Samantha Hooey

When London’s Samantha Hooey did an impromptu duet with ex-Posies/REM/Big Star legend Ken Stringfellow at Call The Office a few months back, something rather startling happened. A deep hush fell over the room as Hooey’s gentle, sultry crooning entranced Stringfellow and the rapt audience. It was a musical moment as memorable as it was unexpected.

That wispy intimacy (think a younger, tentative Dusty Springfield) is key to what makes After The Fire such a stunner. Hooey’s hushed intimacy is so entrancing that one leans in to the songs and the performances. And while there is no shortage of singers attempting the same to precious and cloying affect, Hooey never once succumbs to such artifice. She is really that good.

And so it goes throughout the eleven songs here, all written by Hooey. The supportive production by Hooey with Michael Saracino doesn’t rely on her vocals to do all the work, however. The performances and support by her band and others (the strings on the melancholic Paper Wings are superb) are energetic and expansive but never overwhelm Hooey’s vocals which quietly anchor all the songs.

For the time being, Hooey is one of London’s more underrated talents although After The Fire gives plenty of evidence that may be a temporary thing. Here’s hoping.

Rating: A-

By: Bob Klanac

Bob Klanac is a London based music journalist who's penned hundreds of features and reviews, sat on a Juno Awards jury, and is currently a member of the Polaris Music Prize jury. - The Beat Magazine

When London’s Samantha Hooey did an impromptu duet with ex-Posies/REM/Big Star legend Ken Stringfellow at Call The Office a few months back, something rather startling happened. A deep hush fell over the room as Hooey’s gentle, sultry crooning entranced Stringfellow and the rapt audience. It was a musical moment as memorable as it was unexpected.

That wispy intimacy (think a younger, tentative Dusty Springfield) is key to what makes After The Fire such a stunner. Hooey’s hushed intimacy is so entrancing that one leans in to the songs and the performances. And while there is no shortage of singers attempting the same to precious and cloying affect, Hooey never once succumbs to such artifice. She is really that good.

And so it goes throughout the eleven songs here, all written by Hooey. The supportive production by Hooey with Michael Saracino doesn’t rely on her vocals to do all the work, however. The performances and support by her band and others (the strings on the melancholic Paper Wings are superb) are energetic and expansive but never overwhelm Hooey’s vocals which quietly anchor all the songs.

For the time being, Hooey is one of London’s more underrated talents although After The Fire gives plenty of evidence that may be a temporary thing. Here’s hoping.

Rating: A-

By: Bob Klanac

Bob Klanac is a London based music journalist who's penned hundreds of features and reviews, sat on a Juno Awards jury, and is currently a member of the Polaris Music Prize jury. - The Beat Magazine

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‘Angry’ is not the first adjective that comes to mind when listening to music by London’s Samantha Hooey, but the soft spoken singer/songwriter has found that emotion on her newest album, After the Fire.



“I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been angry,” Hooey said as she reflected on the meaning behind her newest material. “I was not ever an angry person.”

Yet it must have been difficult to avoid drawing some inspiration from her battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma about two years ago. The diagnosis delayed the release of her first CD, Hey Love, but was also a painful reminder about the loss of her father to the same illness three years earlier.

On an especially powerful track called Saint Anger, Hooey opens up about her experience with cancer:

“There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to make sure that I made it through,” she sings on the track. “Pray to the heavens and all the good things that I knew/Saint Anger you found me/You came out of your hideout/You came pouring out of my mouth/You set my world on fire/Though things have settled down/I ask you to please stay around/ Stand by on the sidelines in case I ever have to fight again/Because with you I know I will always win.”

Hooey sticks to her gentle melodies and delicate vocals on the new album — which will be released with a performance at the London Music Club March 30 — but her warm folk-rock style doesn’t diminish some of the sharper themes. In fact, the juxtaposition has an introspective appeal.

“When I was diagnosed, it was in that moment when I felt this overwhelming sense of anger,” Hooey recalled. “I was like — you picked the wrong girl, you’re not making my family go through this again.

“Sometimes you don’t really realize that you have what strength you have inside unless you’re faced with a lot of adversity.”

It’s the sharp contrast to Hooey’s natural demeanor that helps create depth on the album, which was wrapped in a Niagara Falls studio in November where Hooey recorded the 11-song CD with some former Fanshawe College classmates. While a handful of songs will be familiar if you’ve seen her play in London recently, most of them are brand new.

“I’d say (After the Fire) is even more personal (than Hey Love),” Hooey said. “There’s been so much change in my life that … in terms of how it basically has come out into music, I feel like I’m not holding back anymore.”

“Between getting sick and the big breakdown in my personal life with relationships … I’m very thankful for all those experiences because they’ve definitely changed who I am. I learned so much. As much as they were terrible things to go through, I’m thankful for what I got out of them.”

Sooner than Later and All These Years are also currently available on Hooey’s YouTube channel, and after the LMC show on March 30, Hooey plans to keep performing this year.

“I just want to share my music as much as possible, I just want to push it out there and connect with as many people as I can,” she said.



Chris.montanini@sunmedia.ca
- The Londoner

"Recording wizard Andy Magoffin surrounds Hooey's words and delicate melodies with jagged moments and percussion punctuation. She celebrates being a person who wants to pull off her big journey without being bought off. A fascinating life and art lesson is contrasting her Come Undone with Kittie's song of the same name on the metal band's 2011 album". - The London Free Press

"Recording wizard Andy Magoffin surrounds Hooey's words and delicate melodies with jagged moments and percussion punctuation. She celebrates being a person who wants to pull off her big journey without being bought off. A fascinating life and art lesson is contrasting her Come Undone with Kittie's song of the same name on the metal band's 2011 album". - The London Free Press

Mark your calendar for the London Music Club -- and do it sooner than later.

That's because Samantha Hooey will be sharing her whimsical folk-pop tunes with one lucky crowd. Keep your ears perked for one of her new-ish tunes, Sooner Than Later: "And you can't tell me / Oh won't you tell me / What's running through your mind / When you're looking at me."

She released her album Hey Love in January 2011, which helped her scoop up a nomination for Contemporary Singer/Songwriter at the 2012 Jack Richardson Music Awards. It features a little bit of magic, as heard on Just Wait; she sings "But if you only knew the things that I'm thinking now, babe / We'd quit our jobs and not worry about not getting paid."

This daydreamer graduated from the music industry arts program at Fanshawe College before writing tracks for her debut album, which she recorded with Andy Magoffin in The House of Miracles. Hooey is working on her sophomore release, and is supported by bassist David Ball, pianist Michal Wiraszka, guitarist Dennis Varillas, and bassist David Ball.
- QMI Agency

Mark your calendar for the London Music Club -- and do it sooner than later.

That's because Samantha Hooey will be sharing her whimsical folk-pop tunes with one lucky crowd. Keep your ears perked for one of her new-ish tunes, Sooner Than Later: "And you can't tell me / Oh won't you tell me / What's running through your mind / When you're looking at me."

She released her album Hey Love in January 2011, which helped her scoop up a nomination for Contemporary Singer/Songwriter at the 2012 Jack Richardson Music Awards. It features a little bit of magic, as heard on Just Wait; she sings "But if you only knew the things that I'm thinking now, babe / We'd quit our jobs and not worry about not getting paid."

This daydreamer graduated from the music industry arts program at Fanshawe College before writing tracks for her debut album, which she recorded with Andy Magoffin in The House of Miracles. Hooey is working on her sophomore release, and is supported by bassist David Ball, pianist Michal Wiraszka, guitarist Dennis Varillas, and bassist David Ball.
- QMI Agency

The crowd in the club was buzzing, and intimidatingly large. “I’m not nervous at all!” laughed Samantha Hooey, her hands shaking as she sipped water between songs. Opening for Bif Naked — who referred to Hooey’s album as a work of art — must be a completely unnerving affair, though positively so, as the crowd so thoroughly enjoyed Hooey’s set that they cheered her into performing a brief encore. - London Community News

The crowd in the club was buzzing, and intimidatingly large. “I’m not nervous at all!” laughed Samantha Hooey, her hands shaking as she sipped water between songs. Opening for Bif Naked — who referred to Hooey’s album as a work of art — must be a completely unnerving affair, though positively so, as the crowd so thoroughly enjoyed Hooey’s set that they cheered her into performing a brief encore. - London Community News