Interview: Nicole Aube
MYATS: I heard you were published when you were a teen, can you tell us about that? (Super impressive!)
NICOLE: Thank you, I wrote an article for the newspaper at 16 about a local charity, at 18 I won a regional short story award which was published in the paper too, and then at 19 I had two poems published in a Canadian anthology entitled Writual.
NICOLE: I don’t recall, it’s been nearly a decade. Sex? Death? Food?
NICOLE: I didn’t find spoken word was a challenging enough medium for me, being a dancer at heart I desire movement, which I get when my hands and feet are playing my instrument and my body is grooving to the music. I like the physical exertion, the sweat and the feel, tangibility. The intellectual element of spoken word is inherent in singing lyrics.
NICOLE: I began playing piano in earnest around 8 years old, and I’ve always sang. I was really only interested in singing Christmas carols and antique or traditional songs at the piano, I mostly enjoyed playing music other than what I heard on the radio, I wanted to do my own thing growing up, and explore different kinds of music. When I was a kid I liked a good song and melody no matter if it was Hadyn, Oscar Peterson, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Brian Wilson, Bjork, Stephen Foster or Carole King. I recognized manufactured pop on the radio early and I wasn’t very interested in playing it myself.
NICOLE: I attend the symphony. I often enjoy the type of jazz that is backed by orchestra, Charlie Parker With Strings, and Klaus Ogerman’s arrangements for Frank Sinatra and Tom Jobim sit at end of the rainbow for me. At the end of my song Ninth Madder Dream, I just let my right hand bang on the keys and I don’t pay attention to what I’m doing. It’s my nod to Thelonious Monk (laughs). I’m also influenced by electronic music, for example Imogen Heap, so I never shy away from programming. I make electronic music in my spare time.
MYATS: What kind of techniques did you use to record your album at home?
NICOLE: Philosoft was recorded at Cedartree Recording Studios, with Ron Chilton and Rick Hutt. It took 4 years to make, which is typically rather a long time.
NICOLE: Yes. I don’t know Peter well but I’ve seen him perform, and I think that he is someone who truly loves what he’s doing. I suspect there will be a lot of love in the room that night. It’s a dinner concert so the audience is captive, which I love. Since I play piano and Peter plays guitar, there will be a variety of sounds for them to take in.
NICOLE: Thank you! I have considered voice-acting and would like to have an agent someday soon! I’ve had a couple great roles in locally produced musicals. . . I played Billie Holliday in an original play, and I played ‘Linda’ in a stage adaptation of Bjork’s “Dancer In The Dark”. Maybe Bjork will produce it herself one day and I can audition (laughs).
-Interview conducted by Amelia Robitaille.
We would like to thank Nicole Aube for making this interview possible. Don’t forget to check out some of her tunes from her recently released Philosoft album here!
