FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Those solo, not single, days are over
Vocalist Janine Bracewell finds a healthy new relationship on the West Coast
By Aubrey McInnisEscherprint and Red Autumn Fall
@ Republik
Friday, September 12."I left, I fell in love with a guy out in Vancouver. Because my family lived in Calgary, I grew up there and it was really familiar territory. I felt like maybe I needed to go away in order to find myself," Janine Bracewell explains from Nanaimo, her home for the last seven years. "I don't know if that makes any sense, I mean, it was really hard to leave Same Difference and I grieved over it for four or five years before I thought I could carry on."
Of all the relationships to have in life, the one that jams in a heavily insulated basement can be equally as heavy as the boyfriend waiting outside for the end of practice. When it's time to move on, the break-up of a band can be just as emotionally dense and confidence-sucking as the real thing. When Janine decided to drop out of the popular Calgary '80s band Same Difference, she relocated to a new city to find the inner layers that would lead to a fulfilling life and a fresh perspective on music.
"You can always shed your skin (and) all those connotations that people have about you and you have about yourself. I find it a lot easier - now that I'm older - I don't feel like running or moving very much. Initially, it was incredibly freeing to be able to recreate yourself and make yourself whatever you want to be," she says.
Today, Janine is the woman she wants to be, especially after experiencing many changes since leaving the city. When she arrived at her new hometown of Nanaimo, she performed as a solo artist before eventually taking a break from the music scene. After feeling a vast sense of withdrawal, she's returning to the role of lead singer for her five-month-old band, Escherprint.
Through it all, her writing method has remained the same. Much of her material is inspired by relationships, but it's only after those relationships have ended is she able to write about them. (It's a "balancing thing" she wants to work out for the next relationship.) The latest batch of "inspiration" is on the way with Escherprint going into the studio next month to record. Janine is yearning to get the material out and hopes the record will be released by the new year.
"(It's) good to get it through. It's amazingly scary because everyone is going to know what I'm saying," she says, revealing her shy side. "In the same breath it's going to be an exorcism. I'm excited because we're producing it in the sense that it's going to be an album like the new Radiohead. Not musically, but the idea that it's a complete statement as opposed to a bunch of singles. We're going for that."
So after all is said and done, I ask her what happened to the guy that drew her to Vancouver. Is he still around?
"Nope. There's a few guys I've gone through since then, but now I'm single, very happy about that, too."
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