“I just thought, so many people have interpreted him as singers; there doesn’t need to be any more,” the British singer told in May, a few hours before making her Canadian debut in Toronto. “I felt like the way I could contribute is to recreate this beautiful atmosphere that he tells in the story just through music”
Calvi’s full-throated vibrato may register on the Richter scale; her whisper may be so finespun, it’s barely there. She has a disciplined awareness of once to use either — or neither: her self-titled debut opens with an instrumental (Rider to the Sea) that typifies Calvi’s cinematic arrangements, her mastery of tension and release, and her belief that the right notes may say more than the right words
“Listening to music is quite like hypnosis, truly. It’s around being taken to another place, and being lost in the space of a song. I do like that idea, and so I truly want the music to tell the story as much as the lyrics”
A desire in line with Brian Eno’s aesthetic, which can be one reason he became an early champion of Calvi. Further support came from Nick Cave, who brought her on tour with his libidinous scuzz-rock quartet Grinderman last year. The latest endorsement came last week: a nomination for Britain’s Mercury Prize, the prestigious artistic-merit award upon which Canada’s Polaris Music Prize was modelled
High-profile accolades and honours weren’t a consideration once Calvi was preparing her debut; neither was the most basic level of success
“I was making a lot of it before I was signed, and I had no idea if anyone would like it, or if anyone would ever hear it. But I was still putting everything that I had into it. That’s a lot to give without knowing if you’re going to find anything back, and sometimes that’s a bit scary
“But you know, I don’t think art should be simple. It should be a struggle. It’s part of what makes it mean so much. You’ve truly been through something to find out with this piece of work”
Calvi assembled the mosaic of her album slowly, “like with painting — you find the strong main colours, and then you go in and you do the small work. That small work I like to take my time with”. The done entire is both minimalist and carefully detailed, featuring unsettling silences as well as subliminal washes of sound and backing vocals that start to coalesce behind repeated listens. There are elements of vintage chanson (No More Words), a steely touch of Patti Smith (Desire) and a peppering of flamenco. That might sound all above the place, but Calvi stitched her lifetime of influences into a deliberate vision
Everything in Calvi’s songs and presentation is carefully developed, from her flamenco-inspired stage outfits (“I desirable to wear clothes that expressed the passion in the music”) to her strength-through-silence charisma in concert (“It’s kind of like anti-performance, but it ends up being a more dramatic performance because of it”) to the maverick guitar/harmonium/drums core of her band to her resonant vocals (“I’m truly a soprano, but I sing much lower”). The latter is particularly astonishing — not just because Calvi’s speaking voice blends into the blur of passing traffic, but because she began singing only five years ago
“For years and years, I was thinking it must be so awesome to express yourself in such a way — using your essence, really, because your voice is your essence. … But I don’t fit into the mould of what I thought a singer should be. I have a quiet speaking voice, and I suppose I’m reasonably reserved with people I don’t know. My idea of a singer was so opposite of that: someone who wants to be the centre of attention, who’s got a truly loud voice”
While transforming herself into a vocalist, she discovered that she “felt more passionate once singing lower” — and if there’s a single motivating force in her art, it’s passion. The word crops up repeatedly once discussing Calvi’s songs and inspirations; despite her perfectionist streak, one gets the feeling she doesn’t have time for music that’s more studied than emotional
“Can you give me an example of a more studied musician?”
Brian Eno
“Ooh — controversial. I feel that Brian Eno approaches music as an artist approaches a conceptual piece of work, and that doesn’t have to be unemotional. It’s thoughtful. What I get unemotional is music that’s obviously careerist — people trying to sell lots of records and play on the main stage of Glastonbury. That’s what I can’t connect with. People wanting to explore ideas, I think, is interesting. There is a sort of passion there”.
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