Calgary-based singer-songwriter Sarah Vann will take to the stage at the Whyte Horse Cafe’s Glue Factory, July 19.
“I make the good kind of music,” she said in a recent interview. “I think I seem to have an appeal to a lot of different kind of people.
“I work with kids and I have a great job now as a music therapist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, so my music is now a mix of stuff. I can take inspiration from different places. From dark places and light places, from stories people tell me, or things I’m a witness to.”
In April, Vann released her first solo album, Deafened.
“I’ve been a musician my whole life,” she said. “I actually released a demo a few years ago with a friend of mine from Norway.
“This new album that I’ve released is more the sound that I’m shooting for, as opposed to the duo project we worked on.”
Vann grew up in Vermilion and knows the small town life. At an early age she tried to learn piano from her mother.
“We agreed that we tried to have one piano lesson together, and it just didn’t work, so I started playing the violin,” she said. “Then later I moved on to piano, and then I taught myself guitar and became a music therapist, and I get to play music all day, every day.”
It wasn’t until she was in her 20s that Vann began writing music. Now, releasing an album was something she had to do and had no choice in the matter, she said.
“I like to look at things like when I get old, and look back on my life, will I regret not doing it?” she asked. “So if I don’t make an attempt at having a music career, or if I don’t take this chance, I think that’s my biggest fear – regretting things.
“I think it’s really important to take risks and make yourself vulnerable and to live, because there’s going to be a large portion of your life where it’s a little harder to do the things you want to do. If you have the resources and the time and the energy, then I think that you should, it’s important.”
Vann is putting her tour plans on hold though.
“The plan is to wait and make a music video this summer and maybe tour spring next year,” she said.
She will be playing some shows, such as this performance at the Glue Factory.
“I’m very excited, this is my first time playing in Canmore,” she said. “I really like going out there and staring at those rocks. It’s nice that it’s so accessible.”
Vann will be joined by Emily Jill West, a Toronto-based artist who fuses roots and folk with acoustic pop.
“Emily West, the other musician who’s playing that night, she and I went to school together at Acadia in Nova Scotia, and she got in touch with me a few months ago,” said Vann. “It’ll be fun, she tours quite a bit.
“I’m excited to play in Canmore, to see what that Glue Factory looks like.”
Besides her music therapy career and the occasional performance, Vann also hosts a weekly open jam night Wednesdays at Mikey’s Juke Joint in Calgary.
“I’m taking it as it comes,” she said. “I really love my work and it’s very important to me, so it’s hard for me to visualize how it’s all going to fit together in the future, but I’d really love to tour and go across Canada and share my music.”
