Just a few weeks ago Emily Carr performed at a small café in Montréal’s NDG. The show was pure melody as one would expect from listening to the few tracks available on her MySpace page. I had the opportunity to ask Emily a few questions, and invited her to play on air, on CKUT’s Dykes on Mykes in early October, available to all via podcast.
Mél Hogan for Art Threat: In my CD collection, my favorite songs are the ones that tell a story, but just a part of it. They leave you feeling like you're in on something--they are intimate--but leave you insatiate. You do this in all your songs, which makes me think you are not new to song writing. Tell me about what makes you write... how thoughts become songs.
Emily Carr: When I started singing original music I was in high school. I was in this punkish band and the lead guitar player wrote all the songs. I was the singer, I was trying really hard to scream and yell and rock out but shamefully, I’d go home and listen to Jewel and Lisa Loeb, and oldies radio. I started writing songs myself out of frustration. I wanted to sing songs about my own feelings and experiences. The first songs were painfully slow and awkward. I would go the open Mike at the Cock ‘n ‘Bull and get booed off the stage…
When I sit down to play guitar I’ve usually got a specific feeling, happiness, anger, frustration, sadness, and often a few words in my mind. I wind up using my life experiences to illustrate the emotion. When people ask me what my songs are about I usually say they’re about nothing. That’s not really true, but the meanings change over time. Sometimes I just want to play something fun. I’ll write some really quickly, those are always the songs people like the most. The songs that take a long time to write usually don’t even make it to the recording.
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Posted by Mél Hogan on September 1, 2007 in
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