Q AND A
LINDSAY MAY
- Lindsay May CD release party for Shimmer, Joe's Apartment (919 Granville Street, Vancouver), Thursday, March 8, 8 p.m. For more information visit www. lindsaymay.com.
BORN in Kamloops and raised in Kelowna, Lindsay May has been establishing her credentials as a roots singer/songwriter on the local music scene over the past few years.
Her solo debut, Bronze and Blue, came out in 2008 and she's played high profile gigs at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. North Shore audiences may be familiar with her music from several performances at the Harmony Arts Festival.
She recently recorded enough material at Nimbus School of Recording Arts for two releases and the first, Shimmer, will be officially launched next week with a CD launch party at Joe's Apartment on Granville. May knows her way around a tune and the new album not only shows off her development as a songwriter but also captures her creative energy interacting with a band.
She talked to the North Shore News earlier this week about the new disc and the evolution of her alt-country roots music.
North Shore News: How did you get involved in music?
Lindsay May: I realized during my teenage years that if I wanted to be a singer and I wrote I would probably need to play an instrument. I bought my first three-quarter size guitar when I was 15 for $50 off a high school teacher. I got an easy-chord songbook and a guitar-chord dictionary and played every night until my fingers hurt.
North Shore News: When did you record Shimmer?
Lindsay May: A good buddy of mine, Mark Gordon, ended up taking a job as an instructor at Nimbus phoned me up one day and said, "Lindsay how do you feel about making another album? How many songs do you have?" I went into my laptop where I store all my song ideas and realized that I had 15 songs. I think he was expecting me to say something like three so that was a little bit of a shock. And then we just started recording. That was almost a year ago. We were in and out of the studio for about six months and made two EPs at once. The first one comes out in March and the second one we're still mixing. We're not sure when it's coming out, either later this year or early next.
North Shore News: Why do you call them EPs?
Lindsay May: I took other songs that I only released digitally and cobbled them together to put together a whole album. Shimmer has seven new songs and a couple released previously. The second EP is about six songs of new material.
North Shore News: Who's playing with you on Shimmer?
Lindsay May: On the record we have Jeremy Holmes on bass, the guitar player is Scott Smith, the drummer is Niko Friesen and keyboards is Pat Covrington. Jen Hodge, bass, and Niko Friesen will be on the live date.
North Shore News: What was the experience like playing at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics?
Lindsay May: It was a beautiful sunny day, something like 14 degrees. I had the zipliners going over top of me in Robson Square. It was fun.
North Shore News: You entered The Shore's Songsearch the same year.
Lindsay May: Yes, 2010 was a big year. I wrote the song "Lie to You" and that seemed to spark a bunch of stuff for me. The Shore was excellent.
I had lots of performance opportunities - I played the fireworks and on car-free days at Shorefest.
North Shore News: How was the VIA Rail train tour across Canada?
Lindsay May: It was cool. It was sort of a word of mouth that I heard about it. I needed to get to North By Northeast so VIA Rail had an onboard opportunity. Part of the reason I wanted to do it is because I've never seen Saskatchewan or Manitoba. I'm a good Canadian kid. I had my acoustic guitar and my mandolin. It was perfect. There were people from all over the world. The train crew staff were fantastic.
At one point performing in the very last car, there's no caboose the very last car is like an activity car. It's got tea and coffee and seating on top and the train narrows at the end. They speed up through the Prairies and that's where I happened to be performing in that car an awful lot. You had to wedge yourself or else you would get a bit of whiplash because it's moving so much. That was lots of fun, laughing and trying not to hit anybody with my guitar.
North Shore News: A moveable feast of music.
Lindsay May: Exactly, it was an amazing experience. We left Vancouver on a Sunday night and got to Toronto on a Thursday morning.
North Shore News: You've performed at Motown Meltdown the past couple of years. What's it like being involved with that showcase for soul music?
Lindsay May: I took a songwriting workshop with Bill Henderson and Roy Forbes in Summerland. You have to apply to this songwriting workshop and they accepted me five years in a row. They are both involved in Motown Meltdown. It was real cool to be backstage at the Commodore Ballroom - that was just amazing. And the room is sold out for Motown Meltdown. It's a thrill to be on the same stage with some pretty amazing artists.
North Shore News: Which songs did you do?
Lindsay May: Last year it was Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run" and this year it's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." We choose them, they give us a list of Motown tunes. Everybody's got a different preference. Every gig I go on I want to be so good they ask me back.
