JODY Glenham might be best known for her chanteuse singing voice and crisp piano styles, but early in an interview she lets it out that she has other ambitions.
"I like a lot of reverb," she says right off the bat.
That doesn't always come through in the Vancouver musician's two self-released EPs, but as a songwriter Glenham isn't keen to limit her possibilities, and this year the music she plays herself is catching up to the tunes streaming through her headphones: a little more raw and rough around the edges.
She's got a line up of new songs to show off this Saturday at Cates Park, along with her old favourites like "Coffee Soaked," remixed for the guitar.
"I'm working on a new album right now and I think there's going to be a bit of a turn in the music stylistically," she says. "My last two albums were piano-based. And I'm kind of getting a bit more away from that, I'm playing guitar mainly, and it's proven to be a good change."
She's also happy to be ditching the solo show, now sharing the stage with bandmates Greg Pothier on guitar and Ryan Walter Wagner on drums. At Cates Park she'll also be joined by Sloan's touring keyboardist Gregory Macdonald and Matt Barber of Memphis.
Glenham calls herself more of a songwriter than a singer - her website actually uses the term "songwriter/scotch drinker," combining her love of music with a love
of spirits - and she felt her writing was growing increasingly shackled to a single style. The goal of the new album was to have a little more fun, she said.
But with the stress of working three jobs last year - one at John Fluevog, which she loves, but also a serving and bartending gig - conspired to kill the inspiration. So in the fall she planned a writing vacation last fall to visit Toronto for a month, then a few weeks each in New York City and her hometown of Winnipeg. Returning home in December 2010, she actually hadn't written much.
"It was absolutely intended to be (a writing holiday), but you can't force things to happen, right? I've always been a firm believer that you need to live life to be able to write about it," she said.
"It was really great to get out of the grind and have some mental space. Then I came back and just when I was back home, maybe it was the writing space I was used to, but then all this stuff just started to flow."
All the new songs hail from a few months over the winter, and the gloominess of the season definitely comes through in the writing, but that's hardly the only thing.
"I think I found the grace in the situation and I try to just write about that," she said.
It was actually the songwriting aspect that drew her into performing, as the stage is not her natural home.
"It just kind of happened. You write a song and you end up playing it for people, and then they end up putting you on a stage," she says, laughing. "And all the sudden you have lights and an audience, and you're like what am I doing? I don't like it."
But she also hopes the new songs will allow her to try something a little different, and be a little more genuine. So far, the response to the new material has been positive, and the excitement is definitely building for the studio.
"Feeling a lot more natural and a lot more genuine, and I'm hoping people will connect with that."
For more information and to listen to her music, visit www.jodyglenham.com.
