Finding freedom
Canadian singer Rae Spoon on living without labels,
Canadian singer-songwriter and author Rae Spoon has decided to hang up the hat on an issue that has plagued the artist since childhood: fitting into gender norms. For the past year, Spoon, a transgender person, has asked to be referred to as neither “he” nor “she.”
Growing up in a religious family in Calgary, Spoon knew from a very young age that living as a female was not working. Even though Spoon had been taught to be a girl from a young age, it felt wrong.
Spoon came out as a transgender man at the age of 22. But despite trying for 10 years, the male identity didn’t seem to fit either.
Last year, Spoon announced publicly that “they” was a more appropriate pronoun for the artist than “she” or “he.”
“There are so many kinds of transgender identities,” Spoon says. “Personally, I identify as transgender and I go by the pronoun ‘they.’”
A transgender person can be roughly defined as someone whose behaviour, thoughts and physical traits differ from societal expectations for their gender. When it comes to self-expression, refusing to be labelled as male or female has opened up a world of freedom for Spoon.
“I think the division of saying what you can do as either a male, female or trans person — I don’t think those rules need to exist. For me, I just disregard them.”
Feeling constrained by traditional definitions of gender, Spoon explains that choosing between being strictly male or female was not a real choice at all.
“I just decided I would rather retire from gender.”
According to Spoon, the decision to adopt a genderless identity has been received well, for the most part, over the past year.
“I haven’t had too much backlash,” Spoon says, adding that only a few incidents stand out in memory.
“In one article, someone said the only awkward thing about me was my pronoun, which was kind of rude.”
But Spoon’s fans have not been fazed by the neutral pronoun. They had already been supportive of Spoon as a trans man for a decade, but above all, they supported Spoon’s music.
By 2009, the Canadian music community began to take serious notice of Spoon, who was among 40 Canadian artists long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize for the album superior you are inferior.
Saturday, Spoon will perform at the National Arts Centre, a debut that marks another leap in prominence for the musician.
Spoon’s increased popularity can be attributed in part to the success of the 2012 album, I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets. The musician experimented with more electronic beats and sounds than in past albums, while maintaining the clear, alto vocals that Spoon became known for in earlier country-folk songs.
“I lived in Germany for about two years,” Spoon recalls. “I was exposed to a lot more electronic music and made friends who were making it. I learned how to do it while I was there.”
I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets was also written as a reflection on the death of Spoon’s close friend.
“I wanted to write an album about grief because I thought it would be interesting and musically it’s interesting too.
“If there is a grieving process after someone dies, it’s often not just a low; there are also a lot of highs. It just feels like a very complicated thing. I thought it would be interesting to explore that lyrically and musically.”
In addition to the album, Spoon’s first book was released in September 2012. First Spring Grass Fire is “technically a fiction,” because names and places have been changed, Spoon explains, calling the book a “loose autobiography.”
As with last year’s album, Spoon’s book touches upon the theme of music as a device for dealing with challenges in life. The protagonist, also named Rae, struggled growing up as a transgender person, feeling completely alone and unaware that other options — such as a trans identity — existed. Music became an escape from those challenges and helped to draw Rae out of isolation.
After a busy 2012, Spoon has no intention of taking a break, with plans to release a new, acoustic-based album in August, introducing a “bigger sound” than in previous works.
“I tried to make it more cinematic, so there’s a lot of trumpets and cellos.” The album will be released in conjunction with a film titled My Prairie Home, a documentary-musical by Canadian filmmaker Chelsea McMullan, about Spoon’s experiences growing up in Alberta.
Ottawa fans will get a preview of the new album at Spoon’s show Saturday. The singer promises to play a few songs from the new album and read stories from the documentary as well.
Watch a video of Rae Spoon’s Love is a Hunter at myspace.com/music/ player? sid=69527654&ac=now