Halifax chanteuse Jenn Grant.
Handout
Music
Canadian Music Week portraits: Three Canadian acts tell their stories
Brad Wheeler
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published
Last updated
Brad Wheeler talks to Jenn Grant, Imaginary Cities and Hollerado as the Canadian music industry gathers for five days of conferences, showcases and a film festival. With exclusive Globe and Mail videos.
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THE VOICE
Charismatic singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, who just released her spunky third album Honeymoon Punch, discusses her lithe, smoky gift.
“It’s always been therapeutic to sing. It’s almost an out-of-body experience sometimes, when you really let yourself go. To be able to be comfortable with that, and to let other people be a part of it, it took a while to adjust to and to accept. But once I got comfortable with that, it’s really been such a privilege to be able to have a career where I can perform and write music.
“My voice is a big part of my identity and a big part of my life. But I try not to focus on it too much. I don’t want it to be something that’s laboured over. I want it to be a natural, free thing.”
Jenn Grant takes part in a Nova Scotia Music showcase, March 12, 8:15 p.m. (limited seating), at the Rivoli, 334 Queen St. E.; Upcoming concerts: St. Catharines, Ont., March 18; Mississauga, March 19.
Jenn Grant— Handout
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Jenn Grant: It's therapeutic to sing
For information on CMW tickets and wristbands: www.cmw.net
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THE PARTNERSHIP
Fast-rising Winnipeg soul-pop duo Imaginary Cities released its debut album, Temporary Resident, last month, and are set to open for the Pixies’ Canadian tour in April. Multi-instrumentalist Rusty Matyas speaks about his creative process with singer Marti Sarbit.
“I don’t know if we had a vision, when we first started working together. Marti has a really bluesy, soulful voice. I’m more of pop-song writer. We decided to focus on not making soul songs and Motown songs specifically – just pop songs with Marti’s bluesy voice.
“Marti would send me a voice note on her BlackBerry, at whatever time of day. I would wake up in the morning and write chords to it. Then we would go into the studio and start from scratch, and not leave until we had a completed demo tape done. We never knew where it was going to go. We built it one instrument at a time. And at the end of the day, we had a song we didn’t know we would have.”
Imaginary Cities plays on March 10, 10:30 p.m., at Lee’s Palace, 529 Bloor St. W.; Manitoba Showcase, March 11, 11:30 p.m., The Garrison, 1197 Dundas St. W.
Imaginary Cities features Marti Sarbit and Rusty Matyas.— Handout
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THE VIDEO
Fun-loving indie rockers Hollerado, from Manotick, Ont., created an online stir with last year’s release of a complicated low-budget video for its song Americanarama. Singer Menno Versteeg tells how it came together.
“All our videos (and basically everything about our job) are fun to do. This video, in particular, was a real blast. When we saw the treatment, it looked impossible. We thought the director was completely insane. It was a real challenge to do it in one take. It was a lot like an obstacle course.
“We like to think the video is a great tool to get people to come out and see our live show. The video is jittery and kind of spastic. Sometimes our live shows are like that; sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s sloppy and loose, and sometimes it’s scrappy. We never want to be the same band every night.
“Our job isn’t just writing songs and playing music. We get to do videos as part of our job. There’s a lot of interactive Web shows that we now do. It’s all part of this changing puzzle of what a band is.”
Hollerado plays March 10, 11:30 p.m., at the Opera House, 735 Queen St. E.
