Dolphins And Tamales

Thursday, January 24

We thought it might be fun to let you see a couple of video updates of the visit here in Los Angeles. The weather has been touch and go but ultimately, it’s still one of the coolest cities I’ve been to. The show is tonight and all is buzzing and hummin’ here…

Enjoy these and see you tonight! (we’re gonna rock it tonight, we’re gonna jazz it up and have us a ball…)
Namaste

The Brady House Clip

Point Mugu Clip

Posted by anita under Shows/Events, Updates and Chat, Interviews | 1 Comment

Singing Outside The Box

Friday, April 20

This is an interview that ran in the Swerve publication as a feature on my new album. Chris was great to chat with and we enjoyed some tea at Beano and talked about music.

By Chris Bowerman/Swerve-Calgary Herald

Just sing: Drop the songwriter act, do some covers, be hot, y’know, like Alanis, Dido, Sheryl Crow, and we’ve got something. That was the strategy pitched by major labels several years ago, following Anita Athavale’s debut CD, The First Time, but not one the plucky, independent Calgary musician was thrilled about. “I was trying, but it worked like two north magnets,” she says, now simultaneously acting as Talent, Manager, Marketing and President of her own Vacation Records. The Indian-Teutonic beauty’s “slow burn” of a career should be stoked by her stellar sophomore release, Into the Noise, a crisp new recording produced by Chixdiggit drummer Dave Alcock that showcases the singer’s bread and butter–a soaring, full-bodied voice that lies somewhere between Belinda Carlile and Brandi Carlile–but also potent originals like the lead track “Grace Is.” Her strategy now? More Calvin and Hobbes than The Matrix: “You put stuff in, it gets mixed around, and it transmogrifies.” Simple, honest and true.

Athavale stayed true to herself–a musical omnivore, into books, Beck, k-os, metaphysics and Thai curry, waitressing to pay the bills. But she had her doubts. “Making the album, I was in a place where I was about to put music down: try something else, be normal, make some money, buy a house, whatever else I was supposed to do. That song,” Athavale says, referring to her elegant cover of Rush’s “Subdivisions,” “made me think about choosing that other life.”

Ten years ago, just out of high school, Athavale was playing open-mic nights at laundromats in Vancouver. “I’d have to stop mid-song and wait while everybody’s machines would go on spin cycle.” Now, going on 10 years, she’s here, into the noise and ready to play. There’s a certain grace to that.

Posted by anita under Interviews | 0 Comments

Bring On The Noise

Wednesday, March 28

This is an article written about my visit back to Prince George for a live performance. This writer attended the show and ran the article afterwards. It’s great to have her perspective on the show as she experienced it.

By Teresa Mallam/ Prince George Free Press

It’s been four years since singer-songwriter Anita Athavale last performed on stage in Prince George but she was clearly happy to be back Sunday night at Artspace. Now based in Calgary, the talented artist displayed an easy, honest rapport with the crowd – the same homespun quality that has endeared her to fans across the country.

Between songs, Athavale told stories about her life, relationships and experiences. She talked about the recording industry with its “disproportionate number of women and men musicians.” She plugged her newly released album, In The Noise, singing the title track and others like Beast, In Your World and Hopeful Again. She laughed at herself when she forgot a few lyrics, “That’s pretty bad when you forget the words to your own songs,” she joked. “Well, I think I’ll just sing the chorus again.”

Athavale is used to playing with other musicians and she mentioned a few times that she missed them. But the audience didn’t mind, they loved her solo performance for its own richness. Leading into a track from her 2002 debut acoustic album, The First Time, the artist jokingly apologized for doing the “punk rock thing” and thanked people in the audience who helped arrange her local gig. She confessed that returning to her roots (Athavale lived here while honing her musical talents) after years of touring and recording, has its difficulties.

“It’s so much harder to play in front of people who know you so well and who were there when you first started out,” she said. She praised Books and Company (and upstairs Artspace) owner Jim Brinkman for his support of the arts and artists.

“For the owner of a venue to take this kind of interest, it’s just phenomenal,” she said.

From a music-filled childhood spent in Windsor, Ont., to her taking voice lessons and performing in school musicals when the family moved to New Zealand, to following her dream to Vancouver before settling in Alberta, life has come full circle. Last week, she visited PGSS and led a recording studio workshop for students. Some of them came out to hear her perform Sunday.

Easing into Closure from her new album, Athavale recounted how she penned the song after trying vainly to make amends with someone in her life. Another deeply personal song, I Know, written for a friend who was sick, took Athavale away from her acoustic guitar to the piano. Her voice has a great range, with a Sylvia Tyson kind of edge that resonates and hangs in the air, long after the last musical chord has been struck.

Athavale once performed at the Urban Coffeehouse downtown and has fond memories of that early venue. Former Urban musician Richard Krueger  http://www.myspace.com/thebluewood opened for Athavale and later joined her for the final set, playing a couple of covers including oldies like Bob Dylan’s, One More Cup of Coffee.

Posted by anita under Reviews, Interviews | 0 Comments