Category Archive for "CityFolk Ottawa" | Sound Check Entertainment

Feature photo by Salam Basalamah

Born and raised in Ottawa, Audrey Saparno has been strumming her acoustic guitar and weaving warm tunes since as long as she can remember. No, seriously, she’s been singing since before she could even talk. Citing influences from Joni Mitchell, Dawud Wharnsby and her hometown’s own Lynn Miles, her music rolls into the waves of folk with a couple of drops of R&B in the water. It all makes for a gorgeous sound when it all washes up on the shore.

As a Canadian Muslim woman, Saparno has strived to write songs that reflect who she is as well as draw inspiration from her cultural background. Her lyrics tell the stories of women empowerment, spiritual love and the path to hope through life’s many challenges. In 2014, her song “She Misunderstood” won in the Folk Music Ontario, Songs From the Heart songwriting competition under the Multicultural sub-category.

Saparno is part of CityFolk’s Marvest showcase of local talents performing two shows over the weekend. On Saturday she’ll be at BMO Lansdowne at 1PM before scooting over to Metro Music for another performance at 2.

Photo by Tamam Ahmed Jama

Soundcheck Entertainment’s Andre Gagne chats with the musician about what continues to drive her music, working on her first EP and that time one of her tunes won her Sens tickets!

Andre Gagne: Nearly all wee ones love to sing but you took it to another level as a kid. While you were in still in elementary school you started learning vocal techniques and even entered into some competitions. What do you feel had you sticking with singing as a youngster?

Audrey Saparno: I had a really wonderful music teacher in elementary school. Her name was Jean Millet (wow I still remember her name). I auditioned for the school’s competitive choir when I was in grade 2. She was impressed with my voice and I was impressed with her professionalism. I stayed in that choir until grade 6 where we did school concerts and won numerous Kiwanis music competitions. In grade 6, I finally got a choir solo (finally beating out the boys), and I just felt like I learned a lot and as a choir we had achieved much with Mrs. Millet.

As for the guitar, this was initially a self-taught instrument for you, right, also at a young age? How did you go about learning to play without more formal lessons?

I think I was just a very stubborn kid. I don’t know but I just felt that my mom had to work hard to buy me my first guitar, and so I wanted to make good use of it. The only way was to keep at it on my own. So we bought a beginner’s guitar book and an easy chord book for Beatles songs. There was no YouTube then, but I really wanted to play Yesterday. I remember coming home after school, and just getting right to it. Eventually I did learn how to play that song, and performed it a couple years later at my grade 8 school assemblies.

Ottawa’s own Lynn Miles is one of your influences. How did you discover her music and what was it about it that inspired you?

My brother came home one day with her tape which I think he had picked up from the Ottawa Folklore Centre. Yeah it was a long time ago. I was impressed with her voice and her lyrics. I later followed her future recordings, and attended her concerts. She always gave a good show that reflected her recordings. Then there was that song where she had an “Audrey” in it. So, I thought that was pretty cool too. I felt her were lyrics were simple but so touching – the best kind of song-writing.

How did you find transitioning into writing your own music?

To be honest, I never thought I could write a song let alone perform it in front of people. But about 10 years ago, I joined Expressions of Muslim Women (EMW). We started a show to promote the creative capacities of Muslim women in the National Capital Region. We wanted original work to be presented. I was encouraged to participate as well, by writing my own songs. I felt I had to try. It really was the start to my song-writing. Through EMW, I met with another local Muslim musician who supported my work. I later attended song-writing workshops, where my first was with Lynn Miles at the Ottawa Folklore Centre. To get her critique and supportive words, just pushed me even more to continue writing.

Can you share with me what themes are important to you when you are writing new music?

I think the themes have been evolving over the years, reflecting the stages of life that I’m going through I suppose. I have my Islamic-centric songs that have talked about things like Ramadhan, Hajj, loving God etc. So those songs are meant to reflect upon and share my spirituality and faith with others. I have my songs about women empowerment especially for single Muslim women (and all women in general) to feel good about themselves. Lately I have been focusing on personal challenges, like my most recent ones talk about my mom’s passing and another about the idea of setting boundaries with people. I guess themes keep evolving, but I have to admit I am not one to write love songs. I think there are enough songs out there about that.

You have also spoken of how you want to reflect your culture as a Canadian Muslim woman through your music. How are some of the ways you feel you have done that?

Yes well, I truly agree with the notion that one has to write from what they know. I do like the songs out there on the radio, sometimes, but other times, I just felt that I could not relate to words of the songs, or that I would want to add more to the lyrics. Some of my songs are very spiritual in essence and talk about Muslim events. But I also throw in some concepts from the Quran in my songs, like in “Be and It Is” but through Muslim women characters in the verses. What I attempt to do is to talk about Muslim women stories in my songs, in a way that the listener doesn’t think of her as the “other”, but as it could be any other woman, or human being.

Can you tell me more about your experience with Expressions of Muslim Women?

EMW has been a wonderful experience, from supporting me with my music, to allowing me to meet other artists in the community and to encourage and support new artists. Then there is the audience who attend these shows who are always diverse and supportive. It’s a lot of work, but we have such an amazing supportive team of dedicated and committed women. It will be our 10^th annual show on November 17^th, so we’re already gearing up for it.

I heard one of your tunes actually won you some box seats to see the Sens play? How did that all come about?

That was in 2007, I was listening to CBC radio one Monday morning where they mentioned a contest to win box seats to one of the Stanley Cup final games. One had to write and perform a song that incorporated what you knew about the Sens, and why you should be at the game. I remember being at my lab job, and while I was performing my experiments, coming up with lyrics, like “girl in hijab, yep that’s me, been watching hockey ever since I was three” and “Heatly, Spezza, Alfie line, gets the puck through, every time”. Then I came up with a sort of big band jazz melody and sent it in the next morning. By the Thursday I was called in to appear at the CBC studios to perform my song with 7 other finalists picked from over a hundred entries. On the Friday, I won the tickets, and attended the only game they won in that series on the Saturday night. I was so grateful.

I imagine “She Misunderstood” winning the Folk Music Ontario Songs From the Heart songwriting competition in the multicultural category was such a reaffirming accolade on the artistic path you’d taken. How did you react when you heard you won?

Initially I was shocked- like “am I reading the email correctly?” But it was addressed to me saying that I had won. I was so grateful and it just really encouraged me in continuing to write and perform my songs. On another note, that song came out after attending my song-writing workshops with Lynn Miles, so after telling my family, she was the next person I told.

I was fortunate to see you perform at the Ontario Scene songwriter’s circle in 2015 with Amanda Rheaume, Chris Maclean, Ian Tamblyn, and Jill Zmud (to name a few). How did you find being surrounded by so many other talented songwriters?

I was really nervous coming in that show. I was very familiar with the works from all of those artists. I was so grateful to be on the bill, but also a little worried that I would stand out as an amateur on the stage. But at the end of the night, it was really a lot of fun, and everyone was so supportive.

Can you share some of your experiences in working on your first EP Beauty Inside?

In 2015, I really wanted to try recording in a professional studio a few of my songs. I just wanted to do a few to get a feel for what it would be like (both in a logistics and financial sense). I was recommended by Lynn to work with James Stephens, Stove Studios, in Chelsea Quebec. We recorded in March 2016 a few songs one day. We wound up doing 5 songs to which James said that would be enough for an EP. It was a few days of laying down guitar and vocal tracks. Then months of back and forth emails with his suggestions for other instrumental tracks to each song. It felt like a long process, but I was able to release the album in October 2016. I learned though the need to keep your songs in time, and to really have them polished as much as you can before you go in studio. I had such a good experience and James was really great to work with.

With a slew of songs now to choose from, how did you narrow your selections down to the five you placed on the actually album?

At that time, those five songs were the ones I was really comfortable performing so that was part of the criteria to recording them. Also, a few were songs that I had performed in past shows, and got compliments from audience members. I also thought that together they covered many of the themes I like sharing in my songs, that of spirituality, women empowerment, and a song about why I sing (i.e. Beauty Inside). These songs mean a lot to me, because they reflect much of me in the lyrics and allow me to share my love for singing them.

You’ve been asked to play the always popular Marvest branch off the CityFolk tree, certainly a wonderful gig considering the festival is celebrating 25 years this year. Where are you playing and what do you have planned for those shows?

I am so grateful to be invited to play at Marvest. I am playing two 30-minute sets, on Saturday; first at 1pm at BMO Lansdowne, and then at 2pm at Metro Music. I plan to play a few new songs, songs from my EP and a couple of well-loved covers.

What’s next for you?

I hope to keep writing and performing new songs for the next year, then to record a full length album. God-willing.