Coming up with lyrics in one language is tough enough for any songwriter, but Ottawa’s Kristine St-Pierre adds the extra pressure of writing and performing in both French and English.
St-Pierre released her first full-length album, Call Me Crazy in 2012 and is undertaking her first Western Canada tour over the month of May.
“This will be my third tour. My last tour was in 2011, which was before I released my full-length CD in 2012. Then I got really busy because I try to book everything on my own. I tried to book a few longer tours in 2013, but there were a lot of things going on. So this was the time to do it and I started booking around December so it all came together quite well,” St-Pierre said.
This is her first month-long, cross-Canada tour. The other two involved a trip east and the other covering Ontario.
St-Pierre plays the Elk and Oarsman in Banff on May 15.
“I’m doing it solo so it will be kind of a singer/songwriter style. I’m in a folk/roots bit of country style... it’s going to be more intimate and a lot of places I’m playing are smaller cafes or venues where an intimate performance can happen,” St-Pierre said.
“In Vancouver, I’m opening for a band, so that will be a bit more rowdy, and in Banff I’m at the Elk & Oarsman, which I was told will also be hockey night and the playoffs so it’s probably going to be pretty upbeat. So I’m really looking forward to that.”
St-Pierre will also take part in a singer/songwriter evening in Calgary with four other songwriters at Casino Royale.
“Every venue is a bit different, so my set will likely change depending on the venue and things like that, but it’s still me all along,” St-Pierre said. “I’m playing by myself, so I tend to adapt to the venue and the audience and there are some venues that have a Francophone group who asked that I play there so it might be a bit more French depending on the crowd and the venue.”
St-Pierre grew up in a French household with Francophone parents, but had a good chunk of her education and university in English.
“With the French, sometimes I feel I need to push myself a bit more and that’s been something I’ve been working on a lot,” St-Pierre said. “In terms of writing and the creative process, sometimes words come out, or sometimes a melody, but if a melody comes out first I’ll get a sense of whether it’s a French or an English song and I have no idea why, but it’s just that feeling that I get sometimes and a song will just feel French.
“Some people have told me on the CD the French songs are very different from the English songs and I don’t get that sense, but maybe that is true – I’m not sure.”
Usually you can find St-Pierre on the guitar, but lately she’s been pushing herself to get behind other instruments.
“They say when you change instruments you get out of the box a little bit, so I’ve been trying to do more piano, to not be stuck in the same patterns all the time,” said St-Pierre.
She also collaborates with other Ottawa-based musicians in the group Old Whiskey Road. “I’m part of the band, there’s six members, and I’ve been doing mostly harmonies and singing,” St-Pierre said.
“I’ve been trying to write some songs for that, but I’ve found they don’t lend themselves to the group, at least yet. But hopefully I can write something later on.
“With them it’s a different opportunity – it’s country alternative and we’re six people so it’s a very big sound. We’re playing Ottawa Bluesfest this summer, so that’s an opportunity I haven’t had with my solo project yet.”
St-Pierre said she was always been interested in music, even as a young child, but was never a fan of her weekly piano lesson.
“I would practice the hour before the lesson and my teacher would always tell me how I improved even though I only practiced the hour before,” said St-Pierre. “I think it took a lot of willpower on my mom’s part to push us, but I’m glad now that she did.
“I’m looking forward to spending time to write. The last two tours and other trips that weren’t tours that I’ve taken haven’t always been really conducive to writing, so I’m really hoping some new songs will come out.”
