Photo Credit: Janine Kropla

Genres: Folk, Roots inspired

Instruments: Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica Voice

Carly and I met in the Riding Mountain National Park earlier this summer and enjoyed the wonderful weather. She was incredibly sweet and kind and I was so excited to interview her. Carly’s beautifully crafted lyrics are excellently complimented with sweet melodies. I personally love her new album Ingrained,  which you should definitely check out if you want to have a wonderful true folk experience. 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing?

Carly: I have been playing for about 10 or 11 years now and I have been writing my songs for a few years less than that. I started writing my own songs when I was 16 or 17; it’s hard to remember [an exact date]. I have been playing in various bands for years but this is my first plunge into the solo stuff.

Ashley: Why did you decide to start making and performing music solo?

Carly:  It was kind of the situations where I just had to (laughs). I was playing in a band, a trio, for a couple years and we were quite serious; but it didn’t end up working out, we all went out separate ways. I had to keep playing music so I had a whole bank of songs that I wanted to get out into the world and I figured ‘I have to do this, so why not?’ It’s been really liberating in a way, it’s been a good push to explore that side of music.

Ashley: How often are you practicing your instruments?

Carly: It depends; I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a player at this point. I’m always aiming to get better at my instruments, I try to pick it up once a day and at least practice scales. It doesn’t always work out because other things get in the way but that’s one thing I’d really like to get better at: becoming a [better] player on the guitar, I feel more comfortable on the banjo. Sometimes the time isn’t there, especially when you’re songwriting as well. [Songwriting’s] my main focus, a lot of my time goes into that.

Photo Credit: Joey Senft

Ashley: What inspires your music?

Carly: A lot of my surroundings inspire my music. Whether it’s my natural surroundings or the people around me, things I’ve observed or stories I’ve heard from other people. I find the most common theme is the nature world; it seeps into most of my songwriting.  I live in the woods now and my whole life I’ve grown up admiring nature and being inspired by it so it’s kind of natural that that would happen.

Ashley: Is there anyone you listen to?

Carly: I think probably my main musical influences have been kind of along the Gillian Welch strain of really lyrically driven songwriters. Also I really love specifically Hunter Hunter by Amelia Curran, I haven’t really listen to any of her newer stuff but that album really drew me in. Just in Winnipeg alone, there are so many artists that inspire me and continue to. It’s just amazing. I really love Scott Nolan’s work. Richard Inman is kind of an emerging artist that is really good; he’s worth checking out. The Crooked Brothers, obviously, they co-produced [my] album. I really love the sounds they get on their albums and their ability to draw them out of certain spaces and instruments.

 Ashley: What is your songwriting process?

Carly:  It actually varies quite a bit. Sometimes I’ll sit with a batch of poems and start with words first and kind of play with the music [and melody] afterwards. Often I just sit down with my guitar and nothing in mind and work out a melody and chord structure first then words come later. Depending on the song, some just come out and they are done and it takes 5 minutes, while some need a lot of tweaking so it can take months to finish a song.

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Photo Credit: Janine Kropla

Carly: I’m really proud of this album. I’m really really grateful for the opportunity to play these songs and sing them and get them into people’s homes and hearts. It’s been a real challenge at times for me to take the reins as the leader of this project. I’m so used to having a collaborative situation where I’m in a band and a lot of other people are involved so I’m just really proud of myself how much I’ve grown creatively through the process. [I’m] proud all of the work that’s gone into it and how well it’s been doing and how well it’s been received. It’s really exciting. It’s kind of crazy.

Ashley: What is the most stressful part about going on tour?

Carly:  The admin side of all of it is quite time consuming and stressful at times. The booking, the tours, the PR, I’ve been doing it all independently at this point and it’s just a lot of work. It’s a lot of time on the computer and staring at the screen and on the phone. It’s all together not enjoyable but it’s all part of it and it’s put you in contact with the venue owners and you get to know people a little better that way. It all worked out really well considering I don’t have tons of experience with it.

Ashley: What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous about starting out?

Carly: Just do it! Just do it. It’s daunting and there is a lot about it that can turn you off but you just have to go for it if that’s really what you want to do. There are a lot of things, like the costs and the time, that can be really scary at first but there are a lot of different ways to put music out into the world these days and if you are limited in finances you can find a way to just record a single or a record it digitally and put it out that way. There are lots of options. If you’re passionate about it, I think you should just go for it.

It takes a certain amount of drive to want to do it because it’s scary. For me, someone who has always had a full-time job and financial security, I can understand how it can be a little nerve wracking to just dive into this thing that is so uncertain and so variable. You can always go back to a job if you find that’s what you want to do in the end. It’s one of those things that if you have the opportunity you should take it.

Ashley: What do you do when dealing with nerves before a performance?

Photo Credit: Megan Steen

Carly: Often I don’t get too nervous anymore before shows but I actually experienced a really intense bout of nerves before my album launch party at the West End Cultural Centre [earlier this year]. That was one of the last times I had been that nervous. I don’t really have a method myself of dealing with it, I kind of just pace around and get really anxious before the show but once I’m on stage I feel completely comfortable and at home. I had a couple friends backstage with me who were just kind of hanging out and talking and distracting me, which helped a little bit. I just work through it and get on stage and it gets all better. A friend of mine used to puke every time before a performance because he was so nervous but he doesn’t do that anymore.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Carly: It changes depending on whether I’m playing by myself or with my partner Jesse or with a full band. It depends on the venue too. If I have the full band and the strings are set up, I really love performing Yours & Mine, that’s one on the album. Again with the full band I love performing Down This Road. It was the first single off the album. If I’m just by myself or with another person I love doing Not a Songbird with banjo. I really love how that one turned out on the album.

Ashley: How do you balance music with your other obligations (work, etc.)?

Carly:  I have a lot on the go. It’s always been a balancing act, juggling [everything]. I’ve always had a job because I’m passionate about a lot of things and I work for a land conservation organization and I have for about 6 years. I am fortunate because juggling that is quite easy because they let me go on tour. We have worked out a way where I work when I’m at home and then I can go when I need to on tours. Not a lot of people are that lucky so it’s not too bad. I really like being able to balance home life with tour life. I like being at home. I’ve got a gorgeous new place so it works out well; it gives me time to write and kind of compress and reflect. I don’t know, I’ve never really struggled with time management; I’m a relatively organized person so it’s not too difficult for me.

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve heard since you started working in the music business?​

Carly: I’ve had a lot of different advice from good friends, from people who have been doing it a long time who might be a little jaded and people who are really implanted in the industry that have a lot of advice regarding the business end of it. I think the best advice I have been given, like I told you earlier, is just keep doing it. If it’s your passion and if it’s what you want to do no matter how hard it is and no matter how frustrating the music industry can be, especially as an independent artist, just keep doing it. Just keep writing. That’s one thing a couple people have told me; just keep writing. Even if you don’t have music in your life professionally, you’ll probably have it in your life in some regards. I think that is the best advice you can give someone.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Sep 3, 2015 at 7:48am PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician Carly Dow!

Marielle McLeod: Vocals, violin, Accordion, Bells

Benjamin Dueck: Bass, Vocals

Genres:  Indie Rock/Emo Band

Mabel's Flight is a 5-piece Indie Rock from the suburbs of Winnipeg. These quirky and talented kids are definitely taking the scene by storm! Since their debut performance in January at the United Fiver, these 5 have left a lasting impression on the Winnipeg community. I was very excited to meet Marielle and Ben and was really caught off guard by how eloquent and knowledgeable they were about their music. They know exactly what they want and how they're going to take it! 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing?

Ben: We all grew up in the same area, and we have been playing together in various bands for four years. We all met in high school but Mabel’s flight has been [together] for about two years. We had our performance debut and the Uniter Fiver in January and that was the first time we had a show, we had only been jamming for a few months before then. Since then we have just been playing and recording

Marielle: and working on our EP.

Ashley: Where does the band name come from?

Marielle: It’s actually a somewhat interesting [story]. There is this show that Cam and I had gotten into called Gravity Falls and the band name came from one of the episodes where the characters break into this store. The character Mabel found these old bags of candy, ate them and got kind of high from them. She then imagined this thing that turned into this bird and then she started riding it.

Ben: Also no one in the world has that name so it’s really Google friendly. When you search ‘Mabel’s flight” you actually get us. That was a main thing too.

Ashley: So why did you decide to start playing together?

Ben: We come from a quiet suburban area and we didn’t see a lot of music around us. I think I read somewhere [that the area where we are from] has the oldest average age in all off Winnipeg. So obviously there are not that many young bands are happening there. To combat that we got together and we tried to create what we wanted in the area, which was a music scene. We are pretty much the only band,that I know of, that’s all from [that same area].  We didn’t see music around us so we wanted to create it.

Marielle: Also,I guess growing up listening to music we were all just drawn to [it] and that was something that was unique in the suburb we live in so we ended up bringing us together.

Ashley: What is a practice or jam session like with the rest of the band?

Ben: Well usually Cam – the front man – or Marielle will come with a demo of a song. Cam writes his music on an acoustic guitar and he will have his lyrics and a rough melody [ready]. He’ll bring those to the practice and we’ll work together as a band in arranging and composing the songs. Cam will play the demo and we’ll jam out ideas for a long time. We find that songs come naturally, you can ‘t force it. Sometimes songs will come in an hour and sometimes it will take weeks. There are things that separate the skeleton of a song to a full-fledged, developed idea that are very subtle. It’s not something you can pinpoint but when it works you just get it. It’s pretty much just a matter of doing things over and over again and trying new ideas.

Ashley: What is the most stressful part about being in a band?

Marielle: For me it’s the fear that the music won’t come out in the best way possible.

Ben: It’s hard to get your band to sound, especially when you’re recording and you don’t know what you’re doing, you usually sound when you’re playing. It’s hard to convey that message. Especially in Winnipeg considering how many good bands we have. When you first get into the scene it’s almost disheartening because there are so many good bands. I think it’s pretty saturated market in Winnipeg and it’s hard to stand out. It’s just a cultured city so for me [the most stressful part is] standing out.

Ashley: So what do you try to do is stand out?

Ben: We have a pretty diverse array of influences, we all listen to different music. Obviously we are influenced by our city bands like Yes We Mystic, Royal Canoe andGreek Riots, those are some of our favorite bands. We are an indie rock band mainly but Marielle is trained in a lot of different instruments like accordion, bells and violin.

Marielle: We do have this sound that sounds like other bands that people have heard of but there is also this mesh of different genres in our music too. Our keyboard player, he was really into pop music and I was really into baroque music so there are a lot of different colors of every different genre.

Ben: We aren’t trying to sound like another band, it’s all of our personalities coming through. Marielle with her instruments, Cam has his R&B, and then we have more of an intense punk and rock influenced rhythm section.

Marielle: I think part of it is really we end up writing relatively heart-felt songs. I almost feel like we are really talking musically, if that makes any sense.

Ashley: So does Cam do all the songwriting?

Ben: Most of it, Marielle writes some songs as well.

Ashley: So what is your songwriting process like?

Marielle: I tend to like layering a ton of different sounds in my music. Usually I’ll end up coming up with a melody and record it on my phone; but my phone is really crappy so it will end up really distorted and if you listen through it, it will have these overtones and like I will start to imagine different things [coming from it].

Ben: Cam and Marielle’s songs are very different. Marielle definitely has a composer mind so she’ll usually come with an idea with how the songs would sound and it’s just a manner of translating it to us; where as Cam comes will just the skeletons. He has a more earnest style of songwriting.

Marielle: Yeah, he’s really lyrical.

Ben: If you can’t play a song on an acoustic guitar and have it sound good, it’s probably not that strong of a song. We try to make sure the melody and the chords are strong before we layer things out.

Ashley: That’ s really interesting! It’s cool that you have two very different styles to work with! So then with the band, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Ben: Well we just released our first EP on Bandcamp called Bedroom Fire and we had been working on that pretty much since we started and we finally [released it]. It took a long time but we are very proud of how that turned out. And the songs go over really well live. Out keyboard player’s dad has his own studio so we were very lucky.  We are hoping to do an official release this summer, but for now it’s up on Bandcamp where you can name your price and download it. We are so very proud of it.

Ashley: I wish I could do that, I’m kind of a chicken when it comes to sharing my music. What is performing your music like as a band?

Ben: We have a very interesting dynamic because we all just pretend we are in different bands. Cam is not your traditional, flamboyant singer. He’s understated and likes the songs to speak for themselves while he is off to the side. Our drummer and I are very energetic people so we have this hyped up staged presence. So our shows are trying to balance our personalities. I find with a lot of bands their songs are melodically good or lyrically strong but they don’t have a sense of momentum. We try to make it sound like our music is going somewhere.

Marielle: Yeah and keep it interesting. You don’t want to come up with a song that’s going to repeat exactly the same. You want it to have [and keep] someone’s attention on it.

Ben: We try not to talk very much live, we try to play as much as we can. We try to keep it fast paced because no one really wants to hear your sad self-indulgence unless you’re brilliant.

Ashley: What advice would you give to beginners who want to do the same thing as you and start a band?

Ben: Just focus on the music because that has to be the most important thing. You can only get so far on mediocre songs so practice as much as possible especially when you are in high school. When you get home at 3 o’clock and you have nothing to do for hours, practice as much as you can and make sure you play with as many people as possible. What sounds right will fall into place the more you play. So just put in the hours.

Marielle: and definitely keep an open mind. Accept ideas even if you come up with something that sounds like crap. Some of the simplest ideas I’ve come up with I find are the most successful.

Ben: Also there is this common misconception that success is a constant upward trajectory but it really ebbs and flows so working through the tough stuff and not breaking up too.

Marielle: Be interested in yourself. Don’t try to be interesting for other people because if you don’t love your work it’s going to be hard for others to love your work. 

Ashley: How do you find people so you can play as much as possible?

Ben: We were really lucky to have the United Fiver to kind of get us in the right scene especially when you are a new band. [In the beginning] your image of the music scene seems like a really exclusive club but Winnipeg has this super open [community]. I think the main thing is even if you don’t have people to play with, just going to shows and start getting your name out there, people will start recognizing your face and come up and start talking to you. That’s what we did, we just went to shows and we talked to the bands after they played and asked them where they started and where they practice. That’s the main thing; just supporting the scene and it will come back to you if you do that. Being visible.

Ashley: Before a performance, what do you do when dealing with nerves?

Marielle: I have a pretty ridiculous imagination so when I’m practicing I’ll imagine the show and it’s weird because sometimes if I screw up while I’m practicing I’ll actually feel embarrassed.  On the show you know you just want to forget there are actually people there and just enjoy yourself.

Ben: Once you get up there, if you practice enough, it should come back to you in muscle memory.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Ben: My favorite song is the title track from our EP Bedroom Fire; it’s my favorite song. It’s the song we close our shows with and it’s six and a half minutes long and has two time changes in it. It’s probably our more Arcade Fire sounding song. It has this really simple chorus that anyone can sing along with. It’s very important to write a song that’s easy to sing for everybody, I think.

Marielle: For me, it’s a bit hard to choose. My favorite might actually be Playground because I did write it so I have a slightly different interpretation of it. It has chunks of my life that have inspired it. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s years within 5 minutes and I experience it all in such a short amount of time.

Ben: Yeah, Marielle’s songs have a very strong sense of imagery.

Ashley: How is it balancing this commitment to your band with everything else?

Ben: It’s hard sometimes, it always seems that things line up on the same day like school and work or practices. Even when you can’t get all your band members together, just trying to have consistent practices. Even if it’s just running over stuff you already know just keeps your polished and motivated. It’s really just time management. We try to set up at least a day or two a week so whoever can make it shows up and we work on songs. We also send stuff over the Internet, that’s a big thing, emailing each other demos because we can’t always be in the same place at once. We need to rely on the Internet.

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve heard since you started working in the music business?

Ben: Just remembering, music is at its heart is an emotional affair. I can’t remember who told me this but no matter how hard you practice, and I think this is something that music schools needs to teach you more, but you can be the best musician in the world and practice all day but it’s that emotion that connects people. You just need to focus on being conscious of what emotion your song is trying to convey because that is the universal part of the song that brings people together.  Just trusting your gut and that’s what makes it a great song.

Marielle: Definitely what Ben said, a huge part of the song is the meaning. You can have a song that’s well written and people want to buy and like it, but when you hear a song that really does have a meaning in it it is really a feeling within.

Ben: The thing that separates a good some from a great song is the emotion. We aren’t the best players in the world but we pour our hearts into it and I feel that really comes across.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Aug 14, 2015 at 10:57am PDT

Support Winnipeg Band Mabel's Flight!

Photo Credit: Janine Kropla

Instruments: Banjo, Guitar and Vocals

Genres: Bluegrass instrumentation with no boundaries (influences: Blues, Folk, Hip hop and Spoken word)                                                                             

Matt and I met and shared a delicious lunch and an ice cream sandwich at the Degrees restaurant in the University of Manitoba. While we ate, Matt shared his knowledge of the Winnipeg music business and some really great advice and stories that I know are really going to stick with me through my own musical career. I’m also really happy to share that The Crooked Brothers very recently released their album into Germany Austria and Switzerland with the record label The Instrument Village! Way to go guys! 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing your instruments?

Matt: I started taking guitar when I was in grade 4 and probably [only started to ] like playing the guitar in about grade 6. It took about 2 years to stick. Once I could start making noise in the basement with some buddies, it didn’t just feel like studying or working. It was like recess, I guess. The banjo, I don’t know, I think I started at the end of high school. I borrowed a banjo from my friend Devon and still haven’t returned the thing. I keep trying to give it back to him but it’s complicated. He just says “you just keep it” and I’m like “uh, okay” but it’s been years!

Ashley: I guess its okay then; he must not miss it?

Matt: Yeah, it’s like - is this mine? It doesn’t feel like mine so I treat it [well].

Ashley: In terms of practicing, how hard do you push yourself?

Matt: Lately it’s been happening without pushing. I’ve been teaching guitar lately and just getting into the mindset of constantly breaking down things that you do as a musician. Breaking down technique and dismantling things into their smaller pieces, then talking about practice, technique, goals and sharing all these things with students and conversing about them; it just has my mind in the place that’s got myself doing the same thing, in my spare time. Teaching has made me sharper as a player than ever trying to get some kind of rehearsal schedule for myself. I’m not very good with schedules; I’ve never been able to stick to one. It’s like a dream of mine to have a schedule but I don’t know how people do it. It’s nice that I created these conditions that invite [practicing] and it happens regularly.

Ashley: I guess if you can teach it, you must really know it.

Matt: I think everyone can be a teacher if they not only know what they’re teaching but how to teach it. I don’t feel like I’m an incredible guitar player, I feel like I have a million things that I would want to learn but I also feel like that I am very confident with what I do know and my ability to convey how I got there. Anybody that would like to do what I can do, I’m very happy to share and talk about how to achieve it, what makes the difference between a bad sound when you strum and a good sound when you strum. It’s fun talking about it. I think there are teachers at all levels, you do have to know what you’re doing but you don’t have to know everything. Knowing how to teach is just as important as knowing the instrument itself.

Ashley: Who inspires you and your songwriting? What do you listen to?

Matt: I really like honest people so when I say that, people who come to mind are Bill Callahan from Smog. He’s very eloquent and beautiful and sort of off center. Beautiful stark songs that are kind of about incredibly deep things that he paints from a strange angle. It’s really cool. I also really liked listening to Haden when I was really young. He’s sort of blazed the way for me that you can say sensitive things in a song and [still] have it be strong. A strong person, especially in terms of male figures, being so strongly sensitive like that; especially with incredibly heavy dark and angry music is really inspiring; so in terms of songwriting, things like that. I also like with both of those writers they linguistically put a lot of weight on the actual lyrics so the music fits to the words. If there is an extra line, or extra syllable, or an extra sentence the form of the music with shift to accommodate the language because there is an importance put on the lyrics and it has to be said this way. You get this sense that it has to be said this particular way because it might have the most truths, you can see it the most ways or something. It’s most beautiful like this and I’m not going to change the words to fit the song I’m going to change the song to fit the words. I really like that and I feel I’m drawn to the [importance of] lyrics over music idea.

Ashley: With the band, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Matt: Seeing the world. Totally getting to bridge the gaps between friends and me I never knew I would make in places like Belgium, Germany and Poland. All over Canada, we have been to every providence and territory except for Labrador. We’re going to do it, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Photo Credit: Janine Kropla

Yeah, just the accumulative accomplishment of just continuing to do it over and over again. Watching it grow to this beautiful thing that I’m kind of just along for the ride in some ways. We work very hard and have worked very hard and now things kind of have their own wheels. We can feel things starts to pick up and just manifest in the form of knowing I’m going to be on tour in the fall next year. Being able to project that far into the future in my life. It’s the band that’s doing that for me and it’s my job. To be self-employed and to grow that ourselves, to have done so much work and to have been flexible to change and allow our relationships with each other to morph and to move along and be flexible enough for the band to carry through all that is incredible. The accomplishment really is treating each other like a family first and for most so when is comes down to it, it’s a long lasting never ending relationship that has just gotten richer and richer and richer.

Ashley: So when you’re traveling and doing your touring, what’s stressful or what are things that is a challenge for you when you are touring?

Matt: They are definitely there. It’s an interesting lifestyle that I think truck drivers know and traveling strippers know.

Ashley: That’s a thing? Traveling Strippers? I didn't know they needed to travel.

Matt: Absolutely, all kinds of performers travel. It’s a way to work every night. Any kind of act that benefits from having a new audience every night and space between shows to let excitement grow for coming back benefits from constantly being on the move. The entertainment business by its nature has to move to stay alive. Just the interesting routine you have to develop on the move to remain grounded and sane. Your life is basically traveling an average of 100 kilometers an hour. Let’s say you’re driving 6 hours a day, which is a lot, but that’s 25% of your time.  You spend your whole life 25 kilometers faster than someone who is just walking to work. You’re just moving and so trying to find the sense of home when the physical place is not part of your reality is always changing so it’s hard to keep grounded. You’re living in a tiny car with everybody and other people have their own quirks. You just live in very tight quarters for most of the time. Sleep together, eat together, work together, drive together, wake together, eat together, and share a shower. Everything is scheduled and you’re all tethered.

Photo Credit: Janine Kropla

You’re traveling, which is amazing! You feel like “Oh my god I’m in Paris, France!” But unless it’s a day off, which happens once a week, you can’t go see something. It’s an awesome way to travel but it’s also not as free as you might think. You’re tethered to the car, you need to get somewhere for sound check, you’ve got a few hours to eat, you play the show then you need to get to where you’re sleeping and when you get up in the morning you might have a little time but you’ll still need to get into the car because you’re driving hours to the next place to get to sound check and that’s kind of the routine. Finding a sense of balance on the go, if you can’t do that you won’t last. A lot of people burn out traveling or touring because you get homesick.

At first it’s all excitement, you aren’t even thinking about [being homesick]. That challenge starts to creep up you when you do it longer and longer and longer. It becomes an integral part of your lifestyle. You’ll tour for three months or even half of a year at a time and it becomes part of you. At first your screaming and having a good time out the window, and then it’s still so exciting but you relax into that fast pace-ness; then the issues kind of creeps on you.

Ashley: So, how do you deal with your nerves before a performance?

Matt: I used to throw up before the show and at the time that felt like dealing with it. It wouldn’t be this gross, disgusting, heaving, wretch or anything; it would just be that my stomach was upset and I would [need] to go gag in the toilet or in the bathroom or out back in the bush. Over time you relax and start to see it less about yourself. It dissolves a little bit and you aren’t so concerned about what people think about you. I think that’s really what the nerves are; it’s [the feeling of] being uncomfortable. You feel watched and you’re watching yourself and there is some kind of nervousness about doing [well] or doing badly. There is some kind of weight that you put on [yourself to make sure you are] doing it properly. But if you just relax about it, just doing it is doing it properly.  The less you draw attention to yourself and the more you draw attention to the song [the better]. By focusing on that instead of yourself, your nerves slip away. I think that’s a practice among itself.  Performing a song well, I think that means getting out of [the music’s] way so that you aren’t sitting there thinking to yourself while you’re singing the song. If you think about yourself while you’re singing, it shows. It’s really visible when someone is self-conscious on stage. It’s a sign that they’re watching themselves in the same way I’m watching them.

But someone who appears confident it’s not because they think so highly of themselves, I mean that exists I suppose, but people I’m drawn to are the people I think aren’t caught up with themselves. They’re singing about what they are singing about and there is no room for anything else. They are so fully engrossed in the song and sounds, the words, the meanings and maybe even the moments of the song leaving the stage and sharing it with that many people. Having a good conversation.

Rarely do I find myself in that state the entire night, but if you can get there even for a little bit that’s kind of the thing [as to why] I’m addicted to playing music. That feeling of nothing else matters.

Ashley: What does the name The Crooked Brothers come from?

Matt: There is a book by William Kennedy called Iron Weed and it’s a book about a man who kind of fucks everything up. In the opening scene he is traveling to a cemetery, he’s gotten some work there and nearby his mother and father are rolling around in their graves speaking with one another. They’ve been long ago buried. The Dad is picking the roots from the grass and the dandelions that have been growing above him, drying them out in his pocket and then smoking them in his little pipe underground. The mother is doing something similar like crocheting. There’s sort of this deep sadness, he has these dark ghosts follow him around and he’s of the world of the living and the dead, there is a thin gauze between the two for him. [At one point] he drops his young child, he basically drops his baby and the baby dies. The description of the baby is that, I think [the baby’s] name was Gerald, he says “Oh little Gerald’s all crooked, why is Gerald all crooked?” I’ve never heard the word ‘crooked’ used so darkly and I had just been walking around trying to name this band forever.

I love the idea of people who sing sweet melodies like siblings like Roger Roger. They are twins who sing like honey, their vocals are impeccable. In country music, families and siblings [singing together] is a common thing. I had it in my mind the idea of playing a family; the idea of making my own family. I kept thing “The something family” and when I read that book the word just slipped into that blank spot and I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Ashley: What is your songwriting process?

Matt: I wish I had one. [laughs] it would be so much easier [laughs again]. I’ve been thinking about this alot lately actually because I want one so bad. We had been talking earlier about how I’m bad with schedules. I’m just bad with structure, I don’t naturally create it for myself.

I really focus on words, so a sentence will get in my mouth and head and it will just tattoo itself there. Looping and looping and looping and kind of driving me crazy so I’ll say it out loud until a second line kind of spills out.

For the song Blackbird in the snow I had the words “I don’t know why I’ve though of you” for forever. I would just keep saying it over and over and it was driving me insane. There was something so true about it, it’s nice to say and it means something but what does it even mean? What the hell was I talking about?

Photo Credit: Janine Kropla

I think from there I can split off and investigate myself and interview that frame of mind and be like “who is you and why don’t I know why I wouldn’t think of you?” Just ask all these questions and pursue the idea or just keep repeating the line again until another idea came along that felt equally fit in that place and naturally spills out. Once I’ve got a few lines, I think the melody comes from me trying to say it the way it sounds the most true or the most honest. I [might say] the sentence “I don’t know why I thought of you.” instead of “I don’t know why I thought of you.” I think for me the melody is very much related to natural speech and wanting to have a conversation with an idea. I sing something honestly and then the melody develops there and later on I’ll put chords in.

It’s like the song is there and I’m just searching in the dark. The more practice I do as a player and by learning other people’s songs the more readily I can discover and sweep away all the unnecessary things. I can quickly discover the elements that have asked me to be brought out, to sweep the dust away.

Ashley: So when you’ve finished a song how do you bring it to the band, what is the process of introducing it? Do you sing the lyrics and melody and they make their own arrangements or are you very particular of what everyone should be playing?

Matt: If you have an idea, it’s really helpful to convey that to people. If you are hearing something, say so.  “I’m hearing a mandolin play here, can you make this happen?” Sometimes you’ll just be like “okay this is what I’ve got, everybody do something” and then you feel it out. It kind of just depends on each song. I love working with people that I love and trust and love their playing enough that I am not just directing everybody all the time. Which is one way to do it, it makes great music.

I think putting yourself in the situation where you are playing music with people who love what they’re doing and you love how they play for other things [is a great idea]. You learn the song in it’s skeleton form and play it and play it and play it until it gels and it becomes it’s own thing. And if you were to play it with someone else, it could take up some other life. If you take this thing you always do with the song and try to get different people to do the same thing, it’s going to fail every time because no one can recreate something. It’s nice to be able to relax about that, let the song breathe as it’s own with whoever is playing.

Ashley: What is a practice session with the entire band?

Matt: Specifically a rehearsal would be when we have some kind of goal in mind.  That might be a big show or doing a small show but we haven’t played together in a little bit, or like a tour or we are going into the studio. There is some kind of goal ahead of us. We have predetermined this material, any number of songs. If we are going on tour we’ll pick 35 songs, we’ve chosen the band that’s going to be on tour with us and we get together with those chosen people. We hire all kinds of players depending on what kind of show we want to put on or what kind of tour we want to have. Ideally I would like to run all the songs twice a day for a few days but usually it’s just once one evening or afternoon. We’ll run all the songs once and then go over any problem spots. Any new material we’ll do it to make sure we iron all the wrinkles out. It’s very much a rehearsal where already know their parts there is not a lot of jamming and figuring [this out]. We might have a new player who might be figuring the song out for themselves but that’s about as much “jamming”  that would happen.

A jam session would be totally different where we would just throw things at each other and play unfinished songs together; we get goofy and play things we would never play on stage. That’s probably the biggest difference: is playing things we would never do in a public setting or aren’t ready to share.

Ashley: How often do you guys jam?

Matt: Less lately because Jesse’s living about three and a half or four hours away from us. I’ve been jamming with other people a lot so that’s helped with actually jamming and loose playing. When we’re together on the road, or together just before a tour for a show, it can happen. We are usually very intentional when booking that time because but sometimes it’s nice to just play. 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Aug 2, 2015 at 10:11pm PDT

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Thank you for taking the time to read this interview with the very talented and wonderful Matt Foster! He is a really really cool dude! If you want to see more interviews like this check out the links below! If you want to be one of the first to know when the next Winnipeg Music Project entry will be posted, follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook! 

Photo Credit: Megan Steen

Genres: Acoustic, Classical, Folk, Roots, Singer-Songwriter

Instruments: Instrumentals, Classical violin, Guitar and Voice 

Raine and I met outside the cozy Thom Bargen coffee shop. It felt like we were having more of a hear-felt conversation rather than myself simply interviewing her. Raine was super friendly and easy to talk and listen to about the music industry and her journey so far. Congrats to her and all her achievements so far! I can't wait to see what more wonderful opportunities come her way~!

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Ashley: How long have you been playing?

Raine: I started playing violin as a young child, it’s been twenty something years.

Ashley: And why did you decide to perform?

Raine: It’s really hard not to perform. It’s just something in the blueprint of my life that this is something that I do. It’s so hard to not perform.

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Photo Credit: Hillarie Tasche

Raine: The thing I’m the most proud of is how hard I have worked. I am proud of how I’ve prioritized art and music making in my life because that was the thing that was hard. It was a challenging, scary thing to do, to make it my main focus in life. To put my time where my mouth is. That is what I’m most proud of and that has lead to opportunities that I am so happy to have like going with Manitoba Music to perform music in the Ontario Conference last fall; and all of the work and the opportunities leading to the album release [which was] a really joyful, successful experience. This summer I’m touring all over the place and playing in a lot of festival, which is my absolute favorite.

Ashley: What advice do you have for beginners who are nervous to start sharing their own music?

Raine: I think it’s important to be clear about what you want and then to make a plan. I think the best thing to do is seek the advice and seek the counsel of people who have done this before you. I’ve had a ton of meetings with artists over the last few years and have learned so much and have benefited also from the community. I would say find people that you admire, ask them about [anything]. This community [we have] is really helpful.

Ashley: And how do you approach them, these people?

Raine: I always offer to buy them lunch and always write down everything they say and they take it seriously.

Ashley: But how do you find them?

Raine: Just ask [around]! All they can say is yes and no.

Ashley: How do you balance your music with your other obligations like work?

Raine: A lot of my work is music based so that is good and complimentary to my music. I have achieved balance by reducing my other work’s hours so I can spend more time in the music business. That is one thing, to work less.

Ashley: Does it make it harder?

Raine: Well, financially it makes it harder to work with but there is more time which is much more valuable.  Time is the most valuable thing. I also used to always make lists. I have a bed time so won’t just work constantly around the clock [laughs].

Ashley: So how do you handle the nerves before performances?

Raine: Preparation before a performance. I make sure I’m really prepared. I’ll practice a lot and I practice all the aspects of the show especially for a really important show. All the on/offs, all the things I’m going to say and when I’m going to say it. I craft that and that helps with the nerves. I also think the more I perform the less nervous I am, [the process becomes more fluid]. Just practicing performing is it’s own treatment for nerves.

Ashley: What are you practicing? Are you playing through the songs? Technique?

Raine: I’m practicing anything that needs work. So on any given day it could be any of those things.

Ashley: And what is your songwriting process?

Raine: Sometimes different ways but usually it’s a first line that comes. Melody is often apart of that early process, too. I guess it happens it’s own ways. I sometimes feel a song is it’s own thing already and it depends on what I pick it up by first or what end is poking through the sand first.

Ashley: Are you one of those people that can write an entire song at once, or are you one of those people that takes pieces from a year ago and piece them together?

Raine: I feel that I’m more a collector of bits and they find their way together. In my experience it kind of feels like that.  An accurate description of my process is that I gather pieces together and I feel like a responsibility as an artist to do that when I see those pieces. It often is a process until I find a match together with the bits and I can feel it and often it takes a long time. Sometimes it’s quick and sometimes it’s possible to usher that process along. I was at the Manitoba Songwriting retreat in March 2015 and we wrote a song a day; it’s possible. It’s a different process though.

Photo Credit: Megan Steen

Ashley: Is it harder? I don’t know it if I could do that.

Raine: It’s not that it was harder the process was very different. It was fun. It’s good practice to just make choices faster.

Ashley: How do you choose the feeling to come across in your song? How do you choose your emotion?

Raine: That part happens by itself. That is a pre-existing bit and it usually makes itself obvious in the beginning.

Ashley: Is it like a self-conscious thing or are you naturally picking that mood or feeling?

Raine: You know, I don’t think I can actually describe it. I think that is the crux of the thing. It’s the feeling that it is. It’s the place that where the song lives so I don’t think I decide that, it just happens. I think that just is the thing.

Ashley: So this album you just released, why did you decide to make this album?

Raine: Why did I decide to make this album? Because it’s a step on the way that to the life that I want to lead and it felt right and good to do it.

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve received as artist or as a musician that you just take with you?

Raine: The best advice I’ve received is [something] someone said to me very matter-of-fact ‘do not be strayed from you course.’ To me it means do not be swayed from what you love, it is important. I think it speaks to me [because we live in a culture where] art is valued a lot less that [how much I value it] in my heart and it can be hard to live like that. But do not be swayed because it is important.​

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jul 30, 2015 at 12:30pm PDT

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Genres: Indie Folk

Instruments: Banjo, Mandolin, Steel Guitar, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar and Organ

Daniel is a really really cool dude. He had a really refreshing look on making music that I really enjoyed listening to the first and second time (when I was transcribing the interview). Please enjoy! 

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Ashley: What start Red Moon Road? 

Daniel: The initiative was a two-way partnership between my friend Daniel and I. We are both Daniels and we were both drummers. At the very beginning he was drumming in a country band and I was playing drums in a metal band with my brothers. We had both come off tour when he invited me to go to the lake with him. His friend had a cabin at the time and we went out for a sail. We tipped the sailboat in the middle of beginning of November, so it was pretty late in the season, and it was a bit of a crisis but we managed to get through it all. All four of us figured if we could survive an ordeal like that, we could probably spend time in a band together and it hasn’t let us down since.

Ashley: Where does the name come from?

Daniel: The name has very humble origins. When we first decided to start recording, before we played any shows, Daniel and I and the singer at the time were recording in a friend’s house in one the suburbs of Winnipeg off Lagimodiere. If you search you Red moon Road on Google the first thing that comes up is the street, Road Moon Road, and then it’s us. That’s actually where we got the name, nothing more glorious than that. We needed a name, we walked out of the studio, looked up there was a sign: a road sign.

Ashley: What is a practice session like with the whole band?

Daniel: Like a rehearsal?

Ashley: Yeah

Daniel: There are two different types of rehearsals. We are all professional musicians and we have an understanding of what an efficient rehearsal means. When we are rehearsing for a show or specific event that’s coming up, we have repertoire that we’re been working on for the last four years so a lot of those songs don’t need that much polish.

Often we will bring in a new song or two or five for a particular show we when we rehearse, we’ll get together and decide which songs [to play], figure out what keys are good to sing and play in and then we’ll go home and practice them on our own and the next time we come together. It’s expected that everything have their parts figured out. In the first three times [when we play them] through, generally we have to figured out what kind of tempo and feel that we want. That way it gives us the time and chance to make little mistakes on our own and without frustrating others. And when it comes together it still has that electric energy.

The other kind of rehearsal is when we are writing songs. When we are putting together the material that we haven’t really finished yet, often we’ll play through a portion of the song or idea or something and when we get to the end of it, we’ll see where your ear takes you or your fingers take you. There is a lot of speculation, lots of trying things over, lots of repetition. Lots of encouragement, we’re a very encouraging group.

Ashley: Do you ever start one song and finish it in one session? Or do you find you’ll usually have to come back to it later?

Daniel: Sometimes, if it all comes out in one shot, then that’s always ideal because you spend a lot less time on it and it feels a little more inspired. But more often than not it’s good to know when you’re beating a dead horse and when to walk away from something when it’s just frustrating you and you’re not being very productive. It’s a combination of both.

Ashley: So who inspires the music? Like, who do you all listen to that you feel really influences the sound?

Daniel: I can only speak for myself, really. But we do share a lot common interests. We all came to folk music a little later in life; Sheena grew up singing gospel and loves R&B music. She loathes admitting it but she’s a big Mariah Carey fan, she loves all the ballad songstresses. She takes a lot of cues from them. But also some real blues singers. Daniel is a really big fan of the Beatles so a lot of his writing is informed from that new wave of British pop from the 60s and 70s. I’d say my bass influences, in terms of folk music, are the folk greats like James Taylor and Neil Young, the gamut. Also Joanie Mitchell, of course. I also listen to a lot of metal whenever I’m driving or at home, I’ll usually listen to it.

Ashley: [Metal], that’s like the same as folk.

Daniel: Well yeah, I’d have to say that blue grass is just metal on acoustic instruments. It’s the same speed and virtuosity. A lot of the parts that I write are melodic and try to include as much melodic diversity as possible. I’d say that’s a pretty big influence in my writing.

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of, with the band or individually?

Daniel: Well, I’d say the band is one of my greatest accomplishments. We’ve come a long way in the past four years. We’ve toured a lot recently. I think [another big] accomplishment is the fact that we’re still such a solid team and are evolving as people and as a business people as well as artists and all [we are all moving] in the same direction. I think maintaining a friendship throughout that and in between all the business has it’s challenging but is extremely rewarding. We just came back from a 2-month European tour and that’s sort of the most stand-out thing in my mind in terms of accomplishments. Yeah, playing a few sold out shows in the UK, getting a chance to see Paris and touring through Switzerland was also amazing.

That would be [one of] the biggest accomplishment, for now. It’s only the first of many tours out there, I think.

Ashley: What’s your favorite song to perform live?

Daniel: Does it have to be one of our own or can it be any song?

Ashley: It can be anything!

Daniel: Sheena is a trained jazz vocalist. We haven’t really been doing it on the stage, but we’ve done it at jams and after hours. She does this amazing version of At Last jazz standard that she just rips to pieces. It’s so amazing. That woman has so much soul it’s great. I just get to color in between the lines, I guess. That song. I feel we do a really good version of that.

Ashley: Are you guys going to share that with the world at some point?

Daniel: We should definitely record it.

Ashley: I would love to hear that.

Daniel: There will come a time. Maybe it will be a radio spot, it might not be something we put out ourselves. It’s gotta happen though, I’ll let you know.

Ashley: Yes please, I would love to hear that! Do you have advice for beginners who want to start making their music and sharing it?

Daniel: Um, I think the best piece of advice I can give is: just do it. You can spend so much time in speculation and wondering what you should or should not do. But there is no substitute for experience in both performance and in creation. If you’re someone who is inspired and already creating music, then great you’re already doing it. But if you feel like you need to share it, it’s just a matter of making connections, good connections, and going out and seeing shows. Make connections with people on stage and finding out how to get on that same stage. More than anything this business is about who know and how you know them. It’s important to be congenial and polite but also a fun human being. But just getting out there and doing it is the most important thing.

Also, don’t be afraid of criticism. Especially, be wary of compliments. Don’t always accept them for what they are because often when you’re first starting people are excited to hear you play and they’re going to say that they loved the experience. It’s going to be great but just don’t let it get to your head. No matter how good you are, you can always get better. The real advice you should be looking for is people who aren’t afraid to criticize it for what it is. That way you can take or leave it but at least you know it’s coming from a place of a true experience. That’s the most helpful thing that you can get. Compliments are nice now and again but seek criticism and then you will grow. Also, always play with people that are better than you.

Ashley: What do you do to help deal with nerves before a performance?

Daniel: Um, I don’t get really get nervous.

Ashley: Well, how about when you first started when you were first figuring out your sound? I’m sure you were nervous.

Daniel: I don’t know, I might have skipped that somehow. When I was young I did a lot of improv theatre so I was used to the stage from a very young age. I was also eased into it in a very supportive community. I’ve always felt really comfortable up there. That’s not to say that if an extremely good act is following us I won’t feel nervous. I’ll want to put on the best possible show. I just try to take a moment before I step on stage. Just take a deep breath and appreciate the moment for what it is. The people that are out there, the fact that they decided to see you perform and that you’re going to entertain all of them, they’re attention is in you’re hands for the next how many minutes and it’s up to you to be prepared ahead of time and be ready. You can craft the experience for them. I guess I don’t see it as something scary and more of an opportunity to make something exciting not just the audience but for you as well. There is a connection between the audience and the performer where that spark happens. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to knock them out.

Ashley: You mentioned how you just came back from this huge tour, what was the most stressful part about touring?

Daniel: Figuring out where accommodations are going to be that same night. Trying to have an itinerary that makes sense. Make sure you have enough time to get from your lodging, or your hotel or wherever you are sleeping, to the stage and a way to get from the stage to the hotel. But then, the most stressful thing is making sure that you’re instruments are all ready to go. There are so many variable when you aren’t in a controlled environment. There is only so much you can do to prepare ahead of time. Be as anal as you can be, cross every ‘T’ and dot every ‘I’.

Don’t be married to any one particular way that things should be because often things are going to change and you’ll just have to roll with it. The thing that stresses me out though is broken instruments; irreplaceable pieces of your tool kit. Accidents can happen and I was just so worried. If something like that breaks when you are over seas and there is no way to replace it, it costs so much money and it stresses me out. There is no remedy for that.

Ashley: Just a few tears and you move on.​

Daniel: Yeah, or just being careful and preventing it from happening in the first place. Ugh, even thinking out about it makes me squirmy.​ 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jul 16, 2015 at 9:58am PDT

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Instruments: Voice and piano

Genres: Soul, Urban and Pop

Flo and I met back in December 2014 when we were both performing at a Holiday Party. It was one of the first times I ever performed solo and was really nervous. Flo did an excellent job calming me down and encouraging me. (Her performance was also absolutely stunning, by the way.) I knew she would be a great choice to ask to interview because she would have great advice and feedback about the music industry. Her bright and energetic personality was amazing to watch and listen to as she passionately talked about her musical experiences. You can tell this girl absolutely adores music. 

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Ashley: What made you decide to do music?

Flo: For me, it was the one thing that felt right. I felt this fullness, this connection. It not only felt right, it felt good. Everything else I tried and looked into, when I was looking into different careers and fields, nothing felt like really and truly me. [Music] felt like a great fit for me because it was effortless. I loved it.

A: How long have you been professionally singing?

F: This sounds hilarious but I always joke around when I “came out of the closet” with music; because I was definitely more of a closet singer. Growing up, myself and my sisters and my cousins all loved to sing. I always believed because of the way I grew up that the arts like dance, drawing, writing stories anything artistic was a hobby. It’s not something viable.

Now that I look back on it, I was naturally always artistically driven. My sisters and I sang since when were like who knows. I have a memory of the three of us being buckled up in the back of my dad’s car and the radio would be on and we would be singing and I remember him turning around and being like “How?! Who taught you guys that?” We just sang, we just imitated what we heard on the radio and we still sing all the time.

I used to love dancing. I watched those shows like ‘So you think you can dance?’, I love it. Singing, dancing and I still have my old sketchbook. I love writing stories. All the stuff came so naturally to me. Nonetheless, it was something I tried to repress or throw in the closet or under the bed and not open it up. I thought if I would sing it would be in a choir or in the shower or in the car. But it wasn’t until 2003 or 2004 where I got to the point where I said “enough!” Be you. Be real. You cannot live the life other people want you to lead because at the end of the day if you’re miserable it’s you that you have to account for. So in 2003 or 2004 I promised myself that I was going to take steps and cross paths with people, figuring out what I can do to actually take it seriously and pursue it. Since then it’s been a journey.

A: Whom do you listen to? Who inspires you musically?

F: Okay, if I have to narrow it down my favorite are the American R&B songstresses or soul divas. Everybody from Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Brandy, Monica and who am I missing? There are so many. John Legend, I was just setting off all these females but also Stevie wonder. My favorite are definitely the rhythm and blues and soul. That’s my language. That’s what makes my heart beat. There are many more, but those are the main ones.

A: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

F: If I’m going to be real and sum it all up. I’m happy that I decided to take that leap and pursue music. It was a scary thing for me. But it’s changed my life and I’m happy I did it.

At one point I’ve wrote a list of venues that I’ve dreamt of performing on. Stages that I dreamed of gracing, and would you believe it, about a year ago I looked at that list again, and I got goose bumps. I’ve done it! Things like that, it’s just crazy. I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn or bragging. I view myself as a regular girl-next-door, a regular person. But some crazy things have happened to me on this journey that wouldn’t have happened if I had not pursued this. I love Lauryn Hill, and getting the opportunity to open for her at the concert hall or getting the opportunity to perform at the Burton Cummings theatre. There was a benefit concert at the MTS Centre and singing on that stage was insane.

If I told Flo from the past that these things will happen I would have laughed at Flo from the future and said “Come on, let’s be real.”

Those things have given me the faith and the boldness to be like “okay if these things can happen, the sky’s the limit. All things are possible.” Sometimes when I have those down days or down moments. I think to myself, “don’t forget what has happened before. Hold on to your faith, keep on looking forward because the best is yet to come.”

Don’t get into those pity party moments because we all go through those up and downs when we have our vision in mind and we know [it’s] going to be our Mount Everest or our large goal. Sometimes when we look that big goal and it’s so much greater than you, so larger than life and you wonder how you’re going to get there. Baby steps. Which is why when I look at myself and where I’m at, I think “Oh my gosh, this is going to take forever” I need to remind myself that it’s step by step and bit by bit. From where I started to where I am now, things have happened and more is to come.

A: How do you deal with nerves before a performance?

F: Well, I actually heard something that I will never forget that I tell other performers too. I think I as watching an interview on E talk or something. They were saying the greatest performers like Cher, Adele, Madonna get nervous before shows.

Adele, actually, when she had just released her album 21 she was saying how she got so nervous that before a few shows she would projectile vomit. She had a story where she was in Germany on her balcony and she was so nervous that she ended up puking on a fan. From her perspective she’s thinking, “What if I’m not good enough? What if I disappoint all these people who have come to see me?” I was shocked, I couldn’t believe Adele felt the same way.

What really got me was that other than these legends still feeling nervous; I think it was either Cher or Madonna, one of them said that it’s good to feel nervous, like an Olympic athlete before their big feat because that nervousness gets converted into adrenaline. A lot of times, when you have the best killer performance, it’s that adrenaline surging through your veins and arteries.

On top of that, what I got from the show that I’ll never forget, when you stop getting nervous get worried. It means you don’t care anymore, right? And sometimes maybe for smaller performances, where my heart might not be in it, I do okay. From my perspective and from what I know I can do, if I lack lustre and feel that’s it’s a mediocre performance I know I can do better. I find the performances where I’m nervous, and I HATE that nervous feeling, I HATE that feeling where, forget butterflies, BATS are in your stomach and you feel like you are going to puke and you are overthinking. I find those performances that I care so much that I want to do well. That nervousness, as soon as you hit the stage becomes adrenaline and you just kill it.

I don’t like those pre-jitters. But from what I hear everyone; actors, comedians, dancers, professional athletes, they all go through it. It probably won’t go away but that’s okay because it’s normal.

A: How do you balance music with any other obligations you might have?

F: I think it’s a constant juggle. I think there are few people who have mastered the art of balance. They need to teach the rest of us. Some months or some days I’m better than others. It’s definitely a struggle. I’ve heard so many stories and I know there are artists where their careers are so successful but their family lives are just brutal; that really get’s my heart because I want to learn from their mistakes. There are some people who have won Grammies, American music awards, Junos and are constantly touring but they’ve had two or three divorces. Or they will feel like crap because they look in their sons or daughters eyes and they are never there for their soccer games or tucking them in at night. Or even their friends who only get to see them on TV but never in person.

Garth Brooks took a hiatus from his career because he wanted to raise his daughters and wanted to be a dad. He ‘s not just a recording artist; he’s a dad too. I really respect that because I feel that’s important. At the end of the day when you are celebrating your accomplishments with your music, you don’t want to be celebrating them alone.

Success in life isn’t about having a successful career but having a successful family and friends. One thing that I have been hearing lately that really resounds in my spirit is that family and relationships are the most important thing in life. Again, I’ve heard so many stories of successful people who are rich but they are so miserable and so lonely. At the end of the day let’s say, not to be morbid but at your funeral you don’t want one or five people there, not that it’s a popularity contest but you want to know that you’ve impacted and touched the lives of many people through relationships.

For me, I want to try my best to balance. Sometimes, if that means that certain aspects of my music career are going to be sacrificed, at the end of the day I want to sleep well at night knowing that I didn’t mess up when the time comes [something like] marriage or kids because I was so 100% focused on my music career. So to be honest, it’s something I want to master. Balance is so healthy and important. But it’s something that I’m continuing to learn more of and try to be very conscious about. 

A: What is your songwriting process?

F:  I learned that there are so many different types of artists but I find that artists fall into different pools. There are some people who are constantly multi-tasking. When they are on touring a specific album, they are writing their next album. They are finding bits and pieces of time while they are performing to record.

Some artists do things specifically in seasons. That’s me, I’m one of those people. I’m all or nothing. I have a season where I just focus on songwriting and after that, it’s the season of taking the songs and start recording them. After that I focus on marketing and pushing that album, then touring and so on and so forth.

For me, I have learned that I’m a melodically driven person by far. Melodies come to me like out of the blue. I can be in the shower, where it predominantly happens which is the most annoying thing in the world because you’re sopping wet.

I’ve tested it where I’ll finish my shower before getting out and recording the idea as soon and I’ve either forgotten it or it’s changed. I can be driving or at the mall and ideas will just come to me. Thank goodness for our cell phones with voice memos.

It’s great for me to collaborate. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses, it’s great to collaborate with people who are lyrically driven. I’ve met people; it’s funny how things connect naturally, who are opposite of me where lyrics come naturally to them but not melodies. I find that it works best to work people [who are like that.]

Not to say that lyrics don’t come to be, because they do, but I find melodies come to me so much easier. I used to start with chords, melodies and then a couple words will come to my minds or a concept or idea then plug it in and then morph the chords around the melody.

Yeah, melodies are out of my wazoo. It’s at the point where I’ve got tons of melodic ideas and I need to start putting some words to some of them.

As the Beatles did with Paul McCartney and John Lennon, I think it was Let It Be. They started by just saying “Green Eggs and Ham” and they had the melody. Also John Legend said he does [that for] the songs he writes. For All Of Me, maybe the first thing in his mind was the word ‘roses’. He would just sing with the chords he had “roses and roses” until sentences or more concepts came to him.

I’ve found that helps sometimes, I’ll be at the piano and I’ll have a chord progression, then all of a sudden some words will come and I’ll put other words together with other stupid words. Something eventually comes out. For me always start with the melody or chord progression.

A: What advice do you have for beginner singers?

F: Follow your heart. Never sell out and be true to who you are. I love what Sam Smith said at the Grammys. He was trying to form himself to what he felt what the world’s view of the male pop artist. He was trying to lose weight, sing a certain way and he got to a certain point where he was like “screw this.” He was exhausted because he would sing a certain way, create a certain image and would go knocking on the doors of labels and people and everyone was ignoring him and not paying attention. He got to the point where he was so tired of it and just started being himself. If people like it great and if not, they don’t. He was who he was and the rest is history.

Be true to who you are. Soak in as much as you can. Learn from those who want to teach you or go to workshops. Forget just music. Some of the most brilliant minds. have all said that the foolish one is a person who feels that they know it all, but we are all still learning. Learning is so important.

Keep the vision in sight, never stop keeping it clear. Don’t let other people pop it or break it down. Be careful who you share it will because some people who want to tear it down. It’s ridiculous but some people do. Work hard and keep really good people around you. Keep your eyes on the prize and your nose to the grindstone. That’s one of my favorite sayings. Surround yourself with people who are good and people who are stronger in certain areas than you. That’s how you grow. You become more like the people you surround yourself in. There is just so much to say, but that’s the closest I can get to summarizing it all.

A: So you sing and perform, how do you approach people to join your band for performances?

F: The same way as making Facebook or twitter contacts. Initially, when I started off with putting the band together I was a little nervous because what if they didn’t want to join. When I see a musician that inspires me or who is freaking amazing, I’m like “What the heck do I have to lose?” I’ll go up to them and give them my email or maybe if they are into social media I’ll Facebook or tweet them. Telling them “I would love to work with you, let me know if you are interested. Give me a call.”

Of course, it happens where people are busy with a ton of other bands. Or some people, and I’ve told them “Much respect, thank you for your honesty” they will be like “Look Flo, we aren’t really into the R&B soul thing, I’m definitely more country or folk or rock musician.”

I’d rather someone tell me they aren’t feeling it because I’ve worked with musicians who are so good for certain genres or styles of music but it doesn’t blend well with the genres I’m doing. Or someone is playing with me but there heart is not in it. You can totally tell the difference between someone who is passionate and who loves what they are doing with you and someone who doesn’t. I love working with musicians who have their heart in it and will be like “heck yeah, let’s do this.”  Just test it out and just don’t take it personally if it doesn’t work out.

A: What is the most stressful part of being a professional musician?

F: I’d have to say unlike people we know who have the 9-5 or 8-4 job; it’s instability. As people say, it is one in a million who get to that real spot of success. But then again, success is what we define as success. [For] Some people success is being able book coffee shops across the country or continent. [For] Some people success is being able to book venues the like the West End Cultural Centre. Other people, success is selling out arenas or stadium or concert galls and getting nominated for Junos or Grammys.

I guess there are some dry spells. There are periods where it’s quieter with gigs and you have bills and stuff. I’d have to say for me, the instability and for somebody who is a little Type A who likes to have things planned out. The spontaneity can be cool but other times it can be like “crap” how do you plan your life when there are surprises that pop out.

For myself and my goals, as I mentioned, my definition of success is big and out there and so keeping my eyes on the prize is sometimes hard. Meaning I do know what I want but perseverance and persistence and staying on this road [can be challenging] because I know some people who are so talented but got tired and exhausted and sick of [it]. Continuing to have faith in what I believe and to make it and get to the end of the road is the end goal.

The instability with the little surprises that come along and holding onto that dream and knowing it may seem invisible to a lot of other people but understanding it will come. Those two things are the most stressful.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jul 2, 2015 at 10:02am PDT

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