The first time I ever saw and heard Olenka Krakus, frontwoman and chief songwriter of Olenka and the Autumn Lovers perform live was in a barn on my father's property in Arva, just north of the city of London, Ontario.
My friend and I were holding a benefit concert for a Costa Rican charity on my dad's property, and we invited Olenka and a couple of her Autumn Lovers to close the evening with their music. Though I had heard of Olenka as a musician, I hadn't yet been acquainted with her heartfelt music, low haunting vocals and the Autumn Lovers' contagiously-enthusiastic energy and sound. I remember Olenka stamping through her early repertoire on the makeshift stage, drawing in the entire audience and leading them by the hand through powerful chorus' on songs like "Soldier's Waltz" and "When We Were Children". We watched and hung wide-eyed and mouths dry onto every harmony and 1-2-3, even as an electrical storm raged on the other side of the thin aluminum walls.
That was three years ago. I didn't actually meet Olenka until maybe a year later at a house show or a party, the details aren't as clear. The setting was incontestable though; it was at the Yale St. Speakeasy, former home-venue and headquarters of the Open House Arts Collective and record label by the same name, of which Olenka was a founding member. I had been an admirer of her music since the aforementioned benefit show, but hadn't expected such a warm and genial woman to be the source of music so poignant and sophisticated. Olenka is a fellow Engish Literature major, music-lover and raconteur, and she's gained an enviable cache of musical history, theory and utmost appreciation working as a record store clerk at The Village Idiot. Watching her get as excited as she would over a particular piece of music, or while we sat around singing a McCartney or Dylan tune at a Speakeasy soirée could inspire and enchant even the most pretentious of party-goers.
So I think it's safe to say I've been an admirer of Olenka Krakus as a person and a performer since before we met, and of course ever since. At the risk of sounding like an obsequious fan, she has always upheld the role of a sort of hometown-hero for me, and I've always been really eager to see her and her group succeed. So much so that I used to fear that my admiration would blind, or rather deafen me from hearing or even thinking a sullied word about Olenka and the Autumn Lovers' music, which is a pretty poor quality in a music reviewer. Up until the release of their sophomore studio album And Now We Sing, I would hear the new roundup of O&AL songs at a performance and get so excited for their next set of recordings. I really really didn't want to be disappointed by And Now We Sing, or be the only cloth-eared closet fanatic of the album when no one else was. Fortunately for me and the rest of the listening public, my fears were irrational and my hopes exceeded.
And Now We Sing stomps gloriously past any sort of uniform genre categorization. Dipping toes in Eastern-European oomp-pa-pa, country-western, chamber-pop and americana, Olenka's influences are as broad and extensive as her record collection. While in some artists' cases this can risk delineating an album, And Now We Sing is grounded in Olenka's powerful lyrical themes and adept songwriting. What garners perhaps the most attention and praise for the album, and recently a nomination for a CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award for 'Best Vocals' is just that, the vocals, which move freely in between the lines of warbling, yodeling and crooning, adorned with pitch-perfect harmonies from backup vocalists Sara Froese and Kelly Wallraff.
How was touring the East Coast? What were some of the bands/artists you enjoyed playing with in particular?
The east coast was a blast as always. We had some start-of-tour difficulties (van problems again), but once we were over that hurdle and travelling through the Maritimes again, we forgot all our problems... It's so easy to do that in the Maritimes, because the people are generous and kind and the sights are inspiring. The first town we played in after Montreal was Edmundston, and the folks who took care of us (all the staff and friends of the staff at Lotus Bleu) were incredible: they fed and housed and loved us, and all but adopted us! And the drive in and around Edmundston was probably the most beautiful of the whole tour: hills upon hills of turning leaves. As for bands, we had a really great time playing our two shows with North Lakes - they're out of Charlottetown and feature our dear friend Chris Francis on bass. All the guys in the band were lovely, but aside from being great people they played really catchy Lou Reed meets Ventures tunes. I also really enjoyed our show with Cousins and Jon McKiel in Halifax: melodic, lofi, Haligonian melancholy. And all our shows with Kite Hill in Southern Ontario were wonderful: Ryan Carley is a talented, humble, hilarious gent who runs an all-star orchestral ensemble of his own.
Well, in my case I had already met Mr. Jim Laracey last year when we toured through Saint John, NB and played a crazy house-show with Bruce Peninsula, Entire Cities, and Weather Station at his abode. But a bunch of my bandmates made his acquaintance for the first time this year. I think our sax player, Shawn Clarke, put it best in his tour musings: "Jim is... something out of a Hemingway novel: a large man with a full beard, boisterous voice, and a big heart." Did I mention that he gave Blair [Whatmore, guitarist] a semi-hollow-body? You know... just cuz... so that Blair would start playing bottleneck slide (which the aforementioned guitar would do much to help) on a more regular basis. He and his daughter, Leanne, and all the fine folks in Saint John always take good care of us when we come down to visit.
How was the CD release show at Aeolian Hall in London?
Let’s see... so much to recount. It was the largest collection of Autumn Lovers ever assembled I think... or at least in a long time, and it won't be that big again for a long while. Kevin [Brasier, bass] flew in from Sackville NB for the show (!!), Shawn caught a ride with Kite Hill from Toronto to attend, and we had local musicians Christian Hegele and Kelly Webb join in on piano/keys and trumpet respectively. There were ten of us on stage at some moments... it felt pretty momentous: I mean aside from the additional members, we were all aware that it was Blair's last show with us, which made things a bit more emotional. Kite Hill were impressive and rich sounding, and it was a treat to be able to share them with the hometown crowd. The audience was also incredible: for the whole night it felt like they were there to celebrate with us, and that we were all there supporting each other in something that's ultimately bigger than all of us. So yeah, I guess it was pretty unique and meaningful.
Can you give me a brief economic breakdown of what went into And Now We Sing? How many hours, days, weeks, months, years of preparation? How much sleep did you lose? How many memories did you gain? Ballpark figures, of course. Approx. how much blood sweat and tears went into it?
Well I won't reveal too much in the way of finances, but let's just say that my VISA is maxed. ;) In terms of hours, I think when we had finally settled on the songs and started rehearsing and were ready to go into Andy [Magoffin]'s studio (House of Miracles), we were at work on the album for about 8 months straight. I produced the album, so for me it was a case of almost constant work from start to finish, setting up schedules, working out arrangements, money, troubleshooting... etc. And a bulk of the work, on which Simon [Larochette] and I spent countless hours in that 8-month period, was made up of editing files and doing some preliminary mixing, in advance of passing files back to Andy and thereafter to Joao Carvalho (who mastered the album). Aside from album recording details, there was also the task of figuring out manufacturing... that was a whole other mountain of work. It all feels like a blur now... not sure if I'm fully (or even partially) recovered yet.
If O&AL's sound was an animal, what animal would it be?
Stravinsky's Firebird.
Congratulations on being nominated for a CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award for Best Vocals! Which vocalists do you admire? Which influence you? Which artist, living or dead, would you sing a duet with if you could?
Vocalists whom I admire, so many for so many different reasons: Julie London, Marlene Dietrich, Jeff Tweedy, Gillian Welch, Loretta Lynn, Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, Chan Marshall, Otis Redding, Elmore James, Billie Holiday, all the Dirty Projectors crew, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Julie Doiron, Simone Fornow ($100), Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, and um, obviously the Beatles. I'm sure I'm missing a tonne. As for a duet, I've been saying this for years, but I'd love to sing a song with Jeff Tweedy (living) and Gram Parsons (dead).
Photo by Rob Nelson.
You can read my review of And Now We Sing on Sticky Magazine.
Check out this fantastic video of Olenka, Sara Froese (violin) and Paterson Hodgson (cello) playing "No Coins" from And Now We Sing for www.southersouls.ca
OLENKA AND THE AUTUMN LOVERS - No Coins from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.
Made "Clean" my "Swell Tune" today.:
ReplyDeletehttp://mrshuffleupagus.blogspot.com/2011/01/todays-swell-tune-clean.html
It's a bit like RaRaRiot channelling the Cranberries, or vice versa