Serena Ryder's Cosmic Revelation

Many Canadian music fans know who Serena Ryder is.

She won a best new artist Juno Award and has a voice like no other. She's a sturdy mix of Janis Joplin, Tina Turner and Buffy Sainte-Marie with a guitar and a broken heart. Ryder writes her own music (with the exception of her 2006 covers album, If Your Memory Serves You Well) and loves Toronto's Dakota Tavern.

But did you know she's an on-again, off-again smoker, or that her mom was a travelling go-go dancer? ChartAttack had a lovely chat with Ryder and spoke about her parents, her producer and trippy coincidences.

ChartAttack: My mom was a librarian and post-mistress growing up. Is it true that your mom was a go-go dancer? That's slightly more cool.
Serena Ryder: Yes, she was a go-go-dancing singer when she was 18 to her mid-twenties. She used to travel around Canada and be with a different band every two weeks and go-go dance and sing in clubs. Now, she's a graphic designer and a painter as well.

Crickey! What about your dad?
My biological father, I never met. He passed away when I was 11, but he was a musician too, from Trinidad. He moved to Toronto in the '70s and he started the band called The Trade Winner. It was calypso music. Straight up! Really crazy, corny lyrics. I have one of their records.

I was in Barbados this year and the band was actually big. I would mention them and people would be like, "No way, your fada is in dat band? I gotta get chu a recard." I was blown away at how much of a throwback the music really is. There is one song called "You Get On Top," and it goes, "You get on top, that's the way it must be, I am your husband you see," and it switches and the girl would sing, "I am your wife..."

Your new album, Is It O.K, certainly isn't a throwback. Tell me about how you hooked up with producer John Alagia.
I had a list of people I wanted to work with, and the universe ends up taking off the people you aren't meant to work with. And I believe that in everyone's life, there is some sort of divine plan to some extent. You change it if you want to, but there are certain things that are in the stars and signs.

It was down to two producers, and I was having such a difficult time because I loved both of them. So I was out in New York meeting up with John Alagia, and I was like, "Damn, I love him too! What am I going to do?"

So we went for burgers at this great diner. He was getting the order and I was sitting there thinking, "OK universe, give me a sign. Is he going to be my producer for this record?"

I decided that during this conversation, something had to go down. So I said, "My favourite record is Fleetwood Mac's Rumours," and he was like, "Fleetwood Mac used to own the studio that I work out of and recorded there."

Then he asked me what my favourite album this year was, and I said it was the Robert Plant and Allison Krauss album [Raising Sand]. I think it's gorgeous. He said, "That was recorded in my studio, too. T Bone Burnett has a space in my studio, and so does Robbie Robertson."

When I was recording there, Lucinda Williams was also recording there, and I was freaking out.

How do you avoid freaking out before you go on stage? Do you do anything unmentionable for your voice? I noticed you're a smoker.
I quit for three months. But to get my voice ready, I do this vocal warm-up that I normally have to do if I don't have a dressing room, which is most of the time. Like, when I'm performing in the States, in bathrooms or in hallways, it's a vocal trill [Ryder vibrates her lips and sounds like a broken telephone or wild monkey].

Have you ever thought about insuring your voice like Jennifer Lopez's bum or Tina Turner's legs?
I'll think about that. Is that possible? Maybe insure your throat? Tina's legs are priceless. They're crazy. She should get her voice insured, and her hair.