ROSE COUSINS at the Rivoli (332 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, May 3), 7:30 pm. $20. 416-596-1908. See listing.
Rose Cousins isn’t scared of her sadness. For her new album, We Have Made A Spark (Outside), the singer/songwriter let challenging real-life relationships pull her into a deeply introspective place from which she then re-surfaced bearing hard-won insight. The result is 11 stark, impeccably written songs that will probably make you cry.
“Sad songs are my favourite,” says Cousins as she crosses the Confederation Bridge to her native Prince Edward Island for her next gig. “I’m not a miserable person, but I seem to have really intense inner thoughts all the time, and I find myself drawn to sadder situations – whether it’s a friend who’s trying to navigate something or my own stuff. I’m interested in the things people are struggling with. I’m not gonna lie, though – sometimes I just want to dance to Beyoncé.”
While it’d be easy to assume We Have Made A Spark is a breakup album, Cousins says the songs were influenced less by a single person than by recognizing a pattern of unhealthy relationships.
“It was important to me to find a way to let go of people who weren’t good for me, even though it’s really hard to say goodbye. I think it took me a longer time than it should have because I care very much about these people. But there’s only so long you can want something from somebody or wish someone was a certain way.”
The recording process itself, meanwhile, was anything but solitary or difficult. Recorded at Boston’s Q Division, the album includes over 16 members of what Cousins calls her “Boston family” – trusted musicians she met through years of attending The Cutting Edge Of The Campfire music festival, organized by Harvard Square’s famed Club Passim, where Joan Baez and Bob Dylan honed their chops.
Despite the number of musicians involved, arrangements are elegantly understated, with each part serving the emotion of the song, the vulnerability of the lyrics and the intimacy of Cousins’s voice. Like her two previous albums, We Have Made a Spark was funded by fans, a process made easier this time around by the existence of crowd-funding website Kickstarter. In 45 days, she surpassed her $20,000 goal by over $5,000.
Does she have any conflicted feelings about asking her fans for financial assistance?
“It makes perfect sense to me,” she says. “Being given the opportunity to be a part of something you love is an extremely cool thing and can make you feel even more connected to the music. To me, music shouldn’t be a one-sided thing from a performer out. I like it better when there’s no disconnect between me and the audience. I seek that connection. The people funding me are making an investment in my music and my career, and I’m invested in them as well. I want to give them something really good.”
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