Thursday, February 8 9:45 pm @ THE MUSIC GALLERY
Purveyor of: Thumb n’ bass

Almost two years ago at the Bagel during a Weird Al tribute night, a visibly shaking Laura Barrett took the stage and played her first solo show. Armed only with her now-trademark combination of kalimba and voice, she literally dropped the jaws of every one of the 40 or so people in attendance. I can only imagine what it must have looked like from her perspective, staring out at all those open mouths like rows and rows of children all waiting to drink from Stanley Spidowski’s firehose. (UHF reference alert!)

Now it is 2007, and what was once the Bagel is a Thai restaurant. Laura has become one of the most visible and unlikely standouts of the Toronto independent music community. Her easy blend of musicianship and approachability has won over crowds across North America performing both solo and with such luminaries as Final Fantasy and The Hidden Cameras. She’s receiving copious radio play, nominations for songwriting prizes, and near universal praise for her debut EP Earth Sciences.

Wavelength forced Laura to sit still for five goddamn minutes and talk about herself and life in Toronto.

First off, the last two years: Improvements? Highlights? Lowlights?

On a technical level, my voice has become stronger, and I’ve learned how to play foot-operated bass pedals in a futile effort to replace Richard Carnegie’s genius upright bass stylings (now that he lives in Saskatoon). I’m now more confident onstage, and I make eye contact with audiences a hell of a lot more, since I can’t just look over and smile with Richard at our mutual giddiness.

s for highlights, I feel blessed by the wonderful experiences I’ve had working with other musicians and connecting with music lovers in Toronto and beyond, but the CBC Brave New Waves studio recording last spring was a real watershed for me. The energy and professionalism that goes down in that place is astounding, and the opportunity to run amok in a fancy national radio studio made me even prouder to be Canadian.

While I recognize that the bad times are just as important as the good, I played a gig early on that made me feel pretty weird and uncomfortable. Granted, it was an open mic night at Einstein’s, but somehow I thought it would be possible to fight the noises of pool balls and pint glasses... I was wrong, and it was an awkward time spent staring into a too-bright spotlight, perched precariously on a bar stool. I wanted to stop playing during the first song, but I swallowed my pride and played a couple more.

Another low point was when I played an opening gig at a university auditorium and, for whatever second-guessy-type reason, wimped out of saying “fucking” in “Robot Ponies.” I hadn’t given myself or the song any balls, and it ruined the performance. Lesson learned, though, in both cases - don’t let concerns about an audience’s sensibilities frighten you away from your own beliefs, be they stylistic or moral!

The music community in downtown Toronto can be very much like a mother’s womb: It’s near impossible to climb inside if you didn’t start out there, and once you’re in, it’s so bloody comfortable and easy to pretend the outside world doesn’t exist or affect you. Granted, that comfortable, accepting environment is a breeding ground for creativity, but it can also cause bands/performers to lose focus and tread water forever. Do you ever find it hard to get motivated to keep moving?

I can be a terrible procrastinator, and it’s been particularly frustrating to learn that this applies to activities I love, as well as the more tiresome things. And you’re right, sometimes a supportive environment can be unmotivating, because you can lose sight of new avenues to explore. Luckily, through a series of experiments I’ve found that being extremely busy is a much more productive state than having only one or two tasks. So, I stay on track by overloading a bit, and then my brain has no alternative but to generate ideas in multiple areas, creating a fertile environment for sound and sense to intermingle. That, and I eat a lot of chocolate while listening to Devo’s OH, NO! It’s DEVO.

Ahem... anything else? Did you happen to notice the um… date?

Happy birthday, Wavelength! Not only are you one of the most welcoming and supportive organizations I’ve ever encountered, but you’ve also paved the way for other concert series to flourish. These series (ALL CAPS!, Backasswards, Pitter Patter, etc.) may attract different audiences but, together with you, they provide a cohesive network for newcomers, with the same intent across the board: to give new acts a built-in, attentive and encouraging audience. Seven years old, and already the supportive parent of hundreds of acts — it would seem odd for anyone but you, darling.

By Brendan Howlett