I cooled down from the Idaho sun in the lobby of The Owyhee on Main St. as I waited for Canadian folk songwriter, Abigail Lapell, after her midday set at Treefort. Abigail’s sound is hauntingly comforting– a description I would ascribe to music that encapsulates good, raw folk. Her lyrics are intentional and capture the intimacy of human emotions that resound feelings of grounding, grief, and healing. Here is a snippet of my chat with Abigail after her Treefort set.
So for starters, when did you know you were going to pursue music as an artist?
Well I think again it’s so funny to say but I’ve always just wanted to be a singer. That’s what I would say when I was a little kid if people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. But that said, I sort of came of age playing in like indie bands and I don’t think I thought of it as a career. Like I’m from Toronto but I spent a lot of time living in Montreal in my twenties and there was a big indie-folk kind of explosion at the time. It was only the last couple of albums that I’ve put up, it started becoming more of a full-time thing. I started getting really really busy and luckily had a bit of success with some of the songs where I was like, kind of able to devote more time to the music.
What inspires you most when you go into writing?
Well, I guess I mean, you’ve probably noticed a lot of my songs are kind of sad I feel like it’s a pretty emotional process. I tend to write from a more emotional kind of place rather than like a lot of songwriters I know who are very much storytellers or they have a narrative approach, or they’re you know looking at expressing things. Whereas I’m more so like really just trying to kind of capture the feeling in the moment and then later put it into words.
How has family, friends, or any other support systems been alongside you with the process of your musicianship?
Well, I guess in a way quite a bit of music comes from my family like my mom– she played piano and my brother would kind of play music. I feel like I’ve been around music a lot. And my partner’s an audio engineer, which is really convenient. He’s been a big influence on me as far as I know. He just has a very different music taste than me, like he grew up as a metalhead and now he kind of listens to only weird, improv, experimental jazz music.
Who do you find yourself listening to the most right now? Whose at the top of your playlists?
Oh, so many people. I’ve been listening to a bunch of bands from Toronto… Like The Weather Station, a friend of mine called Jenny Berkel. . .and she has a new record out in the spring as well. It’s wonderful. And haha, I know I’ve been saying like a lot of female singer-songwriters but Sharon Van Etten is one of my faves.
Oh, I love Sharon Van Etten she’s great.
Yeah, she’s so great. And I saw her years ago when it was just her and a guitar– maybe like 10 or 15 years ago in Toronto like one of her first shows. So that’s been kind of cool to see the evolution of that. Yeah and I mean, I still like a lot of pretty stripped-down music like some of those 70s psychedelic rock kind of bands.
Okay last one, What kind of advice would you give to up-and-coming musicians who are, you know, trying to get their foot in the music industry?
Well, they probably shouldn’t take advice from me. But that’s a great question. I mean it’s so cheesy to say, but be yourself. I guess I would give that advice to myself. You know, it’s like dating in the sense that you want to find people – Whether it’s looking for an audience or you want partnerships and the industry. It’s no good to like, fake being something like you want to put your best foot forward.