Running her own record label is definitely a labour of love for Jane Siberry.
To save money and pay for the recording of her new album, Shushan the Palace (Hymns of the Earth), Siberry went so far as to rent out her home and sleep on friends' couches. Not that she's complaining.
"I feel lighter," she says of the experience. "You learn how to live with less and travel lighter, and being a musician is an art. Some days you live out of your car and sometimes you get treated like royalty."
The new album was supposed to be a full-fledged Christmas album to help raise funds for her next project, but Siberry didn't feel like singing about sleigh bells and snowmen in June, so she turned to her fans on the Internet to ask them what to do.
Their suggestions changed the album's focus from well-known traditional numbers to classical songs from the 15th to 19th century, written by artists such as Handel, Bach and Mendelssohn.
"A lot of these are directly from the Bible. I was pretty strict in my approach to the arrangements. I think they're different from other arrangements," she says.
The extra production needed to create the album ended up costing her more than originally expected -- hence her temporary homelessness -- but prevent her from recording an all-original album next year. The as-yet-untitled disc will be her first since 1996.
"I just haven't had the luxury to take four months away to have time to write it and I haven't had the cash but I'm almost at that point," she says. "It's not that easy. I'd like to have had more freedom but I've had to learn how to run a business. I'm very detail oriented."
Although she hasn't released an album of original material in seven years, Siberry has been busy. She got her record label, Sheeba, off the ground and released a disc almost every year since then.
"I haven't had any way of promoting what I've put out, so some people feel I've dropped off the face of the Earth," she says.
She most definitely hasn't. Her current tour is being billed as a festive show, with three backup singers and brass and string musicians. Siberry brings her show to the West End Cultural Centre Saturday. Admission is $28. Local a cappella group Madrigaia opens.
