Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, People w/ Poise is the New Music Monday highlight!
People w/ Poise is a truly unique musical endeavour, combining a love of poetry with soundscape creation through thoughtful musicianship.
This is a Victoria-based project comprised of Liam St. John and Greg Bertato, who also play in the local band Sweet Delirium, as well as their friend and collaborator, Daniel Turenne.
Together they made A Cat Called Elephant; a four-track free-form poetry EP.
It all started with St. John and his love for writing poetry.
“I’ve been a poet for a while, and a lot of that comes from slam poetry,” St. John told Victoria Buzz.
“So the idea of poetry as an oral art form as well as a written art form has always been something very near and dear to my heart. I always had this dream that someday I would do this project with some of my original poems overtop of music.”
St. John had played in projects with both Turenne and Bertato through the years, and both were keen on trying their hand at accompanying St. John and his poetry.
To write the music that complements the four poems chosen for A Cat Called Elephant, Turenne and Bertato said they listened to the cadence of St. John’s voice when he read the poems and tried to come up with music that matched the varying tones.
“We just kind of explored sounds—its a very sonically considerate record, is how I think of it,” said Turenne.
“The form kind of goes out the window when you’re just reacting to phrasing and changes like that. Instead of at the end of a bar, making a change, it’s like, the end of a stanza, which isn’t always consistent.”
St. John says that the content of his poems on the EP were largely inspired by changes in his life that began when he moved from Ottawa to Victoria.
“The big one is change—a lot of it just deals with being in your mid-20s and what that means,” St. John explained.
“Your body changing, your lifestyle changing, your friends changing, moving, people getting married, people doing all types of things and just feeling like you’re in a bit of an in-between state.”
People w/ Poise chose the poem/song “How Lucky Am I? (I Hate How Cheese I Get When…)” as the highlight track off of A Cat Called Elephant.
St. John said that this poem was deeply meaningful to him because it was written as a love poem for his partner.
This track is comprised of two separate love poems for the purposes of the EP.
“The first poem is one that I wrote when I was really trying to be poetic, and using a lot of imagery when I’m talking about her and the way that I feel about her,” said St. John.
“Then, in the second one, I kind of question that method, in being maybe too flowery to convey what I’m trying to convey.”
He added the poem transitions to him just listing the things that he loves about his partner and their relationship.
“But inevitably, as I kind of work myself up and get excited about all these things, I switch back to imagery and metaphor before catching myself—really there’s no way around this. Sometimes when you love someone you just end up being cheesy in the way you talk about it,” he explained.
“That’s really what this poem is about, the fact that I’m kind of cheesy. I’m definitely a romantic and that comes out and that’s okay—I don’t need to try to be some crazy, super quotable, profound, prophetic person about how I feel. I can just be myself and be cheesy.”
He added that he hopes it helps people feel good about the love in their life and inspires them to write a love poem honestly, with full-cheese and authenticity.
“Tell people you love them on paper,” St. John laughed.
Bertato handled the production on this record as well as playing on it, and he added that musically, he also wanted to lean into the cheese factor to complement the poem.
One way he did this was by having another collaborator, Dan Clark compose a string section for “How Lucky Am I? (I Hate How Cheese I Get When…).”
Listen to “How Lucky Am I? (I Hate How Cheese I Get When…)” below:
To listen to “How Lucky Am I? (I Hate How Cheese I Get When…)” as well as A Cat Called Elephant in its entirety, check it out on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music.
The EP was officially released on Sunday, July 20th, and accompanied by a performance of the poems at Little Fernwood.
Another big component of this release was an accompanying ‘chapbook,’ which is a small, booklet-like publication, containing the collection of poems and some sketches to go along with them.
Though this project began as a bit of a one-off for People w/ Poise, the trio plans on working together again in the future on more experimental endeavours.
Follow People w/ Poise on Instagram to stay up-to-date with what they are up to in the future.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Braxton Glass records instrumental EP reflecting on life-changing hike
- New Music Monday: faun.a collaborates with nature on new soundscape EP
- New Music Monday: Pony Gold releases first single off forthcoming debut album
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“I am a huge advocate for local music and for building community, and the community here is way more open-arms than other cities,” said Bertato.
“CFUV is a huge proponent of that idea in being that they are very inclusive and accepting.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of People w/ Poise in the comments below!
