From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V3 #59 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Friday, June 25 1999 Volume 03 : Number 059 Today's Subjects: ----------------- veda article ["rachel stone" ] new tour dates added [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 22:43:47 -0400 From: "rachel stone" Subject: veda article I just picked up the latest issue of Stylus, which is the little magazine put out by the fine folks in the basement of the University of Winnipeg along with the fine folks in the attic of its radio station, CKUW. I was pleasantly surprised by an article on Veda, which I'll now type up before my cats eat my phone cord. Pardon any typos, I'm also trying to watch Women's World Cup Soccer and am generally incapable of more than one action at a time. Rachel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VEDA HILLE by Jill Wilson Veda Hille is not most people's idea of a folk singer - or a pop singer, for that matter. The Vancouver pianist/guitarist, who appears at this year's Winnipeg Folk Festival, writes bent and beautiful songs that flirt with, but ultimately skirt around, the edges of accessibility. "Art songs" is what Hille's compositions often get called, and while that label is dubious, her raw, minimalist approach to writing and her swooping voice make her an unlikely choice for singing around the campfire or blasting out of the car stereo. Take the songs on 1996's Spine. They displayed an often unsettling obsession with the human body - underscored by discomfiting album art depicting the singer labelled with a piece of paper reading "spine" which was actually sewn into the skin of her back. "It's unavoidable," says Hille of her fascination with the physical. "We are definitely in these bodies and you can't ignore it. No matter how cerebral you try to get, the body is always part of your experience. I find physicality and medical texts and things like that great metaphors, very moving stuff." While Spine's lyrics, laced with blood, salt and dirt, were both touchingly personal and greatly disconcerting, Hille says the lyrics on her upcoming September release deal with a happier side of bodily functions. "Most of the songs on this album are about really great sex," she laugh. "I've moved on. You know, I'm in my 30s now and I've figured out what it's all about. I'm a lot happier in my body than I used to be, too. I wasn't consciously trying to say that bodies were bad, but I'm certainly happier to be in a body now than I was 10 years ago. High school physical education programs - it takes a long time to get past that." For her most recent release, last year's moving and evocative Here Is A Picture, Hille left tales of her own body behind entirely. Moving from autobiography to biography, she penned a song cycle about Emily Carr for the Mascal Dance company's Brutal Telling, a full-length choreographt about the famed Vancouver painter. Winnipeggers with the good fortune to see the production at the '98 Fringe Festival were treated to a score filled with all the loneliness and rage felt by an outcast. "The way I chose the words, I read everything she wrote and just pulled out the phrases that spoke to me," Hille explains. "Of course, those are the phrases that mean something to me, so there's a duality. The things that interest me about her I'm sure are related to me." Oddly, Hille says she was inspired more by Carr's words than her art when writing Here Is A Picture. "I grew up in Vancouver, where she is very much a part of daily life. You know, every year the school trip would be to the Emily Carr exhibit. But she's a wonderful writer, very concise." Hille's love of words us evident in her lyrics, which echo e.e. cummings, Theofore Roethke and her own experience in spare, elegant phrases like, "there's so much beauty that I don't believe in/ but god knows that my mouth holds more teeth than wisdom" or "the quiet sings your blood to sleep/ it's not the cold/ it's the weight of the snow." "I think words and visuals [inspire me] more than sound in a lot of ways," says Hille of her influences. "I mean, I'm definitely inspired by some musicians, but I'm as inspired, if not more so, by writers and painters and films. I definitely interpret the world visually first and then move on to music if I have to." For her upcoming album, Hille worked much more closely with a band in a collaborative way. For her Folk Fest appearance, she will bring with her the so-called Skilled & Devoted Band, which includes ex-Winnipegger Barry Mirochnick (Helen, Special Fancy) on percussion, and guitarist Ford Pier (D.O.A.), and bassist Martin Walton. "Their influence on this record is huge," says the singer, who also collaborated with Montreal musique actuelle artist Christophe Migone on the album - assuring that once again, she will not be making a straight-ahead pop or folk album. "I don't think I make music to make people feel comfortable. I think I trye to have a concrete solution by the end of the record - I'm not just trying to disturb people - but I think disturbance is part of being awake." Not everyone appreciates being awakened, however. Hille relates an anecdote from the Scrappy Bitch tour where she played with fellow performers Kinnie Starr and Oh Susanna (who also appears at this year's Folk Festival). "We were in Nanaimo in this bar that happened to be a bar that was pretty much a redneck bar," she recalls. "So there was a bunch of fans of me and Kinnie and Suzie there, but there was also a bunch of regulars. A friend of mine, Chris, was in the audience and a regular came up to him and said, `I don't like this music,' while I was playing. And Chris said, `Why not?' And the guy said, `It makes me look at myself,' and he wandered off to the bar again. I thought it was a great compliment." end ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 20:07:35 -0400 From: meredith Subject: new tour dates added Hi! Veda's tour dates page has been updated. She's doing the Canadian festival circuit all through July -- looks like she's going to be at all three days of the Vancouver Folk Festival. Speaking of which, I'm going to be at the Vancouver Folk Festival too! Anyone else? I've never been to the Pacific Northwest before, and am planning a trip to Seattle and Vancouver starting on July 10. woj and I will be in Seattle for the first few days, then up to Vancouver for a couple days to see the city before the folkfest starts. I'd love to meet up with as many of you who will be in the area as possible. +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V3 #59 *******************************