FEBRUARY 11, 2010

ROCKWIRED spoke with LINDA BROOKS over the phone. Here is how it went.

THE SPACES IN BETWEEN is your return to music. How do you feel about the finished work now that everything that has gone into it is behind you?
I feel great about it actually. It was taking the time that we took with it that makes it great. I was determined that after this long that I was going to make sure that the CD wasn’t going out until I felt 100% sure that I was happy with it and felt as if I had given to it everything that I could give. I feel great about it. It was a great lesson in taking your time and making sure that you’ve got things the way you want them before you let go of it. I think in that way, you end up feeling easier about setting it free.

The title “THE SPACES IN BETWEEN’ has an interesting origin.
I think that the obvious interpretation would have to be the amount of time that I spent away in between albums which is in part somewhat relevant but the inspiration for the title came from a documentary called ‘HELVETICA’. At one time it was the most popular typeset used in advertising.  I rented the documentary and there was a gentlemen speaking in it about the reasons for why Helvetica is so visually appealing. He said that people think that it’s the size of the lettering or the shape of the letters themselves but that what they had come to believe was that the white spaces between the lettering was what made it visually appealing. I thought that was very interesting and a great metaphor for how we were approaching the musical side of things at the time and trying to let things breathe where they needed to and to hold back from overdoing things. It was also a great metaphor for life.

What do you think is different his time around from your first release?
Personally, things have changed a lot because I’ve become a mom and that has impacted me in a lot of different ways. It’s affected my writing and how I see the world. It’s made me more conscious of everything that is going on in the world and in turn it has definitely impacted my songwriting. I would also say that one of the changes also has a lot to do with the benefits of time and the wisdom that comes with a few more years and taking a little more ownership of the whole process and making sure that I felt one-hundred-percent satisfied with the direction that things were going in and that I was honest to who I was in letting my personal, songwriting voice get heard. I think I’ve become more comfortable with being myself and that has benefited the album.

Having grown up in the farms of New Brunswick, how did music begin for you?
I grew up in a really musical family. My grandmother was of Scottish descent so there was a lot of music around us. My dad was really musical. I guess when you grow up in a remote area like that, you’re more dependent upon creating your own entertainment. I think that it was always there and always available to us just because my grandmother was so musical. I guess you could say that it was something that I could easily take for granted just because it was all around. Having my grandparents live so close by also helped. Everyday after school I would go to her house. She was a great musician, though she never pursued it professionally. She was always playing the piano. I was immersed in music without realizing that it was being taught to me from a very early age. It’s a part of my heritage. It’s a part of who I am. It seems odd not to find a way to express it.

What kind of music spoke to you?
Even though I grew up in this family farm situation, so I was certainly hearing a variety of things. My grandmother exposed me to the Celtic side of things and my dad was really interested in Country music. One of my uncles sings opera so it was a wide variety. We lived in a small town that borders the United States by Maine so we were getting a lot of the AC pop radio from the States. It was a mixture of Canadian radio and the pop stuff that was coming from the States and this melting pot of music that I immersed in by my family. I kid of feel like I had a little taste of everything.

At what point did the singer-songwriter emerge?
In hindsight I can see that person beginning to emerge when I wasn’t realizing that it wasn’t happening. I started writing poetry at pretty young age. Although I really wasn’t thinking along the lines music at the time, I would say that that was the beginning of the lyricist in me. The other thing that contributed to that was that I really wanted to take piano lessons at a very young age. I had three older sisters who had started young at playing piano and then just didn’t keep up with it. As a result, my parents made me wait a bit longer, hoping that it might stick with me. From watching my grandmother, I actually learned how to play by ear but as soon as I started taking piano lessons I found myself frustrated with having to stay confined to the page. I guess it started then but then I really started focusing on it during my University days. I had gone to law school and found myself drifting off during class. I found myself starting to write song and melodies. The music and the lyrics were starting to take shape at the same time.

Describe how songwriting works for you.
It is kind of hard to describe because I’m not even sure once it’s finished how it happens. For me I would say that I’m an incredibly prolific writer but that wouldn’t be the truth. The music and the lyrics usually come to me at the same time. I’ll be sitting down and playing the piano. Someone once told me that the real work in songwriting is mostly sitting at the piano and I think there is a lot of truth in that. You may not get a song every time but when you show up often enough and you’re kind of working your way across the keyboard, something will come and sometimes it’s rare that you get a song that just takes shape but most of the time, I find an idea that starts to form. For me, those ideas come from something that I’ve been mulling over in my mind or something that’s been in my subconscious for a while or something I’ve been observing in different situations but it’s the same theme over and over . My process seems to be working things out in my subconsciousness and then it finds its way onto the paper after that. In writing with my co-producer, he gave me this piece of music and I found it very evocative. After listening to it for a while, I just sort of opened myself up to whatever came to me. I think when you are relaxed and not trying as hard some of those gems come to you. 

What made you think that now was a good time to make this record?
I actually started working on this CD about three years ago. I took my time with and that was for a variety of reasons. When I first started working on this CD, my children were of an age where I had a little bit more time in my life and it wasn’t like those early years of motherhood marked by heavy lifting and sleep deprivation. I had missed music the entire time I had been away from it and writing was how I had dealt with that sense of missing it. There came a time where I couldn’t bare to not do it anymore. I reached a point in my life where you see people becoming ill. One of my friends had been diagnosed with Cancer at the time although she’s doing great now. All of those things came to a head at one time and it just made me realize that while it was great to take the time away, I didn’t have forever to put this thing on hold. The kids were at a good stage for me to step back into it. The music was calling me and I decided to answer.

Who did you work with on this CD?
I worked with this producer named JAMES LOGAN. He was actually a friend of a musician friend and he had done some work with them. They had really sung his praises and I had met him once or twice and it just seemed to be a very easy fit from a personality perspective which is a good place to start. I just really think that he was the right person for me at the right time to do this project. I felt like I was encouraged always to do my best. He creates a completely non judgmental atmosphere. When you’re trying to push yourself to be your best creatively sometimes you have to go to far to know where the line is. You have to be with someone who allows you to do that and makes you feel comfortable to take the chances that you should be taking. I don’t think those songs could’ve had a better friend. JAMES was a wonderful, wonderful producer to work with and I would absolutely love to work with him again. He made the whole experience a real pleasure. His entire motivation is completely about the music.

What songs off of this album resonate for you the most and why?
That’s difficult! That’s like asking me which one of my children is my favorite.

I know! I hear that a lot.
With that being said, it changes form time to time. I would say that the consistent favorites are the first track ‘TRYIN’ which has a lot of importance to me. That is what interests me about both writing and people – the common thread that runs through all of us. We all come from different worlds and different experiences and we live in a world where our differences are what are highlighted but there is so much about our humanity that connects us. That really intrigues me and I think that song speaks about that the most. That song really resonates with me. I also really enjoy performing that song. It’s really fun to play on the piano and for whatever reason, I really enjoy the energy of that song. SMALLTOWN is kind of a sentimental favorite. It was inspired by that small place that I grew up in but more about the metaphor of that process that we go through where we run away from that small town. We think that the way we grew u is kind of ordinary and we go looking for something more glamorous and interesting. Sometimes I feel like the farther you get away from that the more realize how good you had it. In many ways it defines who you are as a person. That song is kind of a sentimental favorite for me. I would say that STAY is one of my favorites in terms of how it went down because that song was done live off the floor. We added the cello in afterwards but it’s one of those really special moments in the studio that you hear people talk about that you might not get on every song. It was a magical night when we recorded it and I will always remember the setting in which it was done and how it went down. NOT GONNA TAKE IT is my husband’s favorite, so it’s my favorite now, too. My boys love the song JENNY. That one is probably one of my oldest songs. That song probably dates back about ten years. I kind of tucked it away and my producer heard a little bit of it and suggested that I drag it back out. All of the songs have a special meaning for me so I don’t know if I quite answered your question.

How have people responded to the new material in live settings?
It’s been great actually. We had a big show in Halifax to launch the CD in November and it was great. I think that the response was terrific. It was beyond what I had hoped for. I was a little bit anxious as the release was coming out because although I was keen to get back out there after so many years, It finally hit me that I didn’t really hold back emotionally on this CD. While I thought that was great when I was in this protected environment in making the CD, I realized that I would be up on stage and performing these songs and being very vulnerable. I had a moment where I was like ‘Oh my gosh! What have I done?’ It actually ended up having a great affect because it made me realize that when you are open and honest about things that it gives people permission to respond to you in a more open way. I found that people connected to the new music emotionally. They were really blown away by it. A lot of people came up to me after the show and talked about specific moments with the songs. I thought that was an amazing thing. It was really gratifying actually.

What would you like a person to come away with after they’ve heard this CD?
I guess I write a lot from the perspective of the potential of our humanity and the things that connect us and the great ability we have to dig deep and find strength in ourselves that we didn’t know that we had and to be supportive rather than judgmental of each other. On a philosophical level that is what I’d like people to take away from the music and that it uplifts. That would be really great if t he music could uplift or add something positive. I feel that I’ve been really honest about my feelings and my take on things and have given a pretty clear picture of myself. I hope they come away thinking that they’ve listened to someone who has a great love of humanity and music and that I’ve made some kind of contribution to the time they’ve put into listening to the music.