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Singer-Songwriter Jenn Grant and The Daily Drum
49 Plays8 days ago
In this episode of Re-Creative, Mark and Joe talk to singer-songwriter Jenn Grant about coffee, smoothies, and a whole lot more, including Jenn’s upcoming tour Cradled by the Waves, described as “a groundbreaking live tour that transforms her forthcoming album, Queen of the Strait, into a stunning multimedia performance blending music, film, theatre, and dance.”
Drawing inspiration from Sarah Harmer, Jenn sees her work as an act of service, viewing music and art as forms of resistance, especially in these troubled times. They talk about how her current album Queen of the Strait was recorded “live off the floor” in four magical days, in their own home studio, and how the “Queen” in the title is an homage to her mother, who displayed remarkable resilience during a tumultuous time in their lives. Jenn also shares the true story behind her wonderful song “Jim Cuddy Dress”
Mark and Joe also talk to Jenn about some of her favourite art. She speaks passionately about her own journey with visual art and her admiration for the work of Mi’kmaq artist Alan Syliboy, and about the importance of reconciliation and supporting the long-standing work of indigenous creators.
Re-Creative is produced by Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with MonkeyJoy Press.
Contact us at contact@donovanstreetpress.com
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Transcript
Morning Routines and Coffee Talk
00:00:09
Speaker
Mark, good morning. It's not usually morning. I was going to say, that totally relates to my question for today, because oh okay we don't normally record in the morning, and I've got my cup of coffee here, because I need a stimulant. And I've already finished mine.
00:00:22
Speaker
Okay, so you you're a stimulant guy? Oh, yeah. not So coffee, tea? Oh, is that the question? The stimulant? That's the question. What's the stimulant? Yeah. Something a little harder? Yeah. Well, okay. Yeah. Confession time.
00:00:37
Speaker
So I do drink coffee in the morning, but I very often put a little Bailey's Irish cream in there, but it's not actually not, not Bailey's, but a PJ's. Look at that dark horse. Oh yeah. So you Irish it up a little bit.
00:00:50
Speaker
A little bit of a zing. Yeah. Does that make me like, am I approaching alcoholism? Cause I, no, I don't, I don't think so. Yeah. Only if you absolutely need it, then maybe. Oh, I need it. Yeah.
00:01:04
Speaker
Well, I noticed that our guest was drinking something too, so i maybe she has an answer to this as well. Oh, yeah. Jen Grant, welcome to our podcast. Welcome to show. Thank you so much. I had a coffee this morning, and right now we're using an espresso machine. It's getting a little bit louder and louder, the espresso machine. I think it might be breaking, but we use half decaf and half caff.
00:01:27
Speaker
That's what I do. Oh, okay. And then I boil a little bit of water to make it an a Americano, and then usually I put... some cream in it and then just now I had a smoothie where I just like aggressively like shoved a cup of spinach in with some water and one and a half scoops of my new favorite protein powder which is called good protein and it's chocolate fudge flavor who and how does that go with spinach Yeah, why not?
00:01:56
Speaker
And that goes to Spanish. got it like right away. Okay, good. Edit that in. My wife is a big fan of Spanish. Edit it out. I've got to get that in right away. Or you can leave that in because now everyone's in on the weird pervy non-joke I just made. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Yeah.
00:02:15
Speaker
So before we get on to other ah more important stuff, so you said you kind of turned the coffee into an Americano. Yeah, I do. And I know this is, we're supposed to be focusing on you, but I have to ask Mark. This is important. Yeah. How do you do your coffee, Mark?
00:02:29
Speaker
If I had an espresso machine, I would do a Canadiano as well. ah Because that's where my- Canadiano? Yeah, well, right yeah, because we can't call it an Americano anymore, obviously. Sorry to all of our friends in the States. Yeah, if I could do that, I would, because that's my favorite coffee, but I just have a regular drip coffee.
00:02:46
Speaker
So- like i thought Like an old school, like a pot? It's like an old school pot, yeah, and I just put it on. Before this, we were also using this this percolator for a really, really long time. We go through different phases of stuff. We have like a like an old school vintage percolator, yeah which is really cute as well, but it takes a long time for the espresso right away. Yeah, this is just a regular coffee maker. I put it on when I go have my shower. There's coffee ready. But i'mm I'm doing well. I'm down to just two cups a day now.
00:03:13
Speaker
That's what I had. Yeah. What after lunch? For a while there, I was like at four. Yeah. This is a good segue, actually, because I once so Jen's a musician, obviously, and we'll get to that. I once worked with a musician.
00:03:27
Speaker
He was ah a guitarist and a solo performer. And one day he told me this crazy story where his fingernails were like yellow. So he went to the doctor and he said, Doctor, where are my fingernails yellow? and then they went through various possibilities. And then finally, the doctor said, just out of curiosity, how much coffee do you drink? And he said, oh, like, you know, three or four cups a day. and The doctor was like, really? And they went through it. And it turned out he drank 25 cups of coffee a day. What? Yeah.
00:03:56
Speaker
So. So he was just saying three or four? Well, no, I think he just never thought about it. He just drank coffee all day long. my God. And the problem cleared up. That is a lot of coffee. I have to drink the half-caff because I will get kind of anxious if I'm drinking just a straight. If I go out for a coffee, I'll get like a. We could do the whole podcast just. I think we could. I would get like a soy cappuccino.
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, because joe's Joe's Irish-ing up is my favorite. That's very funny. I will go for a fancy dinner, and I won't have dessert. My dessert will be an Irish coffee. That's very nice. Yeah. that's Joe, how how long has this J.D. been going on for like a while? Someone else yeah also he just told me the same thing, by the way, and it was really surprising. ah Oh, God. Probably close to a decade. Holy shit. Like every day? No, no, no, not every day. No, no. felt like five days He's lying.
00:04:54
Speaker
I mean, it's just a little some something, something. Yeah. Hey, it's not like you're doing a rail of Coke every morning. I just like to have a little coffee with my PJs. yeah Is it called JD or No, it's PJs. It's PJs. yeah Oh, i thought you were. yeah No, no, this is just, it's like ah it's like a half price Bailey's Irish cream. Yeah.
00:05:13
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. And arguably tastier. It's Christmas every day at your house. That is actually Christmas. That's a Christmas treat I will have, but only on Christmas. yeah All right. So six minutes in, going to move away from coffee. Everyone's still like, I'm going to tell you my coffee. Yeah.
00:05:30
Speaker
So yeah, so Jen Grant, so we used to do this thing where we would ask our guests to tell us about themselves, but I'm going to attempt to introduce you properly. So you're a a musician, a singer-songwriter.
00:05:41
Speaker
I met you ah years ago. You probably don't remember me, but I met you on Q with CBC Radio. course I remember you. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. And we recorded your song, Dreamer. and And I'm hoping you'll let me actually add that to the end of this podcast, that actual recording. Because I i think it's... Yeah, of course. Yeah. it's It's one of the recordings that I did that that I love that I'm like, ah oh, I'm capable of doing a proper recording. But I think it's actually more you and your musical ability than me. But also you're from Atlantic, Canada.
00:06:13
Speaker
You were born and raised in Prince Edward rhode Island and and now you live in in Halifax. and And I just love the, you don't hide your Atlantic Canadian persona at all.
00:06:24
Speaker
I just watched your video, Jim Cuddy's dress, and it's got like the gold cup and saucer parade in the video. and And I caught a glimpse of Rainbow Valley from Prince Edward Island.
00:06:35
Speaker
So very cool. Anyway, so it's it's great to ah to have you here on Recreative.
Introducing Jen Grant
00:06:40
Speaker
Thank you so much. you want me to make any edits?
00:06:46
Speaker
ah Absolutely. Add whatever you want to that. Yeah. So I think that was really good. I thought you did a really great job. Thank you. And I'll just tell the listener that I lived in PEI until I was 10.
00:06:57
Speaker
Okay. And then i moved to Nova Scotia. And um for the last 13 years, I've lived in Lake Echo, which is outside of town a bit. Right. Just to give them a sense of where I am. We're a little lake. And it's called Jim Cuddy Dress, not Jim Cuddy's Dress. Is that too many corrections that I've just made? No, not at all. No. yeah i i want We like precision. We like precision on this podcast. It's fine. And I have an ego like Arnold Schwarzenegger, so you can't offend me or anything. I want this podcast to be perfect. Okay. Yeah.
00:07:26
Speaker
So I'm sorry about that. There's no stories here. We're just we're all just people learning where we live. Now, do you remember what do you remember about that recording with ah with q Well, I, nothing.
00:07:40
Speaker
Barely anything. I mean, was that like in 2000 and... It was 2007. Yeah, it was 2007. Yeah. To be honest, the things that I remember about being on tour are what we ate.
00:07:55
Speaker
Restaurants we went to, what did we eat. Wow. That's kind of the thing that I remember the most. I mean, I can remember, i mean, I would have had the a band with me. I think I did, right? Well, at that time, because we were we were just starting the show and we were doing the musical recordings in like a conventional packaging studio. It wasn't like a big recording studio. So we told all the, we said, don't bring your your full band.
00:08:20
Speaker
Who did I bring? like Maybe there was a... Bass player? A bass player, a ah piano player, and so I'd have to listen to the track again. I'm so curious. Yeah. but And like there couldn't have been a drummer because we didn't we didn't normally set up a full drum kit, but sometimes they'd bring in like a snare drum or something, yeah you know? Yeah. So they were like stripped down kind of acoustic recordings. So I have a question for you for a tour because I've always wondered to this as a member of the audience. Yeah. Do you ever remember an audience? Is there ever a time when you go and like, wow, they were so into it? Are there places that you, I don't want to make one, but are there places that you've gone to multiple times? You always think, wow, I'm excited about this show because I know the audience is going to be really great. Well, so you guys are you guys are both in Toronto still, right? I'm i and and i'm in London, Ontario. And I'm in Riverview, New Brunswick.
00:09:15
Speaker
Oh, that's right. oh my God. Sorry. I i have a thing. i don't know if every artist feels this way or not. I feel like... i I really love my audience so much.
00:09:27
Speaker
There's lots of artists, even, you know, contemporaries of mine that have bigger audiences than me too. But there's just something like when you when I think of London, I think of the Aeolian Hall. Yeah, that's a great spot. You know, I can picture the audience there standing up and like I can picture them. And like I played in New Brunswick.
00:09:46
Speaker
Last weekend and St. Andrews at this little festival. yeah And like I can picture like there are many of their faces. Really? And wow, I love my audience like they they I think they really and they really understand me. I feel like they're.
00:10:02
Speaker
loyal and like you know I'm not everyone's cup of tea I'm I'm a mixture of all kinds of different things is what makes up my personality and my shows especially if I'm playing solo there's so much there's a lot of stories that come from who knows where and like a lot of banter and a lot of sharing and i kind of feel like it's been a long time now like it's been 20 years and I feel like there's a group of people especially in this country that have grown up with me and and i yeah i mean i feel um devoted to them i guess that's lovely i'm taking my wife to see you uh when you're playing at the capital in muncton that's a beautiful theater it is yeah and we've seen a bunch of acts and that show is going to be really unique so oh really winner oh yes very
00:10:49
Speaker
And is it a secret how it's so going to be unique
Tour Insights and Indigenous Art
00:10:52
Speaker
or? It's not really a secret, but it's a show that I've been developing for a year. i don't know. do you want me to get into that right now? Like, do you want me to tell you about the show and stuff? Absolutely. Yeah. I want to hear about this. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So my new record is called Queen of the Straits. There's two singles out so far, Jim Cuddy Dress and Crazy. And the songs, like when I talk about the straight, I'm referring to the Northumberland straight.
00:11:16
Speaker
I have read a few places where people have said they they think I'm talking about myself, which I'm fine with. I love it. Like if I'm the queen of the straight, absolutely. But I am actually kind of referencing my mother. Okay. And so when I was a kid, our parent, my brother and I, our parents had this pretty tumultuous separation. Yeah.
00:11:36
Speaker
And I was 10 and he was 8. And we moved to Nova Scotia. But there was a lot of kind of adventures that took place kind of in that process where my mother was really heartbroken. But she took that heartbreak and she turned it into this series of magical adventures for my brother and i Like living at Marco Polo Land near Rambo Valley for a while and a motel everything.
00:12:00
Speaker
That's what Jim Cuddy dresses about, that song. it's about It's about the, that's what a lot of the record is about, is about the adventures. But when my mother passed away, she met she met Jim for the first time. He's a dear friend of mine now, but he she met him in at the Junos in 2012. When she was wearing this dress, she had metastatic breast cancer.
00:12:19
Speaker
And she absolutely loved him. And then when she was dying, three weeks later, she said she wanted to be laid to rest in her Jim Cuddy dress that she wearing when she met him. yeah So that's a short version of what sort of what that song is about, but the record encapsulates all of these different autobiographical tales and it's stories that I've, you know, when I, when I began as a songwriter, I was very metaphorical and whimsical. And I, because as I am now a mother and in, and midlife, I really see things with a different perspective. And I,
00:12:53
Speaker
I see my lyrics as a real opportunity to share something that I think is important with the world. And so these songs, even though they're really personal stories about myself, are a jumping off point for other people to connect with their own stories.
00:13:08
Speaker
The tour is called Cradle by the Waves, and that's the waves of the Northumberland Strait and It's a multimedia presentation. So I have been collecting childhood footage of myself and my family. yeah And that's being put together with ah some additional footage filmed by my brother, Daniel Grant, who's cinematographer, and how Jose Garcia, who is our projectionist.
00:13:33
Speaker
And my my goal for the show is that you're really like kind of entering a new realm to experience an immersive experience experience something with a group of people.
00:13:46
Speaker
and to enter into the show, you'll be entering through a portal that my husband is building right now. And there's just different things that will happen in the show that will make sense at the end of the evening.
00:13:57
Speaker
But it is a ceremonial, immersive experience for the audience to tap into their own stories and how to grieve well and love well and what we can do as individuals and as a community to raise up humanity for the and for the world and support each other.
00:14:23
Speaker
So that's my goal, but there will be a lot of visual and beautiful things happening through the stories. We're just playing the whole record. There's um theater elements as well as dance and movement, and it will only happen one time.
00:14:40
Speaker
So there's 12 cities, I think, in Canada that we're doing this with the full production team. Tanya Davis is in the show, if you know Tanya Davis. She's been on this podcast. Has she? yeah Actually, read I read that. That's right. Well, she's been like she's like family to me for since 20 or 25 years. And I haven't really announced it yet, but i'm I'm going to. But we've been working together. So she's in the show and she's part of she's part of the theatrical element of the show, too. She's helping to... so tell stories of mine, I guess, or be... Kind of act as a version of myself, as my as my mother, as all women or even all people and kind of this other like realm. And so, yeah, there's ah there's a lot going on in the show and we're just... And I'm really excited at the end of the month, we're but we're we're entering into our final workshop with everyone where we will be finalizing and fully developing the show. We've had three workshops so far. And um and though it starts in PEI.
00:15:38
Speaker
That show is what you're going going to be at. Yeah. Fantastic. That's that's an amazing description. I imagine that your audience is going to love that. They are going love it. Based on what you've said. Yeah, they So how much of like what you're thinking about is driven by how much you love your audience?
00:15:56
Speaker
So much of it. I think that over the past few years, I've really come to terms with the fact that my job... I remember hearing Sarah Harmer say once that she sees um being a singer-songwriter as an act of service. And I think that now more than ever, music and art are forms of resistance and love is ah as an act of resistance. And so I think that it's our job as artists or anyone who can contribute to that it's our It's our role right now in this in this time in history, which is a big moment in history, to bring community and humanity to the world.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely love that. gee so there's So there's maybe a segue here to talk about some of the art that you want to champion in this podcast. Is there any art that's like that for you that that touches you in that way?
00:16:48
Speaker
um
00:16:51
Speaker
You know... i I had a conversation the other day with Alan Sillaboy for a while. And um he's ah he's a Mi'kmaq artist from Millbrook First Nations, Nova Scotia. okay um He's been practicing art for 50 years.
00:17:09
Speaker
He grew up on that reserve. And when he went to school, they forced him to forget his Mi'kmaq language and speak only English. And that was really hard for him.
00:17:21
Speaker
And he always made art as a kid. And then i and then growing up, He felt like his art was kind of um generic, he said.
00:17:34
Speaker
But what he started doing was him and his his mentor, Shirley Bear, who sort of discovered him, who was an Indigenous artist from New Brunswick,
00:17:45
Speaker
She and he, because of a book that Shirley Bear found of petroglyphs, of the carvings in the rocks, she said, we could we can be artists, but we we we need to be artists that are really saying something. So they started to to, and she's passed away since, but they both started doing this art with the petroglyphs.
00:18:04
Speaker
which he incorporated into all his work. I think he was recently awarded with Artist of the Year for Nova Scotia. And ah so his his art is very colorful. And every day he does something also called the Daily Drum, where he paints a drum with a message for the world. And he incorporates sacred colors, like red is an indigenous sacred color.
00:18:28
Speaker
And that was one of his first pieces of art that he did was the red... I think it was a caribou and it he painted it red. You know, he uses it's all about, you know, connecting to the great spirit and connecting to animals. And he has several children's books as well that I've been raising my kids on and teaching them about the.
00:18:49
Speaker
The original, the first language of Nova Scotia being Mi'kmaq. Yeah, I think it's really important to teach our kids about reconciliation and that we are white settlers. And I really love teaching them about our, you know, to be kind to animals and to each other. And So I think that I think that learning from elders is really important and learning the history of where you're from and how we got here. And Alan told me he said that he felt like they were just invisible.
00:19:22
Speaker
And so our job, I asked him, what well, what is our job as as ah so as a white woman settler here? What is how can I help? with honoring you and your art. and And he said just to learn about us.
00:19:35
Speaker
And I think that that, yeah, I just think that's a really important thing. So I'm waiting to get an original Alan Silavoy. Right now I have cards and frames Yeah. And that's why we like to get people on the on the podcast talking about art other than their own, to bring them in and and to champion them. and Absolutely. Yeah.
00:19:55
Speaker
I love that. It was so local and so like personal to you as well, the way you're describing that. Yeah, it's wonderful. And has has he his art in particular informed any of your own work in any way?
00:20:09
Speaker
Yes, I did go to NASCAD and have a ah fine arts degree. And it's I had very bad stage fright before I was a musician. So I went to art school because it was kind of I felt like at the time it was like my second love.
00:20:24
Speaker
But then I didn't i really started, but halfway through art school, I i started playing open mics and and my career kind of began without me even realizing it. And then I would just do paintings once in a while. and But when the pandemic hit, I had two young toddlers, like a newborn and a toddler. And i also just started painting. Like I would stay up till one in the morning And I think that you're supposed to sleep when you can. yeah But I felt like that was more of a lifesaver for me that I needed to, I would stay up till one o'clock in the morning all the time, just painting in the kitchen. And then eventually we built me a little art studio. And so I've been painting a lot for the past seven years. And I'm with the Proud Gallery in Halifax as well, which Alan is also part of.
00:21:18
Speaker
So I think they might inform each other. Like my last record was called Champagne Problems. So after that, I did a series of portraits of all the artists that I collaborated with, which was 13 artists like Dan Mangan and Bahamas and Baj Bulat and Amy Milan and Hannah Georges and um Tim Baker and Kim Harris and Slow Leaves and Aquaculture and other people, Joshua Kamariak, Josh Kueh.
00:21:48
Speaker
So I had this art show with um portraits and it was during the Junos. So people were in town anyway. so this really sweet little opening. but But originally I would do like abstracted landscapes with acrylic and mixed media. But when the genocide began, I started I did one day I just did a portrait of of Bissan Aouda, the journalist from there.
00:22:10
Speaker
And I was like, oh, my God. i i had not painted a portrait since art school. Like I i remember in art school doing a portrait. My teacher, he used it as an example of of like, you know, that i did I did well. And I was so like, oh, my God. He was kind of hard to people. You know, he was kind of like –
00:22:32
Speaker
kiud for much the guy yeah yeah Yeah, but i his name is Jeremy loved him. And then another, this is ridiculous. I'm all over the place. so I did that painting. and He loved it, whatever. And then one night I like went out, got really drunk. And I went back to the, to the, to NASCAD, like in the middle of the night, cause you could go anytime. And I worked on either that painting or something else. And I did such, I fucked it up so bad.
00:22:54
Speaker
Can I say fuck on this podcast? Absolutely. Great. Let us say this one explicit. That's okay. Yay. Just one time. I just did a terrible job. And I remember the disappointment that he felt.
00:23:05
Speaker
Jerry Ferguson. The disappointment when he saw what I had done when I was like drunk in the middle of the night. And I never painted a portrait again 20 years until the genocide started. And I did this portrait of Basin. And i kind of surprised myself. I was like, I can paint a face. And then I did and five or six portraits of journalists. And then we did all this auctioning and all this fundraising for... for couple of years.
00:23:32
Speaker
But basically doing those portraits of the Palestinians led me to doing the portraits of all the artists on that album, Champagne Problems. And then I did this whole thing with animals, ah tons of animals.
00:23:44
Speaker
And now I'm kind of trying to circle back to something in the middle. It's a long answer. It's a great answer. Fabulous answer. Oh, don't worry. i I'll edit that down to five or six words. But...
00:23:59
Speaker
so And I don't even think I answered your question. But I think that tap – basically, I think really what I want to say is that, like, yes, I do both of those kinds of art. But I think that there's – you know, when you – if an artist is to you to you, which it is to me, part of it is about, like, letting go of your mind and kind of tapping into, you know, whatever you think God is – then that's what happens when I'm painting and that's what happens when I sing and make music. And I think the more that you do that and the more that you can practice that that kind of you know letting go and letting something in, i think that they strengthen each other. Yeah, that's the best too. when you When you can just go into flow like that and it just comes through you. It's it's an amazing feeling.
00:24:51
Speaker
Exactly. Will we see some of your art as a part of the multimedia component of the the Torah? No. no.
Family and Personal Influences
00:25:01
Speaker
oh no we can't There's a gallery. We know where to go now. There's a gallery. However, you know, I mean, there definitely was talk of me creating a painting ah to be projected in some way, which I just did not do. So I don't know. I think I feel like my my brother with his my brother filming stuff is kind of the art that I want to have in it.
00:25:23
Speaker
So, yeah. Yeah. So you said your brother's a cinematographer. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about him. That's OK. Yeah, yeah. ah He lives in Guelph with his partner, Tessa Fleming, and their two kids. And he's ah he's my you know my favorite person.
00:25:41
Speaker
And besides my kids and my husband are, they're all the same. I love them. I love them so much, but he's a very talented cinematographer and he's, he's, he's helped me with a couple of my videos as well, which has been great.
00:25:54
Speaker
Um, him and his partner Tessa made the video for Judy, our song Judy, which was my thing might be my favorite video we ever made. that I wrote with Kim Harris. Um, he shot some really beautiful things like station 11. Did you ever hear of that show? oh I love that show. i And it was gorgeous. It was a gorgeous. Yeah.
00:26:13
Speaker
yeah There was two cinematographers, but I really love that show. Yeah. Me too. I love that show so much. He's so incredibly talented. He, he also turned down, he did rivalry.
00:26:25
Speaker
oh my god I down for a few days. i watched it I was like, Daniel, did you watch Heddy Rival? real he was like, don't talk to me about that. But, you know, it just wasn't right for him at the time. Yeah. sort of But, yeah, he has a The album that I've just made is dedicated to him. Yeah, he's just really, he's he's um he's just a tall, handsome, incredibly creative, kind of thoughtful, quiet human. And we're just lucky to have him on the planet. Is he older or younger than you? He's 22 months younger. Isn't it funny with siblings? We know down to the month. Yeah. That's how we think of it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:05
Speaker
yeah Because my sister is also a filmmaker, actually. She's a year and one month and three days younger than me. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Susan Rogers. Yeah. Oh, what's your, sorry. Was your mother artistic as well? And what did like, where's this cut? I it's, it's interesting to me. Cause I'm, I'm the only weirdo in my family. That's artistic. Yeah. So where does it come from? I sometimes wonder.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think it comes from a lot of places. My mother was ah one of seven kids. And, you know, my grandmother was ah was like a kind of like a singer and an actress.
00:27:40
Speaker
And um my grandfather was a politician and a farmer and a double amputee World War II vet. And my mother was just like this really glowy...
00:27:57
Speaker
bubbling, positive, like kind human that everyone loved, really good listener. and I think that she loved colors in food and the food was always really beautiful.
00:28:13
Speaker
My father is 93 almost and he was a vascular surgeon and he was also, he played piano a lot. And um his mother was a painter.
00:28:26
Speaker
oh okay. Yeah. but different painter than me. And yeah there's ah like on my, on my mother and my father's side, like my parents' siblings were, were, were quite musical. So there would be like gatherings, you know?
00:28:40
Speaker
I want to ask you more about the experience of performing, if I can. Sure. You know, we would get these bands in on cue and I'd record them and nobody would ever make a mistake, which always like amazed me. And I would just like put up the microphones and all I had to do is, you know, bring up the faders and everybody would sound amazing. And I'm like, how is that possible?
00:28:58
Speaker
and And I think like the recording that we did of you that I'm going to include in this, I believe was done live during the show. Did you ever worry before, you know, that you were going to make a mistake or are you just so like so kind of experienced and professional that it it doesn't even enter your mind?
00:29:14
Speaker
I think there's a lot of muscle memory that you have to trust when you're going to play music. And that if you start to overthink it, you have to tell yourself not to. Because I think for me, if I start thinking about stuff, it's never, never good. Right.
00:29:28
Speaker
But as far as making mistakes, yeah, I like to make mistakes. I think they bring out the humanness. So I've made lots of mistakes in front of people live and usually it can be funny.
00:29:39
Speaker
But yeah, it's like you got to just let go of it and be like, oh, I might make a mistake. But usually i don't make very many mistakes. i Did you ever hear the story about Paul Simon? He said he hates the song Feeling Groovy.
00:29:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah. yeah But he will he will play it in his shows. If he makes a mistake in the show, he'll punish himself by playing. really? Yeah, by playing Feeling Groovy. Oh, my God. Well, there's an interesting bit of psychology there. yeah Yeah. So you don't have anything like that. don't have song that you'll punish yourself with. or Nope. Definitely not into self-punishing.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's good. And so you said the the tour coming up, you're doing how many dates? It's a limited number of dates. It's 12 cities, I think, unless it's 11. But yeah, it's only what's a one-time only thing.
00:30:28
Speaker
and Ontario? Yeah, hopefully. Yeah. Playing at TD Music Hall in Toronto. Okay. That's not too far for you. yes Yeah. No excuse, Mark. You need to get out there. and yeah And is this, is it because in part you want it to be a special limited thing? and i imagine maybe there's some that you had you mentioned you have young children as well. So you probably don't want to be away from them too much. Oh, they're coming. They're coming. They're coming. Okay. They're all coming.
00:30:52
Speaker
I think it, I honestly, I don't know. I think it's, um, I mean, it does make it special, but it's also it's a production and it's expensive to do it. So we're not doing the small markets. We're just doing the the major markets.
00:31:06
Speaker
Makes sense. Yeah. So that would be very expensive to to put on. And i remember stories of like early Genesis, you know, that they're always in debt, you know, because it costs so much money to go on on tour and put on these things. And it was decades before they were able to actually make their money back. Is that is that a concern? Is that something that you think about? Or is that like other people's problems? or No, I'm definitely in debt. i'm definitely It's definitely really expensive to do this job. It's crazy.
00:31:36
Speaker
It makes no financial sense to me. But i basically, i mean, maybe I should word that differently. I feel like I have faith in what I do. And so i also have faith that the money will work itself out.
00:31:52
Speaker
And that has so far always been the case, that it has worked itself out. But it is an expensive thing to do, to go on the road. And then if you throw in a couple of kids and a nanny, if you want to have a sound person, if you want to...
00:32:06
Speaker
Have a band if you want to have anything. And on this tour, I, you know, I never have my own lighting person and or projectionist and things like that, a little crew. And I'm so excited to experience that.
00:32:18
Speaker
But I think it's my dream show. And in some ways, it's it's. you know, hopefully it can propel me into some sort of new like level where I would be able to have more dream shows like this, but it's, you know, it's a very unpredictable, unreliable industry.
Financial Challenges and Touring Fun
00:32:34
Speaker
And so I'm just grateful to be able to do it this time for these 12 shows. And if people go to the shows, if they fill up the all the rooms, then that will be great for me. And if not, that's, I'm still going to be grateful that I got to do it, but yeah, you know, to get people to go to shows is a whole other part of the business that is like, kind of like this hustling thing to get people to buy tickets. Like I have to try to make it fun somehow because it's, it's, it's yeah.
00:33:01
Speaker
Well, and I think you do because like I've seen sort of a trailer on YouTube where your sense of humor just shines through. Honestly, I'm lucky that I can have that as a tool because that's the only way I can do it.
00:33:14
Speaker
It's the only way I can get on there is to make it like fun. Absolutely. Yeah. And you do too. Yeah. The marketing. So Mark and I are both ah writers. And so the marketing thing is just a a huge bugbear.
00:33:26
Speaker
Do you employ a marketer then or is it a lot of it yourself or? I have a team, which is basically like its own label and management team, but not a label. It's all indie, I guess, is what you would call it. I work with my manager, Sheena Keene. She's in Ireland, and she has a company called Blue Grace Music. And basically, we've decided to just be independent for the last couple of records and just to own my music.
00:33:55
Speaker
And to create our own team. So I guess for ah like a marketer, like, I mean, I, a radio tracker and a publicist is what we have. yeah And then let's sort of like for each city, you're like talking to the promoter and potentially adding on, like I was talking to Jill Barber and Dan Megan about how how, do you get the word out about the show in Vancouver and what kind of traditional media media do you recommend? And they're both kind of like, Oh, I don't know. but like postering, it's kind of like we're going back to postering.
00:34:27
Speaker
And the the indie music angle, so like indie music is cool, right? And it always has been. And I think like the- But people call indie music, even if you're on like a label and stuff, like not a major, they're still calling it indie.
00:34:40
Speaker
I guess I'm, but I'm extra indie. Extra indie. Kind of, I mean, but I have this team. So I'm like, I'm not, I'm not independent. I have a team. Well, see, like we're indie, like Mark and I are indie. So like I run a very small publishing company of which this podcast is a part, but it doesn't feel as cool on the writing side as it does on the music side. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Well, I'm just trying I'm just making it look cool. I'm just making it sound cool. Yeah.
00:35:05
Speaker
You do sound cool. By the way, I, I was listening to your music as was working out this week and ah I just like, I was listening to your cover of eye of the tiger. but It was wonderful. was just like, ah wait a minute. Is that Aya the Tiger? That's Aya the Tiger! Yep, that's the one. What made you cover that?
00:35:25
Speaker
set of yeah ah You know what? it was in I think actually it wasn't even my idea. it was ah Mike Clattenburg's idea, who's filmmaker in Nova Scotia, okay in about 2009 or 2008. And he he said, I think that would be really cool in this movie.
00:35:42
Speaker
Oh, it for a movie. It was for a movie. And then I did it. And I just did like one take of it, I think. But yeah, people like that. And um i actually I guess I really enjoyed your music. I really loved it.
00:35:56
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah. yeah And when you record, I've noticed that time because I think the and going to get the name of the song wrong. Jim Cuddy dress. You got it. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Was that live off the floor?
00:36:08
Speaker
The whole album is live off the floor. That's pretty, that's rare, isn't it? These days. it is Yeah. yeah so The album was co-produced by my partner, Daniel Ledwell and Joshua Van Tassel.
00:36:19
Speaker
And Josh had just made this album with Matt Anderson where they recorded stuff live off the floor. And he had such a good experience with that project. And I was hesitant because ah I thought, okay, that's cool, but I want to be able to do my vocals later.
00:36:37
Speaker
Because singing with a band, like you know because my voice, like it's very affected by like emotion and like pit like pitch can be very affected by all that kind of stuff. And I feel like the kind of timbres that my voice lives within, like it that it's it will slip into something very different depending on... it can change if you just feel like it can change. And maybe it's just me that hears that, but I can really feel like changes are subtle but make a big difference when I'm listening to my own voice recorded. Yeah.
00:37:04
Speaker
So basically we recorded it in this studio that we have here that Danny runs for himself. Originally we thought we'd go somewhere else, like an Airbnb or something, but then we just thought, why are we doing this? Like we have a recording studio on the property. Right.
00:37:18
Speaker
I also didn't want to leave the kids. And I thought, oh well, yeah, okay, let's just do it here. And like, I'll do it while the kids are in school. And we had Christine Bougie come down, who is lap steel player, guitar player, plays in Bahamas, plays with Matt Anderson right now, is just absolutely so incredible.
00:37:35
Speaker
My dear friend and great bass player, Kyle Kunjak, who's from New Brunswick as well, and Danny and Josh, Josh was playing drums. Danny was playing keys and piano, and like horns and stuff.
00:37:48
Speaker
And then Kim, but Kim was, Kim Harris, Kim was sick. So she had to do her backup vocals after. But we recorded it in four days. And when were starting, I just kept saying to everybody, I'm not going to keep these vocals just so you know. I'm going to be doing the vocals later. i also like had a little area where i had like lozenges and like a puffer and like all these things because I had just had a really bad cold and I was still recovering.
00:38:11
Speaker
And then we did the first song and everybody was just like... Yeah, that sounds good. And we, so we just kept everything is live. And I ended up copying, like switching maybe the four words on the whole thing.
00:38:28
Speaker
And I also had to let go of that idea of perfection because I decided that especially, you know, this album being live off the floor is a bit of an act of resistance against music, a AI music as well for me.
00:38:42
Speaker
But it was in a wonderful experience. It was magical. it was four days. We covered the place in like special quilts and things like that that meant something to me. And we didn't have headphones on either. we were just together really close, playing really quiet.
00:38:55
Speaker
And at one point there was something that we heard and we were worried. We thought it was an amp breaking. And then we realized it was the candle flickering. And that's how intimate it was.
00:39:06
Speaker
Yeah. So I love the record so much. Wow. Yeah. It's just such a great way to to do it. It's like real music. We were like, this is an adult. We're like, we're making adult music.
00:39:19
Speaker
Well, and grownups and we're just like well and it it also translates all the energy of a performance, right? Because that's yeah what you're doing. Yeah. Energetically, I think this album holds something that is pretty sacred for for me that I hope.
Music Recording Choices and Ethics
00:39:33
Speaker
And it's not on Spotify. I'm not putting it on Spotify. Either. Why is that? um Because the um the the head of ah Daniel Eck, the CEO of the company who has come down, but he spent $6 million dollars on AI military weapons to use against innocent people, as well as they the ads that they were hosting to support ICE, to advertise for ICE jobs. Oh, my God. Which like and ended, but only because the campaign ended. It it wasn't like Spotify saying, we're going to end this now. It was it just ended. it was supposed to end. So it did. And then um because ah more than 10 percent of all the music right now being uploaded to Spotify is AI generated music.
00:40:22
Speaker
And they're just creating more and more AI music to just take, you know, and they're just there. They pay the lowest to artists and the money that they do take from the artists is going to things like AI military weapons. And to be someone who is trying to be a good person and an activist, I ethically cannot put my album on a platform that supports all of those things. Holy cow. So I have a 1300 song playlist on Spotify that I am now going to get rid of after this. Well, you know what? There's, there's apps. I don't know what they are because for some reason I don't feel attached to any of my playlists, but I also am not a big playlist maker. Like I have one like birthing playlist that I would like to get, but there's apps where you literally just transfer over okay and it just, you can keep all that stuff.
00:41:11
Speaker
So that's great though. That's great. Yeah. So, okay, so I'm going to ditch Spotify after this, and and I will because I have to. It's like that thing. It's like once you know, now you know. What are you go to do i know. Yeah. I got rid of mine when ah Joni Mitchell and Neil Young told me. yeah So, yeah. Wonderful. I should have been paying closer attention. But, okay, but what do I need to switch to? So switching. Whatever you like. I mean, I switched over to Tidal. I mean, I'm on Apple Music, which is the most popular one besides Spotify. there's...
00:41:43
Speaker
They are employing children in the Congo to dig through tunnels for cobalt batteries. And then sometimes they also get killed. So not a big fan of Apple either, but I'm kind of choosing, you know, the Spotify is I think, the worst.
00:42:01
Speaker
Okay, so we need to do our research and we need to figure out. title it ti I mean, Bandcamp is, I mean, for this album, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to sell a lot of LPs. The album art is so beautiful. It's like ah all it's a collage that Danny made of all these photos that I chose from my childhood and like images of from PEI.
00:42:20
Speaker
And I'm excited to see them. I don't have the physical copies yet. But I think I'll be able to move a lot of vinyl to this like intimate crowd that's followed me because I think a lot of them know what I'm up to with that stuff. And then Bandcamp is a way to to support artists directly as well digitally.
00:42:39
Speaker
But i ah I keep hearing little things like I need to do more research as well. But, you know, someone was like, well, you know, guess who just bought Bandcamp or like and guess who's now who the person who runs Tidal is problematic. And but right now I'm on Tidal and I'm buying vinyl. I'm buying records again. This making this record and leaving Spotify.
00:42:58
Speaker
I have a great record collection and I, my kids broke my record player, but we got a new one and we're back to spinning records. We just got this week alone. we picked up Mariel Buckley's new record as well as Aquaculture, our sweet friend, Lance, his record came out a couple of days ago. yeah.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, I lost all my vinyl records in a flood in 2008. Oh, Maybe you should. It's nice in a chaotic world that is like...
00:43:31
Speaker
I mean, I have i I you know, we need to have music digitally to like for our work and stuff. But to put on ah an album, I think more than ever is feeling like like when our record player was broken for like a year. And when we got this new one just like a few months ago and Danny put on Nina Simone and it was like the whole house, I felt like the whole house just was like Like it just like shifted the energy in the whole house. And it's just like things like that where we can do like small, like simple things that give us joy and pleasure that are tangible in a chaotic world feel really important right now.
Vinyl Records and Podcast Purpose
00:44:09
Speaker
Just the sound of that needle dropping and that little bit of static before the music begins. and Yeah, it's an experience. Yeah. All right. So we probably kept you ah long enough. I want to ask you the first, what is the name of the artist again that you had mentioned?
00:44:32
Speaker
Perfect. Yeah. And we will get him up on, there will be a webpage associated with this that episode and we'll get him up on that as well as you. Mark, do you have any final questions, thoughts? Just just thank you for being here and lovely to meet you.
00:44:45
Speaker
Jen Grant, thank you for being on our podcast, Recreative. It's so nice to meet you, too. Thank you guys so much for having me. It's been a real privilege. Thank you. Okay, take care. With a faint taste of cigarettes, you write a hallelujah song.
00:45:02
Speaker
Ain't it wonderful when feeling all right? So I tickle up your back bone wide.
00:45:38
Speaker
you dreamer
00:46:16
Speaker
You dreamer,
00:46:25
Speaker
Well,
00:46:29
Speaker
on a date by a chocolate lake down by the rotary.
00:46:35
Speaker
And past town at the edge looking down at a butterfly.
00:46:47
Speaker
And at the break of day you second to dream, you dreamer.
00:47:11
Speaker
you dreamer.
00:48:40
Speaker
So
00:49:13
Speaker
You've been listening to Recreative, a podcast about creativity and the works that inspire it. Recreative is produced by Mark Rainer and Joe Mahoney for Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with Monkey Joy Press.
00:49:27
Speaker
Technical production of music by Joe Mahoney, web design by Mark Rainer. You can support this podcast by checking out our guests' work, listening to their music, purchasing their books, watching their shows, and so on.
00:49:40
Speaker
You can find out more about each guest in all of our past episodes by visiting recreative.ca. That's re-creative.ca.
00:49:49
Speaker
You can contact us by emailing joemahoney at donovanstreetpress.com. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening.