{"id":148970,"date":"2011-12-08T18:12:30","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T18:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/kathleen-edwards-is-an-emotional-voyageur\/"},"modified":"2011-12-08T18:12:30","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T18:12:30","slug":"kathleen-edwards-is-an-emotional-voyageur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/kathleen-edwards-is-an-emotional-voyageur\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathleen Edwards is an emotional Voyageur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot can change in four years \u2013 especially in the music world. In 2008, when Kathleen Edwards released her album Asking for Flowers, the Ottawa native was known primarily for story songs about characters other than herself, some drawn from real-life headlines, and an alt-country sound she shaped with her husband, guitarist Colin Cripps.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2012: Edwards has a brave new album, Voyageur, made up almost entirely of first-person narratives and an engaging sound steeped in multi-textured pop that owes a good deal to its U.S. producer, Justin Vernon, also known as ethereal electronic folk star Bon Iver \u2013 who just happens to be her new boyfriend.<\/p>\n

Sitting on a park bench overlooking the Toronto skyline, the flame-haired singer-songwriter laughs as she reflects on the shifts in her life. \u201cI remember doing an interview when my last record came out,\u201d says Edwards, \u201cand I was saying that I\u2019m married and really happy and don\u2019t have any roller-coaster emotional experiences to draw from. Well those are back on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Voyageur charts the trauma and transformation of marital discord, personal reflection, and new romance. Edwards\u2019 relationship with Cripps, a former member of Crash Vegas and Junkhouse, dates back to when he produced her 2004 album Back to Me, which earned Edwards Juno nominations for Songwriter and Adult Alternative Album of the Year. Settling in Cripps\u2019 native Hamilton, the couple lived and breathed music, with Cripps touring as her guitarist. But all was not well on the home front.
\n\u201cYou don\u2019t talk to me, not the way that you used to,\u201d Edwards sings on \u201cHouse Full of Empty Rooms. \u201cMaybe I don\u2019t listen, in a way that makes you think I do.\u201d Along with \u201cChange the Sheets,\u201d it\u2019s one of Voyageur\u2019s most starkly autobiographical numbers. \u201cI wrote those songs when Colin and I were still together,\u201d Edwards admits. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize at the time how my subconscious was bubbling out of my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Edwards\u2019 life was changing, so too was her desire for a new sound. \u201cMy music wasn\u2019t reflecting all the colours of my personality as well as it should,\u201d she noted. \u201cI\u2019d done the roots-rock, Americana thing, and it wasn\u2019t interesting anymore. I feel more of an affinity for artists like Feist and Tallest Man on Earth (Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson), who sounds like Dylan but plays to young audiences. I wondered why I never played to that crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards ventured to Seattle and began working with John Roderick, of indie rockers The Long Winters. Together, they co-wrote the melancholic piano ballad \u201cPink Champagne\u201d and \u201cA Soft Place to Land,\u201d a duet between Edwards and Bon Iver. But it\u2019s the sexy \u201cMint,\u201d with its rugged electric guitar, and the joyful \u201cSidecar,\u201d a power-pop number co-written with longtime collaborator and bandmate Jim Bryson, that best showcase a change in direction.<\/p>\n

The connection with Bon Iver came about when Edwards travelled to Vernon\u2019s Wisconsin home studio to record a version of \u201cWapusk,\u201d a song she originally recorded for a multi-artist compilation celebrating Parks Canada. The chemistry was immediate and the pair continued working on songs for Voyageur. As a producer, Vernon, a professed Edwards fan, had a liberating effect on the artist. \u201cHe influenced me by not being precious about anything,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was so easy for him to throw up a mic on a guitar amp, pick up an instrument and try anything… It really freed me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vernon\u2019s experimental approach paid off with dreamy soundscapes like \u201cGoing to Hell,\u201d with its climatic guitar solo, and \u201cFor the Record,\u201d a moody epic in which Edwards and Norah Jones share vocals. \u201cJustin would just mess around with sounds,\u201d she recalls. \u201cSometimes it was super fuzzy, crazy stuff, and I was like, \u2018Cool, I\u2019m just going to let him do his thing.\u2019 He challenged me without betraying who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

For fans of Edwards\u2019 story songs like the police drama \u201cIn State\u201d or the real-life murder ballad \u201cAlicia Ross,\u201d Voyageur\u2019s personal narrative may come as a bit of a surprise. \u201cI\u2019ve always written about things that struck a chord with me,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut I feel a little less connected to those songs now because they\u2019re about someone else. This time around, I just had a lot of my own stories to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the new album title, Edwards says it resonates for her on multiple levels. \u201cThe album was a journey about change and one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a teenager, I spent a lot of time canoe-tripping, and on my last long trip, our camp group was known as Voyageurs. So I realized that\u2019s totally my life: I was a voyageur then, and I\u2019m a voyageur now. Plus,\u201d she adds with a grin, \u201cit has a nice Canadian ring to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Season of transformation inspires new songs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}