Emily Chambers, Pastameli Restaurant (5369 Headland Dr., West Vancouver), Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2017. For more information visit emilychambers.ca.
With her recent release Magnolia, Emily Chambers feels like she’s made a bit of a return to her roots – ones that can be traced all the way back to lunch hours at West Vancouver secondary and a well-known neighbour on the North Shore.
“This album is the truest representation of my sound that I want moving forward, and it’s much more soul-based,” the 27-year-old said earlier this month, having just returned from a two-month U.S. tour in support of the five-song EP.
“This was really about taking a step back, starting over and deciding what I really wanted to put out there in the world with my name attached to it.”
The result is a fresh, captivating 21-minute listen that pays homage to Chambers’ classic soul influences and puts her soaring voice at the forefront.
With evocative lyrics, Chambers paints vivid pictures – a sweet-smelling rose or a lazy afternoon spent people-watching are among the images conjured effortlessly – that are coloured in by her compelling vocal delivery.
Teaming up with producer John Raham, who has helmed albums by B.C. acts The Be Good Tanyas and Frazey Ford, Chambers put the tracks to tape at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studios.
“He definitely has these warm tones in his music and this underlying, laid-back soul vibe, an off-the-floor feel, and that’s exactly what I wanted to go for,” said Chambers, who indeed recorded live takes with her backing band, featuring a full horn section, for the EP. Chambers co-wrote each of the songs with Philip Laessoe, her former bandmate in the group Champagne Republic, and new collaborator Benjamin Parker.
With Champagne Republic and on a solo record before that, Chambers said nuances of soul could always be found in her music but fused with elements of pop and funk. Considering the early introduction to the genre she received from a local legend, the seeds had been planted for a true soul release like Magnolia long ago.
When Chambers was born, her parents lived across the street from jazz icon Joani Taylor and she started taking singing lessons from the Juno nominee at eight years old.
“Joani had a huge influence on me, stylistically,” said Chambers, who dedicated the EP to Taylor. “She introduced me to Motown and classic soul music, Stevie Wonder. She used to make me learn how to scat horn lines and read lyrics out loud to hear and decide what they meant to me when I was like 10. So Joani definitely opened up those doors for me in a huge way.”
Her potential as a performer was obvious early on. As a Grade 9 student at West Vancouver secondary, she was the winner of a “West Van Idol” competition that ran during the school’s lunch periods and later earned invites to sing anthems at Vancouver Giants and BC Lions games. After high school, she spent time studying at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.
“I’m very happy to have grown up in the place I did, I feel very fortunate to have been raised on the North Shore,” said Chambers.
“It’s interesting to think: if we were born somewhere else or had different circumstances, would we still be following or be anywhere near the same path we’re on now?”
Until recently, Chambers had been travelling her path in a powder-blue Dodge camper van, which she bought earlier this year, named it Bessie and spent part of the summer living out of it and travelling on the U.S. fall tour.
The self-booked tour saw her performing at a number of music hubs across the States, with stops in Los Angeles, Austin, Nashville and New York. A gig opening for Prince protégé Andy Allo in L.A. was among the highlights of the trip, along with plenty of positive feedback on her songs.
“People dug it, which was really cool … It was definitely encouraging to hear that people were into the sound,” she said.
“I’ve never really played – especially not these songs – outside of B.C. I’ve never played in the States except for when I was at school in Boston, which was a long time ago. So this was exciting for me, for sure.”
Although Chambers doesn’t get to spend much time on the North Shore these days, she will be performing at West Vancouver’s Pastameli Restaurant on Jan. 14. She is also running a benefit show for Parkinson Society British Columbia on Jan. 27 called “Shake, Shake, Shake!” featuring four bands at The Imperial in Vancouver. Chambers, whose father has Parkinson’s disease, raised more than $16,000 when she put on the show last year.
