#musicartpeople

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

AMANDA LOWE

Amanda Lowe Warnakulasuriya (AL) is a local singer-songwriter who captivates audiences with her beautiful melodies and haunting songs. Read on to learn more about her influences, challenges, successes and inspirations. Check out her music, both as a solo artist and with her post-rock project Novusolis. 

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmandaLoweMusic/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MandaaLowe

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Mandaxx13?feature=mhee

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandaa_lowe/

Latest Release: Birthmarks and Collarbones (LP, Aug 2016)

Upcoming shows: Thursday, April 27 - Host, Café Nostalgica Open Mic. Ottawa, ON

SA: How did you first get your start in music? AL: I have a very musical family - Sri Lankan music always playing at home. But in grade one my music teacher told me I had a beautiful voice and that gave me a confidence boost to perform at school. But it wasn't until age 12 that I really took songwriting and guitar more seriously. I'd turn anything into a song - like a poem, or a short story; and I'd find some guitar chords to fit and voilà! I had written over 50 songs by the time I was 18.

SA: What bands, musicians or artists would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? AL: Definitely Damien Rice, Coeur de Pirate, Keaton Henson, Wilfred Lebouthillier, and Explosions In The Sky. They can all make you feel so many emotions with not only their lyrics but just with the instrumentation. That's something I've always hoped to achieve!

SA: At this point in your musical career, what would you consider to be your biggest success? AL: Getting to open for Coeur de Pirate at a sold out Bronson Centre!! Getting to meet and open for your musical inspiration is very humbling. One of the best days of my existence!

SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? AL:  Well being a woman of colour in the music industry has been the toughest challenge I have faced - not only as an artist but also as an agent/presenter/grant writer. People find it amusing to belittle me, assault me, or to not offer me the same opportunities because I'm a woman and of colour. I've dealt with it by making these challenges aware to those who do not go through it, by creating my own platform, joining collectives whose main goals are to create safer spaces for marginalized folks to showcase their work and build community - these collectives also offer anti-oppression workshops to businesses of all kinds. The fight for equality is still not over, so I'm still dealing with it. I know that as long as there is representation, resources, and love (so cheesy, I know), we can overcome these challenges.

SA: How do you approach the song-writing process? AL: Every song seems to have a mind of it's own. Sometimes the lyrics appear first, other times it's the guitar melody/chords. Occasionally a line from one of my poems will spark the idea for an entire song and I'll build from that one line. I rely heavily on painting a picture with words and making sure that what I'm trying to convey is felt and not only heard. But I'm learning to accept that some songs don't even need words, or only need a few - experimenting with that has been really fun! The actually song-writing process doesn't require much from me, I can write anywhere! If I have anything to write with, I will find a way to jot down whats on my mind - whether it's on the bus, on the toilet (story for another day), during an exam! Most importantly, I like to remind myself that I write songs for myself, and not for other people - that takes pressure off when I'm being my own worst critic.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? AL: This is a really tough question. I love the scene because of how many talented people we have - it's truly incredible. But I'm not a fan of how dismissive the scene can be to those that bring up concerns within it. A lot of people are quick to invalidate someone's experience simply because "Well I haven't had that same experience/Well they're nice to me". We have a lot to work on, but it is slowly getting better!

Representation is vital for growth. I grew up in PEI and obviously didn't see brown women like me performing so I had to become that representation for myself and for the next little girl of colour that would be moving to the island! I find myself in that same situation now in Ottawa where sometimes on a bill, I'm the only woman or only woman of colour!

Personally, Spectrasonic has helped make so many of my performance dreams come true and I know they have a good team working hard to help with representation within their shows. There is still so much work to be done to make the Ottawa music scene more representative, safer, and more fun - but I have hope because of collectives/ organizations/ promoters such as Debaser, Babely Shades, Music.Art.People., OMIC, and my beloved Ottawa Beat!

SA: A question for fun: if you could tour with any musical act, active or not, who would it be and why? AL: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY!!!! I have cried so many tears of joy/emptiness/sadness listening to their music growing up - and I still do! They are such a big influence to my partner Zachary and I with our post-rock band Novusolis. They evoke so many emotions with just their instruments and being able to share the stage with a band that powerful and so in tune with their instrumentation would be the biggest honour. Wow my heart is racing just thinking about this!

SA: You are active both as a solo artist, as well as in the project Novusolis. When you sit down to write a song, do you have a preconceived notion of which project it will be with, or do you write in a more open-ended way, allocating songs to a project after they're written? AL: I'm still figuring that out! The song on my album "Home" was originally written for Novusolis but it ended up fitting better for my solo project. The songs evolve on their own so I never know where they may end up - but typically I write the songs for my solo project alone, and the songs for Novusolis are written in the moment with Zachary playing a new looped melody. I ask him for 3 words to describe what he feels when he's playing that melody, and I'll do the same - most of the time we have similar words and I'll build a song based off of those words/feelings.

SA: You've played a ton of high-profile gigs (Megaphono (x2), JunoFest & CityFolk come to mind). Until this point, over your entire career, could you specifically choose one gig as your favourite, and why? AL: JUNOFEST at St-Alban's was the best show I have ever played. Zachary plays with me for my solo project too, and we both agree that it was the first time that we were 100% happy with how everything sounded. There was no awkward feedback, no instruments cutting out - it was perfect! And the best part was how lovely the crowd was!! I love it when folks actually sing along, and laugh at my unfortunate life experiences (the story behind certain songs). Every show I've seen at St-Alban's has been amazing - and I had no idea I would feel the same way while performing! It was truly an ethereal experience!

SA: What comes next for you this year? Good luck with everything, and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! AL: Playing shows, leading workshops, and working on album #2 both for my solo and Novusolis project! We're ironing out details for another little tour out east, and if all works out hopefully a lovely tour out west!