Preview
JENIFER AUBRY
August 19 and August 20
Eau Claire Market
All the world’s a stage – or at least Jenifer Aubry thinks so. The French-Canadian songstress has taken her latest album to the streets. Aubry is currently promoting her full-length record Bubble by playing a series of Canadian dates from something she calls her "magic bus."
Forget the cliché images of an acoustic performer travelling the countryside in a Day-Glo Volkswagen van. Aubry’s magic bus is an impressive piece of machinery (think Grateful Dead meets Monster Garage).
The exterior of her converted bus is emblazoned with her name and there is a television screen that hangs off the side of the vehicle showing excerpts from her latest video. She travels with a video editor, whose job is to cut together weekly tour footage for her website. When the band decides it’s time to play, the bus pulls over and the musicians unload the gear. There are no pre-purchased tickets or assigned seating. With a flick of the generator’s switch, the show begins. Weather permitting, the spectacle usually attracts a crowd. Aubry is her very own hi-tech cottage industry and one can’t help think that Jack Kerouac must be rolling around in his grave.
Aubry is calling from her bus as it barrels down the highway, somewhere between Kenora and Winnipeg. Although she is an hour late for an in-store appearance and in the middle of nowhere, she is unbelievably calm and cordial.
The singer doesn’t mind the attention she receives when people first lay eyes on the bus and admits to coming by her dramatic flair honestly. Aubry began her career as a well-known comedic actress on a popular Quebec sitcom as well as performing on stage in various theatre productions. She received rave reviews for her portrayal of Maureen, the bi-curious performance artist in the Canadian run of the musical Rent. It was the character of Maureen who inspired the idea for the magic bus.
"(The Rent producers) offered me to continue on stage and I decided not to go, because I wanted to concentrate on my own music," she says. "I was writing songs at the time and Normand (Piché), my manager and boyfriend, comes up with this idea based on the character I was playing, who was a street performer. So, that kind of inspired him to try and get the people one by one. We made a show, hired some musicians and filled our whole concept with that."
Aubry laughs as she describes people’s skepticism when they see her caravan roll into town and enjoys the challenge of winning over a dubious audience. The intimacy and immediacy of street performing comes naturally to the free-spirited songwriter.
"I’m a little on the left side, can you understand that expression?" she says, with understated French charm. "I’m not on the straight line. I’m a shy person, but with this kind of tour, you’re connected to the people. They’re right in front of you and it’s very human. There’s no boundary – no gate, no bodyguards or even a stage. The audience is right there with you. I guess I’m used to it. I’m now more nervous when I go on a stage in a bar."
Aubry prefers playing public spaces to the more conservative concert halls; however, not everyone is always so comfortable with her unique brand of performance art.
"Someone told me at one point that I should have a separation with the public because he was like, ‘You’re going to get hurt. You’re too natural and sometimes you have to have a character. Sometimes people get to you and get your energy because you’re too sensitive to what is going on,’" she says, sighing and dismissing the comment.
"I don’t try to be someone else," she says. "This is who I am and how I chose to do it. It’s as simple as that." |
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