| It doesn’t even seem like it was all that long ago – Jann Arden performing solo on an acoustic guitar at Sparky’s Diner. Then, as now, she wooed and wowed the small audience with her powerful voice, her moody, melancholic songs and her hilarious banter. "She’s going to be a big star," someone said.
A few years later I was wandering through a chaotic market in downtown Bangkok when I spotted bootlegged cassettes of Arden’s breakthrough second album, Living Under June. (Intellectual property rights aside, being bootlegged in Bangkok is an undeniable sign of serious success.)
Of course, that was quite a long time ago. Sparky’s Diner is no more, several other local venues have come and gone, a meteor shower’s worth of forgettable and forgotten one-hit wonders have crashed and fizzled, and Jann Arden’s star just continues to burn brighter as her audiences get bigger. Throughout all of this, Arden has remained very much herself. In person, she is gracious, funny and utterly devoid of any diva-like airs or pretensions.
What made her decide to release a self-titled CD now, with six studio albums already behind her? "We didn’t know what the hell to call it, so we just called it my name. We were gonna call it something completely wacky, like Junior Eats the Chair, and then we were gonna fly over to the U.K. and shop it over there and just be like this anonymous kind of Roxette duo for a while," she says.
"But then after three songs, Russ says, ‘Uh Jann, it’s just starting to sound like you again.’ We were really kind of crazy there for awhile and then it kind of just went back to me. I can’t not be me."
Russell Broom, her guitarist and long-term collaborator, corroborates: "Initially, we thought, how liberating would it be to try something completely new from scratch. And it was, in a way…. Inevitably, when you have someone with that much character and that much of a sonic stamp as Jann does, no matter what you do, it’s going to have a certain tonality about it and I think that’s her greatest asset. I’ve argued with people about that. They say, ‘Well it just sounds like a Jann Arden Record.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s fucking great.’"
Jann Arden features 11 beautiful new songs of profound emotional depth and overflowing melody. Her perennial favourite, "I Would Die For You," is re-recorded as a duet with Sarah McLachlan. Some are already calling it her best album ever. Her loyal fan base, who will likely approach the record with certain expectations, will definitely not be disappointed.
"Every pair of shoes that I own, you flip them over and they’re worn out in the same place. Just because you buy new shoes doesn’t make you walk differently. I think music is very much like that. I can try and be something I’m not, but at the end of the day, it’s always gonna come back to what I do. Russell gives me a template to just push myself a little bit, especially with the tempos. He’s really got me rocking a little bit more, which is great."
For Broom, some of the songs just seemed to demand a slightly brisker pace. "The thing I really love about her voice is when she’s singing stuff that’s more uptempo, she sort of has this way of soaring and gliding over these faster tempos, and I think it’s a great way to showcase her voice. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it."
Arden’s singing is always anchored to the melody and the dynamics of her songs. She consistently avoids the calisthenics and vocal gymnastics that are so ubiquitous with female vocalists today. "You hear it all the time. It’s the American idolization of music, where it becomes like a contest," Broom says. "What sticks in your head: a vocal lick or a guitar lick or a fast drummer or a melody? What do people hum throughout history? You can’t fuck up a good melody, no matter how hard people try."
Arden’s fans surface all over, frequently in unexpected places. The Trailer Park Boys are fans as is rocker Bif Naked. She hung out with Arden’s band in Cancun recently, and was moved to tears by some of the rough mixes for the new album. Nickelback listen to her in their tour bus, and Bob Dylan personally requested Arden’s support for a Western Canada tour.
Arden maintains clear perspective about the stardom she’s achieved, so far. "I really enjoy the part of music that I’ve been able to be involved with, and that is really from the outside looking in. I’m as stunned as anybody else." Broom sums it up neatly: "There’s no shtick – she’s just who she is and I think people just get that, on some level." |
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