“I didn’t have a job, I wasn’t coming for school, I just got in my
car and drove here,” says Gianna Lauren. The Edmonton native arrived
via Ottawa in January, with an EP (Fist in a Heart) and a plan:
to become part of the local music scene.
“I found the scene really insular,” she says of Ottawa, “that things
were happening but only in their own pockets, and bands were playing
only to their friends. They weren’t collaborating and they weren’t
supporting, and that was the real intrigue of moving to the
Maritimes—the support within the music community here is
astounding.”
It was a smart move: Lauren’s played shows with Share and Don
Brownrigg (who’s also her roommate, as is Acres and Acres’ Kris Pope),
appears on The Prospectors Union’s EP Syracuse and has a
full-length ready to record this summer.
“It’s starting to feel like home, which is nice,” she says. “It’s
not like I’m just here doing a project, it’s like I’m actually living
here and engaging with the city.”
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2009.