Laila Biali to jazz up Mercury Room
Laila Biali says touring with big acts helped her own songwriting
Laila Biali & The Radiance Project With: special guests F& M When: Wednesday at 7 p.m. Where: Mercury Room, 10575 114th St. Tickets: $18 in advance at yeglive.ca and Blackbyrd Myoozik, $22 at the door
Juno Award-nominated artist Laila Biali originally conceived her current art-pop project — Laila Biali & the Radiance Project’s House of Many Rooms — as a collaborative jazz record.
In 2006, the Brooklynbased singer and pianist, who’s originally from Vancouver, was well-established in the jazz world. She brought her idea to the charitable arts organization Imago.
But in the midst of her fundraising efforts with the institution, Biali was scooped up by Paula Cole to accompany her on tour. Then Suzanne Vega, and eventually Sting.
Supporting them on the road sent the Radiance Project in a totally new direction, which finally culminated with House of Many Rooms’ release on April 14, and her current cross-country tour.
The tour sees Biali performing her original songs with her husband, Ben Wittman, who co-produced the album and mans the rhythm section, plus bassist Chris Tarry and multi-instrumentalists Anna Atkinson and Graham Campbell.
Having only a handful of musicians recreating the album’s orchestral, jazz-- indebted, harmony-fuelled pop songs is the fun part — for musicians and audiences alike.
Look out for violin, accordion, musical saw, multiple guitars and ukulele — just to name a few — backing up Biali on lead vocals and keys.
Q: How did touring with Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega and Sting shift the Radiance Project’s focus?
A: I became interested in songwriting. As a jazz musician, I was mostly known for my instrumental writing or arranging other people’s songs. But these songs started emerging and I kept trying to make them work with my jazz material and it just wasn’t a natural fit.
My husband said, “There’s nothing saying you can’t branch out and try something new,” and I thought, “Oh, maybe this is what the Radiance Project is.”
We started recording the songs about three years ago ... I was hearing a gospel choir and a string orchestra and a six-piece horn section — it became really expansive. My dream is to capture some of my existing jazz fans but then bring in some new listeners.
Q: I imagine some of the venues on this tour are a lot more intimate than the concert halls you often play.
A: I love the energy and intimacy of these clubs. To be closer to the listeners and a little bit more interactive as a result, just by virtue of the space? I’m excited about that. To some degree they do attract a different crowd, and we’re wanting to do that.
Q: You’ve got some pretty powerful backup vocals on the album, care of Lisa Fischer.
A: Not only is she a freak of a singer, she’s probably the most beautiful person I have met in the industry. She’s not featured in the way that I would LOVE to have her featured, but she’s on the bulk of the tracks as a background singer and where you can really hear her is at the end of the track on Shadowlands — she starts riffing and she did that spontaneously in one take out of nowhere and we were like, “OK, you killed that. We’re keeping it!”
Q: Has writing for the Radiance Project made it easier to write jazz?
A: I’ll let you know when I cross that bridge. I showed Ron Sexsmith some of the songs that I had written for my jazz stuff, and he loved them, and that’s a good sign because I respect Ron as much as I respect any songwriter. Lyrics, for me, are the greatest challenge. I feel pretty confident when it comes to harmony, melody and arranging, but lyric-writing is a whole other craft, so I’m excited to learn from people like Ron and Sting and Paula and Suzanne.
Q: Will the Radiance Project carry on after this album and tour?
A: A few people on the jazz side have said, “Well, this isn’t so far off from your jazz material, why don’t you find a way to marry the two sounds and have it all under the Laila Biali umbrella?” But I haven’t been able to reconcile them yet in my mind. So I still envision an alteration cycle. My next release will probably be in the new year and it’s going to be with my jazz group and I’ll be co-writing with Paula Cole and hopefully Sting.
But no matter what, everything is gonna end up more in the original writing realm. I can always cover, and arranging people’s music is second nature. But the fertile soil is with original songwriting and it’s what I think will connect with people more deeply.
Q: Any butterflies about putting yourself out there as an indie-pop artist?
A: I have butterflies about seeing how the excitement about it translates into people coming out.