Over the phone, Pamela Brennan has the kind of sincerity that you think must be reflected back in her music. It is.
Dorval-born Brennan might be a new songwriter, but she writes with the knowledge and sophistication that comes from being involved in the music world for some time. When Hennessey—her last musical project—disbanded in 2003, she took over a role she wanted to try for a while.
“With the band, I wasn’t really writing the material. It was more I was the singer-frontwoman. It was fun, and I enjoyed doing it. But I always looked at other songwriters and thought ‘I wish I could do that,’” she said. “I had a couple of years here in Toronto where I wasn’t really doing anything at all, and then I began writing material.”
Weaving her way through the well-travelled world of rootsy pop, Brennan tends to write songs about her life.
“I just make regular, everyday, observations—write a lot of stuff down. I try to translate my experiences to something that, hopefully, isn’t too specific: something that people can relate to.”
“The music that I write is just sort of what comes out from me, I don’t plan it to be any specific genre. I listen to all sorts of music—I’m probably influenced more by the poppier side of things, the ballads and the crooning.”
Brennan’s solo debut, One Hundred Photographs, comes from collaboration with bassist and singer-songwriter Peter Murray, who produced Ottawa’s Wooden Stars. Brennan said she was a guinea pig in Murray’s new home studio, and that her album comes out of four years of work.
“It took a while, but we had a lot of fun doing it, and we’ll never do that again,” she said.
Brennan said the recording process was very casual.
“Because it was my first record, and I was co-producing it and coming up with ideas, it was nice to have the time. I could go back and really make sure I liked certain ideas. That was a luxury I didn’t have too much of before,” she said.
“I was singing, playing, that was my role, so for me, it was more fun. Hard work, but fun—the pressure fell more on Rory [Hennessey’s songwriter].” Sunday is Brennan’s first visit to The Mansion and her first solo visit to Kingston, but she’s played here many times with Hennessey, with regular gigs at Tir Nan Og and visiting A.J.’s Hangar (now Ale House), adding that Kingston was her home away from home when she lived in Ottawa.
When asked about her own influences, musical and otherwise, Brennan professes to be an avid reader and a fan of CBC Radio Three. She said musicians Andrew Vincent, Ron Leary, and Ottawa’s That’s the Spirit are among her favourites.
“[I’ve been] just reading anything, and really getting into other artists lyrics—paying attention, and seeing how people use words and music. There’s a real art to it.”
She’s also a fan of world music—a genre that, for whatever reason, has become a trend of the moment. Asked about that, she humorously gives a clue to her songwriting process.
“I don’t try to write in any specific form because I figure that it’s going to go out of style at some point. I’ll just write songs and hopefully whatever style I happen to be playing will just sort of ride the crest at some point.”
Brennan said a strong melody makes a great song.
“Maybe this is from years of listening to top 40 radio, but I love a good strong melody that I can almost sing along to—that really catches me,” she said.
“I think some of it is that little bit of magic that you can’t really put your finger on, and it’s probably that the artist really means what they are saying.”
Pamela Brennan plays The Mansion on Sunday.
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