Calgary’s Bishop launches her next phase after 20 years on the local music scene
In the new CTV music series, The Launch, Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx is shown offering Calgary singer Amy Bishop some odd advice.
“What if we start the show with you breaking your guitar?” says Sixx, the amiable “celebrity mentor” who advises Bishop and four other acts on this particular episode. The camera quickly cuts to Bishop, who is clearly not sold on the idea.
“It’s not something I do on a regular basis,” says Bishop with a laugh, in an interview with Postmedia back home in Calgary. “When he suggested it, it definitely made me uncomfortable to think about doing that. I tend to use my guitar as a bit of a comfort item. It’s kinda my binky. For him, I think it was more of ‘Drop the guitar. Get out from behind it and really perform for the people.’ But to smash a guitar? That made me uncomfortable.”
Bishop won’t say if she took Sixx’s advice. In fact, the only reason we are allowed to talk about this peculiar guitar- smashing suggestion at all is because CTV included it in the promo for its much-hyped new series. As with all reality TV, contestants are sworn to secrecy about the specifics of their time on the show, which was pre-taped in Toronto more than four months ago. For Bishop, that means she won’t be able to talk with detail about her experience until after Jan. 31, when her episode airs.
Still, it seems unlikely that she would smash her guitar, no matter how well-intentioned the suggestion. Part of what drew her to the Launch was the idea that the 30 participating artists were allowed to be themselves when going through the process.
“All artists that are on the show, even the younger ones, are established,” Bishop says. “They have a sound. They are comfortable in their skin and they have a career already. This is just something that boosts you to the next step in your career.”
The twist on the Launch, which debuts Wednesday, Jan. 10 on CTV, is that every episode involves a new song. Five acts audition after some coaching from their celebrity mentor, a group that includes not only Sixx but also Shania Twain, Boy George, Fergie, Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, Alessia Cara and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder. The top two go on to record the song and a winner is chosen after each episode. The winner’s version of the song is then heavily promoted, backed by the marketing savvy of the show’s co-creator, Scott Bor- chetta, the mogul who discovered Taylor Swift.
“I like that premise because it’s not about finding somebody and developing them, it’s finding someone who is already developed but has yet to be known,” Bishop says.
Indeed, Bishop is hardly the sort of fame-starved, would-be starlet that traditional musical elimination shows tend to attract. The mother-of-five is in her mid-40s, sports grey hair and a number of tattoos and has released seven independent albums over the past two decades. In Calgary, she has developed a versatile and powerful voice that she can apply to originals and covers such as Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah or Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine. Still, she says the idea that she may be a little more, shall we say, seasoned than some of her competitors never really entered her mind until she saw the first news release for the show.
“It said something like ‘30 artists, ranging in age from 13 to 43,’” Bishop says. “My heart sank. I’m like ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m the grandma of this show!’ But really I haven’t really given it much thought. The opportunity came and I took it.”
Born in Leamington, Ont., Bishop moved to Calgary as a child and grew up in a musical household. Both her brothers are opera singers. She sang in the church choir and in the family car with her siblings. As a young adult, she became quite adept at karaoke, often winning local contests before finally joining a band.
Along the way, she has had a few near, and presumably frustrating, brushes with fame. A few years back, her wife sent an audition tape to NBC’s hit The Voice. Producers were immediately interested, but Bishop couldn’t secure a visa in time to participate. She also worked with electronica heavyweight Moby, who had heard her debut album and was impressed. Bishop recorded vocals for three tracks on the project, but unfortunately Moby eventually shelved it and it never saw the light of day.
So while Bishop doesn’t necessarily see her participation in The Launch as a “last chance,” she did recognize it as a rare opportunity for career advancement.
“I have the feeling that, no matter what happens, I’m moving to that next level and jumping a few,” says Bishop, who will play the Blues Can on Jan. 18. “With music, I feel like I’ve accomplished quite a lot. When you are chasing a dream like this, it never goes away: that want to reach more people and that want to experience more performance and more success.”
The Launch debuts Wednesday, Jan. 10 on CTV. The episode Amy Bishop will air Jan. 31. Amy Bishop plays The Blues Can on Jan. 18.