>>PREVIEW
SLED ISLAND
Jane Vain and the Dark Matter
Wednesday, June 27
Knox United Church
Recording and playing music is intrinsically connected for most musicians. It’s a fact that has brought countless musicians, ready or not, out of the basement and into record stores and iPods. Learning to record, play and perform has been a gradual process for Jamie Fooks – the Jane of Jane Vain and the Dark Matter. It’s undeniable now that she’s hit her stride – signing a record deal with Rectangle Records, finishing production on her eagerly anticipated debut Love is Where the Smoke Is and opening for her musical goddess Cat Power.
The connection between recording and playing seems even more fundamental for Fooks in that she taught herself to play by recording herself through a Midi control and musical equalizer, Garageband. "I guess I kind of learned things in reverse," admits Fooks. "I first started by building up multiple piano tracks that eventually I’d learn to play as one."
Knowing how to record before knowing how to actually play her instrument seems to have developed a keen ear for epic soundscapes, but also meant that performing onstage wasn’t as natural as being able to hear in multiple layers of instrumentation.
Initial performances, though showing glimpses of musical genius, were sometimes tear laden and shaky – a reality that slowly fell away as Fooks settled into an ever expanding schedule of writing, recording, performing and touring. Garnering help from friends and fellow musicians, Fooks has been able to channel her nervous energy and musical brilliance into a personal outpouring of epic swells, evasive melodies and frenetic force. One can almost hear the catharsis in the music of Love is Where the Smoke Is, a project that features the friends so fundamental to her growth as a songwriter and performer. The ambitious vistas of layered synthetic sounds came into being through the help of Jesse Locke of SIDS, Matt Flegal of The Cape May and numerous members of Woodpigeon, who she attributes to helping her overcome many of her fears.
Her band, Dark Matter, now seems complete as well, with Dillon Whitfield on guitar and vocals, bassist Britt Proulx of Raccoon and The Bacedas, drummer Jzero Schuurman of Gutterawl and Brittle Siren.
Quirky analog and synthetic keyboard sounds make up the musical soul of much of the Jane Vain and the Dark Matter’s repertoire, but it wasn’t the keyboard that she used on her first foray into music. Fooks played guitar for a number of years, but when it came down to performing onstage, the guitar ceased to be a viable means of expressing herself, if only due to functionality.
"It’s the formations on the piano that make it easier," admits Fooks. "I know that the guitar has those patterns as well, but because of the frets, if I’m really nervous I can’t see them onstage."
Nerves is something that Fooks has been battling with for a number of years. Though her early shows could be endearing, with numerous gushing apologies for shaking hands and false starts, it also made for a stressful experience not only for the performers onstage but for the audience as well.
One of the keys to performing that many musicians forget is the symbiotic nature of the act itself. Audiences can only reflect or absorb what is being offered to them from the realm of the stage. Nervous performances make for nervous audiences. It’s with the adage "you get back what you put forth" that the stage becomes one of the most forgiving and safe environments to play. Save for a few instances, most audience members, especially those within a shared community, want nothing more than the performer to succeed onstage. It’s this positive symbiotic relationship that can only help to alleviate the nerves that debilitate so many musicians. In many cases stage fright defines the musician. From Lucinda Williams to Franz Schubert, it can be part of an endearing stage presence, like in the case of Williams, or in the case of Schubert, a completely devastating affliction that renders a performer incapacitated. Not so with Fooks.
"I used to apologize all the time for being nervous onstage but I’m trying to not do it now," says Fooks. "I’m getting better but I was being told I shouldn’t do it – that it draws attention to the fact that I am nervous."
Not to say that all the nerves are gone. One can guess that her heart will be racing as she takes the stage for Sled Island to open for Cat Power, but who wouldn’t? It’s the intimate connection that Fooks has with Cat Power’s music that makes the show so exciting for her.
"I’ve been listening to her since I was 16," admits Fooks. "I never, ever would have thought I’d get this kind of opportunity. I never even thought I’d be playing in public, so to be a part of this is amazing." |
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