The Canadian singer-songwriter answers your questions about her trailblazing career, her spirituality, and collaborations with the likes of Neko Case, Laura Veirs and Pee-wee Herman
I left the Canadian prairies many years ago, but they remain my home. How do you feel about that part of western Canada, where the prairies meet the Rocky mountains, which shaped us both? What does Alberta mean to you now?NicholasLittle
All of my artistic preferences were formed by the minimalism of the prairies, by the affordable space and the stillness. There weren’t many things around, so a field with bales would be this incredibly graphic moment, or a tree or a certain hill – very small increments of beauty placed in vast amounts of space. The sky was very important and a feeling of – I wouldn’t say loneliness, but solace, perhaps. That’s my bottom line, my basic instinct. It’s the frame that that informs all of my art, the way I decorate my house, the way I sing, the way I dress. That sort of minimalist nature is embedded in me.
Many people can sing a song well, but you’re a vocalist who emotes raw vulnerability. Do you work like a method actor – entering, or reliving, the reality of the song during the practice period?verdantearth
I try to sink myself into the lyrics for sure. I try to create visuals, sort of an emotional internal movie of what the lyrics possess, to relive it emotionally. With [Case/Lang/Veirs track] Honey and Smoke, for example, I imagine watching somebody I’m in love with dancing with somebody else and feeling jealousy.
