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Music

Lets talk it out

LAND OF TALK at Lees Palace (529 Bloor), tonight (Thursday, April 8), 10 pm. $12, adv $10. 416-870-8000.

Few things frustrate a musician more than being forced to stop playing music. This was the situation Land of Talk frontwoman Elizabeth Powell found herself in when, in early 2009, she had to cancel the band’s tour plans in order to recover from a hemorrhagic vocal polyp.

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Acting on advice from a rehabilitative vocal coach, Powell opted against surgery, choosing instead to heal naturally using the Alexander Technique. The process enhanced her endurance and skill, but required her to abstain from singing for six months.

“It’s hard to explain how depressing it is to lose your voice when you’re a singer,” Powell says while walking the streets of Montreal. “Playing music is the only thing I enjoy 100 per cent, and it’s my livelihood. To have that disappear is a real kick in the pants.”

Powell’s vocal problems were just the latest setback for a trio that, in its brief four-year existence, had already suffered lineup changes, album delays and onstage injuries. A buzz band since their 2006 debut EP, they’ve released and re-released their discography on ever-larger labels – Dependent Records, Secret City, Saddle Creek – with each label pushing them to re-tour each time.

“I realize it’s part of the game to tour extensively,” Powell says, “but that makes it really easy to burn out, both physically and emotionally.

“In a way [losing my voice] was the coolest thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to take some time off and re-evaluate my priorities.”

During that downtime, Powell wrote and recorded the as yet untitled full-length follow-up to 2008’s Some Are Lakes, set for August release. Free from performing, she built the songs gradually, a process she describes as “healthier than ever before,” and came to accept her role as Land of Talk’s driving force.

“When you’re an up-and-coming band, everybody wants a piece of you and you can get too caught up in saying yes to everything and forget why you’re doing it in the first place: because it’s totally fuckin’ awesome!”

Elizabeth Powell traces the initial development of her vocal problems.

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The difference between indie musicians and professional athletes.

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Elizabeth Powell explains why she does not appear Broken Social Scene?s upcoming Forgiveness Rock Record.

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music@nowtoronto.com

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