I recently came across a wonderful singer, songwriter Taryn Laronge and fell in love with her discribtive story telling so thought I would sit down with her to find out...
Taryn Laronge, storyteller through music
April 5, 2018
I recently came across a wonderful singer, songwriter Taryn Laronge and fell in love with her discribtive story telling so thought I would sit down with her to find out a bit more about this songtress — storyteller! I know you will enjoy her music too. And i want that red piano haha
1.How long have you been living in Vancouver and why did you pick Vancouver as an artist?
I was born in Vancouver and went to elementary and high school here and then I moved back East to go to university and then to Victoria where I attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts (which is now an accredited university arts school) and then I decided to stay in Vancouver because I love the landscape of the ocean and mountains here which is something that’s not easy to come by in a lot of other cities. I also have my mother and father here and I haven’t wanted to move to away from them either.
2. Listening to Juliet — what a beautiful song — what is the story behind this song
The song “Juliet” was written while I had moved home temporarily to live at my mother’s house and be there for her while she was getting an operation to remove all of her breast cancer. She has the same genetic form of an extremely progressive breast cancer the one that Angelie Jolie also has which means that her chances of getting breast cancer skyrocket to the 65% whereas the majority of us have chances of receiving it at around 11%. So while I was staying with her in her house one evening I sat down at my Yamaha keyboard and started on the Aminor chord and just wrote this song in around 3 or 4 minutes. All of the lyrics just poured out with the chords too at the same time. It was very easy which was a bit of a shock to be honest. My mother was in the room beside me resting as I wrote it.
3. Songwriting — do the words or music comes first — what is your writing process?
My songwriting process is all over the map! I will sit down and play chords and sing lyrics at the same time or I will take lyrics and finish them first and then sit down and write the music. Or some times it’s a little of a half and half process… but whatever the process is I always seem to know where I need to be going like have a title or clear theme in mind and I always have a general understanding of the emotion I want to convey. To me the emotion is the most important thing in a good song because I find that even if you have amazing lyrics and a great melody and chord progression that doesn’t mean that you will have a song that conveys a strong sense of emotion and to me it’s good lyrics and good melody and chords plus an amazing emotional sense that makes people feel a song and say or think that it’s a great song.
4. Many of our readers are younger — what kind of advice can you give young musicians just starting out
I would tell anyone who is just starting out with songwriting and music to get as good as they can on an instrument and I would also tell them to learn piano and guitar and dulcimer. I would tell them to also take voice lessons with a private teacher and to register with all of the music organizations like SOCAN, Music BC, etc. and to get involved in the community with music events. I would also tell them to try and write songs with as many people as they can and to try writing whenever possible with people who are better than they are at the craft so that these peoples’ skills can get passed along to the emerging singer-songwriter.
It’s a very mentorship based craft like a lot of the other art forms where you have to pay your dues and there aren’t a lot of short cuts and it requires various methods of acquiring a lot of knowledge to execute the craft. One of the best ways to get that knowledge if from a teacher who is better or more experienced then you are. I would also tell them to become mentors to someone who is less experience then they are as well.
Wow! such great advice 🙂
5. When is your next show?
I just played a lot of shows since the New Year in January, February and March so my next show is not until May 13th and it will be in Victoria at the Brentwood Bay Hotel.
Take note all you lovely Victoria folks 🙂
Be sure to add her on social media — see links below!
Know someone who would benifit from this blog #repost
NPP
