 |
The country singer teams up with Jann Arden for a sold-out show tomorrow night at the Winspear Centre. It's a benefit for the East Africa Maternal Newborn Aid Society. In a recent interview, Arden offered nothing but support for her longtime friend - but prefered to discuss other, more positive topics, at least on the record. (The swearing has also been edited out.)
SUN: In the past, you've grumbled about the state of the pop music industry and its obsession with teen pop divas. Did winning the best female vocalist at the Juno awards make you feel better about it?
ARDEN: All of the other divas were pregnant or out of the country, so I was the only possible choice. No. Not really. It's a bittersweet thing. You do put that stuff aside for a rainy day when you really need cheering up. Well, OK, I did that. I'm still shocked. I felt like George Bush. I demand a recount!
SUN: I heard you were able to get into the Universal Music party while big Juno winner Nelly Furtado was refused.
ARDEN: It was 2 in the morning and the club was way past capacity. They have these passes that are very specific: It's you plus a guest. So she had a laminate, but she showed up with 20 people from her family. They couldn't let them all in. So she said, 'Fine, I'm not coming in.' I was there. It wasn't ugly or anything. The doorman just said, 'I can't let all these people in. I'm sorry.' I think he lost his job over it. But you know, there's a way of avoiding those kind of things. If that's the news of the day, leave me out of it.
SUN: Did you enjoy your role in The Vagina Monologues?
ARDEN: It was excellent. It's a good piece. It's not like Sophie's Choice. I didn't have to memorize 30-minute monologues. I got up there with two really great actresses from New York to read these hilarious tales of a woman's vagina. Some of it's really heartbreaking and some of it's really funny. You see all these people funnel in thinking, 'What the hell is this going to be about?' And they leave like, 'Hey, let's go have a cup of coffee and talk about our clitorises.'
SUN: Any more acting in your future?
ARDEN: If the right little things come along. I just finished doing a little movie in Whitehorse. It's just a little part, a realtor, a kooky little character right out of Northern Exposure with braids and no makeup and a parka. I'm sure it's going to be a fairly horrible movie. It's called Snowbound. But the thing was, there was no snow. Erika Eleniak from Baywatch stars in it. And some farm animals.
SUN: Do you have a new record in the works?
ARDEN: Greatest hits comes out this fall, and then my record, Blood Red Cherry, comes out in the States this June. Just a year late. I'm just doing grassroots and small clubs and a lot of radio press. I just want to expand my horizons a little bit there. Rounder Records has picked it up.
SUN: They're a good label.
ARDEN: I think they're really respectable. The stuff they get behind certainly speaks for itself, Sarah Harmer or Alison Krauss, a plethora of interesting musicians that aren't Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears - which is fine, too. They're an important part of pop culture. It's been with us since popular culture began. I mean, the saturation thing gets to all of us sometimes, and I'm sure the artists themselves don't appreciate it too much, either. Their lives are in limbo for two or three years and then guess what? It's over. You're back to Tiffany trying to do a serious record after you've had two babies. You cannot maintain that level of fame. I don't know who the hell would want to. So I say, let them have their damned fun. Let their mothers write books, aye yi yi ...
SUN: You're always bringing up your mother. Maybe you two should write a book.
ARDEN: Yeah. Absolutely. My Mother, Myself, by Jann Arden. (More on: Jann Arden).