Serena Ryder toys with rhetoric on Is It O.K., her latest release. She brings her pathos, ethos, logos and big voice
to Halifax for a two-night stand at Casino Nova Scotia, March 20 and
21.
“It’s an internal question. I’m kinda leaving it open to
interpretation,” says Ryder, calling on her cellphone from the Rockies
near Colorado. “I was going through this place that was really hard,
and when I finished going through it, I was sorry.
“It’s about trying to find out what is actually going on inside you
before you judge or before you compare yourself with other people on
the outside to find your answer.”
Ryder looked into the depths of herself when writing this album. The
past year spanned various heartaches, including the loss of her former
manager and close friend, Bonnie O’Donnell, who died of pneumonia at
32. Half of the songs on Is It O.K. were written during the
mournful weeks that followed, though she says none of them are
explicitly about O’Donnell. It’s the raw emotion and aching sentiments
that fuelled the recordings. Ryder says this dark period was the first
time in her life she actually allowed herself to exist inside pain.
“I wasn’t trying to get out of it. I was just trying to feel it. So
I did that and wrote the songs,” she says. “I feel it was a big release
for me afterwards and now the songs are different, now the songs are
for everybody else in a way. The satisfaction and healing that I get
from those songs (I get by) performing them on a stage and being able
to have a conversation like that with other people who hopefully
receive some sort of peace of mind or peace of heart.”
Light always follows darkness. In the thick of it all she was
awarded a Juno Award for best new artist of the year in 2008. But
Ryder’s no novice; she’s been singing and performing long before spoken
language came into play. George Stroumboulopoulos posted a photograph
of her singing on-stage at two years old during an interview on CBC’s
The Hour. At this year’s Juno Awards, the Millbrook, Ontario,
native is nominated for artist and alternative album of the year. She’s
Vancouver-bound for the awards show later this month.
“Even last year it was the first time,” she says. “It’s like
cracking an egg in some respects but not actually opening it all the
way, just in how I was feeling at the time, not in the honour of being
honoured like that. This year I am really excited to wear comfortable
shoes and a really comfortable outfit, maybe a suit or a really flowy
dress. I am really excited to be comfortable in my skin there.”
At 25, she’s still shedding skins, changing every day and growing
into herself. It’s been a long road since she was first discovered at a
stage production of Gone With the Wind, by producer Damon de
Szegheo in Peterborough. He recorded her debut release, Falling
Out, in 1999. A self-titled cassette EP appeared later that year.
Other independent releases include Live at The Market Hall and
A Day in the Studio (2002) and Serena Ryder Live (2003).
It wasn’t until Hawksley Workman heard this burgeoning songbird on CBC
Radio that he signed her and released Unlikely Emergency in
2005.
If Your Memory Serves You Well (2006) covers the whole
Canadian gamut. Ryder recorded stunning renditions of Leonard Cohen’s
“Sisters of Mercy,” Paul Anka’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” and Shelton
Brooks’ “Some of These Days,” though it was her two original tracks,
“Just Another Day” and “Weak In the Knees,” that earned the vocal
powerhouse significant airplay.
These days Ryder’s only objectives are to remain true to her songs.
The process is more organic than most. “Every sound has a vibration and
a colour; emotion. Usually I’ll just start making noises and I find if
I record all of those noises I can find words inside of them, sounds
and different things. I just try and find what the words are saying
after I’ve finished making the right sound.”
Serena Ryder, March 20-21 at Casino Nova Scotia, 8pm,
$36.50, 451-1221, ticketatlantic.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.