Vriend seems to have all the right skills for the music biz; talent, originality, and a sense of humour. Meet the music worlds' best card trick....

By: Kindah Mardam Bey

Ann Vriend was performing as part of the Alberta Songwriter’s Series last April when I spotted her remarkable vocals from sitting somewhere just above the clouds. Even from that distance, Vriend’s voice filled the room with Leonard Cohen’s ‘I’m Your Man’ with intent and emotion. Yes, Ann is a girls name and no singing a song as it was wrote does not a statement make. Vriend prefaced the song with her intent to sing the track as her role model Cohen had intended, but somehow oddly enough, Vriend singing ‘I’m Your Man’ sounded perfectly fitting and within the realm of ‘normal.’ I suspected early on that Vriend’s admiration of Cohen had something to do with his ever-identifiable vocals as Ann Vriend may not sound like Cohen’s deep and earnest voice, but they share a commonality in their distinctive and emotive singing. Vriend reflects on Cohen’s unique voice ‘Cohen has an honest voice, one that gets to our hearts. I want to have a voice that affects people like that. It’s not so much about the technique but more about the story behind the words.’

The Alberta Songwriter’s Series is intended to promote and showcase talent from the second most Western province of Canada. Probably more compelling then Vriend singing Cohen was Vriend singing her own songs. Vriend is a unique vocalist, with her own distinguishing set of pipes, so when I caught up with Ann in June for an interview I had to ask her how she discovered her voice was not only unique, but compelling as well. Aside from talent that reminds me of an early Sarah McLachlan who could both sing and write songs, and play instruments (known as an ‘all rounder’ in the biz), Vriend has a great sense of humour. If music never panned out for her, she could do a whole sketch about the music industry and have you rolling with laughter in the aisles. Somewhat self-depricated as her humour might be, Vriend explains that the horror of having to sing a song she’d wrote for her friend to sing in a High School talent show to her friend, was simply more overwhelming to Vriend then actually singing the song in front of the whole school; with that logic, who needs reason? It turned out that after performing her song to the school, she received more accolades for her voice than the song she wrote; a star was born.

Mind you Ann Vriend was working on her vocation much earlier than High School, she played violin for a time and she says ‘I dropped it, not literally, the violin I mean…I gave it up.’ Her Mother played piano in the Church, but even though Vriend came from an academic family her parents made music an important part of her childhood as she tells ‘Mum made all of us play some instrument at least.’ From that early age Vriend discovered she had a skill for making up melodies on the piano she says ‘apparently it’s abnormal to do that, I had no idea! I figured all the other kids having piano lessons were making up melodies as well.’

So when it was time for University, a natural inclination towards music led Ann to major in the subject ‘I found that the training was in classical music and that seemed less functional for what I wanted to get out of music. Oddly, I changed my degree to English and that seemed a better fit. It was only after I saw the Battle Of The Bands in Edmonton that the light bulb went off though. I moved over to a college program for music that seemed to fit into the type of music I was making. Now music is my full time job. It is a lot tougher then I ever imagined to make a career of music, but if you believe that it is possible and you think in creative ways, then I believe you can succeed. Don’t give yourself a plan B; never give yourself an escape route.’

Sinking her teeth into her debut album Soul Unravelling in 2003, Vriend’s kept up her enthusiasm for a second album Modes Of Transport in 2005, which is a title she attributes her father formulating. Modes Of Transport is filled to the brim with music that is compelled to be a Plan A with-no-escape-route only. Songs like ‘Where My Heart Lies’ are haunting and romantic, or songs like ‘Crowd Pleaser’ are up beat and whimsical. Vriend says ‘I wrote crowd pleaser about a friend and fellow singer from Australia. He is naturally charismatic and is always a personality in a crowd, and yet he writes such heartbreaking, sad and delicate songs. I guess I saw the contrast and thought that was a good theme for a song.’ With Vriend’s background in English she pays attention to the detail of her lyrics ‘I like to write a song, or find words that mean more than one thing. I’ll start with a quote or a phrase that has a lot of imagery around it; I want my music to stand on its own.’

Ann Vriend’s next collection of songs is a limited edition EP currently released called The Clandestine EP sold on her website (www.annvriend.com) and myspace exclusively; then a follow-up to Modes called When We Were Spies is scheduled for release in January of 2008. Vriend seems contemplative already about her next full-length album, she explains ‘spies in relationships, how we protect our hearts, the analogy espionage seems intriguing for me. Like Modes Of Transport had a lot to do with travelling both physically, but also emotionally as well.’

Although major labels have shown considerable interest in Vriend, she seems to be on the precipice of her true breakthrough in North America, but in Australia she has a much stronger following ‘I’ve been to Australia four times now in the last two years. It seems exotic somehow because I am from the other side of the world; they think you are renowned in your own backyard because you are travelling around the world to perform. You never really know where your music goes to. The other day I received an e-mail from a little girl in South Africa requesting permission to play one of my songs in her school talent show. The request wasn’t necessary, but the realization that my music is affecting someone in South Africa is wonderful to me.’

Possibly one of the most appealing attributes of Vriend is that she is a ‘Crowd Pleaser,’ she seems to have a naturally awkward and goofy stage presence that has the audience laughing at her jokes and wondering if she is staging this or it is real? Vriend informs me it is all adlib at her personal embarrassment ‘I am such a bad actor, I always look so rehearsed when I’ve….well, rehearsed something! Besides people don’t want rehearsed, they want an in the moment experience; whether it works or it bombs. When I sing, it’s like a different language to me, I have all this confidence, but when I talk on stage I focus so hard on what I don’t want to say because it will embarrass me, that I normally end up saying it!’ I suspect Vriend underestimates her stage presence as it is quirky and full of intelligent humour.

Vriend sees her career as a slow and cumulative progression towards bigger stages and audiences who are passionate about her music ‘I can really see it leading up to that point. The only thing that is a drawback about the music business is all the time it takes beforehand to actually get to the music.’

However, along this musical journey of Vriend’s her natural skill at music, her untrained but distinct vocals and her uncensored stage presence seems to be a combination that intrigues her audience and has journalists like myself, seeking ways to showcase that natural talent of Vriend’s. I suspect I’m at the start of the bandwagon, but still a part of the bandwagon no less, as Vriend appears to me to be the best type of performer; she’s got talent, she’s got charisma, and she’s doing it all…. unrehearsed.

To read Kindah Mardam Bey's review of Modes Of Transport and listen to 'Where My Heart Lies' from Modes click here

To Learn more about Ann Vriend, or to by her limited edition The Clandestine EP go to: www.annvriend.com