Jann Arden has it made -- and she knows it.
The Alberta singer/songwriter enjoys a level of success that's rare in Canada, with loyal fans and a supportive record label. That means she can make albums and tour when she's good and ready, and live in relative privacy the rest of the time.
"It's the best of both worlds -- 95% my life and 5% this," says Arden, waving her arm around the hotel room where we're sitting. "I do press for three weeks every three years, and then disappear. I'm not Shania Twain -- I just do my quiet, dumb little songs and go and live my life.
"I went into this never really aspiring to be anything," she adds, "and here I am 28 years later, making a good living. I'm 41 and I'm in a groove. I've earned it, and I like it."
Arden was in town to talk about her seventh album, Love Is The Only Soldier, for which she adjusted her comfort level even further: She and co-producer/guitarist Russell Broom recorded most of it in her own basement.
"I'm used to spending upwards of $350,000 on a record, and this time we spent $84,000," she says proudly. "That makes it easier for everyone to get their money back, and there's less pressure on me to have to go out and sell 350,000 records to recoup the cost. And it's relaxing to record at home, making a grilled cheese sandwich and some soup and singing."
'ARTICULATING SADNESS'
Arden says she didn't work for quite a long time before beginning the songs on Love Is The Only Soldier.
"I'm as lazy as the day is long," she admits. "When I feel like writing, I sit down and do it. I wrote most of these songs in a seven-month period, one every three weeks or so.
"I can't walk past my piano without noodling. Sometimes I'll write a line or two, and if I'm still on it later, it won't take me long to finish it. I don't alter them -- that's the way they came into the world, and that's the way they'll go out.
"I just do what I like to do -- I'm not ever concerned with what other people like," she continues. "I don't sit down and say, 'Hmmm, what's going to be massively popular?' I couldn't care less, I just do it. I have a label that lets me do it, and they obviously sell enough to make it worth their while."
Indeed, Arden's fans seem to have an insatiable thirst for her sad and lonely songs. "I don't know why," she shrugs.
"A lot of people have a terrible time articulating sadness. And when you write something and put it to music, it makes you braver. It's much easier for me to sing things than to tell someone how I feel. And that's what people need -- they can put a song on and go, "Here, this is what I feel like.' "
Arden won't be touring until the new year, but next month her fans will be able to see her in a CTV special that documents her two-week residency in Manhattan.
"It's less about the music and more to do with us traipsing around New York," she says.
"I think it's interesting, and very funny. It's hard to watch yourself, but it's a healthy experience as well. It's like, 'Oh, well, I guess that's what my ass looks like.' "
