100 fois
Lyrics I had in an old notebook…
A year after writing them I tweaked them, and a melody just popped in my head as if it had always just been there.
“What if this was all a game
With us, caught in the middle…”
En sourires
You’re sitting across from someone.
You want to tell them something that you’ve been thinking about.
But you realize that you’re content to just sit across from each other, saying nothing, just turning each other into smiles…
C’est instantané
I miss getting letters in the mail. Letters are deliberate. It’s a lot harder to be rash or send someone words that you’ll regret when it’s in a letter rather than in an email. With a letter you need to find a pen and paper. The texture of the paper, its colour, the kind of ink in the pen, the width of the strokes, the handwriting can speak volumes. Then you organize your thoughts. Often times you do more than one draft… you address the envelope, buy a stamp, find a mailbox… It’s deliberate. And if ever you do manage to regret what was written, you can still sit by the person’s mailbox and wait for the letter to arrive so you can intercept it… Of course this could be tricky depending on the distance…
Point is: I guess I miss the romance and the intentional gesture of putting a pen to paper.
Ça vient de loin
It started with the question: If we don’t know where we come from can we ever really know where we’re going?
I’d applied for a two part singer-songwriter workshop called Les rencontres qui chantent. It reunited 5 artists from Quebec, 1 from the Maritimes, 3 from Ontario, and 3 from western Canada. The first part was a 10 day stint at the Festival en chanson de Petite-Vallée where we wrote, composed, attended concerts, and finally put on a workshop style concert. The second part was 6 months later in Ottawa where we spent 10 days working with a director, a musical director, and a full band to put on a gala show during the Contact Ontarois showcase weekend.
Ça vient de loin was a last minute addition to the album. When I left for Petite Vallée (in Gaspésie, Quebec) in the summer of 2007, we had already finished the pre-production. Despite this, when I got home I decided to scrap a song with similar subject matter and replace it with this one. This was one of the hardest songs to write but I worked at the lyrics feverishly even going so far as to miss Ariane Mofatt’s concert. (I got to the concert hall just as they were letting everyone out.) Marc Chabot, a Québeçois lyricist and novelist, helped me with it. I had 3 pages worth of material and which we worked together to focus. Every time I approached him with a new draft he would push me to be more focused, more direct, more vulnerable. It was strange how cathartic it was. When I looked up after presenting it to the group, I was surprised to see the effect it had. It isn’t a sad song. It might start out that way, but it’s a song of hope, of strength, and of survival.
Nu-pieds
“Barefoot and nothing to be forgiven for.
You’re my favorite laughter.”
This is a poem I wrote with a summer-night-out-in-an-open-field in mind. When Mike Lent built his studio in 2001. He wanted me to check it out. When I got there, we ended up composing music to the poem and then recording a quick demo in one afternoon. When picking songs for the album, this one was a natural choice since we had worked on it together and the pre-production was already done.
Encapsulé
“He tells me he’s crazy, that he should be swallowing pills…
He has a back full of memories, a little hunched over, a little fragile
He sees himself as weak…but he’s wrong.”
I wrote the first draft of this song when I was 17 about a friend who took himself so seriously he would transform into an old man before my eyes during some of our conversations. Maybe it was what a lot of us went through…the tumultuousness of our teenage years in the moments when we felt like we had no control over any aspect of our lives…? I like to think he’s one of those people who shed the weight of the world and get younger as they age…
Comment oublier
Every now and then I have a sleepless night. Sometimes it’s insomnia, sometimes it’s the best time to write, sometimes the party just goes on until the early hours, sometimes the conversation is just that good, sometimes nostalgia gets under my skin…
"I’ve forgotten how to forget…”
L’attente
It’s strange how much a recording can differ from a live performance. One of the hardest things about recording this song was figuring out what tempo to do it at. Once that was resolved, we decided to dress it up a bit with some slide. I’ve always found that slide guitar embodies nostalgia and time. For some odd reason, I find it can also be quite sensual as well. Maybe because of the movement…hands gliding across the strings…
“I remember the waiting
the morning after the first time…”
Dock Song
“A big glass of Jack in my hand.” Yes. That’s Jack Daniels. I’m not a big drinker but that night it felt appropriate.
“Prairie holding on to me." I am a prairie girl. I spent a large part of my summers and holidays in Saskatchewan. Most of my family is from there and as soon as I cross the border it feels like home.
Bath For 2
Sometimes I feel like nothing but a pile of puzzle pieces and I just want someone to hand me all the answers. But things change drastically when you realize that you can survive anything and you take responsibility for yourself. Besides, a lot of the fun is in the mess…
Or in discovering what can come out of the mess…or in the instant you realize the mess isn’t a mess after all…
Sunday
I’ve never liked Sundays. Over the years, they’re slowly growing on me but still…they always feel a little daunting. Sunday always threatens Monday.
Funny Business
Ah! The eternal conflict! Keep flirting cause it feels so good.
Stop flirting cause it’s too darned tempting.
Licorice And Incense
When I first wrote this song I only understood half of the lyrics. It took me several drafts and a year to fully understand it. The funny thing is that it will probably mean something completely different to me in a few more years. I guess that’s how it works…
A song that resonates well with you tends to get carried around inside and then changes with you. It’s funny to think that a song is alive and separate from the person who created it. And, no matter how clear you think something is, it will almost always be completely different to someone else…
All that to say: Make of it what you will.
Smooth
My sister amuses herself by trying to match the men in my life to my songs. The funny thing is that while some songs are based on real experience, some of them are nothing but a day dream. I wrote this poem when I was fairly young… when I had barely done more than kiss a boy. I guess I’ve always had a bit of an overactive imagination.
Fake Japan
I was in Calgary for 2 weeks teaching physical theatre workshops to French immersion kids. Teaching these high-energy workshops really takes a huge amount of energy. I had been in bed by 7:30 almost every night. Half way through the second week, I decided to treat myself to some sushi and sake. I watched sumo wrestling on an old T.V. in the corner of the restaurant while they wrapped the rice and nori. I thought of my sister who was living in Taiwan. Then, since I’m such a slow eater and drinker, I wrote until my glass and plates were empty.
We had a lot of fun with this song. First we recorded my voice (the melody line) then Lyle and Mike jammed to it. Afterwards we re-recorded the vocals as I jammed to their music.
Fade Out
A lullaby for lazy mornings when you wake up and realize you don’t have to get out of bed.
OR
A lullaby for nights when you can’t get your mind to stop racing.
OR
Lullaby for an afternoon when it feels like everything’s just fallen into place.
|
