Crankbox-music

Caroline Savoie - over 60 original songs will captivate you Story and interview by Chris Koppers, photographs courtesy of Caroline Savoie Starting at the young age of 12, Caroline gratefully received her first guitar and this instrument immediately emerged her willingness to perform music the professional, the impassionate way. Caroline shared some of her precious moments with crankbox-music and talked about her music, her visions and her joy of composing music. --- Interview --- What is your current project? For now, I am working on my second EP. My first EP (5 songs, http://www.reverbnation.com/carolinesavoie) was in English (October 2011) and I am now working on a French EP. So I am now meeting with a producer and musicians to pick and choose the songs that will go on it. I have a few big shows from now to the middle of August and should be in the recording studio by the end of August or the beginning of September. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to this EP particularly because I've written a lot of french songs lately and I'm confident that it will be a good album. I am also working on two "rootsy" videos (one of which will be for my song You and I, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjjP5ZPx6Ds). For the videos, we're going with a feel similar to the ones found here: http://www.analogsongs.ca. Hopefully those will be ready for September. Most musicians merely use one language - How important is your bilingual skill to compose and to perform your lyrics? I think it's important mostly because I live in the only officially bilingual province in Canada. There are so many different venues -- some that require only English songs, and others that require only French songs. It's beneficial for me to write in both languages since I can play in all types of venues. It's not a problem though, because I love to write in the two languages equally. Sometimes I do mixed performances where I sing in both languages, so it can reach the English crowd as well as the French crowd. And even if English is becoming an important international language, I still want to maintain my French roots. Please pick one and tell us why? My music should... a) express my thoughts and feelings. b) be on the radio all the time. c) pay my dues. a) My music should express my thoughts and feelings. The fact that what I do is playing on the radio and giving me a little bit of money is just a bonus. I've never been comfortable talking about my feelings or even putting them into words. Music helps me with that. I put all my emotions in my songs when I write and perform. It's such a blessing to have music in my life because I get to talk about what I feel through a song to a public that can probably relate to what I'm singing about. Of course, it would be nice to make enough money to be able to do this for a living! :)   Where is your favorite spot to perform your music? My favorite spot to perform music is probably a little bar in my hometown called Plan B (http://www.planbmoncton.com/). Everybody who works there makes you feel welcome and you always feel right at home. They ask the artists that perform there sign their names (or band names) on the walls, and it's so cool to look at all the amazing talent that has performed right where I perform. Also, you always get a great vibe from the public, whether there are only 10 people or 60 people (it's a small venue). It's really a music lover's spot. Can you remember that particular moment when you opted to start performing your music? What was your main motivation? The first performance where I knew right away that this was what I wanted to do was after performing at the Monument Lefebvre for the "Clair de Lune" series (http://www.monumentlefebvre.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=127:soiree-clair-de-lune&catid=2&Itemid=60&lang=fr). I was performing with well known musicians from our region such as Isabelle Bujold (who was hosting), Stephen LeBlanc, Cedric Vienno and Daniel Goguen. It was awesome working with them and they opened my eyes. They were talking about how they found ways to live off their music and how they were happy with their lives. By listening to them, I felt as if it was what I was meant to do. That’s where I was first motivated. When I performed that night, I had so much fun. I realized that if I really set my mind to it, that it could be a possibility, to make performances a regular thing. And it did happen. I'm still working on it, but it's going along great. How would you define success? I think success is different for everyone. I think it's more about if you become the best you're capable of becoming, or that you reach your goals that you have set for yourself. Everybody has different goals in life, which means success comes in different forms. For me, I'd be successful if I could manage to live off my music. I don't have to live in a big mansion or be famous where everybody knows my name. No. For me, my success, it would be that I wouldn't have to have a "real job". I'd just have to play my music and live a happy life. What is your favorite song? Oh my God... such a hard question! I have so many! However, there are two songs that I will never get tired of: Don't Think Twice it's Alright by Bob Dylan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZPh3hpxLKs) and Harvest Moon by Neil Young (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MtEsrcTTs). One of my 'picture this' questions: You have a magic wand and it has enough power to eliminate one of the following within the music business: a) greed b) hypocrisy c) mendacity What is your choice? If I could, I would eliminate them all! But I have to say mendacity. Wether you want to or not, you have to make difficult decisions during your music career and sometimes people will lie to you or will lead you down the wrong path. That's why you have to stick with people that you truly trust because there are so many different types of personalities in the music industry (just like in everyday life). One wrong path and you are gone. It's hard to make your way to the top and even harder to stay there. If people wouldn't be so untruthful to you, or wouldn't try and lead you towards the wrong direction, it would make the road a little bit easier. But in addition to all of that, it's hard for an artist to even stay truthful to themselves. For example, sometimes you want to sing a certain type of music but some people would maybe say that it's not good enough. You always have to stay true to what you want to sing or what you want to do. So many artists get lost along that path. They don't even know who they are anymore. Do you have any plans to move somewhere - where you can optimize your musical efforts? For now I really don't have any plans but I'd like to move to Toronto or Montreal someday. They both have excellent music scenes. Toronto more on the English side and Montreal on the French side. But for now I'm just looking to perform anywhere I can. One of my goals is to perform somewhere, anywhere, in France. Such a beautiful country.