The Waifs, Tuesday, June 30 at 8 p.m., at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University, a North Shore Jazz series event, part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Tickets: $30/$28, visit coastaljazz.ca.
Vikki Thorn has fond memories of Vancouver.
It was here that her band, The Waifs, made their North American debut in 2001. The Australian folk rock outfit was among the performers at the Folk Alliance International Conference, an annual event described as the world's largest gathering of members of the folk music industry.
"That was really our breaking ground, was in Vancouver," says Thorn.
Within six months, the band was back, playing all the major festivals across Canada.
"That was actually the most exciting time of our career, I think, that whole time we spent driving back and forth over Canada. We did the whole country," says Thorn. From there, The Waifs' fan base continued to grow, both at home and abroad, leading to yet another major career highlight: touring both Australia and North America with Bob Dylan in 2003.This year, the members of The Waifs are celebrating 23 years together and continuing to reflect on the band's journey thus far, as well as remaining firmly focused on its future. The group was launched in 1992 after Thorn (harmonica, guitar, vocals), and her sister Donna Simpson (guitar, vocals), set off in a van in their native Australia to play music. Soon after, they connected with future band mate Josh Cunningham (guitar, vocals). The Waifs have six albums under their belt, with a seventh on the way, set for release this fall.
Following their last album, 2011's Temptation, The Waifs took a three-year hiatus, seeing members focus on their respective growing families. Last year, they reunited for two sold-out tours in Australia and are pleased to be embarking this weekend on their first North American tour in four years. That tour is bringing The Waifs back to the Lower Mainland for a stop in North Vancouver next week as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival's North Shore Jazz series. The Waifs are set to play the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University Tuesday, June 30 at 8 p.m. Joining the core membership of Thorn, Simpson and Cunningham will be their longtime tour and recording band members Ben Franz (bass) and David Ross MacDonald (drums).
Thorn is pleased to be once again be hitting the road.
"We all have families, we all live in different parts of the world now and so logistically, it takes a lot to get the band together nowadays. But, we do it because we love it. We had three years where we didn't work and. .. the future of the band was uncertain at that point.. .. There were no internal problems but this is our 23rd year and I guess each year you sort of think, well, do you want to do another album? Do you want to keep touring? We get so much great feedback from people that like our music, continually saying, 'when can we see you again,' that was really the initiative for getting back together again . . . last year," says Thorn, reached from her current home base of southern Utah.
Simpson resides in Australia and Cunningham splits his time between Australia and California. Both Thorn and Simpson have three sons.
"We're in a fortunate position where the fan base is there and they're still really solid, so we're not out there trying to work and pick up new people all time, we can go out and just play to these great crowds. It's become a bit more of a nostalgic thing, but anyway, we went in and we recorded an album in January, so I guess this North American tour is sort of dipping our toes in the water to promote new songs again to see if that fan base is still just as strong here in North America," says Thorn.
The Waifs' upcoming album, Beautiful You, was recorded in Australia and produced by Nick DiDia (Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine). The band releases all of its records on its own label, Jarrah Records, a partnership with fellow musician John Butler.
"Sonically, it actually has a little bit more ambience with electric guitars and things than probably Temptation did . . . . When we got in the studio, we just treated each song as what it would sound the best like and that's how it came out. I think we're different in that respect, in that a lot of bands will go in with the intention of making an album and they have an idea of what they want it to sound like, where we never do. Our albums are really a point of documenting our songs as we perform them live," says Thorn.
This time around, band members attempted to break from tradition and tried to write songs together.
"We all write separately, the three individuals. We've never written together. We tried it, but we couldn't do it, which was sort of funny," says Thorn.
While the resulting album is therefore similar to previous releases, in that it's a collection of three individuals' compositions, songwriting duties have been more equally distributed. Historically, Cunningham was the band's principal songwriter, but that's changed recently, seeing the sisters increase their contributions to be more equal.
"As I've gotten older, I've started writing a lot more. Whereas before I always considered myself mainly a singer and a performer, now I love songwriting. I need to do it. It's a catharsis for me," says Thorn.
"We're attracted, as storytellers, I think to the human condition. The album is actually pretty melancholy. That's something I notice about Donna's and my writing, we're really attracted to the bittersweet stories and that side of the human condition. Whereas Josh, at this point in his life, is very positive and wants to put out a very positive message - so that's a little bit of a struggle in the band, but I think you get a good mix on this album," she adds.
Thorn is anticipating a September release of Beautiful You. In the lead up she's looking forward to a busy summer with a host of dates across Canada and the United States through August.
"I think the reason we're still doing it is because it's better than it's ever been in terms of us wanting to play music together and just loving each other. . . . I'm just so grateful to be able to do it, to still be playing music for a living because it's my passion and it's all our passion. It's what we love to do and the fact that we can still do it is incredible to me," she says.
