Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Annabelle was immersed in Montreal’s eclectic arts scene in the 90’s and early 2000’s, performing regularly at Le Boudoir, a queer, feminist 1920s-inspired cabaret series, and self-releasing four full-length albums between 1997-2003. In 2004 Annabelle joined The Wailin’ Jennys and wrote four songs on the multiple award-winning album Firecracker. After departing from the Jennys, she released the album Resilience (2008), produced by Roma Baran (Laurie Anderson) and Vivian Stoll, Rise (2012), co-produced with Don Kerr (Rheostatics, Ron Sexsmith), and Be The Media (2015), co-produced with Jeff Oehler. Rise was nominated for a Juno Award in the Roots and Traditional Album of the Year category, and both Rise and Resilience were nominated for Contemporary Album of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Annabelle also co-wrote two songs with Bruce Cockburn for his Juno-winning album A Small Source of Comfort (2011).
Please take a moment and give us some background info about becoming an artist?
I’ve been creatively engaged since I was a kid, and was given loads of opportunities to explore different aspects of music making and production from a very young age. I thank my folks for all the music lessons, the choir, the music toys. Somewhere around my teens I realized that writing songs could be cathartic and therapeutic, and that when shared with other people there was some magic connection going on – a feedback loop that I had to keep pursuing. I came of age in a scene in Montreal in the 90’s, where I was studying Fine Art. The best nights out were these variety shows, cabarets with a pile of acts – poets, musicians, dancers and performance artists. That’s where I started playing my tunes in public and connecting with other artists. Rent was cheap and people were hyper creative and exploratory. I started touring around within a kind of feminist DIY scene. It was a great way to get started, there was a lot of mutual support.
Tell us a bit about your musical direction.
My musical direction has been fairly convoluted. I’m a bit like a balloon, following air currents as they appear… or a sponge, soaking up whatever environment I’m in. Somewhere along the line the folk world really embraced me, and being involved in that scene has always been affirming and heart-warming. My last record was definitely rock though… and then somehow this new record feels like a return to earlier influences. The jazz I’ve always loved lives alongside an exploration of my connection to Uruguay and its musical culture. I married a Canadian/Uruguayan and we’ve been visiting every year for over a decade, so it was bound to happen. This record and its artistic evolution came out of that connection.
Tell us about the recording process behind “String of Pearls”
I had some songs I’d been working on for years and in 2018, I went down to Uruguay to create some demos with Fernando Rosa, one of my two co-producers. After coming back to Canada, we continued the process remotely, and I branched off into connections with musicians here in Toronto. Fernando continued working on arrangements in Montevideo and recorded many of the parts in a makeshift studio in his living room, with a mattress up on the wall. He was able to draw some incredible musicians from his expansive community – horns, winds, bandoneon, strings – and would send us the parts as he got them recorded. In the meantime, I worked on my parts with David Travers-Smith, and we did sessions here with some fantastic musicians to capture some of the songs that draw heavily from Django-era Hot Club Swing. We weren’t quite finished tracking when the pandemic hit, and so we had to re-learn a way to work on things. We had bits and pieces from different sessions, engineers, levels of quality, and David, with his high fidelity skills, was able to unify it all. We weren’t able to finish the mix and the remaining tracking in person, and that gave us time to really dig into some details, letting go of the original plan for release last Fall and luxuriating on getting things exactly how we wanted.
Are there any shows/live streams upcoming to showcase your talent?
Toronto JUST hit a new level of lockdown, so our planned venue stream with band got cancelled. We’ll get there. However I will be doing a solo set from my garage/studio on May 25, 7pm, EST for @MusicMyMotherWouldNotLike on FB, and occasionally hop onto IG to kick out a tune or two from here. We did manage to make some great videos right before lockdown that feature more of the bands from Uruguay and Toronto/Montreal, and we’ll keep releasing them one by one on my Youtube page, https://www.youtube.com/channel/AnnabelleChvostekMusic
What is the biggest struggle for you as a musician at the moment?
At the moment my creative challenge is to try to play these tunes alone. The creative process was so much about connecting with and featuring wonderful musicians, and I am still trying to wrap my own hands around making it work solo. It’s also fun though. I left room for instrumental solos in the tunes and now I’m doing more vocal improvisation, which can fall off a cliff pretty fast but keeps it interesting for me. Another challenge is not connecting to the magic of a live audience. It’s the fuel, really. We would have been in the UK and Europe on tour right now. I’m in a super lucky position considering what’s happening around the globe though, and in many communities at home. So I don’t forget that.
How have you been keeping creative during the Pandemic?
The biggest focus shift that happened creatively was the move towards making videos for the songs, getting into making little art films, which has been a wonderful creative collaboration with director Carlos Coronado, and my partner Ximena Griscti, as well as an incredible way to work with filmmakers, choreographers, actors and dancers in different ways as we’ve shifted in and out of levels of lockdown. FACTOR has been very generous in helping us with this. It’s been satisfying in this time of no shows. I’ve also had some great dance parties with my little three person family unit.
What are your plans for the rest of 2021?
I’ll keep seeking ways to get the music out, play and produce much as possible, jam with friends in parks when I can, keep practicing, keep learning. I’ve been Commissioned to write a solo cello piece by The Primavera Project for Matt Haimovitz, so that’ll be another exciting challenge in the coming months.
I also made a commitment to mindfulness practice, qi gong and gyrokinesis. I study the latter two with teachers from Montreal via zoom. These are the main antidotes to my physical and mental challenges in these times, so I plan to keep those regular. I have no idea really, what will happen next, but this helps with body and mind, and navigating the plans that keep shifting.
Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with in particular?
I’d love to write a conversational duet with Tom Waits. Come to think of it, I’d love to write a conversational duet with Uruguayan singer/songwriter, Samantha Navarro as well. I’d also love to make a music score for an iconic choreographer like Pina Bausch or Marie Choinard. That’s a whole other thing. I love working with dance.
When you kick back who are some of the artists you listen to?
A Uruguayan band called Cuarteto Ricacosa has been a big one. Their album “Bien Parejito” (2008) is part of the tango tradition and revival in Uruguay that I fell in love with, and discovering it was so exciting for me. Also, for me, having a trans-cultural translator around helped me enjoy the songs all the more, though the music alone is an incredible experience.
There’s a great series of YouTube videos of another Uruguayan songwriter named Papina de Palma. She’s amazing. In one video she sings with a Murga (Uruguayan carnival choir) and I’ve watched it a hundred times. She sings of the Parque Rodó, the central park of Montevideo with river view. I’ve spent a lot of beautiful moments there with loved ones, and think of it every time.
I’m also enjoying nerding out on the legacy of Django Reinhardt, his work with violinist Stephane Grapelli, and all the incredibly amazing guitar playing that he spawned. It’s a wonderful wormhole to go down streaming, considering its deep connection to both American jazz and European/Romani traditions.
