Basia Bulat Makes Autoharp Cool

Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat has been singing' her tender, thoughtful cuts of magical folk music for the better part of 10 years. Throughout, her signifying claim to fame/notoriety has been that, amongst many other instruments, she plays the autoharp, a sort of accordion-harp hybrid that when pressed and strummed delivers glorious full-feeling chords. And though the instrument has been in practice in folk, gospel, and country circles since Mother Maybelle Carter descended from the hills of Virginia, Bulat has given the unique instrument a new prominence in pop culture, leading to success in media outlets like Pitchfork, CBC, and especially the Huffington Post, who dubbed her the next Joni Mitchell while calling her latest record "Tall Tall Shadow" the best Canadian record of 2013.

And while that descriptor touches on the sheer brilliance of Bulat's oeuvre, it also leaves out the singularity of her vision as an Etobicoke-raised, London-braised powerhouse of a performer. Catching the honorary "Polonia"'s hometown set alongside posi-folk/Mumford-core harbingers the Head and the Heart, Bulat and her three-piece band literally and figuratively danced between synth-pop sugar rush, folk genteelness, and rock and roll prowess, all with a grace unique to her brand of diaspora pop music.

Her record "Tall Tall Shadow" is an intimate and personal journey exploring the loss of a departed friend, and while the specifics aren't explicit, the themes of carving joy out of the remnants of pain and sorrow ring the strings strummed from her heavenly autoharp apparatus (so true, excellent metaphor, yes vry. nice). Before her show in London, Ontario, we chatted about etymology, natural magic, Poland, and being the favourite band of both Bob "Saul Goodman/Mr. Show" Odenkirk and my little sister (who asked a few questions too).

Noisey: First off, I wanna let you know my little sister Scarlett is a super big fan of yours--
Basia Bulat: Oh my God! She and I talk on Twitter! She's so sweet, that's awesome.

She got her own little autoharp and started writing her own songs. Do you have a legion of kids picking up autoharps, or dulcimers or other interesting instruments, that write to you and share with you?
It's definitely started happening now, which is pretty crazy and awesome. The first time I ever saw an autoharp was when Will Oldham played one at a small show in a small club in Ottawa and I was like, "What is that thing? It's so cool!" A few years later, I was able to find one and start playing it myself. It's kind of mind-blowing that people are coming up to me saying, "I'm playing the autoharp now!" It's crazy.

You've definitely made the autoharp this vogue awesome instrument; you put it in the centre of the discussion.
I guess so! I don't want to take too much credit, because there's a lot of great players. I'm not the most technical player, but it's a very easy instrument to pick up. It's very rewarding because anything you do, even if you mess up, it kind of sounds fine. I play piano a lot onstage, I play guitar, and a lot of different instruments. With the autoharp, because it's not necessarily whole notes, there's not a lot of baggage around it. There's not a lot of connotations for what the instrument has to sound like or what it has to mean or what you have to do. That's the fun part about it for me.

Sounds liberating! My sister has found a lot of fun playing so I asked her to pass along a few questions.
That's so fun!

First up: We're Polish-Canadians, you're a Polish-Canadian who's toured Poland and has sung a lot of songs in Polish. Have you or do you plan to make any recordings in Polish?
I did some recording the last time I was in Poland of a couple covers. I really wanna make a whole album in Polish, not necessarily just my own songs but mix them in with some covers; I have one song called "Disco Polo," named after the genre called "disco polo." It just takes time because I have to be there. I don't really wanna make a Polish record outside of Poland. It will happen, that I can promise, I just don't know exactly when, but it will!

Looking forward to it! Scarlett also wants to know how you feel about being called this generation's Joni Mitchell by the Huffington Post and other publications.
It's obviously a very flattering comparison. With positive or negative comparisons, I try not to think about them too much no matter what because I don't want to change how I feel about myself based on what other people say about me.

It's a varied record, but people think, "okay, Canadian singer-songwriter, let's go to the classic." It leaves a lot out of what you're really doing.
They always want to say who's the next so-and-so, and I sometimes wonder if it's that they lack the vocabulary or if it really helps anybody. Obviously it's flattering! I listen to Joni Mitchell, but I also listen to Buffy Sainte-Marie and Neil Young and Leonard Cohen in terms of folk singers from Canada. No matter what, if someone says something negative or positive it's not good to take too much of it too seriously. The only thing that should matter is what you feel about yourself.

One last question from Scarlett: you've spoke a lot about how you had to scrap an entire album before you decided to release what became "Tall Tall Shadow". Do you think that album is ever going to see the light of day?
I think certain songs will come out in certain ways. We'll see what happens; it's hard to know. I always try and make something new so I've written a lot of new songs now and I'll be going into the studio really soon to make the next record. It's really hard to say!

Are you there, in that process for writing the next album yet?
I'm always trying to write as much as I can. It sometimes is something that comes to you, and sometimes you have to work at making the conditions for a song to show up in your head happen. I'm trying to do that as much as possible, all the time. So, I'm working, I'm working!

Now, there's a lot that's been said about the meaning and the process behind the writing of your latest record. I wanna talk about the word shadow. You said to the Globe and Mail something along the lines that's it's the space between light and shadow, how shadows cannot exist without light.
Mmhmm..

Now a few years ago, I was hanging out with some friends, got a little drunk, and went on an etymology website and looked up "shadow." It always stuck with me, these opposing but sorta connected terms. There's one root of shadow that says "to protect as with covering wings," whereas another version is "an abode of ghosts and spirits." I was wondering where you find yourself when you establish shadow in your songs and as the theme of your record?
In both those places! For sure, in both. Going into meanings of words, the word record or record has a bunch of meanings, but I believe one of the first uses of the word way back implied documenting our memory, but also in terms of a birdsong, it's cool. I feel like I'm trying to remember things through songs and I'm trying to lift myself up with a lot of these songs, like I'm protecting myself a little bit. But there's also some ghosts in there for sure.

Words are fun, eh?
I studied literature, so that's where a big part of my heart is for sure.

Another word that's interesting is cantaloupe. It comes from a region, the Cantalupo named after singing wolves.
Oh my god, that's amazing.

I just love nerdy stuff. Speaking of nerdy stuff, how awesome is it that Bob Odenkirk gave you the thumbs up?
[laughs] Oh man, he is such an amazing, amazing person. I've loved his work for many years and I was a huge Mr. Show fan, still am. It means a lot to me that he likes my music. I'm a huge fan.

Did you just find out over his Twitter endorsement?
I followed him on Twitter when he just joined just 'cause I was a fan. I was doing a soundcheck and got all these missed calls saying "look at your Twitter! Look at your Twitter!"

That's incredible. I heard he introduced a show you played in L.A.
Yeah, he MC'd the show and did some stand-up. It was pretty much the best possible show I could have ever imagined. It was a dream come true. I can't even believe it happened. He's made me laugh and brought me so much happiness. The world works in mysterious ways, I guess! It's kind of amazing my music found him somehow, so that's really cool. That happens a lot when you're traveling around; you try and let yourself be surprised and it's pretty astonishing what can happen.

Ivan Raczycki is a writer in Toronto with the best Twitter handle ever: @BeersCanada