JODY QUINE finds a home in music
Calgary native returns home to celebrate release of new album
Coming home for Jody Quine always has a special meaning.
Not only is Calgary the place where she grew up before departing to the West Coast, but it’s the place where she discovered what she was and the life she now pursues: A musician.
All these years later, as she sits in the Ship & Anchor, ready to celebrate her return home in style with a show Tuesday night at the Ironwood, she still recalls when it happened, that “a-ha” moment that now guides her. Already comfortable with the stage, thanks to acting and improv, she joined a fellow Loose Moose member at an open mike in a bustling Kensington club one night. She remembers stepping up in front of a chatty crowd that seemed more concerned with their nachos and wings, closing her eyes, and beginning to sing.
“The room went silent. And then the song finished. And the room stayed silent,” Quine says with a sense of awe, still, at the magical memory. “I don’t know how long my eyes were closed, (it seemed like) it was five to seven seconds, it was the longest time. I was just waiting for my reaction before I checked back into the situation. And then I opened my eyes and they erupted and cheered, and in my mind people were standing on tables and whipping things around.
“That was when I realized that I’d found the thing that makes me the most aligned. I was the most happy. OK, this was it ... If I can move people like that after one song, anything can happen.” And it has. After relocating to Vancouver, Quine was able to immerse herself in music.
For the better part of the past decade and a half she’s made it the focus of her life in Vancouver — save for some brief stretches where wanderlust took her away, and, most recently, when motherhood needed her attention — which has made for many more memorable moments.
There was the release of her 2001 solo effort Star (since out-of-print, and a hot commodity online); there’s her time and work in West Coast, Billboard-charting electro project Balligomingo; and more vocal work on EDM project Sleepthief.
“That was when I realized that I’d found the thing that makes me the most aligned. I was the most happy. OK, this was it ... If I can move people like that after one song, anything can happen.”
JODY QUINE
All of it informs and leads into her new EP, Seven, which, quite fittingly, closes with a pretty plaintive ballad titled Come Back Home. The album was recorded down in L.A. with noted electronic producer and musician Rhys Fulber, known for his work in the acts Delerium and Conjure One.
It’s a quiet, personal and emotional effort that falls under the “folktronic” category, a surprisingly organic sound that easily marries what Quine says she’s discovered is the “sexy depth” of being a solo artist with the more all encompassing sonics that her other projects employ.
“I really thought I was going to make more of a low-key record,” she says. “I really wanted silence to have a voice in my record. What I think Rhys did was elevate my sound to the next level. He really made it possible for fans of my ambient, electronic career to meet up with my solo work in a way that I couldn’t be more thrilled with.”
Which is why Quine is now throwing everything she has into making sure the album gets heard.
Following up her efforts to ensure it was made — she sought private investors online and through a Pledgemusic campaign — she’s now using the virtual community to get her music into as many ears as possible. That includes a regular online concert, Thursday Night Live, on the Stageit site, which grew out of her merely wanting to re- hearse with a former accompanist and perhaps get some feedback and even a little monetary encouragement.
“I said, ‘So, I thought tonight for rehearsal we could maybe do it online and (have people pay) to watch.’” She laughs and jokes. “My husband got really excited about the idea when I first brought it up but I said it wasn’t that kind of website — for him and me that is.”
The monthly 50-minute event attracts 20 or so viewers from around the world, who pay 10 cents to tune in to watch her and a guest musician perform and share a laugh or two. She also raffles off autographed albums and shirts to those who wish to tip, making the endeavour quite lucrative — she funded her last trip to L.A. entirely through the concerts.
All of it, the success of Seven, the online concerts, her increasing trips south of the border to make those contacts and spread her music and name, have made Quine realize, once again, that she’s where she’s supposed to be, doing what she was meant to do.
“It’s all kind of coming together, you know,” she says. “It was about a year ago that I said, ‘My youngest is going to go to kindergarten, so I’ve got two years to get this going.’
“And I couldn’t be happier. Don’t I seem happy?”
Yes. Very much at home.