DASHIELL BROWN'S REVIEWS/ARTICLES
The articles below have all been previously published in Current Magazine.
Rae Spoon, Superior You Are Inferior
Geoff Berner's 2008 Klezmer Mongrels Tour
AM/FM Dreams, Suburban Teenage Riot
Dashiell Brown's Top Ten Most Under-rated Albums of 2008
AE Bridger, I am a Ghostly Leech
When it comes to St. John's musicians, you can't get any more homegrown than five-time MusicNL Award nominee Ian Foster, but this summer he's going to spread his roots, embarking on his largest Canadian tour to date, to promote two remarkable new albums, We Begin Here and Found: Music From the Unmade Film, his latest project composed for the 2009 RPM Challenge. I chatted with him to get a better understanding of who this guy is and what he’s all about.
Ian Foster is not unknown in these parts. He was born and raised here in St. John’s, playing the keyboards in Radio Shack at 10 years old until he got kicked out of the place. His parents then gave him a keyboard and he immediately started playing The Beatles’ songs that came with the book. Seeing this as a signal that Foster seemed to have a knack for this music thing, they enrolled him in private lessons for piano and voice. Foster picked up the guitar along the way, though he didn’t study music at the university; rather, he majored in English and History because he enjoyed the folk/pop/rock idioms of popular music and though he loves classical music, he didn’t want to devote himself to the formal study of it.
He started gigging live in 2003, supporting other musicians, and then went out on his own with the Ian Foster Band, debuting his critically-acclaimed album, Through the Wires in 2006, which captured the live sets his band had been playing. But since the other members of the IFB had other jobs and priorities, the IFB served as a one-shot deal, and Foster has been going solo since, having released Room in the City and now his two new releases.
Where Through the Wires was about methods of communication, Room in the City was about traveling in cities, which had a major impact on him as he started to tour his material, made possible by funding through MusicNL. His latest release We Begin Here is about history. “There’s a weight to history and we feel it. If we don’t feel it, we should—it has to at least be acknowledged,” Foster says.
For example, take his Dylanesque folk song, “Gone with the Good Earth,” driven by his rich acoustic guitar and harmonica. The title, taken from Robert Wright’s A Short History of Progress, laments the plight of the farmer, the entropy of man’s detrimental effect on his land, farming the land until there’s nothing left. “I used to know what it was worth/But now it all seems to be washed away/Gone with the good earth.” History teaches us we must be good to the land. Not only today's farmer, but the microcosm of modernity surrounding the farmer, is all but destroying it.
Or take “The Pacific’s Waters”, a folk song also inspired by history, in this case, herstory. A 30 yr. old woman sat next to Foster on a Greyhound bus and revealed that she had left her family to go meet a man she had met online, to see if she could escape her failing marriage, her own past which she was trapped by, to see what could be. We must acknowledge history, but sometimes we are compelled to go forward.
The title track “We Begin Here” is the centerpoint of the album and defines its overlying theme: “History is just an art of creating where we begin.” Foster means that history is not set in stone, that it invites many interpretations, and it’s flexible. In other words, as the title of the first track states, “the future is an ocean,” and “you’ve gotta be brave enough to sail.”
When asked about his own future, what his plans were, and whether he felt successful, he modestly told me, “I do…when I get close to writing the songs that I hear in my head…I know it sounds cliché, but I just want to make the music I want to make.” In fact, his aim has always been about communication. If he can make people respond to his music in some way, then he feels successful. He told me about the 1000 true fans theory, that if you can get 1000 loyal fans that will support you, buy all of your music, follow everything you do, then you can make a living doing what you love as a musician. But for Foster, I got the impression this would be the icing on the cake for him. Doing what you love and being able to do it, that’s his ultimate aim, and he feels he’s achieving it.
Indeed, once you listen to his two brand new releases, you will feel it for yourself. We Begin Here and Found are the mark of a man who fears no musical bounds or traps himself in any kind of formulaic song craft or sticks to any one genre. This isn’t songwriting to be ignored but wrapped around you like a cozy blanket that will get better with the wear and tear, especially the Knopfler-like “Different Songs,” perhaps my favorite song on the album, an ode in a way to all the different songs will you hear, not only on We Begin Here, but also on Found: Music From the Unmade Film, which has a Magnum P.I.-like techno number, a ragtimey piano jazz feel, and a gypsy, flamenco track; the album is mostly instrumental and may be somewhat inspired by Daniel Lanois. It is also an enhanced cd, which includes images of the unmade film.
We Begin Here slows to a crawl towards the end, taking you into more contemporary territory, with several power ballads, but the album is quite a journey and utterly memorable, like he’s taken you into a delicate, vulnerable world you never knew existed and want to protect with your life, lest it too be gone with the good earth.
Ian Foster’s tour and cd-release party begins here in St. John’s at The Ship, Sunday, June 21. This will be his fifth tour and his largest to date. His website is ianfoster.ca.
Talking with Jill Porter: Reinventing Her Past, Present, and Future
Many musicians are caught between living on this rock and a hard place when it comes to trying to make music a full-time career. One of these musicians is Jill Porter, who will be giving a “rare” acoustic performance this Saturday night, April 11, at the Rose and Thistle. Also performing will be Maggie Meyer from St. John’s and Honeybird and the Birdie, from Italy, and they just finished doing a tour in Mexico. What makes Honeybird special is that she plays the charango, a ten-stringed Bolivian lute, and they have a wonderfully exotic sound. As Porter said, it will be an “eclectic bunch,” not to mention a lot of estrogen.
I talked with Jill Porter about the upcoming show, what she has been doing since her last album, and whether or not we can expect another album from her anytime soon.
Music has always been in Porter’s life since childhood, and she couldn’t imagine her life without it. Her father, Leonard Porter, used to actively gig, so she had easy access to all sorts of gear and left-handed guitars. While in High School in Bergio, she had already been playing live with her cousin, and she brought that experience with her to St. John’s in 1995, continuing to hone her craft before finally producing her debut album with Don Ellis ten years later. After seeing her open for one of Terry Penney’s shows, John Steele, president of Steele Communications, granted Porter a blank check to record her own album.
Her move from performing covers to actual songwriting began when she met Mark Bragg in 1998, and though Porter feels her first album is “worn out”, and she is still amazed that people are still buying it even today, she is proud of it, and she has every right to be. Her record met with much success and attention, planting her on the East Coast map of other high caliber musicians, as well as earning her a nomination for new artist of the year, female artist, and alternative artist at the 2005 MusicNL awards conference.
When I asked her if we could expect another album anytime soon, she said she is always asked this. “I’m always working on another album. I’ve been working on another album since the last one came out.” But because of Porter’s serious attitude towards music, she believes “less is more,” both in gigging and recording. Quantity does not mean quality, and she doesn’t want to half-ass it. But she also respects her own inner critic with respect to how much she has grown as a songwriter since her last record. “I’m so critical of my own songs and a lot of it stems from not coming from a song-writing background.” Whereas, she says, people can hopefully look at her last album more “superficially,” and she performs backing vocals for a lot of recordings, she wants to go deeper and take her career to the next level as a serious singer/songwriter, not an easy task when you’re on the Rock.
Making music your full-time career, especially when it costs $1,000 to leave each time for gigs, is paddling upstream; you have many obstacles. She wants music to be her career, but she realizes how hard it is to “get to that place” when you can’t gig so easily on the mainland; she knows many musicians who have left Newfoundland for that very reason. In Porter’s case, she is also in hiatus mode as she has mounds of things on the go other than her music: education courses, teaching Veterinarian classes, and paying the bills. For all these reasons, you won’t see Jill Porter gig in town too often, but she rehearses frequently with a whole new band since her last album, Steve Colbourne rakes on guitar, Richard Cluett thumps on bass, and Devon Milley pounds on drums.
Jill Porter will not be playing with her band this time around, though; she will be playing an acoustic set, which people are starting to prefer, she says. She also believes in acts with a strong stage presence. Yes, the album will always “stay with you, but a lot of my success comes from my live performances.” The album is the menu, the performance, the meal. So we should expect a hearty one this Saturday as she performs some of her new, “deeper” material. Though she knows she has a reliable fan base, she also wants to reach new fans, perhaps dissolve away some people’s perceptions that she is a “rocker chick.” After all, that’s been so done, anyone can rock. She would be right to shed such labels, for one mark of a great musician is the ability to reinvent, to keep it fresh. If anyone seems intent on renewing her identity, it is her. Certainly in this day and age, with tons of DIY musicians on the go, peddling their wares to any joint that’ll have them, it’s a daunting task indeed, especially when you’re physically tied to the Rock. So try and come to this special Siren-like showcase of extraordinary talent. As they play, we can vicariously live out their unknown futures as they melt away their obstacles and lay their unique imprints upon this unpredictable and increasingly-unstable world—in that we can find some comfort.
www.myspace.com/jillporter
www.myspace.com/maggiemeyer
www.myspace.com/honeybirdhoneybird
Honeybird and the Birdies will also be doing a show with Jon Janes’s The Mountains and The Trees at The Ship Inn on Monday, April 13.
Rae Spoon vs. Neko Case – The Battle of the Alt-Country Canadian “Chanteuse”
Yes, the new Neko Case has hit stores, hooray. But do yourself a favor and pass on it because there’s another alt-country chanteuse that has rode into town: Calgary’s Rae Spoon, a transgendered country singer born on the Canadian prairies in the 80’s. While touring Europe, his identity created controversy, so he hid away in an East German town and wrote Superior You Are Inferior, an account of his “darker” experiences in Canada, from the Yukon to Newfoundland. His voice is haunting and bittersweet, about 70% cocoa, with a trill in his pipes that’ll melt away any wound. Similar to Sinead O’ Connor, you can’t ignore Rae Spoon’s endearing style and delivery, and the subtle electronics only make Superior You Are Inferior even more of a treat. Yes, you don’t usually hear electronic sounds on an alt-country/folk record, but he traded his banjo for a computer while in Europe. This album is so artfully engineered that you probably won’t notice the electronics as they seem to be interwoven into the fabric of the songs themselves. (Enter Shameless Plug here: My own RPM ‘09 album Circuit Tree’s Of A Time is a blend of electronic and folk, but no country—you can listen to it here .)
If you let it, Superior You Are Inferior will take hold of you and won’t let go; it gets frequent spin on my show. I’m not big on ballads, but Rae Spoon takes me far away in songs like “Bones in a Museum” accompanied by violin, cello, steel guitar, and electronics, or when he croons the mysterious chorus against the electronic glitch in “Strength from Within”: “We’ve gotta find a way to get the ocean on our side.” Perhaps my favorite track is “Off the Grid, Underground,” as he sings “Off the grid, underground/All the best songs are never found.” So true! Sounds like a New Spin mantra if I ever heard one. And it is true with this album, Rae Spoon is obviously a fan of “experimenting,” and he should be rewarded for it. Rae Spoon makes Neko Case’s latest effort look like “lukewarm brown water that looks like gnat’s pee.” (Masters of Reality…) Rae Spoon is currently on a massive tour, and this is his fourth solo album, www.raespoon.com.
Geoff Berner's 2008 Klezmer Mongrels Tour
Way back in 2006, Geoff Berner was so enamoured with St. John’s bar culture, or as he calls it, “Galway with a Tim Horton’s,” that he has chosen this city for the very last show of his tour to celebrate his latest release, Klezmer Mongrels. With aid from a Canada Council grant, he is also bringing his other band members with him, Wayne Adams and Dionia Davies; as Berner said to me, Dionia is so incredible that “there are women out there who’ve never realized they’re bisexual until they’ve heard [her] play the violin.” So mark your calendars because Berner said he hopes this’ll be a “blow-up.” Based on what I learned from him, I’m sure he’s not exaggerating.
Never a typical guy, Geoff Berner has always had punk in his blood. I asked him if he was like a starving artist, to which he replied, “I’m not making a killing, but I’m making a living.” When I asked him why the accordion, he said “it was widely disparaged in mainstream culture.” (I told him about the Accordion Revolution shirts at Living Planet, and I think he started to drool.) To further learn about Klezmer and hone his accordion skills, he traveled to Romania with Bob Cohen, an ethnomusicologist, to learn from the old gypsy veterans who were well versed in the “dirtier, grimier, more aggressive” type of Klezmer. Also, in true punk fashion, he was deported to Norway when the British Government wouldn’t let him back into the country. Rather than fret about it, he was more concerned about getting to his booked shows then returning to Canada, so he asked to be deported to Norway and he only missed a few shows. Berner also caused an upset at the Winnipeg folk festival. During a performance of his song “Maginot Line”, he reminded his free-thinking audience that Hitler brought us all Volkswagen, which just so happened to be the corporate sponsor of the festival. He assumed at a folk festival you should be able to say anything you want. Of course having a corporate sponsor at a folk festival doesn’t seem to be all that folky in the first place. Finally, if you really want to see how much of a punk Geoff Berner is, all you have to do is look at the cover of his new album, Klezmer Mongrels. Designed by Kelly Haigh, it shows a mother dog breast-feeding another dog…there’s also some tentacles whipping around in true Beetlejuice fashion.
Berner says his theme is all about mongrels, or “mixed-breed people.” He told me many bars in Europe actually let you bring your dogs and that bars are “a place for a mixing of people, of culture and ideas; it all fits with the idea of the mongrel.” Bar culture is strongly emphasized in Berner’s songs; in fact, his first album in a trilogy, Whisky Rabbi, is all about drinking, Wedding Dance of the Widow Bride is about women, and Klezmer Mongrels is a mixing of the two, drinking and women. Berner says, “I believe strongly in the social, political benefit of a healthy bar culture where people of different social classes and opinions get together in a public space.” “Shut In”, the first song on Klezmer Mongrels is a hilarious account of all the bars he’s drank in. I guess that’s why he loves St. John’s so much. So come see him punk out with his band and have a drink with him at The Ship this Saturday, Feb. 21. And bring along your accordions and dogs, let’s have a 2nd Accordion Revolution where we march all the way to George Street, white and black keys flying, dogs barking, a St. John’s hootenanny.
AM/FM Dreams, Suburban Teenage Riot (Feb. 13, 2009)
AM/FM DREAMS up a new album, and it’s a Suburban Teenage Riot
Don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but the RPM Challenge of ‘09 is under way and AM/FM Dreams made an album for last year’s challenge called How the Aviator Sees the Rainbow. The first track “Flying machine” was a featured New Spin Track of the Week and gets a lot of spin on my show, as does “Nico’s Lament” which Damian Lethbridge says is “kind of a protest song about the cruelty of raising animals just so man can be entertained by them and then disposing of them when they get too old or feeble.” He’s referring to greyhounds like Nico, which is Marc and Danielle Poirier’s greyhound. (We have two of them ourselves.) I love those two songs and was excited to hear their new album, and honestly, it has more than met my expectations.
Besides the music being rock solidly innovative, AM/FM Dreams actually have something to say, and Suburban Teenage Riot is no exception. The title speaks for itself, but shortly before 2008 was about to close and the economy was (and is) in shambles, I asked Damian if he was working on anything new; he modestly replied, “We're working on a new album about.....ho-hum....... suburban...if you can call it ....living.”
With great titles like “My White Picket Fence,” “Abstract Little Cul-de-Sac,” and “Breadcrumbs and TV,” you could call this a concept album; this one highlights the routine boredom of suburbia portrayed in shows like Weeds or movies like Suburbia. And we all know what happened to thousands of commuters in late 2008 who have those ginormous cookie-cutter homes and live an hour away form work: their gas bills were obscene, their house prices plummeted, and the American Dream became a nightmare.
Not only does this theme run the course of the whole album, but also the music influences are so distinct it seems to have been intentional: “Another Disappointment” in underscored by that distinct TV on the Radio doo-wop sound heard on their incredible debut. You’ll want to check out their myspace page, they list all of their influences and all of their lyrics are arranged creatively as well. This is their seventh album and it’s one to keep by your side as you watch the mailman slip on the ice outside your brand new windows.
-- Dashiell Brown
AE Bridger, I am a Ghostly Leech (Oct. 10, 2008)
Attention indie rock fans: lick your finger and point it up into the air. Can you feel that? The wind has clearly shifted in the local music scene of St. John’s. Whereas some local outfits still seem to be stuck playing power chords and tepid guitar riffs in a never-ending cycle of been-there-done-that, indie rock fans of Pavement, Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, and The Pixies will be thrilled to let AE Bridger and his talented band of nineteen to twenty-somethings steer us into their brave new world of psych-prog indie rock that is immediately familiar, yet exciting and fresh like a blast of cold water in the face.
AE Bridger’s new album, I am a Ghostly Leech, is the complete indie rock package. AE Bridger immediately charms with his diverse vocals ranging from the quasi-adolescent wailing of The Unicorns to an aggressive punk style with short screams and yelps. Joshua Bourden lays down a solid foundation on drums, and Tyler Lovell’s bass and Steve Cowan’s lead guitar gel solidly together as they explore the staccato, choppy style of Primus to classic rock riffs of Hendrix, but they don’t get so heavy as to scare you into the idea they’re a hard rock band; they’re anything but, and that’s why we need to celebrate. From the haunting medieval opener of “Skinbag I” to the seven-plus minute epic of “Ghostly Leech,” I am a Ghostly Leech is so packed with musical gems and surprises, AE Bridger’s original indie rock sound will remain with you long after it’s over. Couple that with Ken Bridger’s fascinating Miro-like surrealist black and white cover art, and you have yourself a true indie rock gem that needs to be heard. Here's his myspace page.
Chad VanGaalen's Soft Airplane (Oct. 17, 2008)
Given today’s precarious economy, the battle between nature and technology is staring us in the face more than we’d like to admit. However, Chad VanGaalen, a 30 year-old hermit musician and artist from Calgary, embraces this Zeitgeist with his exciting new album Soft Airplane. His last album Skelliconnection was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Prize, and Soft Airplane should be no exception.
The moment you hear his haunting Neil Young, cabin-in-the-woods vibrato, the organic sounds of banjo, guitar, accordion and vibraphones, the electronic indie-pop sound of The Flaming Lips, you’ll realize you’re not in Kansas anymore. Soft Airplane takes you to a sublime world of “Monkey-webs of concrete road,” where “Weeds and trees…will cover us in time/Swallowing all of the buildings/And every single piece of trash.” VanGaalen continues on this wavelength in “TMNT Mask” as time and nature consume the man-made, leaving behind a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Mask/Sunk into the rocks plastic face half-buried,” and a “Shopping cart stuck on an island/Stranded in the middle getting hotter and thirsty.”
With Soft Airplane Chad VanGaalen channels an Into-the-Wild, Chris McCandless mentality of an unbridled youth who champions our shop-and-ditch automatism, our addictions to empty consumption. Inevitably, he suggests we fold our hands and surrender as “This world of wonder” eats “the bones of man.” For death doesn’t scare him as much as it inspires him: “As the earth started closing up on itself/I felt at peace and alive even though the ship was goin’ down.” Given the state of things, we might all do well to heed his words and remain calm as we are eaten by the “rabid bits of time.” Chad VanGaalen, you have our attention.
--Dashiell Brown
Back in the 80’s, a folkie named Lach got kicked out of Folk City in New York for not being folk enough, or “too punk.” So he started his own club, now known as the Sidewalk Café, and anti-folk was born. Lach said anti-folk is to folk what punk is to rock, a bold subversion of the traditional folk song in which songs are turned into playgrounds, and the lyrics conjure the political stage of the 60’s, marked by an aggressive and organic unease. Billy Bragg and Beck both had a large influence upon this scene, and of course, Kimya Dawson’s The Moldy Peaches.
So it should come as no surprise that Kimya Dawson’s new children’s album Alphabutt also tinkers with subversion, as she innocently serenades us with the scatological delights of her “Little Panda Bear” and her daring motto, “We’re All Animals.” Kimya takes the outmoded idea that we are civilized, God-fearing humans and erases it in the guise of a cute children’s song where she takes pride in being a primitive animal, she doesn’t care “what’s fashionable”, and she likes “being natural.” Or take “Sunbeams and Some Beans,” the story of Sam and Grand Champion who decide to “plant a garden in the heart of this wasteland” because “there is a need and hunger created by corporate greed.” Yes, this is a children’s album, but also a forward-thinking, radical treat for parents who will happily be reminded that parents can be cool too. With her quirky voice, “twee as f**k” lyrics, and that “shambling” homemade sound, we come full circle: Alphabutt isn’t too punk, or not punk enough—for a children’s album springing out from the heels of the anti-folk scene, it’s just right.--Dashiell Brown
Girls, Power Chords, and the “Jesus God” (Oct.31, 2008)
I have two words for you: Girl Garage. No, I am not talking about some new video game for the Wii, but the sound of the virtually unknown all-girl feminist garage rock band out of Halifax, NS, The Stolen Minks. And from the sound and euphoric energy they unleash on their new album High Kicks, currently #4 on Earshot’s Top 50, they could out-punk anyone. Just released on Montreal’s New Romance for Kids label, High Kicks is a fun, fuzzed-out, punk rock affair that immediately conjures up memories of the “The” groups: The Hives, The Strokes, The Vines, and The White Stripes, also known as the post-millennial garage rock revivalists of eight years ago, which owed a bigger debt to another “The” band: The Ramones.
Of course, the inspiration that fuelled these suburban troglodytes didn’t just fall from the sky. As The Stolen Minks tell it, punk and garage rock bands such as themselves owe their influence to a solitary man who discovered the dirty, power-chord guitar sound back in 1958, exactly fifty years ago: Link Wray. According to Link, though, the distorted power-chord did fall from the sky. His “Jesus God” hurled it down at him like a Zeus thunderbolt, and “Rumble” was born; go You-Tube it.
So if “The” bands like The Black Lips and The Ramones hit your button, and Soylent Green on toast appeals to you, then so will this spirited all-grrl wrestle-in-the-mud, shout-fest. The Stolen Minks are on a massive tour, their blog of their travels and music is a thrill, both of which can be checked out at myspace.com/stolenminks. My only beef is that High Kicks is too short, clocking in under 22 minutes, but it’s still one hell of a ride. All hail to the punk rock Jesus God.
DASHIELL BROWN TALKS WITH JENN GRANT (Dec. 5, 2008)
Jenn Grant’s last album Orchestra for the Moon is special in so many ways, with a tender-hearted folk-pop sound that uplifts and comforts. I wasn’t just interviewing her as a journalist, but also as a giddy, nervous fan. Before the interview, she had just finished making a gluten-free, dog-shaped cake with her friend from In-Flight Safety, Daniel Ledwell. Both Jenn Grant and In-Flight Safety will be touring in Newfoundland this week, Dec. 3-6.
So you’ve been here a number of times to St. John’s?
The first time I was here I was eight because my family has relatives in St John’s.
Do you consider yourself part of the underground scene?
I guess I’m considered underground in lots of places but it’s not a term that I use to describe myself.
How do you describe yourself?
I try not to!
That’s good (laughs). Do you have a favorite song that you like to play?
No…that changes…I really like playing new stuff. It’s usually not the hit of the night.
But you’re working on a new album?
Yeah. I recorded it this summer at the studio at Puck’s Farm in Ontario. It’s a live album, recorded to tape. It’s an analog record, and I got an amazing producer who doesn’t care about hits.
Can you tell me the name of your producer?
Jonathan Goldsmith. He’s a composer for film. It’s all live and we slept in bunk-beds.
Where was the studio?
The studio was built in the middle of the farm. So you’d be recording and there’d be ducks walking by, a lamb. It was pretty amazing.
Did it have an effect on the sound of your album? Like is it farm-sounding?
I feel like it sounds like the studio itself, all made of wood. I don’t know. I’m really happy with it. It doesn’t sound like farm animals (laughs).
Does it have a country/Americana sound?
No, I don’t think so. It’s pretty soulful. I’m really happy with the first record I did, but this one feels more true to myself. It’s five people playing, [and] nobody knew the songs, except Daniel knew a couple. We worked all day and kept playing the same songs until we came up with something magical, so it’s really about recording magical moments.
Beautiful.
And all the vocals are live. It was a really rewarding recording process.
What does that mean, “live”?
They’re playing all songs and I’m singing and they’re recording.
Like a one shot thing.
A one shot deal. I personally think that’s really special and I’m really, really happy with it.
These are all original songs that you wrote?
We did one cover song but I’ll wait for it to come out before I’ll tell anyone what it is…With this record we went back in time with the recording process and everything. I don’t want anyone to hear it. I’m not going to put it on the internet or whatever.
We talk about Halifax vs. the St. John’s music scene. I tell her that I think Halifax seems to be the last stop for most bands.
I feel pretty close to St John’s because I have a sister there and Don Brown…I find St. John’s is making a statement these days with new music. It’s part of its charm too. It’s harder to get to and it’s farther away. It may be hard but it almost makes it very special and unique, so I think it’s cool.
Did you always want to be a musician?
When I was a little girl I said I wanted to be a singer or an actress, then I started writing music…But I got a lot of stage fright for ten years…and then I just got tired of that and just went for it. I know that this is what I’ll do for the rest of my life. It was worth it.
So you were “born on the path” so to speak.
Yeah. I think so. For sure.
Do you have other talents besides music?
I also paint. I studied fine arts. I have a fine arts degree. I painted my last album cover and I painted the new album cover. That’s pretty much the talents—that and make-up.
With your last album, Orchestra for the Moon, does the mood reflect how you are as a person or were you feeling really free and joyous at the time?
I was feeling really free and joyous but I’m feeling more like that now. But I was more naïve when I made that record. A lot of things happened since then and this record is a little bit darker.
Are you a romantic at heart?
Definitely.
So Orchestra for the Moon, is it an ode to the moon?
No, it’s not. I love the moon but it’s not. That’s what the title’s about but the record is more about me, I guess.
And you feel this second album is definitely an evolutionary step for you.
Yeah. Definitely.
Has the making of the past album or the new one changed you in any way?
Yeah. Definitely. The first one was like a discovery for [me] and…the new one affirmed inner strength and made me stronger.
So what’s next? Doing the album and doing the tour?
Yeah. We’re doing four shows in Newfoundland and then I’m going to Ontario and then I’m going home for Christmas in PEI. And then my album comes out.
Your home is in PEI?
That’s where I spend Christmas. And I’ll be working with Six Shooter Records. I’ll be touring around Canada and the States and Europe and working and eating vegetables and doing yoga and having baths and drinking wine.
How long will you be in St John’s?
I’ll be here 2 days.
Jenn Grant will be playing at The Ship on Dec. 5 & 6 with In-Flight Safety. Her new album Echoes will be released on January 27th. www.myspace.com/jenngrant1