Arlene Paculan’s Jazzy Pop

Touch Yourself USA Tour: Total Slacker + Night Managertext: Nicky Nasrallah | photography: Mike Ford

Soulful singer/songwriter Arlene Paculan grew up in Mississauga and trained in Toronto. Over the last few years, she has been doing her part to contribute to the music community on both sides, not only by sharing her voice but by helping empower others to do the same.

Nicky Nasrallah: Hello, Arlene! You’re fresh off a performance headlining a show for the TD Toronto Jazz Festival last night. How did that go?

Arlene Paculan: It was amazing! It was at The Central, as part of the club series. I had Matt Morgan & The Back Up Plan open for me, as well as The Muso Project. It was a pretty good turnout. It was actually my first experience to have strangers come in to see me, specifically. If I don’t recognize someone I’ll usually try to find out who they’re here to see. So I asked some people and they all said “You!” It was so cool.

NN: People you don’t even know, know who you are now!

AP: Yeah, there were a bunch of them. I guess they saw it on the website, so they were just looking for something to do that night, which is cool. Another woman said to me, “Oh, you’re woman in the picture on the website!” It was cute.

NN: Were you asked to do it, or did you ask them if you could perform?

AP: Lucan Wai from The Central mentioned to me that they were going to be one of the venues for the Jazz Festival, so he approached me, and I said I’d definitely love to be part of it.

NN: You’ve been performing a lot lately throughout the city. For how long have you been playing local clubs?

AP: Over two years now.

NN: And you’ve started to produce your own shows.

AP: Actually, it started off with me producing shows. It was because, in theatre, there’s a lot of auditioning. I absolutely love musical theatre. So I came to the conclusion that I should start putting on my own shows where I can promote my music on my own terms. That’s where I got the idea of finding venues, getting friends involved and having a show.

I continued to do that, and I’d invite different people so it wouldn’t be the same lineup every time. We’re expanding our audiences as well. Because I did that, more and more people are asking me to jump on board for their nights. So a lot of the work that I put in before is kind of dying down. But I do like to produce my own shows, because it’s a different kind of creative form.

Writing and singing is something personal, but putting on my own nights, getting people together to enjoy music is completely different.

NN: Did you start out doing covers, or have you always been writing songs?

AP: I started out doing covers, but then I started to improvise on the piano, which is how I learned to make up music, so then I started writing my own stuff. I found my love for it. It’s so cool to create a story with melody.

NN: Where do your ideas come from?

PA: Most of ones that people enjoy are stories that I made up. Being an actor you have to play a role that you haven’t necessarily lived. You have to imagine yourself in that situation.  One song that a lot of people really like is called Nightmare. It’s basically a song where I imagined if someone were to cheat on me or betray me, these are the words that would come out.

NN: So you’re not pulling from your real life experiences, then. You’re just imagining yourself going through this stuff.

AP: Exactly. There’s another song on my EP, which is a break up song, but I’ve never broken up with anyone. (laughs) I make it so dramatic. The first line is “The snowflakes gather on the tears you left me with.” I was thinking of how I would feel if I were to ever break up with somebody, and just go into that emotion. But there are some songs that I have experienced. Certain people have affected me in order to express the words in some of the songs.

NN: How do you describe your sound?

AP: I call it classy jazzy pop. I’ve always said my music is adult contemporary. I’m influenced by Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jewel, and all those awesome females.

NN: Are you always on piano, or do you also play guitar?

AP: I do sometimes play guitar. Very rarely.

NN: Do you play any other instruments?

AP: Well, sometimes an easy one like harmonica or ukulele. I have a glockenspiel in one of my songs. I play piano and glockenspiel at the same time.

NN: What’s a glockenspiel?

AP: It’s a little double xylophone.

NN: You don’t just do this. You mentioned you also come from musical theatre. You trained in that at Randolph Academy for Performing Arts. Where did that take you?

AP: I’ve actually done a lot of musicals since graduating. I got a chance to play Rizzo in Grease, Nancy in Oliver, Laurie in Oklahoma, and I’m not a soprano, so I really had to train for that role.

Then I did a bunch of Shakespeare. I played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, which was fun. What that all brought me to now, which I’m really grateful for, is that they thought me how to pretend and create.

When writing songs on subjects that I haven’t actually gone through, Randolph taught me how to put myself in those experiences, so that it becomes personal.

NN: That’s an excellent tool, to have that to pull from. Have you always wanted to be a singer?

AP: When I was a kid I sang a lot, and in high school I actually wrote some music. It wasn’t that bad. But I was listening to a lot of alternative rock, so it was very teen angst.

At that point I wanted to have a band. I wanted be like No Doubt and have an all guy band behind me. I would have settled for an all girl band.

I used to take a modelling class, more so for self esteem, because I was really shy. [/wpcol_1third] I met a girl there and we were gonna make a girl band called Delusion (laughs), and we spent so much time trying to figure out what our logo would look like that we didn’t even practice. It didn’t last very long.

What’s cool is that when I first started playing, my band was three guys, so I ended up realizing my dream of being like No Doubt, with me as the front girl. Right now my band is just Mickey Rodriguez on drums.

NN: You produce a series called Wonder Women.

AP: Yes. That started out in 2011. My goal is to showcase female singer/songwriters of different genres, so that we can all expand our audiences. The first show was myself; an alternative rock singer, Meghan Morrison; a comedian singer, Kat & the MP3; and an R&B singer named Madette. It’s all about showcasing different kinds of music to other people.

Our fifth one is coming up on August 8th at 7:30pm. It’s going to be showcased in Mississauga in the Celebration Square Amphitheatre, so it’s going to be a big one. It’s a free event. I have a bunch of different singer/songwriters. I have two female hip hop artists, two spoken word artists, a comedian, and a contemporary dancer.

Prior to that, we’re doing a workshop networking event. Meghan Morrison is going to talk about positive ways to promote yourself as an artist. What’s cool is that in addition to all this, we’re holding a youth event a week before. It’s basically an artistic self-esteem workshop.

NN: Oh, wow.

AP: We’re going to have a man named Tristan conduct the workshop for these females. Guys can come too, but it’s basically geared toward the girls. The reason why we chose a man to run this workshop is because it’s different to hear a man say, “Women, you rock,” as opposed to hearing women say, “Yay us! We rock!”

NN: It gives it a different perspective and a new meaning in a way.

AP: Yeah. So they’re going to share stories, do some improv, talk about self-esteem and empowerment, so I’m really excited about that.

NN: Cool. So it’s not just about promoting yourselves, you’re promoting a cause as well.

AP: Exactly.

NN: That’s awesome. And you have a production company…

AP: Lene, Mean, & Green Productions. ‘Lene’ being the last part of my name. So when people say “You spelled ‘lean’ wrong,” I’m like “I know!” (laughs) That’s the company that produces all these shows. It started out with just me. Now it’s me, Kat Leonard – she’s my artistic director – and right now Lizzie Violet is on board for public relations.

NN: You have some more performances coming up this Sunday, July 1st. One is for Toronto’s Gay Pride Festival. And the other is for the Scotiabank CHIN Picnic?

AP: It’s part of this international radio station. Each different culture is getting their own time to showcase over the weekend. I’m doing a couple of songs for the Filipino portion, and then I’m heading over to the Paul Kane Parkette to do a set at 8pm for Pride. That’s on Wellesley between Yonge and Church. I’m working on a Madonna cover. I want to do True Blue. It’s my favourite one.

NN: A classic. Break a leg this weekend! They’re going to love you.