9 minute read
Ciara Leah
Interview By Lauren Elizabeth Campbell Editor-in-Chief
Ciara Leah is a multi-faceted artist from Toronto, blending soulful vocals, conscious lyrics and classical, jazz and gospel harmonies with classic funk, R&B, and hip hop rhythms. Her unique sound captivates audiences. The singer-songwriter discusses her five track live studio album Love Money:
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How did you first become interested in music, and what influences you as an artist?
As far back as I can remember, I've been interested in sound and how it influences people. When I was a very young child, my mother nicknamed me after this cartoon character from the '50s who didn’t speak but would mimic the everyday sounds he would hear around him—that was pretty much me. I've always enjoyed playing. The sound of the piano especially resonates with me because my mother played classical music exclusively and continuously around the house, and even in the car, when I was growing up. Especially the piano greats like Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Grieg—the really colorful, dramatic stuff. That's the music that shaped me the most. The only pop music she would listen to was pretty much the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Beegees, and Whitney Houston. My whole family loves music. My dad exposed me to choral music at church every Sunday, put me in the choir, and got me interested in jazz music, particularly big band, bebop, and cool jazz. My nine siblings exposed me to a lot musically: my eldest sister is an opera singer and musical theater performer, another sister was heavy into the punk scene, my eldest brother played the trumpet in the military and loves experimental jazz, a handful of my siblings are into folk, a couple brothers introduced me to classic rock, '80s pop, '90s grunge, and alt-rock. As a result, I’ve always formed the strongest bonds with music heads, and drew inspiration from their personal musical influences.
I've also done a ton of musical exploration on my own. Having moved to the city in my late teens, I've met people from all cultural backgrounds and walks of life, so I've fallen in love with pretty much every musical genre, along with the people who listen to it. When it comes to writing, the music just comes, and it always has. I've been hearing unique melodies in my head for as long as I know. As an artist, I'm most inspired by the people I meet, the connections I make, and the lessons I learn about myself and about humanity. I write music for everyone.
What inspired you to specifically release a live studio album?
I love musical instruments, and I strongly connect with people who really love to play, as well. It's a divine connection. It’s sort of like asking a mother what inspired her to have children; she will tell you that they were always there and that she just birthed them. As a musician, I've always known about the musical babies that would come through me. Music is a language and a connector, and I believe that musicians do some of the most important work in this world. I've always aspired to do that work, and the recording process is integral to that mission.
Can you tell us about your creative process for writing and recording new music?
I dream a lot about my music. Seriously. I wake up in the mornings with a song in my head, and sometimes it will just slip away back into the soup of my subconscious unless I'm conscious enough to catch it. I keep forgetting that I'm a songwriter and assume that the songs that I hear in my dreams are songs that already exist, so when I am just conscious enough to realize I have dreamed an original song but not conscious enough to lose the connection to the dream state, I will hum the melody and any specific production elements I hear into my phone, half-awake. Next, I go over to the piano and just play.
I'm always hearing some kind of music in my head. I can turn it on and off like a tap. When I want to write, I can just record melody ideas into my phone and/or sit down at the piano and play around until something feels good or interesting. Sometimes I'll hear a sound in the room, on the street, a rhythm or short melody, and it will inspire something. My son and I write songs on the subway all of the time, for example. I always pay attention to interesting musical movements when I'm listening to other musicians or watching movies and take inspiration, but don't ever ask me to recall the plot of any movie I've seen! As for lyrics, I mumble words and work out what they are later, like some kind of message I'm decoding. There's always a message in there. I've been having a lot of fun with the recording process, especially since I learned the basics of engineering. I love to edit, move pieces around, and explore different feels, rhythms, textures, and layers. And because of my experience with classical and choral music, vocal harmonies come really easily to me, so I love building vocal stacks. I started engineering with Chris Rouse, and the two of us were like kids in a candy shop, working together, starting with the stems I originally recorded with Thomas McKay. I lost track of how many hours Chris and I spent in the studio and if we didn't have a deadline, we'd still be adding layers and playing around with the songs. We had more ideas than we had time!
Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
There are honestly way too many to name. I take bits and pieces from everywhere, But here are a few: Stevie Wonder inspires me because of his timeless songwriting and production, his ability to play almost any instrument, and he has a voice that can move people to their feet and also move them to tears. I also connect deeply with Donny Hathaway's voice, playing, and musical arrangements. Prince is a genius, so obviously he's a huge influence on almost anyone in the industry who is serious about their craft. The same goes for Michael Jackson. Quincy Jones is legendary. James Brown and Fela Kuti win for the rhythm, feel, and funk factor. Classical music is my first love: Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi. Some of my favorite jazz musicians: Thelonius Monk, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Roy Ayers, Don Blackman, and Brandon Coleman. Danny Elfman, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, John Williams, and Vince Guaraldi are on the list, as well. Rock bands/artists: Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, essentially the "27 club," which inspired one of the tracks on the album... The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. Other bands: Parliament Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and the Gap Band.
I am deeply moved by women who can play and sing their butts off, like Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Rachelle Ferrell, Patrice Rushen, H.E.R., Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon), Nai Palm (Hiatus Kaiyote), to name a handful. A few more of my favorite vocalists: Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, Anita Baker, and Lalah Hathaway. I also love world music: Bob Marley, Antonio Carlos Joabim, and Sergio Mendes. Canadian artists (and some of my friends!) I look up to: Chris Rouse, Glenn Lewis, Divine Brown, Carlos Morgan, Deborah Cox, and Oscar Peterson, are just a few. U.K. Soul: Omar Lyefook, Lewis Taylor, Brand New Heavies. And I couldn’t not mention J Dilla (and the Soulquarians) and Jam and Lewis as a producer. Last but not least, Robert Glasper is one of my favorite artists, and people I have met, because of his ability to cross genres, his work ethic, and appreciation of the culture; his piano playing resonates in a part of my soul that transcends space and time.
Can you talk about FACTOR and your involvement with them?
The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recording (FACTOR) is a public/private partnership designed to support Canadian artists in reaching a broader audience to help strengthen and develop the Canadian music industry. FACTOR, the Government of Canada, and Canada’s private radio broadcasters contributed financially to the recording and marketing of the Love Money album. Through FACTOR's competitive Juried Sound Recording program, I created an application that was assessed by an independent panel of Canadian industry professionals, and my project was selected out of a pool of thousands of other Canadian artists to receive a grant to support the project.
What do you want people to take away from Love Money?
Recently, someone told me that listening to the album feels like a "warm hug." More than anything, I want my audience to feel good when they’re listening to my music; music is meant to heal. On a deeper level, the album is the story of a single mother learning hard and transformative lessons to try to make a life for herself and her children. I wrote the album as a single mom, looking for light in the darkness. That’s actually my namesake: Ciara Leah literally means "dark light" in Gaelic. I drew inspiration from the story of "Roxanne" by the Police; navigating the music industry, especially as a woman, there are so many opportunities to sell your soul. I want to inspire other female musicians and working mothers to never lose themselves but to have faith and believe in the power of love over everything.
