Basia Bulat

Intelligent Heart

Basia Bulat is touring across Canada to showcase her new album, Heart of My Own. The Toronto native has made the trip from coast to coast before, but this is the first time that she has done it in the dead of winter. “I feel as though it must be some sort of right of passage,” she laughs. “I know so many people that have done it. Maybe part of it is that I wanted to join some sort of club! But I also think that it’s going to be really rewarding and beautiful to see the country.” Audiences will be equally rewarded when they hear the young songwriter perform her latest songs.

After the surprise success of her 2007 debut recording, Oh My Darling, expectations began to climb for the sophomore effort. Those expectations have been met. Heart of My Own is an intriguing blend of introspection, spiritual questioning, and unique musicianship. One of the most arresting tracks is ‘The Shore’, a spare and direct piece of songwriting. “I think that I had a lot of things in mind when I was working on that song,” she recalls, “and I think that I was just looking for a little moment of peace, or peace of mind, if that makes sense.”

‘The Shore’ was a highlight when Basia Bulat played recently at the Aeolian Hall in London, Ontario. A stunning silence fell in the room. She performs the song with a hammered harp, which produces an airy, ethereal sound. Before beginning to play she mentioned that the particular harp she was using actually dated back to 1915. The sound compliments perfectly the lyrical twists in the song, which effectively illuminate the presence of love in the world even in the absence of the divine. It is a special song, worthy of contemplation, and fits nicely alongside other pieces of Canadian songwriting that touch on themes of isolation and spiritual displacement.

A warm and supportive crowd greeted Bulat in London. This affection may have been enhanced by the presence of friends in the audience made when she studied literature at the University of Western Ontario. Early in the set Bulat delivered in succession three of the strongest songs on Heart of My Own, including the title track, ‘Go On’, and ‘Run’. Another standout was the rollicking ‘Gold Rush’, pushed along by the strong drum work of Basia’s brother, Bobby Bulat.
 


In the following conversation, Basia Bulat answers a wide variety of questions. She talks about the impact of American novelists and poets on her work, stressing her attachment to Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. As Dickinson and Whitman often revealed in their poems, Bulat confronts loneliness in her lyrics by making observations about the natural world, finding both harshness and comfort in the wild. She mentions as well the work of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on the Road. “I don’t know what it is about her voice,” Bulat says, “but it just really speaks to me, I guess. Her voice speaks to me”.

Basia Bulat performs in Winnipeg and Saskatoon late in February. Early in March she will be in Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver before dates in the United States.

CI: In January you played concerts in Toronto, New York, London (U.K.), and Paris to promote Heart of My Own. How would you characterize the reception to the material from the new album in the different cities?

BB: All really positive, and I’m really grateful for it actually. It’s been wonderful to be able to play all these shows.

CI: Have you found that there are one or two songs from the album that you are particularly enjoying playing live, and maybe one or two that the audiences seem to be responding to most enthusiastically?

BB: It changes at every show. It just depends. I always think that you want to have the one go-to song or something. I have to say that there is a song called ‘The Shore’, which I play with a hammered harp, that people generally tend to really like just because the harp sounds so different from everything else. It’s a nice, quiet moment in the night.

CI: That’s interesting because I was going to say that I thought one of the most beautiful songs on the album is ‘The Shore’, which is very sparsely arranged. It struck me as a sort of modern hymn in the way that it stresses the presence of love even when the divine may have been taken away. What do you remember about the origins of that song?

BB: I think that I had a lot of things in mind when I was working on that song, and I think that I was just looking for a little moment of peace, or peace of mind, if that makes sense. It’s funny. It’s hard to know sometimes where songs come from.


Note: This unique video was recorded this past January in Paris, France, for the website www.le-hiboo.com.

CI: When I first listened to the album and read the lyrics, what immediately stood out to me was the feeling of separation between the characters in the songs, and occasionally – if you don’t mind me saying – a genuine sense of loneliness or isolation. I may be off base, but what I was reminded of were some of the nineteenth century American poets like Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Just out of curiosity, are there certain poets or novelists that you feel have had a measurable impact on your songwriting?

BB: It’s funny that you mention them because those are two of my favourites right there! And I definitely don’t think it’s entirely off base. I think that I was a little bit lonely when I was travelling. It can be hard to be away from people you love. You start to get all sorts of questions in your mind, and there can be some darkness. That’s what is great about music – at least it helps me stay in the light.

There are so many writers. I am always reading. Emily Dickinson might be, if not my favourite poet, she is someone that I have read and gone back to a lot over the years. It is funny that you mention Americans: I really like Faulkner as well, and I love Walt Whitman. And I actually love Zora Neale Hurston a lot. She is somebody that I’ve discovered in the past few years. I have just been in love with all her work. There are quite a few writers that I really, really love, and I keep going back to over and over.

CI: With Zora Neale Hurston, did you start with Their Eyes Were Watching God?

BB: Yeah, it just moved me so much. I think that I ended up reading it over three times or something when I first got it!

CI: What attracted you to it? I remember reading that book, and just thinking that there was an amazing sense of rhythm in the dialogue.

BB: I’m not sure. I think it was recommended to me. Something happened that it came in, and I just realized that someone had told me to read the book – and they were totally right. Then I read Dust Tracks on the Road, and I think that I have everything of hers now! I don’t know what it is about her voice, but it just really speaks to me, I guess. Her voice speaks to me.

CI: The album is available digitally and on compact disc, and also on vinyl. I thought that the songs were sequenced nicely, and perhaps you thought of the recording in terms of two sides. How carefully did you sequence the songs and think about how the different tracks complimented each other?

BB: I definitely wanted to make it feel as though there was a side A and a side B. I knew that I wanted the record to come out on vinyl. I actually think about it maybe in a little bit of an old-fashioned way in that sense, but I really did try to make it feel as though there were two parts. All my favourite albums kind of work that way.

CI: I thought that one of your best pieces of writing on the album came at the end of the last song, ‘If It Rains’, which struck me as having a gospel feel, and that line: ‘You can leave your friends where you found them/ For your soul is still a mountain/ And you can tell them not to worry if it rains’. There is a little bit of spiritual questioning in these songs. How do you view the presence of that spiritual element in your lyrics?

BB: Well, it’s kind of funny because I love gospel music, and I think that I was actually really afraid – there was something in me that was afraid to record that song, to put it out. I don’t know what it was that made me think ‘oh, I can’t have all these people singing at the end’ – and maybe I couldn’t pull it off. You know what I mean? I think that, for me, music is the way that I find peace and find meaning for myself. Not just my own music, but in terms of all kinds of music from all over the world, from all different singers, different voices, different writers. It’s not necessarily a spiritual questioning, so to speak. It’s more that just music in general is kind of like that for me. I’m glad that people like it. I always felt a little bit shy maybe about that song, but now that I’ve been performing it live I feel as though, okay, it’s a good song to have under my belt, to be able to sing out.

CI: From what I understand from recent articles that I have read about you, your experience of silence when you were up in the Yukon had a great impact on your mind. The photography on the album jacket gives a sense of the vast open space of the Canadian North. Most of the time I imagine that you find yourself, like most people, in urban settings, and I wonder, have you ever found a space in a city that offers a silence that you find stimulating artistically? Or is it just something that struck you particularly in the North?

BB: I think it was just being up there. It had a profound impact on me, and it’s been in my imagination ever since – before and since! It is hard to explain. Sometimes things are inexplicable, like why you end up writing songs or reading books, all these different things. It is an inexplicable feeling just thinking that I got to go up there, and what I felt like when I was up there. I guess it’s a bit of an obsession!

CI: Looking at the list of venues that you will be playing in Canada over the next month or so, there is quite a mixture. You have some churches, bars, and concert halls. Have you got a preference as far as venues, or do you find that you enjoy the different atmospheres equally?

BB: I think it’s fun to shake it up. I do think that it’s great in the sense that a lot of the churches that I’m playing are all-ages shows, which is really nice for me. That was something that I loved when I was too young to get into a bar, to be able to go and see a concert. Sometimes they do wristbands or things like that. That’s something that I really appreciated, when some of my favourite acts were able to have an all-ages show. So that was one element of it. It’s also good to play in different kinds of spaces. It’s good not to do the same thing every night.

CI: This is a question that I always find interesting to ask musicians. When I go on YouTube and type in your name, I end up of course with a lot of different live clips. Any night that you perform a concert you might have one or two of your songs taped and put up on YouTube. Does that bother you at all, or are you comfortable with that sort of circulation of your music?

BB: I think that, for my generation, it’s something that you just accept and see as the normal. The funny part about it is that I actually don’t look it up. Sometimes friends of mine who play with me at certain shows will look it up, or they’ll find something. They’ll be searching for it and then say, ‘oh look, we did it this way, or we did it this way.’ But I’m totally okay with it. The only thing that bothers me is if you see it right in front of your face, and there’s a light. There was one show, and I felt bad, I felt really guilty actually because somebody likes my music enough that they wanted to archive it in some way – but sometimes that little red light that flashes on the camera can be really distracting, and you’re not really giving a good performance!

There is something that changes though when you know that it’s going to be recorded, that it’s going to be documented in some way. It is easier if it stays out of your mind, to give a good performance – if you know what I mean. It’s not something that I hate, but it’s something that I have to try to keep out of mind if I want to know that I’m going to put on a good performance.

CI: As you take off on another tour across Canada …

BB: … in February, no less!

CI: In February, yes, well chosen! I understand though that you write a lot when you’re on the road. Do you find winter in Canada conducive to songwriting?

BB: I’ll have to find out! I haven’t done the cross-Canada tour in winter yet. I feel as though it must be some sort of right of passage. I know so many people that have done it. Maybe part of it is that I wanted to join some sort of club! But I also think that it’s going to be really rewarding and beautiful to see the country. I’ve done the cross-Canada tour, but not in the winter. Our country is sort of half the year in winter. Sometimes it feels that way, and I think it’s going to be kind of wonderful to be able to see the country that way. I’m taking my time in between each show. That’s the nice part. Between a lot of the longer drives we have the whole day, even if it’s just a four or five hour drive, so we can take our time and we don’t have to rush and actually can pay attention to what’s going on around us.

In terms of writing, I think that the one thing that I noticed, at least before I ended up going into the studio to make this album, was that I was on the road so much that somehow just the wheels turning, being on a train or being in a van or being in a car, somehow having the landscape pass you by, can put your mind in a really restful place – if that makes any sense. You can allow yourself a lot of time. I’m trying not to have a computer in the tour vehicle, trying to sort of let yourself have some time to let your mind go where normally you wouldn’t let it go when it’s a matter of coming home after a day, and turning on the television or radio or computer. Maybe that’s why I’m so creative on the road. It’s hard to say. Maybe this time around, after I’ve put so much pressure on it, I won’t have anything! You never know …

Date of Interview: 02/01/2010
Location: On the phone from Toronto, ON
Link: www.basiabulat.com