ive been thinking back to my awkward first attempts as a songwriter and musician, which were when i was about six or seven. i remember because we moved from the house on Glenellen Drive in St. Catharines when i was nine, and i had three or four primitive tunes going by then. One was a co-write with a kid from around the corner. We put together a girl group and whoever had an instrument was in. Since i owned a toy piano (a little white plastic baby grand, no less) i was the keyboard player. Nobody could actually play but it didnt stop us giving concerts on the front lawn. We were The Bluejays but then i think it was decided we needed a name that was more psychedelic and changed it to The Eyeballs.
My brother was twelve years older and had a band too. His was for real though, covering classic rock like The Beatles and The Guess Who. Groupies swooned and fawned when they rehearsed in our basement. My other brother had a thing for glam - Bowie, Alice Cooper and Kiss. Mum dug Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck while for Dad it was Spike Jones, and George Formby. i loved it all.
Later on, at eighteen or so, i battered a Korg Polysix about in an Ottawa-based band for a while and had great fun just being a sideman. Then, back in Niagara, i became a wing-woman in Happy As Hell - my duo with Michael DAmico - where i was writing and singing songs that had a lot of whimsy and humour.
Flying solo, the music got darker. i taught myself to play guitar. Its proved to have made a very good floatation device for many a magnificent fiery plane crash into the ocean!
i moved to Toronto, released Tomorrow The World in 2004, and now im close to finishing a follow-up CD - which brings me to this moment.
Well, wherever you are at present, our world is in pretty ominous shape. Were left to cope. i guess i am just an extremist who longs for a (re)union of the opposites, trying to balance all the contradictions and let thorny bliss find a way. A midway. At the carnival. Maybe win myself a little stuffed monkey on a bamboo cane. Beauty is a discipline. Devotion is lovemaking. Joy will out. Be still, my bursting heart.
