RAE SPOON EXPLORES A FUNNY SIDE IN PRINT
‘It was nice to write something lighter,’ artist says
There are many benefits to being a critically acclaimed author and singer-songwriter known for exploring dark, personal terrain and speaking up for the marginalized.
But if there is one downside to the reputation Calgary-born Rae Spoon has earned over the past 20 years, it’s that they have never been known for having a robust sense of humour. Anyone who has seen the transgender performer on stage knows this isn’t really fair. Throughout the years, Spoon’s storytelling skills have evolved to include what is often very funny between-song banter.
Still, Spoon — who prefers to use the gender-neutral pronoun they — tends to be known for darker work, regardless of the medium they happen to be working in. Spoon’s first book, First Spring Grass Fire, was an occasionally harrowing collection of autobiographical short stories that chronicled the struggles of growing up queer in a strict Pentecostal family. The National Film Board documentary My Prairie Home by Chelsea McMullan covered similar ground, as did the accompanying soundtrack. So fans might be surprised at the tone of Spoon’s How to (Hide) Be(hind) Your Songs, the most recent title from The Kola-kovsky Press’s series of tonguein-cheek instructional booklets. It follows Geoff Berner’s How to Be an Accordion Player, Carolyn Mark’s How to Be a Boozy Chanteuse and Kris Demeanor’s How to Be An Asshole of Calgary.
“It was nice to write something lighter,” says Spoon, in an interview from Victoria. “I’ve been having a pretty good time for many years now.”
The booklet is described as an “easy-to-use manual ... based on thirty-six years of experience of escaping uncomfortable identity issues using music.” Accordingly, it finds Spoon occasionally poking fun at their shifting identify as an artist over the years. That includes a series of photos that chronicle various iterations of their “look.” There’s the Cowboy, which covers Spoon’s early years as a western-shirted country-rockabilly player. The Artist Does Their own Hair for a Shoot shows Spoon sporting a frighteningly unruly coif. And finally, there is Late Bloomer Goth, which happens to be the publicity photo Spoon is currently using.
But while much of the book is comical, Spoon said it was also helpful to explore their approach to songwriting
“It made me realize what I like so much about writing songs,” says Spoon, who will play the King Eddy on March 15 as part of the National Music Centre’s Alberta Spotlight series.
“I think it’s important to not find your own songs too important, or be serious all the time. At the same time, I think it’s good to look at the basic structure of something that you do all the time. I learned that I like songs where lots of people can relate to them. It raises that idea that it’s a big communication tool for me.”
Spoon’s most recent musical project was 2017’s My Side of the Mountain, a joint album with Seattle singer-songwriter and visual artist Clyde Petersen.
“Clyde and I have known each other for years,” says Spoon. “His dad lives on a boat and once floated next to the Vancouver Folk Festival and heard me play and went back to Seattle and told Clyde about me. It was super fun and laid back. Clyde would write a song and I’d hear it and write one. We wrote on our own, but kind of in response to each other.”
A full-length followup to Spoon’s 2016 Amour is scheduled for a September release and will find the artist moving away from electronic music and back to the dark, experimental folk found on the raw 2008 breakthrough album, Superioryouareinferior.
While Spoon had released a handful of traditional country albums prior to 2008, they consider Superior their true beginnings as an artist. It kick-started a wildly creative and often soul-searching period for Spoon, who followed it with four albums that drifted into more electro-pop territory and established them as one of the country’s finest songwriters. Superior included a number of tunes about identity and isolation, some of which were interpreted as chronicling the artist’s not-always rosy view of their hometown. On the classic, My Heart is a Piece of Garbage, Fight Seagulls! Fight! — recently covered by friend Geoff Berner on his Canadiana Grotesquica album — Spoon described the Calgary Tower as a giant fist.
Five years ago, their artistic pursuits seem to turn almost purely autobiographical, with Spoon telling a Calgary-set, coming-ofage story of family dysfunction, mental illness and religious intolerance through short stories, McMullen’s NFB documentary and its soundtrack.
“People change so fast,” Spoon says. “That came out five years ago and I feel like I have a totally different life now. It feels like a portrait of a period of time. I’m glad that we made it. Even from then, I have a different relationship with Calgary. I’m running a record label now (Coax Records) and growing into being part of the business side of things, which is really interesting. I’m starting to mentor folks about the industry, working with lots of other bands. It feels like I have much more space in my life now to work with other people now that I’ve worked out my own stuff.”
Rae Spoon plays the King Eddy as part of the National Music Centre’s Alberta Spotlight Series on March 15. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.