Name: Ann Vriend
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Years active: You mean as a professional musician? About 15.
![Ann Vriend from Canada is performing at Smiths Alternative on February 20 Photo: Supplied Ann Vriend from Canada is performing at Smiths Alternative on February 20 Photo: Supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c6f84f3d-9401-4f0e-a2cb-38191b7e5271/r0_0_2000_1333_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Members: I will be performing solo in Canberra, though I do play with a band and have a band on my albums, albeit there's always a a few solo songs on each album, too.
Sound: Retro soul
Sounds like: People say my voice is a cross between Dolly Parton and Aretha Franklin. The genre is retro soul but with some current production elements on the album, kind of in the way Amy Winehouse or Adele have that. Basically it's 70s style R&B with some sampled hip hop beats underneath. But when I play solo without all that instrumentation and production (as I will be in Canberra) people say they are more reminded of Carole King or Bill Withers, or Nina Simone.
Most memorable moment as a musician: Oh boy, so many! I honestly don't even know where to start with this one. Already on this trip I've had the chance to play with two really great guitarists in Qld this past weekend, I played on a really great piano that just made me wanna never stop playing, and I've play some really interesting and diverse places, including the other night at a Casino in Cairns when all the power went out in the whole Casino, which def made things interesting. I guess a recent career highlight was working in the studio with Joe Chiccarelli. That was a pretty big thrill.
What are you listening to on the road? You know this sounds terrible but ... I kind of mostly need a sonic break and barely listen to much music on tour. That's not to say there isn't some amazing music out there that I can't wait to hear and get my hands on, but touring is so intense that silence is sometimes awesome, just to have some auditory space to clear my head. A musician who hates music, haha. Having said that now and then I put on something really chill and ambient that's moody and more sonic landscape-ish, just as a total contrast to upbeat, 3.5 minute soul tunes that I do, you know? Bands like Sigor Ros or Olafur Aarnolds, or some good flamenco or Latino stuff. It's when I'm at home between tours that I really sink my teeth into checking out new stuff, or going back to the old staples of my influences as almost kind of a self-indulgence.
How do you prepare for a gig? Do you mean ideally or in reality, based on time restraints? Haha. In all seriousness I think the 10,000 hours thing applies more than anything else to being prepared as a musician. You can't cram, you're either ready overall, or you're not. By the time it's the day of the gig it's a little late to think you can do a great deal more than just go over one little chord progression here or there or refresh some cover tune lyrics. The real thing about being ready is working really hard on your "off" time, in a boring, calculated way on the things you are weakest at, rather than just playing your songs over and over just for fun.
As for mentally right before the show I ideally like just a bit of privacy and chilled out down time to clear my head and focus on what I'm about to do, but there are so many times when I don't even have time to go to the toilet before I play, with the schedule of everything going on, and all the things I have to take care of, ha ha. So that's why you really need that solid foundation of the focused practicing under your belt to fall back on, and the 10,000 hours of experience. Somehow on the day of the show there is never any time for anything, no matter how hard you try to work it out to be otherwise.
What's your favorite post-gig past-time? Sleeping! Ha ha. Well, no, I won't lie, it's nice to wind down with the band after finally the last CD is signed and the gear packed up and have a drink or two somewhere. But after one or two suddenly exhaustion hits me like a wall. Performing is SO intense that though there's a high from it initially when that high is over you suddenly can barely even talk, and then there's the awful realisation that you have to check out of your hotel early the next morning with another full-on day of not enough sleep. So, I guess I mean to say it's way less rock n roll than you might think, haha. Although sometimes I can be persuaded to go out dancing if the DJ is playing old school soul music. That happened in Adelaide and it was so fun it was well-worth the subsequent exhaustion. Oh, and I might have done that in Cairns, too... but I'd die if I did that every night, ha ha.
Who are your musical heroes? Oh boy, a long list. So, so, so many ... a recent one is Carole King. Just how great of a songwriter she is and was, in an era dominated nearly 100 per cent by men. And yet to date she still has an album that is one of the best-selling albums with the most often-covered songs of all time. Aretha is of course a hero, too. Louis Armstrong. Mahalia Jackson. Radiohead. Beck. Bjork. Leonard Cohen. Dylan. Paul Simon. People whose musicality is/was not only is mind-bogglingly powerful but also people whose musical journeys resulted in entire new genres and ways of approaching music, which influences nearly every musician down the line to this day.
Tell us something about where you grew up? And how it influenced your sound? I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It's a working-class oil town on the prairies, not a big tourist destination like Vancouver or the mountains or Montreal or something. The weather up there is harsh. Even in the summers we get these fantastic thunderstorms. The architecture is almost entirely practical, with very little appreciation for aesthetic. I think all that makes me choose music and lyrics that aren't "pretty" or idyllic but more based in reality, even if reality is harsh, to write things not for the glamorous but for the people in the daily grind of the nitty gritty. Blues-based stuff, soul of course being very based in the blues. I have studied music officially in school and was tempted to go for the "refined" heady music like post-modern jazz or something like that, but I realised how alienating that was from the vast majority of people around me, and I didn't want to go down that road and separate myself from them. The blues is much more universal and just as much of a challenge to carry off at a high level, I've found, and so much more rewarding to play for everyday people.
What would you be doing if you weren't a musician? Earning more money! Haha. Well, actually maybe not, because my second career choice would be to be a writer: short stories, poetry, prose, maybe a journalist... writing may actually be the only profession that pays LESS than music, so I guess I'm just doomed. Or maybe I'd become a translator, because I love learning languages. That might be more practical, haha.
What was the last gift you gave someone? A CD, to a girl at my show in Bris last night who had heard on Facebook I had obtained a sunburn (typical Canadian sunscreen novice!) and very thoughtfully and generously brought me a bottle of aloe vera to the show. How nice was that!
What would we find in your fridge right now? Oh my, ha ha. Well, I'm just staying in different hotels every night, so, nothing. If I ever get around to getting some groceries I buy some fresh veges to have as snacks but every single time I forget them in the hotel fridge when I am leaving the next day. Like, 100 per cent of the time. And then I'm on plane to the next show and I'm like, did I really forget that again? Sigh. I hope the hotel staff eats them, else I have accidentally wasted a lot of veges in my life. Bad vege karma or something like that.
ANN VRIEND
When: February 20, 8pm
Where: Smiths Alternative, Civic
Tickets: $15 available from smithsalternative.com