Voyageur: a radical departure

Kathleen Edwards’s new album was produced by her partner Bon Iver and marks her first foray into pop, says Ed Power

KATHLEEN Edwards is tired of being typecast. “I’ve always been regarded as an alternative country or Americana figure,” she says. “I’m okay with that. I love that music. I really do. But there’s more to me than one specific genre. With my new album, I wanted to make that point. I was keen to get away from the perception that I am a single, specific thing.”

This is why the 33-year-old Canadian hooked up with ethereal folkie Bon Iver, producer of her latest collection, Voyageur, which is a dramatic break from Edwards’s previous output. Instead of the rootsy sensibility of her earlier LPs, it radiates a chilly pop shimmer. The first time Edwards’ fans slap it on they might wonder if they are playing another artist’s record.

“Starting on the project, I was definitely ready to travel to new musical territory,” she says. “I was determined to demonstrate more clearly the breadth of my interests and my ability to operate outside of the boxes I had been put in. I wanted to spread my wings in a way that better reflected the music I was listening to. Not every song on my iPod is, like, 50 years old.”

In addition to collaborating musically, she and Bon Iver — real name Justin Vernon — are now a romantic couple. Edwards was coming out of a divorce, from musician Colin Cripps. From the start, she had a creative chemistry with the Wisconsin singer. “It was like we were on an escalator — he was going up, I was going down. We met in the middle and it was perfect,” she says.

The plan had been to recruit Vernon as guitarist on a few songs but he hung around to produce the entire record. “Initially, it was a case of ‘oh, let’s hash out some ideas’. As I threw more and more suggestions at him, it was obvious we needed to work together on a more long-term basis. His involvement felt right,” she says.

Voyageur is also the most personal LP Edwards has written. The break-up of her marriage looms large. Several songs are so searingly confessional you wonder how Edwards can bear to sing them in front of strangers every night.

“It didn’t occur to me until the end that I had made such a frank record,” she says. “At that stage, it’s a little too late to take it back. Your art is a reflection of what you are experiencing. So it is natural you are going to touch on things you have been going through. At the same time, you don’t want to betray your privacy or give up your right to that privacy. There are days you wonder if you have put too much of your own life out there.”

Edwards hasn’t performed many of the new songs publicly. She is nervous about doing so but feels the experience will be cathartic. “You can sing a piece all you want in the studio. Something about doing it in front of people makes it a very different experience. To put yourself inside those songs in a way that is immediate will be enormously rewarding, I think. We’ll see. The tour is only starting this week,” she says.

The new LP is the most torturous she has made, and not merely because it touches on her divorce. Musically, she was determined to swim ‘up water’, out of her comfort zone. She knew she could churn out a collection of 12 or so immaculately crafted ballads. But what would be the point? They wouldn’t expand her fanbase or progress her as an artist. Instead, she realised she would have to unlearn much of what she took for granted about songwriting.

“I was pushing against myself,” Edwards says. “I’ve made three records before now. I’ve written enough songs to know that sometimes you are falling back on formula. I feel confident I could write a narrative song and be sure of the quality of my work. The problem is I’ve done that a lot of times. I wanted to approach things differently.”

There were moments of failure, she says. These did not dissuade her. You’ve got to be ready to take risks if you wish to progress as an artist.

“I felt that what I was doing was counter-intuitive sometimes,” she says. “A lot of it was trial and error. You can fail and fail. So long as you learn from what you are doing, that’s okay. It was difficult to come up with sounds that had a different structure. I feel we got there in the end.”

The title of the album is inspired in part by Edwards’ unconventional, often rootless upbringing. Born in Ottawa in 1978, she spent much of her childhood in Korea and Switzerland, where her father served with the Canadian diplomatic service.

“The record is about moving around a lot and always feeling a little untethered,” she says. “There is a sense that you are looking for something and aren’t always sure what it is. Of course, I’m continuing in the vein with my present lifestyle.

“As a musician, it seems you are constantly on tour, always leaving or arriving. So there’s a carry-through from my childhood. Everyday it feels like you’re going someplace else.”

Edwards says she was delighted to go on the road with Bon Iver last winter, singing to capacity houses every night (including a date at Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre). It was a huge novelty, she says, to perform to people her own age.

“Americana fans, especially in Europe, tend to be that bit older,” she says. “This was an amazing opportunity to have people under the age of 30 at my shows. It’s validating to see individuals who are actually younger than me at my concerts. It makes for a great atmosphere and is very rewarding.”

Not that she wishes to alienate her existing fanbase. “Like any artist, I’m happy to have an audience,” she says. “You don’t get to tell people how they ought to hear you. That would be so presumptuous, don’t you think? Without question, however, it was fantastic to play to Bon Iver’s fans. They love music and are incredibly open-minded. I definitely felt I was exploring new territory.”

* Voyageur is out now. Kathleen Edwards plays Academy 2, Feb 23