Apr. 16, 2008 - Issue #652: Taste of Chaos
Annabelle Chvostek
Chvostek is wailin’ without the Jennys
While Chvostek’s songs were often singled out by critics as highlights of the group’s material, the songwriter says that she wrote more than four tunes during those years, and she felt that she needed a outlet for them. So, as much as Chvostek says that she enjoyed traveling the world with the Jennys, she knew that the time had come for her to return to the solo career she had begun with several records that she had released prior to joining the band.
“It was a really amazing experience, but at the same time I’m pretty passionate about my songwriting and within that band I did have a chance to play some of the songs that I’ve written in that context which was rewarding and exciting, but at the same time, over the two and a half years it was four of my songs within that show,” Chvostek explains of her decision to leave the Jennys and resume her solo career on her new record, Resilience. “And the band itself was pretty much a super full time commitment and I kind of thought I was going to be able to balance out my solo stuff with it and it didn’t end up being possible.
“As a crazy, obsessive artist or something I just sort of threw all sense to the wind in favour of giving more time to the creative side and being able to get more into my songs and my other work as a composer,” she adds, noting that in addition to her solo work, she has also composed for both dance and film. “If I don’t do it I start getting depressed and that started to happen, so I just needed to do it more and that was the choice.”
One major difference between Chvostek’s work with the Jennys and on her own is the level of collaboration involved. She says that within the band, each member took the lead when shaping direction of the songs that they brought to the table.
“My role in that was to do everything I could to support the others’ songs as well, as an instrumentalist and also as a singer,” she says. “But coming into [Resilience] the palette was wide—I could do whatever I wanted ... so I could really just explore in a very exciting way and not have to worry about what anyone else thought ... That was a really gratifying kind of process, and very freeing and enjoyable.”
On Resilience, Chvostek brings some of her earlier influences—she studied electro-acoustic composition in university and has manipulated sound for compostions she’s done for dance—back to the table, integrating them with the predominantly acoustic sound of the disc. There’s nothing obvious there, but if you listen enough times, turning over the musical stones, the atmosphere is altered by the barely-there sounds; it’s the sort of addition that can give an album a little more depth, offering up hidden treasures for repeated listens.
“For me that’s one of the arts of it and the joys of production,” Chvostek admits. “I mean, ultimately all those things are to support the song, and when I’m playing live I’m playing the song pretty much acoustically—at least I will be this time in Edmonton; I won’t bring a band, it’s just me and the tune—but when you get into the studio it just opens up this whole realm of possibility, of just subtle support, and I love that process and I find it incredibly creative. Diving into sonic possibilities, it just opens up a whole landscape that may be incredibly subtle, but I think makes it into more of a magical experience.” V
Fri, Apr 18 (8 pm)
Annabelle Chvostek
Blue Chair Café, $15 (advance), $18 (door)
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