Photo by Naomi Brierley
Ariana Brophy is the songwriting equivalent of mulled wine; sweet, nostalgic, perfectly paired with a rainy evening and a fireplace. With vocal clarity that would suggest she has been singing a lifetime, she writes songs that weave heartbreak, love, hope and loss onto a canvas of stylized fingerpicking and expert harmony. She crafts her songs with a tuned eye for storyline and a remarkable ear for the moments a heart witnesses before the mind. She is adept at playing to the imagery around her and exploring what it means to genuinely feel. Her first EP ‘Ink And Water’ was nominated for an Edmonton Music Award in 2016, and her second EP ‘Sweet Things’ was released Sept 2016. The summer of 2016 saw Ariana playing Canmore Folk Music Festival, as well as singing harmonies for multiple artists at Edmonton Folk Festival. She continues to sing harmonies on almost any night, for over a dozen other musicians. AHC: What has this journey in music, so far, been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way? It’s been a journey, for sure. I only began playing guitar just under two years ago, so every performance at first was a challenge, every song a huge process to write. I think the hardest parts of the journey so far have been realizing just how far there is to go with my music, and how hard I will have to constantly be working to grow musically. As for highs, I have a few favourite stories, but I’ll share just one. I tell a lot of very personal stories when I play shows, typically sharing revealing information about what each song is about, or what foolish things I did to cause the song to happen, but I find it’s a very, very vulnerable thing. Normally these are stories that I wouldn’t tell most of my friends, let alone a room full of strangers, but I believe that sharing with them the reason for the song is a way for me to help them feel what I felt when I wrote it. The best shows and best nights of my career so far have been ones where people have come up to me, crying or laughing, or just very gentle in their approach, because they felt something, or they connected with me, and they feel they can tell me. AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them? My father is a bass player and a harmony singer, and played in our family band while he grew up, until just over five years ago. He played with his father, one of his sisters, and all of his brothers at some point or another, and even some of my cousins were involved through the years. I was toted from show to show in my carrier, and then would run onstage to take my dad juice boxes, or sit on his amp, and eventually got to sing some songs with my Grandfather or my uncle, so I think music has always been a part of who I was going to be. Specifically though, after I was born my father was laid off and spent a lot of time with me. He used to sing to me or hum in my ears, and I think the songs he used to sing made more of an impact than more popular songs in the following years. If I had to name a few, probably "More Than Words" by Extreme, and “Crying”, “Deliver Me”, and “With These Eyes” by Roch Voisine. AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote? Or that first moment when you picked up a pen and realized that you could create whole worlds just by putting it to paper? Of course! I remember thinking it was incredible, and then looking back a few months ago realizing that it was absolutely atrocious, and quite nauseating. I was sixteen, and so sure that I was in love (I wasn’t) and I had tried to write a love song for this person, being obscure about who they were and using way too many adjectives to describe things that were beautiful but totally unrelated to us. But that was before I’d really ever felt anything profound enough to write, so it came out and fell flat and I’m glad nobody besides my mother ever heard it. AHC: Which musicians have you learned the most from? Or writers, artists, filmmakers etc? I don’t think I could specifically pinpoint one or two artists, but more a melange of art that I have found. I used to use Tumblr (a blogging site) quite frequently, and would save photos or lines from books that spoke to me. For example, a line from “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath reads, “I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery - air, mountains, tress, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’” I found myself collecting things that were subtle in their beauty, and likewise, films like Paris Je T’aime or Dreamers, where not everything is conventional, but they all have a weird sort of raw vulnerability and realness. People aren’t perfect, and I think embracing our imperfections is one of the best ways to make art. I’m not sure if that really answers the question, so as a follow up, I think the artists I learn most from are the people around me who create, who put something of themselves into what they put out into the world. AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, that perfect angle of light, so to speak? If I write a song, and then want to sing it again and again and again, I’ve done something right. Sometimes it is in the progression of the song, in coming home at the end, or finding away to express something I couldn’t without music, but almost always it is the songs where I write about a real feeling, rather than something contrived or an idea for a song. If I feel it deeply, it comes out loudly. It is unapologetic in its honesty, its fragility, in its greeting of the world. It may be a gentle song, but it is sure of itself. AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture, hope lost and regained? Does the writing and creating of the song save you in the kinds of ways that it saves us, the listener? Absolutely. I started writing after my mother passed away when I was a teen, and then again following a traumatic experience, and then again when my family fell apart. We heal ourselves when we acknowledge our weaknesses, because we spend time thinking about them, understanding them, and understanding why we feel the way we do about things. Sometimes I will write a song and then look back on it, only to go, “Where the hell did that come from.” I surprise myself more often than you might expect, and I think that paying attention to what comes out is a big part of why I am still able to write, why I am okay with some things that have happened to me, and why I am able to continue to create. AHC: What are your fondest musical memories? In your house? In your neighborhood or town? On-tour, on-the-road? Most definitely having to do with family, or my closest friends. As I mentioned, my family was very close and musical when I was growing up. Around the holidays, we would gather around the piano, and saxophones and trumpets would come out, as well as my grandfather’s fiddle. The whole family would sing, and the younger kids would dance, and it was everything the holidays are supposed to be, in my opinion. More recently, I get to sing in a trio with my friends Eva Foote and Andrea Vissia. There’s something about the way our voices blend that is invigorating, and I’m going to hold onto that feeling forever. AHC: What would be your dream gig, if you were asked to go on tour and open up for one of your musical heroes or heroines? Honestly, my dream gig or tour would be a tour of house concerts, with audiences that want to hear the stories about the music and really connect. People who want to share in a rare, honest musical experience. Playing with one of my musical idols would be amazing, but I think a dream show would be more amazing if the audience was amazing, rather than if I was playing alongside an amazing musician. Don’t get me wrong, if I had the opportunity to play with the likes of The Staves, or Brandi Carlile, or Keaton Henson, I would very probably jump at the opportunity. However, I feel strongly that the best shows are ones where the audiences are as invested as the musicians. They’re intimate. They’re beautiful. AHC: When you set out to write an album of songs, how much does 'where the world is' in its current moment, culturally, politically, otherwise, influence the kinds of stories you set out to tell, if at all? The state of the world is unavoidably involved. I don’t often sit down with the intention of writing a song about something political or cultural, but these things do tend to find their way into writing, because they’re important. Recently, as a lot of my old love songs have worked their way out of my system, I’ve found myself writing about things that I feel strongly about, like feminism, equality, and the rights and lives of minorities. We’re in an unfortunately toxic time for a lot of people, and the best way that I can think to fight the hate and anger and fear in the world is to write about it, and share love, resilience, and peace. Art has been one of the greatest ways to create conversation and change through history, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. AHC: Do you have any words of advice for other musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are just starting out and trying to find their voice and their way in this world? I know you're at an early moment in your own journey, but what are the kinds of things that you tell yourself when you begin to have doubts or are struggling with the creative process? Don't compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to yourself, and listen to your own work, but listening to others should not be about who is better, and who is worse. You are on a completely different journey than the musicians around you, and only you know if you’re making music that is doing justice to what you are capable of. You may not be the best at any of the things you are trying to do, but you can always be better, and trying to be a better songwriter, a better musician, and a better person is all that you can do. AHC: Do you have any new projects in the works you'd like to tell people about? It’s less a new project as it is an ongoing one. I’m working to continue to write with as much vulnerability and openness as possible. Lately, that has been a lot about acknowledging my mental health struggles, and the struggles in my family while we deal with my father’s recent Traumatic Brain Injury, and the associated challenges that now face him every day, and will for the rest of his life. Visit arianabrophy.com/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |