Basia Bulat's Heart Is On The Road

Basia Bulat would be the first to admit that her success is at least partially an accident.

When she recorded her Oh My Darling debut album in 2006, she only meant for it to be an "audible memory" of the time she'd spent with some friends in Montreal.

That disc's producer, Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, The Dears), had other ideas. He sent her recordings out to anyone who would listen, and a couple of years later, Oh My Darling had snowballed into a Polaris Music Prize short listed album.

Bulat recently returned to Bilerman and his famed Hotel2Tango studio to record her sophomore effort, Heart Of My Own. CHARTattack chatted with her about that disc's genesis and her post-Oh My Darling whirlwind of touring.

CHARTattack: "Go On" [Heart Of My Own's first track] is a fairly powerful song by your standards. Were you trying to make a statement right out of the gate on this record?
Basia Bulat: I guess yes and no. This record came after a lot of touring and a lot of being on stage. I think it really reflects that. What I really wanted to do, was just do the most honest thing I could, in terms of the way I was recording and the way I put the record together. "Go On" is a song that I've been playing for about a year now, so it was nice to be able to start the record with it.

In a previous interview, you said that you weren't expecting Oh My Darling to take off like it did. So with this album, when you maybe knew ahead of time that it was going to be listened to by a lot of people, did you approach the creation of it differently?
Yeah, I think because of the very fact that I was making a second record and I knew there was going to be more time and more listeners involved. Then there are also my own standards. I set my own bar a bit higher for myself in terms of my playing and writing and singing. It's gotta be different. I certainly didn't want to make the same record twice.

What were some of the things you wanted to do differently?
I wanted to add a lot more percussion to this record. I wanted to take my time. I recorded a lot more songs — I think we recorded about 19 or 20 tracks — and then I narrowed it down to the ones that seemed to fit the best together. A lot of the songs were written while I was on tour, or in short periods in between long tours, so that was quite different, too.

The things that stayed the same were kind of crucial. I did most of the recording on tape. I love analog recording and the limitations that come with it. It really forces you to play live with as many people as possible... the more people I could have playing together at once, the better.

The songs that didn't make the album — can we expect to see them on something in the future?
Nothing's ever in the trash with me. I think even if I tried send it to the trash, it'd come back to haunt me. I'm sure they'll find their way out in one form or another.

I've heard that a trip you took to the Yukon was a great source of inspiration for you and this album, right?
It was a really strengthening experience. It had been a goal or a dream of mine since I was a kid to get as far north as I could go, so to be able to accomplish that because of playing music was a big thing for me. Even after just a short time there, it has never really left my mind.