Laura Barrett
The Singing Lamb: So how was your tour recently with the Phonemes?
Laura Barrett: Great! We played a lot of smaller shows in non-traditional concert settings like an art gallery, a small community art store/espresso bar in the middle of Bruno, Saskatchewan, which is a 550 people population. It was nice; it was very intimate at a lot of shows and we even played a house concert. There were almost no bars, which is nice because we both play mellower music and when you’re in that more intimate setting, people listen more and they’re really attentive and make eye contact with them. Also the pace was pretty solid; we played pretty much a show a night except for maybe three or four nights off.
Is that how you feel about playing the Music Gallery or the Tranzac as opposed to somewhere like the Horseshoe in Toronto?
Yeah, the Horseshoe can be super fun but you have to make contact still, or at least I feel like I have to make contact with people in the audience. And it’s harder when either the lighting is super-charged for a rock show or up on some kind of stage. I love the Music Gallery for its two steps and that’s about how high the stage is. And obviously, the Tranzac front room – it’s really cozy and it’s a beautiful place to play; especially a place where you get regulars coming in who don’t know what they’re going to get.
Yeah, I agree!
It’s just more of a community feel to those gigs. And then again, last week I played some gigs in support of Patrick Watson and they were at thousand-person theatres and that was totally different. There are 750 people in front of me, I can only see 30 and I’ve got to somehow find a way to connect with them. It’s hard but luckily the Patrick Watson audience is very good; very willing to listen!
I feel like you sort of have to do that, especially when you play a song like “Sorting Hat.”
I haven’t been able to play that at the Patrick Watson shows because it just doesn’t make much sense for me to be talking to 11 people in the front row. But meanwhile, at pretty much every show on the road with Magali, I would play that song and it was fun because later and I’ve had people send me MySpace messages about whatever animal they were and it’s just cute! It’s something that I remember because I don’t know who I’m going to call what and I just sort of search around and make eye contact; it’s just sort of one of those really special things.
Yeah like when I saw you at Soundscapes last year! That was one of the more memorable songs you played, in my opinion.
Oh yeah! That’s great; did I call you at one of the parts?
I think so! Something to do with superstitions and reading horoscopes; that was me! Is there an mp3 of that floating around?
I have it but it’s just sort of a demo recording I made. I thought it would be on my Ursula EP but to just one person listening to it; you don’t get the experience of having it be directed at various people. Paper Bag Records really wants that song to be released but on the other hand I feel like it should never be released. There’s a YouTube video of it floating around and that kind of gives away the song, so it’s kind of like “That’s what happens in that song!” In Saskatoon, a guy suggested making a dance version of it where the DJ would shine a spotlight at various people in the crowd and play that song. I don’t know how it would come across…It’s a little too cutesy to be in a dance club, but I could be wrong. I think part of it is just about the live performance; I don’t think a recording would do it justice.
Speaking of remixing songs though, how do you feel about that? There’s pretty much only one remix out there of “Stop Giving Your Children Standardized Tests, Pt. 1″ at the moment.
I would love if more people did it. Right now I’m only reaching out to people I know but I have Ricardo from Oldfolks Home in Winnipeg making a remix and my friend Malcolm from Pete Samples in Montreal, he’s going to do a remix. So I have sent things out there. It’s not enough to make a full remix album but these things are in the works. I’d like to do a remix of my own too. I love it; I think it’s really exiting. Especially since a lot of the arrangements on my album have definite parts that I can see being their own song entirely, like the strings or the marimbas or even just taking the kalimba notes like Josh did on the Earth Sciences EP gives you a lot of things to work with. I’m totally pro-remix. I guess I haven’t gotten to that level of success where I’m having remix contests, although I can probably do one. I guess it has to be a song that’s maybe more regular-sounding? A lot of my songs change tempos so I felt like that would just kind of be weird.
Let’s talk about yesterday. You played with the Hidden Cameras at Queen’s Park as part of the seal hunt protest. You haven’t played with them in a while, have you!
No, but nobody in the Canadian portion of the band has!
How was it to play with Joel Gibb and the band again?
It was great and super fun! Even that arrangement of people was a different arrangement than it has been. Kevin has never played with the band officially before and Maggie McDonald was too busy. She’s working on her masters and she’s at York so the whole strike really delayed things. So in a way it was unconventional, even for a Hidden Cameras set. Like the little boy, I think his name is Matthew; he’s not usually with us. It’s kind of similar to other Hidden Cameras practises of things where we all get together, learn a song and play it pretty close to that same day. Joel trusts the people that he is playing with to get it right. Like Ajay is not a member of the Hidden Cameras but Joel recruited him and Shawn usually plays trumpet but he played guitar; just little things like that. In every other way, it was like a Hidden cameras show though!
Have you been part of the recording of the new Hidden Cameras album?
Yeah, I have been. It’s confusing to even know if songs that I am on are on the album because Joel’s done a lot of recording in Europe as well. I know I’m in the choir for a few songs I played the piano on a few songs. Joel writes so prolifically that I’m not sure if he has three albums ready to go. I know that there is one that he wants to release in the fall. So hopefully that has some of the songs that I’m a part of. I really don’t know. It’s a little secretive and mysterious.
How would you describe the difference between working with the Hidden Cameras and working solo?
With the Hidden Cameras, the major difference is I manage, to a certain extent, what happens with my music but not fully. People, especially on my album, came up with their own parts to some parts of the song; and at the end of the day, its mine, I wrote the song. Whereas with the Hidden Cameras, it’s more free to add something of myself to the songs but have it be Joel’s baby and leave him the responsibilities of all that because it’s his project and I like that dichotomy. I like working with someone else on their stuff and be able to add some thing they may not have thought of and have the same happen on my stuff because the writer has the first germ of the first idea but then they don’t know where it’s going to go and it can take on its own; that’s the main difference.
What about playing live?
Definitely higher energy in the Hidden Cameras because I have the freedom to move around. That’s the only problem, even with the clip-on microphone and the kalimba, I can’t move around too far from the vocal mic because I’m singing every song. In the Hidden Cameras, I sing on a few of them but otherwise I dance around. I’ll just slam on the keys and really be part of the spectacle. I guess with my stuff, I’m a little more neurotic about getting everything right, but hopefully that’s not too much of a constraint in the live show. I move as much as I can, especially when I’m playing bass pedals, I’m rooted to the spot so it’s all about visual energy. Unfortunately I can’t really project a huge visual show. I might experiment with some kind of overhead projection. This summer, I think it’s going to be a good period of writing and coming up with ideas for a stage craft approach to a show, adding more visual elements to it.
So it’s just you and Ajay live, most of the time, correct?
Yeah, and even Ajay is getting busy with writing, he writes for a local TV show called King Kaboom, which a lot of local musicians have played on. He’s also finishing his degree at U of T for English and he’s finishing a short story collection piece. He’s not really involved in the music world; I just dragged him! He knows how to play the banjo and the glockenspiel; I don’t know what instrument he’ll pick up next. It’s been really nice to have him on the road with me but it may not work like that in the future. We’ll see what happens. But yeah, it is mainly the two of us when we play. Just on Saturday, at the Patrick Watson show, it was me, Ajay, Randy Lee on violin and Paul Aucoin on the vibes, so it was a nice, economical little four piece. We might have one big show coming up in July at Habourfront. I’m pretty excited!
We were both part of Trekzac last year, so I have to ask you what you think about the new Star Trek movie!
I don’t know so much about it yet; I know it opens on Friday. Are you going?
I don’t know yet.
I don’t know if I’ll make it to opening day because it’ll be a little crazy. This is so superficial, but the guy who is playing Kirk, I don’t get a read from him.
Yeah, I don’t get a Kirk vibe from him either!
No! I’m not exactly sure. I can’t judge the movie yet but I really like Zachary Quinto! I just caught up on the end of the season 3 [of Heroes].
I haven’t watched it yet!
It’s interesting but you probably stopped watching because it got so ridiculous.
Exactly! I heard this season ended really well so I may just watch it to see what happens.
It’s intriguing!
The first season was so good, but the second season went downhill so quickly.
Yeah and this season’s been so muddled, but Zachary!
I love him! They just added too many characters that you got so lost in it.
I agree! And I mean, sometimes it works out because they can bring them back because you can tie in the loose ends.
But then no one ever dies!
And then you never expect anyone to be fully dead.
Yeah!
Well I’m not going to give anything away but there are more similar things like that. Anyway, so Star Trek the movie – I’m intrigued. I may want to see it at the Oakville drive-in, just some place kind of fun, where it’s half about seeing the movie there and I’ll probably get more excited about the movie too. But I haven’t done much research; I haven’t looked up the premise yet. I’m more excited about this year’s Trekzac exactly! Do you know when it’s going to be?
September, maybe? It was a lot of fun to work on that!
Yeah, and it’s always getting bigger and bigger, and it’s raising a lot of money for the Tranzac too. I feel like I’m not as big of a Star Trek fan as I used to be because there’s not as much of a franchise out there that I really like. And they’re all over now, aren’t they?
I think so; but you never know what the movie can do to help.
Yeah, but how much can you do with Kirk? We’ll see; we know he lives!
True! Last but not least though, if you were a singing animal what would you be?
I would probably be a squirrel!
I love squirrels! Why?
Because, being small and good climbers and just kind of a bit of a scavenger, in a good way. Finding vast vestiges of trees and plants that the city has to offer; I know urban squirrels just eat a lot of garbage. Not in that sense but just with making do with urban trees and urban green space and having a fun tail!
For more Laura Barrett:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/laurabarrett
