Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Jeanie & Charles
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
Jeanie: When I was kid, my brother started playing guitar and there would be music in the house when my father would come home at Christmas time and my mother would play the piano and Dad would sing. Music was always part of my family and my church, I was always in choirs, I still am.
Charles: Taking up guitar after watching my brother play and practice with his band. Looked like a lot of fun!
How did your passion for creating music begin?
Jeanie: When I was little I would make up songs in my head and if I was scared I would sing those songs, say on my way to my grandmother’s bathroom in her old farmhouse. Or in car trips to Quebec. It was always there.
Charles: The compulsion to write started as soon as I gained some proficiency on guitar and saw it could go beyond playing someone else’s licks.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Jeanie: Almost eight years ago, we met in basement of a church fundraiser our groups then we playing at. We talked – a lot – he asked me out. We started dating and one evening a few months later we tried playing together.
Charles: Over a bottle of wine… of course. Always the way. I was so nervous. But it clicked and within a month found our band name, my mom liked the simplicity of it, and we played our first gig.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
Jeanie: Eclectic. No two songs sound the same, all genres. Hopefully there’s something in there any one can like.
Charles: An accessible not-usualness. Everything… blues, jazz, pop, rock, folk, country, all at once, sometimes in the same song!
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
Jeanie: Just having the confidence to do it. That it’s OK to wake up with songs in my head, that it’s ok not to be technical, knowing that it’s OK to make mistakes and laugh at yourself.
Charles: Thinking and seeing the guitar as a complete instrument capable of composition, melody, harmony, bass and percussion, not just as a lead instrument.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Jeanie: My iPhone voice memo app. An idea can be lost forever unless recorded right away especially after waking up a 3 a.m. Don’t discount anything, one little lyric or riff can become a whole song. Even when you’re wearing a bite plate.
Charles: Just my guitar and a few spare minutes…
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Jeanie: The Civil Wars are an inspiring duo, I admire them.
Charles: Tuck and Patti, a American jazz/pop/new age/folk duo.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
Jeanie: Personal experiences like arguments or bad or good things that happen inspire songs. Helps make sense of them. Helps heal me to share sad and funny moments.
Charles: Those things, hurt, happiness, anger, joy, highs, lows, can’t help but pop into the music, even a story-song has inherent and internal plot twists.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
Jeanie: Happiness, sadness, humour, an escape. To be somewhere else for a little while like we get to be. I would love it for listeners to be inspired.
Charles: Joy, excitement. As Jeanie says, an escape for a few minutes of positive universal pleasure.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Jeanie: That there is hope for healing.
Charles: Perseverance… in rehearsal, in business, in personal control, on stage. Many times quitting seemed the best choice, but we’re still here.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Jeanie: The PEI Festival of Small Halls where I could meet other people who inspire me and like to do the same thing.
Charles: The Confederation of the Arts Theatre in Charlottetown, PEI. One of the biggest venues in The Maritimes. And our home venue. Oh yeah!
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Jeanie: Freddie Mercury of Queen. Because he had no boundaries in what he did. He didn’t stick to a genre, there were no boxes. He made his own box. Nate King Cole, too. He had a richness and a smoothness that can never be replicated.
Charles: Alex Lifeson of Rush. Patterned much of my playing after him in the way he fills space, sometimes using space and silence as the music. And John Paul White from The Civil Wars, also one of my guitar inspirations. A clinic in how to be an acoustic guitarist/singer-songwriter.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
https://jeaniecharles.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100055273662514
https://www.instagram.com/j_c2018
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Jeanie: Keep on keeping on. Music helps a lot of people through connection.
Charles: Musically evolving, all the time. Creating new songs that reflect our new present.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
Jeanie: Discover that they can’t dream too big. When you’re up there on stage performing and can connect with anyone around you, life doesn’t get any better than that.
Charles: That we still can entertain, write good songs and perform well regardless of age or time.
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