AHC: You’ve been making music for over a decade now, what's this journey been like for you, its highs and lows, and what life lessons do you feel like you've picked up along the way? Catherine: The journey with my music is parallel in every way with my whole life journey. I suppose it’s not even parallel really, but that they are completely intertwined. I’ve grown as a person - from an extremely shy child making her first recordings to a mother who is comfortable in her own skin and knows, most days, who she is. Music has always been my confidante, who I could tell anything - perhaps much like a therapist, except a therapist who would go then and tell the world about my inner most secrets. What a weird process it’s been. I am very honest, I talk about things in song and on stage that most people wouldn’t tell their mother. I try to approach writing and performance with integrity and vulnerability - and also attempt that in my day to day life. AHC: Do ideas for new songs occur to you at any moment or is it more of a sit-down-and-make-it-happen sort of thing? Which comes first to you, the lyrics or the music? Catherine: Songs seem to come to me from the ether. I feel them coming, sometimes for days like a storm and when I finally sit down with that feeling and a guitar the song seems to flow right out of me. I used to feel that if I took a break in the middle of a song it would disappear. As I get older and more confident with the process I find I can step away and come back to it with clear eyes. I don’t have to settle for the first thing anymore. AHC: Do you have a favorite album or song of all the ones you've recorded throughout your career? Catherine: My favourite album is always my most recent, and Raven’s Sun feels like my best effort to date. We spent a long time working on the songs before hitting the studio and then set up camp in Woodstock NY with Danny Blume for the recording. It was a magical experience being there and I feel like it turned out to be my most honest record yet. It was also the first album that I made together with my partner and guitarist Chris Gauthier. I learned a lot from him in the process. His ear for arrangements is beautiful and it was fun seeing where we could take the songs. AHC: Who are some of your favorite songwriters and musical influences? Is there a particular album or song that you can't live without? Catherine: Some of my favourite songwriters are from the island which I call home - Prince Edward Island - on the east coast of Canada. One named Mitch Schurman and another Chas Guay. Really amazing songwriters who are mostly known only to us here, secret gems. I am a huge fan of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young - they are the backbone of my influences. My favourite albums change fairly often - currently couldn’t live without Hejira by Joni Mitchell - it’s been my favourite many times and keeps coming back to me. AHC: Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? Catherine: I wrote a lot of songs as a really small child, but non were recorded or written down. I do vaguely remember a song I wrote at about age 10, a terribly corny anti-smoking song. Gladly forgotten. It wasn’t until I was a bit older and dealing with the death of my father that I really dug into writing. I’d spend most of my free time hidden away in my bedroom learning guitar and writing super sad poetry and songs. AHC: What were your early musical surroundings like growing up? What were your parents listening to and did any of it have a lasting impact on you? Catherine: Growing up, I was surrounded by music. My dad was a songwriter, well known in Canadian circles, and so people were always coming by to play music with him or we’d be hanging out in a recording studio watching the process go down. My brother and sister and I all played instruments and from time to time a little family jam would happen. Despite all that, I was very shy and it took a lot of forcing myself to get up on a stage as I got older. My parents didn’t listen to a lot of music because it was always playing live in our house. But I do remember dad loving old cowboy songs and jazz standards. He was a big fan of Chuck Berry and Jimmie Rodgers and so much more. AHC: What are your fondest on-tour, on-the-road memories? Catherine: There are so many great memories, it’s hard to narrow it down. Life on the road isn’t easy, but I’m lucky enough to be able to travel often with my partner Chris, which feels like taking a bit of home with me. One of our favourite trips was a tour of Northern Italy, so beautiful! The people, the food, the wine, the coffee, the landscape - it was all incredible. We had an afternoon to kill some time so we went over to an island in Lake Iseo - Monte Isola. Perhaps the most romantic spot I’ve ever been to. A little fishing village terraced along the edge of a cone shaped mountain island coming out of the lake. It was one of those places that we thought, “I could stay here a long time…” but we had a gig elsewhere that night and had to keep driving. Beautiful, though. AHC: Do you have any words of advice for young singer-songwriters who are starting out and struggling to find their voice and their way in the world? Catherine: I feel like the only way to truly find your voice is to spend a lot of time chipping away at the stone. We are constantly creating ourselves and we are like a sculpture. An artist may see what he’s aiming at to sculpt, to shape out of the clay, but he has to keep at it, persevere, and perhaps that process is never over. Above all, believe in yourself, listen to your gut, try on different hats (which helps you sometimes see who you are not), and always be genuine. AHC: Do you have any new projects that are in the works? Catherine: I have so many new projects in the work, I’m trying to keep them all straight. I’ve been working with two other great Prince Edward Island songwriters (Meaghan Blanchard and Ashley Condon) in a trio project called the Eastern Belles. We’ve been writing and performing together and it’s been a nice “vacation” from my real life, a little side excursion that has been a lot of fun so far. I’m working on my next full length record as well as a tribute album for my father Gene. There’s a lot on my plate right now, but I’m loving the creative energy that never seems to wane and is the reason this all started for me in the first place. For more information visit www.catherinemaclellan.com/
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