Joanna Chapman-Smith

She is “the slinky-voiced Canadian whose arch acoustic musings come laced with a hint of Parisian cafes.” - Q Magazine (UK)

She is “the slinky-voiced Canadian whose arch acoustic musings come laced with a hint of Parisian cafes.” - Q Magazine (UK)

“Exceptional… a creative and skilled vocalist.” - National Public Radio (USA)

“Exceptional… a creative and skilled vocalist.” - National Public Radio (USA)

“Chapman-Smith... rises above the herd of folkie singer-songwriters.” - The Georgia Straight

“Chapman-Smith... rises above the herd of folkie singer-songwriters.” - The Georgia Straight

Joanna has an "introspective, laid-bare approach to her music—you don’t put stickers on a Stradivarius." - THE GRID

Joanna has an "introspective, laid-bare approach to her music—you don’t put stickers on a Stradivarius." - THE GRID

"Uniquely talented... She’s got the whole package" - THE TORONTO STAR

"Uniquely talented... She’s got the whole package" - THE TORONTO STAR

Joanna Chapman-Smith is, “one of Canada’s best, with a gorgeous, fluid voice." - The Province

Joanna Chapman-Smith is, “one of Canada’s best, with a gorgeous, fluid voice." - The Province

"She makes it look effortless, but there’s nothing simple at play." - THE GLOBE & MAIL

"She makes it look effortless, but there’s nothing simple at play." - THE GLOBE & MAIL

Chapman-Smith not afraid of shadow puppets, mimes
Eclectic evening of music, dance and jamming promises to be 'radsauce'

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Ah, the life of a bohemian artist. Travelling, creating, talking all night about Godard and Kafka at cafés. And living with roommates. Four, in the case of musician Joanna Chapman-Smith--which makes five women (and a female cat) in a Vancouver East Side house, all sharing one bathroom.

No wonder she recently spent a couple of months in Toronto. "No, it totally works out," says Chapman-Smith, reached at home. "We all use it at different times anyway."

Chapman-Smith was raised out east, and then moved to Vancouver to study English at Simon Fraser University. "It was one of my few life attempts to never do music again," she says.
Joanna Chapman-Smith celebrates the release of her new CD Contraries and an evening away from her crowded East Side house with a show at the Ukrainian Hall Jan. 30.

The attempt failed: Chapman-Smith lasted one semester before joining the music program, which offered an education in sounds and techniques from Africa and Indonesia. But the music on Contraries, her just-released second album, is influenced more by styles like Gypsy jazz from Eastern Europe.

"It's been around me the entire time growing up," says the dark-featured singer. "I don't know this for sure, but I imagine it's also part of how I look. People presume I'm already part of their culture, or want to share it with me. Anyway I've had a lot of Latin and Eastern European music thrown my way. I totally love it, the scales drive me wild."

Is there enough room in Vancouver for two klezmer musicians--i.e. Chapman-Smith and accordion player Geoff Berner? "There's more than two, so there better be," she says. "There are tons. But Geoff Berner came first, and he's one of the people I'm influenced by. We share the same drummer [Wayne Adams]."

On her album of mostly lighthearted, intimate-sounding folk-pop songs, Chapman-Smith spices up Contraries with accordion, cello and whistling. It also offers some thoughtful lyrics by Chapman-Smith, such as on "Arbitrary Lines," a song about easy categorization: "So what is pure/And when is right... Where do these lines first come from/Who marks them down and why?"

Her CD release show at the Ukrainian Hall Jan. 30 promises to blur a few lines with its multimedia format. For instance, one of the opening acts, Maria in the Shower, has "a demonic mime thing going on," according to Chapman-Smith. A local company called Mind of a Snail will "jam along" to her music with shadow puppets. And Chapman-Smith has drawn on her connections with SFU's dance program.

"I worked as a dance accompanist for three years, and it influenced the kind of music I was writing," she says. "So I'm excited some of the dancers have choreographed two of my songs."

Whatever happens, the evening is bound to be, in a term used by Chapman-Smith on her website, "radsauce."

"Just the word 'rad' is very West Coast," she says. "I remember in first year university hearing people say 'That's rad,' and I was like, 'Oh man. That's rad that you say 'rad'!"

"Radsauce," she says, is a recent addition to her vocabulary. "'Sauce' and 'bone' are my favourite suffixes," says the musician. So she'll make up words like "sweetsauce" or "sweetbone" or "damnsauce."

Does this mean she'll throw a few bones and sauces to the audience between songs at her CD release party? Chapman-Smith says, "I do not vouch for anything I might or may not say."


© Vancouver Courier 2009 - Vancouver Courier

Chapman-Smith not afraid of shadow puppets, mimes
Eclectic evening of music, dance and jamming promises to be 'radsauce'

-------------------------------

Ah, the life of a bohemian artist. Travelling, creating, talking all night about Godard and Kafka at cafés. And living with roommates. Four, in the case of musician Joanna Chapman-Smith--which makes five women (and a female cat) in a Vancouver East Side house, all sharing one bathroom.

No wonder she recently spent a couple of months in Toronto. "No, it totally works out," says Chapman-Smith, reached at home. "We all use it at different times anyway."

Chapman-Smith was raised out east, and then moved to Vancouver to study English at Simon Fraser University. "It was one of my few life attempts to never do music again," she says.
Joanna Chapman-Smith celebrates the release of her new CD Contraries and an evening away from her crowded East Side house with a show at the Ukrainian Hall Jan. 30.

The attempt failed: Chapman-Smith lasted one semester before joining the music program, which offered an education in sounds and techniques from Africa and Indonesia. But the music on Contraries, her just-released second album, is influenced more by styles like Gypsy jazz from Eastern Europe.

"It's been around me the entire time growing up," says the dark-featured singer. "I don't know this for sure, but I imagine it's also part of how I look. People presume I'm already part of their culture, or want to share it with me. Anyway I've had a lot of Latin and Eastern European music thrown my way. I totally love it, the scales drive me wild."

Is there enough room in Vancouver for two klezmer musicians--i.e. Chapman-Smith and accordion player Geoff Berner? "There's more than two, so there better be," she says. "There are tons. But Geoff Berner came first, and he's one of the people I'm influenced by. We share the same drummer [Wayne Adams]."

On her album of mostly lighthearted, intimate-sounding folk-pop songs, Chapman-Smith spices up Contraries with accordion, cello and whistling. It also offers some thoughtful lyrics by Chapman-Smith, such as on "Arbitrary Lines," a song about easy categorization: "So what is pure/And when is right... Where do these lines first come from/Who marks them down and why?"

Her CD release show at the Ukrainian Hall Jan. 30 promises to blur a few lines with its multimedia format. For instance, one of the opening acts, Maria in the Shower, has "a demonic mime thing going on," according to Chapman-Smith. A local company called Mind of a Snail will "jam along" to her music with shadow puppets. And Chapman-Smith has drawn on her connections with SFU's dance program.

"I worked as a dance accompanist for three years, and it influenced the kind of music I was writing," she says. "So I'm excited some of the dancers have choreographed two of my songs."

Whatever happens, the evening is bound to be, in a term used by Chapman-Smith on her website, "radsauce."

"Just the word 'rad' is very West Coast," she says. "I remember in first year university hearing people say 'That's rad,' and I was like, 'Oh man. That's rad that you say 'rad'!"

"Radsauce," she says, is a recent addition to her vocabulary. "'Sauce' and 'bone' are my favourite suffixes," says the musician. So she'll make up words like "sweetsauce" or "sweetbone" or "damnsauce."

Does this mean she'll throw a few bones and sauces to the audience between songs at her CD release party? Chapman-Smith says, "I do not vouch for anything I might or may not say."


© Vancouver Courier 2009 - Vancouver Courier

Accordions can be brandished as sonic weapons, sitting heavy and poised for raucous, foot-stomping mayhem. Not so for Joanna Chapman-Smith.

Jazzy, soulful vocals dominate Chapman-Smith’s “Canadian ethnic folk” — a mellow collection of folksy tunes that also features clarinet, piano, stand-up bass, scattered percussion flourishes, whistling and even an a capella duet (Body Language).

Autobiographical stories like Carnival Song and Between the Mind shine over Chapman-Smith’s sparse arrangements and restrained instrumentation. The resulting album plays more like a summertime porch lullaby than a gypsy punk party.

Listen to Joanna Chapman-Smith at myspace.com/joannacs - Metro Canada

Accordions can be brandished as sonic weapons, sitting heavy and poised for raucous, foot-stomping mayhem. Not so for Joanna Chapman-Smith.

Jazzy, soulful vocals dominate Chapman-Smith’s “Canadian ethnic folk” — a mellow collection of folksy tunes that also features clarinet, piano, stand-up bass, scattered percussion flourishes, whistling and even an a capella duet (Body Language).

Autobiographical stories like Carnival Song and Between the Mind shine over Chapman-Smith’s sparse arrangements and restrained instrumentation. The resulting album plays more like a summertime porch lullaby than a gypsy punk party.

Listen to Joanna Chapman-Smith at myspace.com/joannacs - Metro Canada

The original songs of Vancouver singer-songwriter Joanna Chapman-Smith move between darkness and light. Lyrically inspired by William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (which requires some mood-shifting), she appears musically inspired by Jeff Buckley, Ani DiFranco, and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band.

The songs can be autobiographical (Urbanity), probing (Arbitrary Lines, which examines the us-versus-them mentality) or resigned (A Glass of Right & Wrong, which states, "Why get it right when it feels much better to get it wrong.").

Chapman-Smith plays guitar, keyboards and clarinet, the latter instrument used on the disc's plentiful klezmer, waltz and polka-step numbers. Dawn Zoe's accordion works well on the arrangements, and Marc L'Esperance's violin highlights In the Quiet, one of the better tracks.

— Marke Andrews - The Vancouver Sun

The original songs of Vancouver singer-songwriter Joanna Chapman-Smith move between darkness and light. Lyrically inspired by William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (which requires some mood-shifting), she appears musically inspired by Jeff Buckley, Ani DiFranco, and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band.

The songs can be autobiographical (Urbanity), probing (Arbitrary Lines, which examines the us-versus-them mentality) or resigned (A Glass of Right & Wrong, which states, "Why get it right when it feels much better to get it wrong.").

Chapman-Smith plays guitar, keyboards and clarinet, the latter instrument used on the disc's plentiful klezmer, waltz and polka-step numbers. Dawn Zoe's accordion works well on the arrangements, and Marc L'Esperance's violin highlights In the Quiet, one of the better tracks.

— Marke Andrews - The Vancouver Sun