i>. In her interview, she reveals "I'm a lesbian... I haven't been very open about that, and throughout most of my life I've gone out with blokes because I haven't necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian. But I actually am a lesbian." Within months, she begins to backtrack from that statement and in 2001 marries journalist Nicholas Sommerland.<br />
<br />
In 2001, she reports musician Shane McGowan to the police for drug possession. The two remain friends and will discuss the matter in an interview with <i>Hot Press</i> in 2007:<br />
<br />
Shane: The one argument we did have, you were actually right.<br />
<br />
Sinead: I can't even remember what it was about. What did we argue about?<br />
<br />
Shane: About the smack... [Laughs]<br />
<br />
Sinead: Ah yeah! Even then, we didn't actually argue...<br />
<br />
Shane: No, no. You just went to the cops...<br />
<br />
Sinead: Quite happily. But we didn't have an argument about it.<br />
<br />
In 2002, she releases her fifth album, a collection of Irish folk songs, <i>Sean-Nós Nua</i>, which translates as <i>In the True Old Style</i>. Critics praise her relaxed confidence, and though it isn't a major hit, it signals the most stable version of O'Connor yet. But 2003 proves to be a year of major highs and lows: O'Connor contributes a song to a Dolly Parton tribute album, releases a double album of B-sides and a live concert, <i>She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty, </i>and announces her retirement from music. In a message to her fans, she writes: </span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext">"This being a very special anniversary for me, I have chosen it to announce that as of July 2003 I shall be retiring from the music business. In order to pursue a different career. The last recordings I will make will be (believe it or not) a track for Dolly Parton's upcoming tribute album and a track for Sharon Shannon's forthcoming album. These will be recorded in May. In July I will be releasing a DVD of a live show and documentary featuring tracks from way back along with tracks from <i>Sean Nos Nua</i>. The DVD will be entitled <i>Goodnight, thankyou. You've been a lovely audience</i>. And so ye have. I wish here to thank everyone who has been a fan and or supporter of mine over the last 22 years in the music business (first record at 14, deal at 17. Half of first album wrote when 15). As well as all the people whom I have had the honour of working with. Not least the great Dolly Parton herself! Thanks to all of ye for a great time and a great education. I would request that as of July, since I seek no longer to be a 'famous' person, and instead I wish to live a 'normal' life, could people please afford me my privacy. By which I mean I would like not to have exploitation of my self or my name or anyone connected with me by newspapers. I also mean that (with love) I want to be like any other person in the street and not have people say there is Sinead O'Connor. As I am a very shy person, believe it or not. So I ask with love, that I be left in peace and privacy by people who love my records too. And I hope it doesn't sound rude. It ain't meant rude. I am glad that ye are helped by my songs. So help me too, by giving me what is best for me, a private life. My advise to anyone who ever admires a so-called 'celebrity' if u see them in the street, don't even look at them. If u love them, then the lovingest thing u can do to show them so is leave them alone and don't stare at them! Or bang on restaurant windows when they in there. Or make them get their picture taken, or write their names on bits of paper. That's pieces of them. And one day they wake up with nothing left of themselves to give. Love, peace, and don't 4get to pray y'all."<br />
<br />
In a 2007 interview with <i>The Age</i>, O'Connor recalls her decision to retire, saying "I was wading through these walls of prejudice and false ideas about me and I found it really painful. It was very abusive and I was suicidal over it for years. I thought I was a total piece of shit and I got to the point when I felt I couldn't carry it any longer. When you go to work, you shouldn't be made to feel like crying." A little more than a month after announcing her retirement, O'Connor discovers she's pregnant with her third child. The baby, Shane, is conceived with fellow musician Donal Lunny, who leaves O'Connor when she's just eight weeks along.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext"></span><span class="bodytext"><b>2004 to 2010</b><br />
O'Connor is finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder (which she'll reveal publicly three years later on the <i>Oprah Winfrey</i> <i>Show</i>). The medication seems to help, as O'Connor retreats to focus on her family and her home life, but her retirement is short-lived. In June 2005, she releases an album of collaborations, appropriately enough titled <i>Collaborations</i>, featuring recordings with a variety of artists including U2, former lover Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack and The The. Just five months later, she releases a reggae covers album, <i>Throwdown Your Arms</i>, inspired by her newfound interest in Rastafarianism. In 2006, O'Connor becomes embroiled in a very public dispute involving her new lover, Frank Bonadio, and his estranged wife, Irish singer Mary Coughlan. The histrionics between the two women play out through mudslinging in the tabloids and a series of threatening texts that are published by <i>The Independent</i>, confirming that O'Connor still has a way with words: "Be very afraid, by the time I'm finished, you will be crying for your Mummy. I eat crazy bitches like you for breakfast." O'Conner becomes pregnant with her fourth child, Yeshua, but ends the relationship with Bonadio shortly after the baby is born due to the ensuing issues with Coughlan. They reunite a few months later and stay together for four years.<br />
<br />
In 2007 O'Connor releases <i>Theology</i>, an album of mostly new songs inspired by the Old Testament. In an interview with <i>Spinner</i>, she explains that her ongoing interest in Rastafarian culture is separate from her Catholicism and calls out Oasis for letting Prime Minister Tony Blair stroke their egos. "A lot of people think [Rastafarianism] is a religion ― it's not. It's an anti-political movement. We believe politics is the problem, actually. So I don't believe in politics. I wouldn't even vote, 'cause I just think they're all wankers, every one of them. None of them give a s*** about anyone or anything. OK, I'm sure there are one or two who do, but they don't get elected anyway. But also I get nervous when I see musicians getting involved with politicians. Fair enough you want to write a political song, but when you get to the stage, for example, of having your picture taken with George Bush you're bringing music into disrepute, in my opinion ... because music exists partly to challenge those authorities. And if you start becoming friends with those authorities, then how are you going to challenge them? So it makes me uncomfortable, like when Tony Blair was elected into office, suddenly he's inviting Oasis around for tea and Oasis are going because the politicians are very clever, they're playing on our vanities."<br />
<br />
<b>2010</b><br />
O'Connor resurfaces with a new song collaboration with Mary J. Blige in support of an organization called GEMS (Girls Education & Mentoring Services), which empowers women ages 12 to 21 who are victims of sex trafficking or sexual abuse. O'Connor and Bonadio's relationship ends, and she suddenly marries her bandmate, Steve Cooney, in July. They announce their marriage on O'Connor's blog: "We who run this site are very happy to announce the marriage of Steve Cooney and Sinéad O'Connor has taken place this morning. Thanks be to the Great Lord Jah. Rastafarai. Dread I. Conquering Lion I. One love."<br />
<br />
<b>2011</b><br />
Happiness is short-lived: in the early part of 2011, some suicidal-sounding tweets have people predicting another breakdown and O'Connor publicly admitting her uncertainty about coping with motherhood. Simultaneously, her marriage to Cooney is ending after just eight months. She tells the <i>Daily Mail</i>, "Steve is lovely so it's not his fault but mine. It was an extremely happy marriage. I'm heartbroken about it breaking up." She goes on to say that her recent weight gain, from her bipolar prescription medication, is also a factor. "I didn't mind putting on weight ― the problem is strangers telling me I was fat. That was hard on our marriage." Just a few months later, news that O'Connor is planning a "comeback" gains momentum as she begins performing intimate shows. Her appearance is criticized, but there's strong industry buzz about the new album. In an interview with <i>Hot Press</i>, she says it's a "very personal album, as most of my stuff tends to be. The album was written between 2007 and 2009, when I was going out with Frank, actually. So really any kind of love songs that are on there are about him. Probably most of the songs are inspired by him." Advance press and hype about the new records is side-tracked in August, when O'Connor writes on her website and twitter that she's looking for a "sweet, sex-starved man," and makes clear her sexual appetite is quite diverse: "Yes I 'do anal' and in fact I would be deeply unhappy if 'doing anal' wasn't on the menu, amongst everything else$$ So if u don't like 'the difficult brown' don't apply..." and that women "will also be very much considered."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="bodytext">On Sept. 14, O'Connor publicly ponders suicide in a series of tweets, which are reported widely: "All this shit we're not supposed to say. Including suicidal feelings, sex, etc. U just get treated like a crazy person. I want to go to heaven SO bad. Have for yrs ... Can't manage any more. Badly wish cud die without it ruining my kids lives." The ensuing result is a public debate about O'Connor's health, the safety of her children, and plenty of gossip fodder, which O'Connor addresses in an open letter on her website on Sept. 17.<br />
<br />
On Sept. 26, O'Connor takes to her blog again to clarify that she is not bipolar, but has been re-diagnosed as "situationally depressed" and has been taking medicine for eight years for a condition from which she does not suffer. The next day, also on her blog, O'Connor lashes out at those who have criticized her: "Nasty people say I'm looking for attention, talking about suicidal feelings. Yes. Maybe I am looking for attention. Because I'd like to stay alive. And the ways in which nasty judgemental people might feel I should have tried instead of speaking out, I've already done them all. Suicidal feelings are not always a symptom of 'crazy'-ness... Or a medical problem. They're often a spiritual problem, or simply a person is being treated like shit and can't handle it. Or a person is lonely. 'Lonely' is now another word people use as a term of abuse. Sometimes a person feeling suicidal just needs to be loved. And shown how precious and priceless they are. Anyway. Am guna write. Because in my country there is no help because if u say u feel suicidal people label u crazy. Or run. I would never act on suicidal feelings OTHER THAN BY WRITING. And I'm guna do that because it will keep me alive. I'm not always guna write depressing shit. I'm just tellling u today, how it feels to be treated as nasty people have treated me for the last six weeks or so. And the previous 25 yrs... I can't just not be able to share it when it comes. People do run. Or say 'don't say that' and literally don't want to talk about it. Sure how would anyone know what to say? They get confused too. Cus once they know for sure u won't act on it. They think that's it sorted. But to me it's about quality of life. It isn't enuff for me to be sure (which I am) that I would never attempt suicide again. I did once. It was almost successful. When I woke in the hospital I was relieved it hadn't worked because it would have destroyed my sister. I hadn't considered that before. Cus suicidal people are so because we think we're shit and unloveable. But we're not."<br />
<br />
On Oct. 10, O'Connor reveals that her new album, the first in five years, will finally be released in Feb. 2012 and will now be called <i>How About I Be Me (And You Be You?)</i>, instead of its original title, <i>Home</i>.<br />
<br />
On Oct. 21, she announces her "manhunt" is over and that she has a new boyfriend, Barry Herridge, an addiction counsellor. In a Dec. 5 interview with <i>Hot Press</i>, O'Connor looks back over her romantic history, admitting, "I think it's too easy to get married. Like, I've been married three times, really I should only have been married once. And no one should be married more than fuckin' twice, to be honest. I don't regret my first marriage, but I do regret the second. They are lovely people and I've no complaints about them as people, or whatever. But it was ― and I'm sure they'd say the same ― it was too easy to rush into something. They should make it more difficult to get married." Despite this, she marries Herridge in a Las Vegas wedding chapel on Dec. 9, a day after her 45th birthday, and posts a wedding announcement on her website: "Am blogging this cus media people are naturally seeking me. On Sunday I will put up blog on whole day. Too glorious for words. For now though, as you will appreciate, it's a bit of a 'Can't. Talk. C--k. In. Mouth.' situation. Xxx."<br />
<br />
According to O'Connor herself, the marriage is over almost before it begins, when later that night she brings her new husband along on a wild goose chase for marijuana. Instead, O'Connor ends up with crack. O'Connor blames pressure from Herridge's family and the drugs for their separation just 18 days later. In the meantime, there's one bright spot professionally: the song O'Connor performs on the <i>Albert Nobbs'</i> soundtrack is nominated for a Golden Globe on Dec. 15.<br />
<br />
<b>2012</b><br />
As of Jan. 3, O'Connor and Herridge reunite. But on Jan. 11, O'Connor again takes to twitter with her suicidal impulses. This time, she asks for help, stating "Does any1 know a psychiatrist in Dublin or Wicklow who could urgently see me today please? Im really un-well....and in danger" and "I desperately need to get back on meds today. am in serious danger." She later admits that on Jan. 5 she had overdosed on pills in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. On Jan. 13, O'Connor announces that she and Herridge are divorcing and swears off love. Finally, on Jan. 18, O'Connor checks in to the hospital and begins treatment for her depression. On Jan. 26, her blog reveals that she will be making videos of her covers of Bob Dylan's Christian songs. She returns to Twitter on Jan. 27, but with a new, "private" account (@vampyahslayah7) intended to keep out media. O'Connor is scheduled to start touring Feb. 20, the same day <i>How About I Be Me (And You Be You?)</i> is released.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Essentials</b><br />
<br />
<i>I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got </i>(Ensign/Chrysalis, 1990)<br />
Five years before Alanis stuck one hand in her pocket, Sinéad O'Connor was penning confessional, heart-on-her-trenchcoat-sleeve, alt-rock odes and indictments about love, pain, injustice and religion. <i>I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got</i> was hijacked by the overwhelming success of her soulful, sad cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," but the rest of the tracks signal a woman with an almost unworldly talent, lyrically and vocally. Every song is choked with words and concepts and themes, but it never feels like overkill thanks to O'Connor's unique voice: she tears at the phrases like an lioness opening up the flesh of its prey.<br />
<br />
<i>Sean-Nós Nua</i> (Vanguard, 2002)<br />
Ten years after O'Connor tore up the Pope's picture on <i>Saturday Night Live</i>, she was still mostly out of favour with North American audiences and was both a source of pride and pain in her native Ireland. <i>Sean-Nós Nua, </i>O'Connor's only album of Irish traditionals and folk songs, plays as equal parts penance and ode. Her voice is warm and inviting, and her charming accent curls around the penny whistles and fiddles, capturing moments both whimsical and darkly longing. The collection is O'Connor glancing back at her life, and taking a few tentative steps towards a achieving a peace between herself and her homeland.<br />
<br />
<i>How About I Be Me (And You Be You?)</i> (Relativity, 2012)<br />
O'Connor's comeback is chock full of songs that <i>American Idol</i> contestants can't wait to get their hands on ― soulful and sad, with brief punctuation marks of happy, fragile hope. There's also an urgency and purpose that O'Connor has been missing in recent years: it's like she's been awakened from a long coma and is shaking off the slumber. The album's opener, "4th and Vine" is easily one of the best songs of the year: fun, frisky and a vintage-inspired throwback with a rockabilly edge.</span><span class="bodytext"> </span>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-20853620568383945892012-03-06T21:36:00.000-08:002012-05-14T14:30:27.740-07:00The ShinsMy online news story with James Mercer of the Shins, a preview before the print feature in April.<br />
<br />
<div id="headline">
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;">James Mercer Talks the Shins' 'Port of Morrow'</span></h1>
<h1>
<a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/james_mercer_talks_shins_port_of_morrow"><img alt="James Mercer Talks the Shins' 'Port of Morrow'" src="http://exclaim.ca/images/shins6.jpg" /></a><span class="author"> </span></h1>
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="author" style="font-weight: normal;">By Andrea Warner</span><span class="bodytext" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h1>
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="bodytext" style="font-weight: normal;">It's been five long years since <a href="http://simplesong.theshins.com/" target="_blank">the Shins</a>' <i>Wincing the Night Away</i> proved just how far the Portland-based band had moved beyond indie obscurity. Buoyed by the 2004 film <i>Garden State</i>, as the band Natalie Portman promised would "change your life," the Shins lead singer-songwriter James Mercer was suddenly an icon to millions who loved his brand of poetic indie pop: dark lyrics steeped in metaphor contrasted with hooky choruses and breezy melodies.<br />
<br />
Then suddenly Mercer made a radical shift, forming a new collaboration with hip-hop producer/songwriter Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton. As <a href="http://www.brokenbells.com/" target="_blank">Broken Bells</a>, the duo released a hugely successful full-length and toured extensively, leaving Shins fans to wonder if their beloved band would be another casualty of the indie-goes-mainstream boom. Even Mercer himself wasn't sure.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
"Yes, there was that thought [of quitting the Shins]," he admits in a recent interview with Exclaim!, weeks before the release of the band's fourth album, <a href="http://exclaim.ca/News/shins_return_with_new_album"><i>Port of Morrow</i></a>. "But I love the thing I've created with the Shins. It would have been hard to give that up and just let it die. And I realized that wasn't necessary. There's no reason why I can't do it the way I want to do it."<br />
<br />
Welcome to Shins 2.0. As several leaked tracks from <i>Port of Morrow</i> have proved, there are sonic surprises everywhere: fuzzed-out guitars, thumping bass lines, spacey beeps and blips, '80s keyboards and countless other flourishes. For the first time, Mercer's vocals aren't hidden under layers of instrumentation. And despite Mercer now being the Shins only remaining original member, this is the sound of confidence.<br />
<br />
"This is the first Shins thing where I had a producer [Greg Kurstin] there who had a really strong aesthetic impact," Mercer says. "One of the things you have to do in order to collaborate with people is be comfortable with them knowing how good or bad you are, what your limits are. It was really a lack of confidence that caused me to do everything secretly in my room and record everything alone because I was afraid -- well, I was just nervous to go out there and work with 'real' musicians, you know? <br />
<br />
"I've developed a bit of confidence, and man, working with Brian was huge in that respect. It gave me a lot of confidence to work with somebody so talented and yet he respected me. He knows very well and what my skills are; we've worked together for a long time and will continue to. It's a real boost."<br />
<br />
<i>Port of Morrow</i> will be released on March 20 via Mercer's own imprint Aural Apothecary/<a href="http://www.columbiarecords.com/" target="_blank">Columbia Records</a>. In support of the new album, the Shins have rolled out some U.S. tour dates, which you can view <a href="http://www.theshins.com/events" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h1>
</div>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-9874724860920839352012-03-06T19:36:00.000-08:002012-05-14T14:30:39.900-07:00Gurl Twenty ThreeFrom WE, Mar. 1<br />
<br />
<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;">MUSIC: Gurl Twenty Three keeps the ‘Beat’</span></h1>
<div class="media" style="text-align: center; width: 364px;">
<img alt="BeatNation_GurlTwentyThree_LarissaHealey_supplied.jpg" border="0" height="546" src="http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/364*546/98089westenderBeatNation_GurlTwentyThree_LarissaHealey_supplied.jpg" title="BeatNation_GurlTwentyThree_LarissaHealey_supplied.jpg" width="364" /> <br />
<div class="byline" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; position: relative; text-align: left; width: 364px;">
Larissa Healey, AKA Gurl Twenty Three, is part of the new Beat Nation exhibit at at Vancouver Art Gallery.</div>
<div class="byline" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; position: relative; text-align: left; width: 364px;">
</div>
</div>
By Andrea Warner<br />
<br />
A generation of artisans quietly came of age over the last few years at Vancouver’s grunt gallery. They produced the Beat Nation project — originally an exhibition and a website — to showcase the artistic influence of urban youth culture on aboriginal culture. The project hit a nerve. It’s since evolved to include a performance art/hip hop musical collective featuring Kinnie Starr, and last week launched a full-scale, mainstream exhibit at the venerable Vancouver Art Gallery. <a href="http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_beat_nation.html" target="_blank">Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture</a> features 20 artists and innovators from across the continent.<br />
<br />
And several of those artists are from right here in Vancouver, some of whom were on hand for a media walk-through last Thursday. One woman in particular caught my eye: short and solid, with a feather twisted into one of the long braids coming down each side of her face. She looked tough, but when she smiled everything sparkled with a kind of radiance that made me stop thinking she’d like to kick my ass. Larissa Healey, AKA Gurl Twenty Three, is a street artist who made her rap debut just a few weeks ago at the PuSh Festival. Now, the mural she co-created with Corey Bulpill is on the wall at the VAG. Healey still can’t quite believe that this is how her life is turning out. Standing in a room filled with art by her peers that mixes past and present traditions, Healey opened up about her art, finding her voice and overcoming the darkest aspects of her troubled past.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<b>Your stage name references 23. Was that age a turning point for you?</b><br />
In our culture, suicide is a big issue. I had no identity, I was sad, I was an alcoholic. In [dealing with my suicidal issues], I realized how incredibly greedy suicide was and that people cared about me and I survived. I marked it [rolls up a sleeve to reveal an ornate tattoo spread across her upper arm]. It’s pretty heavy, so I try not to share that with many youth. I tell the right ones, the ones who are ready for that. It’s not the easiest thing to talk about, but it makes them feel — not that it’s “common,” but it is something that happens in the world that surrounds us with the oppression and colonization.<br />
<br />
<b>How did you discover the best way to express yourself creatively in both music and visual arts?</b><br />
I was always taking anything in my environment and manipulating it, whether it be finding mud in my backyard and sculpting or ripping gypwall out of the wall or going to the beach and finding a piece of coal and scratching on something, anything, finding cardboard in the alleys and chopping it up. It just kept the momentum going. Then my adopted father gave me a spray can and I grabbed it from him and then it was on after that! I followed the AA Crew, Aerosal Assassins, the first graffiti crew in Vancouver, and met them over time and worked with them individually and learned from them.<br />
<br />
<b>What about the music? Where did that come from?</b><br />
There was another turning point with a lot of drugs, a lot of alcohol. My teeth were starting to go from substance abuse. I quit everything cold turkey. I got braces and my mouth changed, so I had no voice, I was only visual. I put those two together and learned how to re-use my mouth. My tongue was pretty mangled from the braces, so I started rapping, practising using my voice. The group of people I was working with have a pretty aggressive lifestyle and I was the female on the team, so to speak, and I thought, maybe I can express myself to them: let’s celebrate being alive and being a woman. I relearned how to use my mouth, I relearned how to have a voice, and then I rapped the song, ‘I’m a Hood Diva.’ And then Paul Armstrong, from Beat Nation Live, heard it and said, “You’re doing it! You’re doing that song on stage, you’re a part of the show!” That was it. I’ve never been on stage. It was just a couple weeks ago at the PuSh Festival. It was so beautiful. I never dreamed of having that experience!<br />
<br />
<b>This is a whole brand new world that you’re about to take on!</b><br />
Being at this exhibition makes me feel confident, in our people and myself. I was bombing on the street one time and an elder came by and was like, “No, no. That’s not how you do it.” I looked at him and said, “Well, this is how we do it now.” And he said, “Ohhh!” (Laughs) To have him not be angry and have the elders see what we’re doing, it’s very important.<br />
<br />
<i>Larissa and Corey will be doing a graffiti mural live this weekend at Family FUSE Mar. 3-4.</i> <i>Beat Nation runs to</i> <i>June 3 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Info: <a href="http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_beat_nation.html" target="_blank">VanArtGallery.bc.ca</a>.</i>Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1690018261597356300.post-68619998051136833712012-03-06T19:31:00.000-08:002012-03-06T19:31:26.351-08:00Ashleigh Ball pulls double duty in Hey Ocean and My Little Pony Friendship is MagicFrom WE, Mar. 1<br />
<br />
<h1><span style="font-size: small;">Hey Ocean’s Ashleigh Ball ‘reins’ over My Little Pony</span></h1><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QmJvHILyeOo" width="420"></iframe><br />
<h1><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h1>Being the lead singer of an indie rock band brings its own unique experiences — road warrior fatigue, playing dingy bars, bad pick-up lines. But <a href="http://www.loveheyocean.com/" target="_blank">Hey Ocean</a>’s Ashleigh Ball has an entirely different, not-so-secret second life, that makes being a rock star seem almost normal. As the voices of Applejack, Rainbow Dash and more, Ball is saddle-deep in the animated world of <a href="http://www.hasbro.com/mylittlepony/en_US/" target="_blank">My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</a>. And that’s where things start to get a little — well, strange.<br />
<br />
“It’s pretty weird! That whole thing has just gone crazy,” Ball says, over the phone, having ducked inside a coffee shop to escape the Vancouver rain.<br />
<br />
In part, she’s referring to how the cartoon television series — just one of her many voice-acting gigs — is not only hugely popular with its target audience of children, but is also an underground pop culture phenomenon for grown men, known as Bronies. Media outlets all over North America have reported on the craze, which has spawned huge online followings and real-life groups, as well as <a href="http://www.bronycon.org/" target="_blank">BronyCons</a>. Yes, conventions dedicated to the television series. It’s where Ball found herself this past January, feted as a guest of honour for her voice-acting work.<br />
<br />
“It was pretty crazy,” she laughs. “I actually brought a friend of mine along to document it... I was hoping they would be okay with him coming, and the organizer, a person named Purple Tinker, was like, ‘Of course!’ They paid for him to come as well and treated me like royalty! They put us up in this fancy hotel and I just got to talk about being a pony... He’s going to put together some stuff for a trailer and we’ve got some work to do on it. It was very, very bizarre.”<br />
<br />
It’s not the future Ball envisioned for herself as a kid interested in musical theatre.<br />
<br />
“I went to a fine arts mini school and did a lot of improv and theatre,” she says. After graduating from the Canadian College for the Performing Arts, she performed in a talent showcase and was scooped up by an agent who ended up representing her at the beginning of her voice career.<br />
<br />
“I was originally signed to do TV and film stuff and theatre, but I didn’t have very much success with that,” she laughs. “It’s not something I really ever wanted to do that much. I get a bit camera shy, and I’m not that striking beauty they’re looking for, so the voice work seemed to be the right fit. I was super lucky to get my foot in the door; it’s a really small community of people in Vancouver that do it. I work with people time and time again, it’s very close-knit. I landed some of my first roles six years ago, and then slowly built a bit of a name for myself among the voice directors. And now being a part of a series, like My Little Pony, that’s going crazy, it’s pretty cool.”<br />
<br />
For Ball, it’s a weird culmination of six years of hard work, most of which has been also spent balancing her increasingly demanding role in Hey Ocean, one of Vancouver’s hardest working and most popular bands.<br />
<br />
“Music is my number one passion and I’ve always wanted to pursue it,” Ball says. “Being in a band takes an incredible amount of commitment, but a lot of musicians have to have side jobs. All the guys in our band have side jobs, whether it’s teaching music or working at a coffee shop or whatever. It’s hard to be a full-time musician, so this is really incredible. It gives me the freedom to not have a full-time job. If I go into the studio once or twice a week, that’s my rent for the month.”<br />
<br />
Second jobs might not be the reality for Hey Ocean in the near future. The band has a management deal with Nettwerk Records and recently signed to Universal as their Canadian label. The new album, their major label debut, is expected sometime this summer and they’re about to set out on a coast-to-coast Canadian tour for the month of March. While Ball is grateful for the momentum in both aspects of her creative/professional life, she admits that juggling both isn’t easy.<br />
<br />
“It can be a struggle. I use my voice for everything. It’s all I do. That’s kind of weird to think about!” she laughs. “[When we’re on tour], I usually have to come back and do a bunch of scripts I’ve missed out on and then go back on the road. You have to make it work. I’m getting a steady income from the voice-over world and if I do a series, obviously they expect me to be there part of the time. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. I’ve lost a couple series because of my schedule. It sucks... But I love both of these things so much. They’re both so important to me. I try to keep people happy and keep myself happy.”Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03997137293712430782noreply@blogger.com0