Basia Bulat

with people who are like-minded.GL: Yeah, there is definitely some like-mindedness there, and I have to think you guys could have some crossover in your audiences. Have the crowds so far seemed to know you and your songs?

BB: Some people in the crowd come out for us, I think. In

San Francisco a couple of people who had come to my first San Francisco show came out, so it was nice to see them again. Some songs, like “In the Night,” which we made a video for, seem to hit people. So it’s nice when people recognize a song and there is a little cheer. I think I’m still pretty unknown in the States though, so it’s nice to get this exposure. Certainly DeVotchKa fans are really nice fans - they’re music-loving fans, so I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to lay for people who come to listen to the music. And we’re already learning a lot from watching them play.

GL: All that said, I should tell you that I requested to write about your upcoming Indianapolis show because I’m a fan of your

album. Don’t get me wrong, I like DeVotchKa and think they’re amazing, but after hearing your album I’m more so a fan of yours.

BB: That’s so funny. I can’t even explain to you how weird it is for me now. We made that album over a year and a half ago and it’s just … I used my

student loans to make my record, you know. It’s just really cool to go random places and see that people know the songs. I just never expected that. It’s hard sometimes to tour, but things like this make it a lot easier - to know that people appreciate it. It really means a lot [laughing], so thank you so much. It’s been a long drive the past couple or days and sometimes the gas gets kind of expensive, so it’s just nice to, you know, just to get that from people.

GL: Yeah, I was just at a record store and got lucky.

It was the kind where you trust the employees, and saw your album on the Employee Picks wall. I looked at it like I look at everything else and liked the design and the artwork on the back and saw that it was on a label that I trust. I went home and listened to samples online and eventually found the “In the Night Video” and, you know, loved it. So I went out and bought the album and have just been kind of celebrating it as this great debut record ever since. Truly great debut albums are pretty rare, so I’ve been excited …

BB: I’m glad you liked the video. That was the greatest time ever. We got a grant. In

Canada they have these grants for artists to make videos, so we got this grant and it was just so great to make the video in the same city we made the record. That whole song and the whole reason I make music is all about finding light in the darkness. The video was really good that way because in Montreal it’s pretty cold in November, so we were all freezing our butts off and dressed really silly, so it made it all worth it. Even when it’s freezing cold in Montreal we can have a good time.

GL: It’s such a cool idea for the video, and a great way to give you, a new artist, more of a visual identity. Speaking of your album, it was released outside of the U.S. last year, correct?

BB: Yes. Yeah it was …

GL: So did you tour outside of the U.S. much last year?

BB: Yeah, I did. It actually came out first in Japan

in like April of 2007. I’ve never been to Japan. I’ve always wanted to go but I think it’s going to be a while before I get there. But then it came out in Europe last May on Rough Trade. We went on tour there. We did a European Tour for about five or six weeks through April and May. Then it came out at home at the end of the summer, so we’ve been doing Canada non-stop. We did a bunch of summer festivals in Canada, came home at the end of the summer and have really just been doing Canada shows non-stop. Then a little bit of the U.S. once the album came out here this past February. We’re pulling out all the stops now. We’re coming back through the States constantly - I’ll be here all year.

GL: Since you’ve been playing these songs live for quite a while now, have the songs changed or have you guys started to incorporate any new songs into your set?

BB: Yes to both, actually. Some people who played on the record couldn’t tour with me, so we have different people playing on the songs and, you know, a lot of those songs were written when I was in a very specific time. There’s a lot about it that’s … not naive, but, I don’t know. I think now I can look back at those songs and I can’t necessarily sing them from the same place, but it’s kind of fun to look back at myself then and sing them now while sort of inhabiting that space. Does that make sense? They seem different to me even if they don’t seem too different coming through the speakers. I’ve also certainly become a much stronger singer now than I was then just because I lost my voice when I was making the record and didn't really have the technique that I do now.

And, yes, we’re playing a lot of new songs. We’re supposed to be making a new record. We should be going into the studio this summer, but until then I’ll be just kind of peppering the new songs into all our sets.

GL: Good. I also saw online that you supposedly have an EP before your first album. I can’t find the thing anywhere; was it a small release …

BB: Oooooh. [Laughing.] I think what a lot of people are calling an EP was actually just some demos I recorded for this college student who was doing this thing … it was his final project for school. I think we made like 50 copies or 100 copies of it and just gave them away. It wasn’t really an EP. But some of the songs on there are

on there are songs that ended up on my record, like “Snakes and Ladders” is on there. It’s funny because that was the first time I really did anything related to recording, but it wasn’t really a studio, it was really just a bedroom recording - just a couple of mics in a bedroom. It wasn’t really what I had envisioned for the songs, but it is funny that people are calling it an EP. It never really was for sale, you know. I don’t know, it never was really extended as a player. In short, no, it wasn’t really an official release. It was burned on CD-Rs and given away.

GL: Okay, I guess I’ll stop looking …

BB: It’s not really that strong. Going into the studio with Howard was the first time I ever really took my songs seriously and, you know, started thinking about my songs in a way where I wanted to do my best for them. It was a really eye-opening experience. The new album is realy the first attempt for me.

GL: Wow. That’s surprising, really. Just being that it’s a debut album - I usually don’t expect to hear compositions as strong as yours the first time out or songs that are so varied throughout, you know. You don’t really ever repeat yourself, so I just figured you had 18 albums in your hometown in Canada that we’d never heard of.

BB: Thanks. No, no. Sadly, I was even shocked that anyone wanted to put this one out. When I got the message first from Rough Trade I really thought that Howard Bilerman, my friend who produced and recorded the record with me was playing a trick on me. I didn’t know that he’d been sending the album out and talking to people about me. It’s weird because I just never thought it’d come out. It’s pretty cool that people are liking it. I’m a little bit overwhelmed sometimes, actually. I wish I could be a little less Pollyanna about it [laughing].

GL: So when you were in the studio making these songs with Howard - who I know has worked with the Arcade Fire and many others - was it mostly your ideas for how the songs were laid out, or did you have a bunch of musicians you played with who helped things come together?

BB: I was living in London, Ontario, which is where I went to school, and I had this

apartment that was this awesome, tiny little apartment I shared with my friend Dave, who plays on the record, and my friend Nikki. I would just be writing these songs and I’d get Dave to play on them and we’d have these friends who would come over and jam. I’d usually know, you know, how I wanted the strings to sound, but they’d be able to make it sound better. Any my brother plays drums, so I’ve been playing with him my whole life. We understand each other’s thinking and logic. I have these weird ways of describing how I want a song to feel that don’t seem to make any sense when I say it, but everyone seemed to get it. I think it’s because everyone who plays on the album is such a close friend that it didn’t really need as much notation. I could just sing it out loud how I hear it in my head and they could just all get where I was going with it. I think I was kind of the director and songwriter but, like, you know, when I hear the piano I hear my friend Eric or I hear my friend Trent playing. When I hear the drums I hear my brother’s spirit in there. That was important. That’s why I play music - to play with other people.

GL: So is this current tour your first real long-term exposure to U.S. culture or, being from Canada, are you already familiar with it?

BB: When we toured in February we did a lot of club shows as headliners across the States. This tour is bigger halls because DeVotchKa is so well known. We’re getting to play in front of a lot more people, which is a lot of fun. I studied American Literature in university quite a bit. It seems like every state in the U.S. really has its own identity. I think a lot of places in America are just so different from each other.

It’s just, I don’t know, that’s a really cool thing. People on the California coast are so different from the people we saw in Texas when we went down for South by Southwest, which is so different from New York City. It’s really fascinating.

GL: What about the musical culture; have you seen any differences between Canada and the U.S. in how music is treated?

BB: A lot of the music I grew up on is American music.

When I was a kid I didn’t even really know about commercial radio. I grew up listening to all the stuff you’d hear on A.M. radio - Motown and Stax and the Golden Hits kind of thing. I listened to a lot of that, as well as a lot of American folk music like the Carter Family and Johnny Cash. I think a lot of my growing up has been more influenced by American music than Canadian music. It’s just different. Certainly in Canada there is a lot of support for the arts from a national standpoint. There just seems to be a different way that people go about their work in the U.S., but I don’t really think that I - who have only really been here for a month - can really say with too much authority what the differences are or even much about the music culture in the States is right now.

GL: Festivals have become a big part of our live music culture, especially in the last decade. Are you guys planning to play any of the big festivals here in the States this year?

BB: No, not this year. I will be playing a festival in September, I think, somewhere South. I don’t even know what state it is, but I know I’ll be back in the fall, starting down South. In July we’ll be in Northwest Canada to play Canadian festivals. So, really, it’s the Canadian festivals this time around.

GL: This is your second time playing Indiana already, though, right? You played Bloomington a few months ago if I remember correctly.

BB: Yeah, this will be our second time. Bloomington was really nice. There seemed to be a big artistic community there.

GL: Yeah, definitely. I actually went to college there as a studio art major and, as far as the three major universities in Indiana that most people have heard of go - IU, Notre Dame and Purdue - Indiana is definitely regarded as the most liberal and arts-friendly of the three. It’s a college town, but there's also a great student radio station, some great venues and lots of bands.

BB: It seemed like a really great town.

GL: You guys are playing at the Vogue on Saturday, May 10, which is located in this area of Indianapolis called Broad Ripple, which is also a really arts-friendly sort of place. Lots of worthwhile places, records stores and …

BB: Ahhhh, you have to tell me about these record stores! I need names, you know, now …

GL: Yeah, of course. It’s really easy. If there were no walls around the stage at the Vogue you could look over your shoulder and see this placed called Indy CD & Vinyl, which is just off of North College in this area full of restaurants, bars

and mostly independently-owned stores. The venue is actually on North College Avenue, which is really just a few blocks down from another store called Luna Music.

BB: And it’s vinyl mostly?

GL: They have vinyl, surely. I won’t say that either are really true vinyl stores, but both stores do have some choice vinyl. The Luna store is great because they don’t really carry any too obvious stuff - it’s all the cool stuff you won’t find in most stores in the U.S.

BB: There are two things I’m really looking for on vinyl and having a lot of trouble finding …

GL: Really, what are they?

BB: The first one is a record by an artist named Exuma. I don’t know if you’re familiar with him. I guess you’d call him a folk artist; I think he’s brilliant but I don’t think his label really knew how to classify him. I’m looking for his self-titled album on vinyl,

which is his first record. It’s never been reissued or anything, so I’m having a lot of trouble. He grew up in the Bahamas, which I think is where he really got his start. Oh, and I’m also looking for a copy of Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square. That’s one of my favorite albums and I only have it on CD. I’ve been trying to find it, but nowhere in the States yet.

GL: Has Rough Trade put Oh My Darling! out on vinyl yet?

BB: No, not yet. I’ve been talking with them about doing that because I do get a lot of requests for it. I think we’re going to do that soon. But for now, on this tour we’re doing a tour-only 7” single of a Sam Cooke song. The B-side is this

blown-out, pull-out-all-the-stops 1960s Phil Spector type of remake of “Before I Knew.” It’s going to be fun to have a 7” out. Everyone but me seems to have it already, but I should be getting it tomorrow.

GL: So you’ll have it for sale at the Indianapolis show?

BB: Yeah, we were supposed to have them by now and we will finally have them tomorrow. This is supposed to be the tour single, which is special to me because Sam Cooke is one of my favorite artists ever.

GL: His voice is so amazing.

BB: Yeah, if I could list people who had a real influence on the way I think about music he’d definitely be one of them. I wish I could go back in time because, you know, if I could he’d be one of the people I’d really want to try to meet and see.

GL: Who else?

BB: Oh God. Janis Joplin. If we’re speaking strictly about musicians, Janis Joplin. Nick Drake. Ohhh. Maybe ...

well, those are all I can think of right now. Lets talk about the living. I really want to try to go and see one of Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles. I’m dying to go see one of his shows and see him play and hopefully say hello to him.

GL: The new album he put out last year was pretty amazing.

BB: Yeah, definitely. And I guess I’d also want to meet Rick Danko

and Richard Manuel, too - you know, if I could go back. We played the Fillmore, and it wasn’t the same place as The Last Waltz or anything, but the poster said “Bill Graham presents DeVotchKa and Basia Bulat,” and I just thought that was pretty cool because Bill was the guy who put on The Last Waltz. Oh, and I love Townes Van Zandt and Hazel Dickens.

GL: Hazel Dickens?

BB: Yeah, if you love Townes you’ll love Hazel. Her album I’ve been listening to is called Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People. She’s absolutely phenomenal. I’ve been listening to her album all through this tour; it just seems to be the right record.

GL: Do you like Karen Dalton at all?

BB: Oh yeah, she’s great. It’s nice to know that some music writers know

female artists. Just because I’m Canadian I’ll usually just get a lot of the very well known Canadian artists as reference points. It kind of makes me sad that people only really seem to know and talk about women of the last five years. It’s sad to say, but a lot of times people just don’t seem to be as interested in music by women. It’s just nice to know that someone would ask me about Karen Dalton.

GL: I usually get blank looks when I mention someone like Karen, so it’s nice for me, too.

BB: Maybe these people just need to go to the record stores. That’s all, right?

GL: Dig a bit. Now that you’ve been on the road a bit, what are some of the good things and not-so-good things. I hear a lot about the food being so bad, but what else?

BB: I think the hardest part is just being away from family. It’s exciting to go on a road trip with your friends,

but different people have different situations with their families that make it hard to leave. For me that is for sure the hardest thing about being away - but when you get home you’re really happy, and you realize that the trip you just went on was pretty amazing. And, obviously, to be able to play music for people and to get the response from people who are really enjoying it makes it worth it no matter what. Yeah, really crappy things can happen on the road and it’s not human to sit in a van for 8 hours at a time … or, goodness, we drove 30 straight hours figuring we’d sleep the next night. That’s not good for you, but they’re things that will hopefully get better in the end. If I was doing this and I didn’t love it, it would feel wrong, but at some point - and maybe I’m too green - but I feel like I have to do it. I guess I could go back to working at the movie store, but there really isn’t anything else that I want to do. The van is becoming the home.

GL: I’ve seen some of your songs on TV commercials …

BB: Yeah, “In the Night,” we had that one used for a thing for AMC, which is cool. If there are more than two commercials then that’s news to me. It’s hard to make money anywhere in music right now.

It’s really hard to sell records because people aren’t buying as many records as they used to. I see people online talking about downloading, which makes me think that my generation is going to be the last who remember that you’re supposed to pay for music. I guess it’s cool that you can get it so quickly - I mean, how many times did I mail-order a CD or tape and have to wait so long and hope that I’d still be into it when it showed up. So I guess it’s exciting to have stuff on TV and the Internet. I guess if I had a commercial that blew me into the mainstream - or people downloaded a song from a blog or heard the AMC commercial - that would be good because then maybe they’d come to a show, and that’s what I really love to do - play live with my friends. I love recording, and that’s important, but people being interested enough to come out to a show is what really strikes home for me.

GL: Are there any contemporary artists, peers, really - be them male or female artists also working right now - who you are inspired by or just really impressed with right now?

BB: Oh God. There are so many. Do you know Final Fantasy?

We did this tour with him and every single night I was blown away, I just love his music so much. Touring with DeVotchKa has been amazing. I’ve been lucky that most of the people I’ve been touring with I find really inspiring. That’s been a real stroke of luck for me. I think the new Bon Iver album, For Emma, Forever Ago, is wonderful. It’s a really, really great record. A lot of bands in Canada, too, like the Great Lake Swimmers. I could just go on and on if you wanted me to.

GL: Bon Iver’s record label is actually in Indiana, in Bloomington even ...

BB: Yeah, Secretly Canadian is in Bloomington, right?

GL: Yeah, a couple others, too. Jagjaguwar and Dead Oceans.

BB: Oh yeah, that’s right. Dirty Projectors are on Dead Oceans and they’re just crazy good. That’s pretty cool - a real music town.

GL: There are actually good labels in Indianapolis, too, and some really amazing bands scattered throughout Indiana.

BB: Songwriters?

GL: There’s a guy named Lee Miles who …

BB: M-Y-L-E-S?

GL: M-I-L-E-S

BB: I’m gonna look him up.

GL: Is there anything we missed? Anything we didn’t talk about?

BB: I’m bad at this. The 7” single. The record is in stores. Hopefully people will like the show and come back. We’re having a good time - lots of bets so far. Lots of jokes and we’re only three days in right now. I just hope people enjoy the show; hopefully we don’t disappoint after all this …

GL: No, I’ve seen all the live footage on YouTube; I think people are going to be surprised.

BB: Wicked. Thanks.