Saturday, October 4, 1997By DAVID VEITCH --
Jane Siberry has always followed her instincts. And, now more than ever, her faith is being put to the test.
In an effort to gain control over all aspects of her career, the Canadian singer-songwriter recently left Warner Bros. Records, turned down offers from other major record companies and decided to form her own label, Toronto-based Sheeba Records.
"I'm just becoming more and more fussy, I suppose. I just end up doing a lot of things myself now," explains the 41-year-old do-it-herselfer.
"I'm just more and more clear about what I think is good-quality work."
As such, Siberry has become her own producer, video director and graphic artist. She just fired her agent "because he wasn't meticulous enough" and booked dates on her current Western Canadian tour by herself.
The show -- featuring Siberry backed by pianist Tim Ray and singer Rebecca Campbell -- arrives at the University Theatre tonight.
Operating an independent record label can be financially perilous and places huge demands on Siberry's time.
"Figuring out how to make the record company work has been incredibly creative (in terms of) problem solving," she says.
"As far as being able to lock my door and work on new things, that hasn't happened and it might be a luxury for a while. It's something I'm going to accept if I'm going to create a vehicle that will carry me a long time."
Siberry hasn't been completely inactive as an artist -- and that's good news considering, since the early 1980s, she has been among the most creative and consistently intriguing figures working on the periphery of popular music.
She wrote H'aint It Funny for k.d. lang's Drag CD; sang on Joe Jackson's new record Heaven and Hell; and contributed a cover of Time And Love to a Laura Nyro tribute album.
She also performed four shows in two nights at New York's Bottom Line last year, which will be turned into three new albums -- Child: Music for the Christmas Season, a two-CD set of "beautiful old hymns, not that saccharine `I'm dreaming of a white Christmas' s---;" Tree: Music for Films and Forests, featuring material she has written for the movies; and Lips: Music for Saying It, a collaboration with two New York monologuists and a funk band. All three discs will feature new and old material.
And last month Siberry released her second Sheeba CD, A Day in the Life, a 29-minute aural diary of sorts that pieces together answering-machine messages, random conversations and snippets of music.
Suggest no major record label in North America would likely allow Siberry to release this unusual project and her blood pressure rises.
"Even the word `allowed' makes me see red. Ugh! I'm so glad to have my life in my own hands now. Thanks for reminding me," she says.
The Internet has been a boon, allowing Siberry to advertise and distribute her new CDs via the Sheeba webpage, http://www.sheeba.ca.
"If I have a huge database ... I can just push a button and tell people: `I have a new record, do you want it?' "
Still, there are growing pains. After living in New York for the past two years, she recently moved back to Toronto in an effort to get Sheeba on its feet financially.
"I don't want mega-stardom. I just need a vehicle so I can work away quietly and then buy a house on a corner lot, so I can chase kids off of it when I get old. That's what I need."
