By Esther Tung
Photos by Julian Giordano
Singer-songwriter Katie Schaan is back with piano-pop, powerful vocals, and a staunch refusal to be told who to be
For Katie Schaan, trying to fit into the box that others outlined for her backfired on her first recorded album. Performing under her real name, she found that people tended to expect a folksy, acoustic singer-songwriter, and she tried to adhere to that. “I wasn’t proud of my first record, and I wasn’t excited to release it as Katie Schaan,” she says.
But earlier this year, Schaan cemented her reinvention into Ciseaux with the release of a self-titled EP and a western Canada tour opening for Dominique Fricot, which ended in a sold-out show at St. James Hall in Vancouver. While she had performed alone or with Fricot on tour, her backing band was present at the homecoming show, including trumpeter Olivier Clements, who is part of Aidan Knight’s backing band The Friendly Friends, and drummer Nigel Barry, whom Schaan met through church.
The album’s single, “The Game”, is about her experience with constructing her image as an artist. “Especially as a female artist, the industry wants to pigeonhole you, and I don’t fit in that pigeonhole.”
Ciseaux is a six-track adventure through musical styles, none of which are particularly folksy. From the soulful trumpets of “Your Hand” to the electro-tinged “The Ocean”, the only thing each track has in common is an underlying element of pop, and Schaan’s crystalline, soaring vocals. Even the quietest notes ring out clear and powerful on the songs, and it’s no surprise to find out that she’s a classically trained vocalist and cellist, and grew up around siblings who played instruments as well. “I loved music as a kid and never felt like it was forced on me. I assumed that it was what all kids did.”
“My dad looked at it like it would help to develop the right side of the brain. I don’t think he quite expected things to come this far though,” says Schaan, who majored in music first at McGill, then UVic.
And while singing is her main passion, Schaan knows there isn’t room for one-trick ponies in the music industry. She has picked up several other instruments over the years “out of necessity, because you can’t just be a singer anymore.”
The EP was produced by fellow islander and musician Aidan Knight and written in-studio over a total of two weeks, which isn’t Schaan’s usual style. “We went in with rough ideas of what to start from, and let everything else happen organically in the studio, which is terrifying when you’re paying for studio time,” she says.
“I was so in the thick of it [at the time] that I didn’t think about how ridiculous it was.”
With some time left before Schaan has to leave, we walk into a record store on Commercial Drive, and she points out records that she grew up with, singling out Al Green and other Motown artists. “That’s what my dad mainly listened to when I was a kid,” she says.
None of the other stores catch her eye as we stroll down the Drive, and there’s a sense that she’s a bit overwhelmed. Having grown up in quiet Victoria, the city is always a bit much, she says, but she mentions wanting to move here soon to focus on supporting Ciseaux.
Having sustained a stubborn shoulder injury from repetitive use as a hairdresser, Schaan was forced to divert her energies elsewhere, but she’s optimistic, and sees it as an opportunity to focus on her music. And if there’s anything to be said for the careers of other dark-haired, exuberant songstresses from Vancouver — Adaline and Brandi Sidoryk come to mind — breaking out of the mold might just pay off in time.
