The Scope

Tanya Tagaq has been called the Jimi Hendrix of Inuit throat singing… She has toured and collaborated with Bjork… She makes music that is weird and passionate and affecting…

Jeez! What else do you need from me??

Well, anyway, I phoned her up one Friday afternoon to talk about her music, about being the It-Girl for Inuit throat singing, and some other stuff. Here’s the transcript.

Hello! How are you?
Great, how are you?

I’m good. Do you have some time to talk?
You don’t mind if I do dishes?

[Laughs] No, I don’t mind if you do dishes.
Okay.

What dishes are you doing?
From last night’s amazing curry.

What was in the curry? I’m being totally nosy now.
Well, that’s your job, isn’t it?

Yeah, I guess… Anyway. You’re coming to Newfoundland!
Yes! I’ve never been to Newfoundland before.

Never?
No, it’s the only province in Canada I haven’t been yet. I’m excited.

Where are you living now?
I’m in Yellowknife right now.

How often do you actually spend time at home? I know you’re hopping all over the planet this summer.
It’s hard to say. I don’t really keep track of those kinds of things; when you’re on the go all the time it’s just really moment to moment.

Right. So how has it been being the kind of It-Girl for Inuit throat singing?
It’s really, really great. But there’s ups and downs in every job. Right now it’s so funny because I’m at the point now where I travel so much that when I see my friends they’re like, “Tell me the places you’ve been and what you’ve done!” and I’m so “Really? I’m tired, why don’t you just give me some good hometown gossip.” You know what I mean? It’s great, it’s fantastic meeting the people. All the music, and getting to build a network of friends that exist all over the place and also being able to explore new countries and new languages and new everything. But it’s also a trade-off with not really having that much stability.

I know it’s been going on for quite a while – since 2000, right?
Yes.

That’s ten years!
I know, I’ve been doing this a decade, it’s so weird.

Here in Newfoundland there’s a strong, traditional musical culture. When people started first messing around with traditional music, I think a lot of people didn’t know what to think, at first. Do you have that same kind of reaction with the throat singing you do, seeing as your playing around with traditional Inuit culture? What’s the response been at home?
I have a lot of support. I’m also like, I don’t know, I’m not the type of person to worry about that kind of thing. In particular because everything’s always progressed, and whatever people are trying to hold on to was created out of something as well. And that had to be created by someone out of something that was a different thing. So I think that there’s always been conservatives and there’s always been artists and it’s almost a non-issue, you know what I mean? The world would still be flat if scientists weren’t brave and willing to go against the system. It’s a good combination. We also need conservatives to hold stuff together for us, so it’s a balance of humanity I guess. Basically the answer is that I just don’t give a shit. What’s going to happen? Is the world exploding because someone’s singing? No, there are bigger issues to deal with. You know what I mean?

Do you get sick of people asking about the history of it or about basic things like that?
I get sick of the same questions over and over, but that’s part of the job. I’m sure you get sick of talking to people when they’ve just rolled out of bed or when they’re grumpy and you’re trying to pull teeth getting them to answer questions. It’s kind of the same thing. If someone asks me one more time “So Tanya, what is throat singing?” I’ve started giving really shithole answers and my manager gets really mad at me and says “Tanya, that makes you look bad.” Well, do your freakin’ homework before you talk to me. You know what I mean?

You should just have a projector with you that plays a National Film Board film or something.
Yeah, exactly. But we try to put all the stuff in the bio. I know people need to know what’s going on, so I understand that.

Well, for people who have never been exposed to it, it’s a pretty dramatic shift in thinking about music, really. I think it’s so passionate and elemental and affecting. I really enjoy it.
Throat singing, traditional throat singing, and non-traditional throat singing – for me, throat singing in itself is just an amazing thing. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, right? I have full 100% respect for the traditionalism of it. It’s so fantastic. I love the way you have to be strong to do it. It’s lung capacity. When I find that I’ve been really pushing and singing it’s a lot harder. Or if I sneak a ciggy here and there, throat singing doesn’t work as well.

Oh no! Cigarettes and throat singing!
So yeah, you’re forced to be the best you can be if you want to do something, so it’s interesting that physical capability is part of my job too.

What do you do to condition your voice?
It’s all about whisky and running.

Ha! Whisky and running?
Yeah, whisky, bacon and running. The three-week strict bacon and whisky cleanse, there you go.

This is kind of a deep question, but why do you think people are so affected by the sound of breathing?
Well, that’s kind of a stupid question. Sorry to say that.

No, not at all. I ask lots of stupid questions.
It’s because we all do it. I like to sing about common denominators within humanity and think about what we all do. We all breathe, we all shit, we all pee, we all fuck. We all hate, we all love, we all get jealous. Everybody has all these feelings, but we’re taught in this society to shut them off and pretend things are normal. I think that people get sick of that. We’re all fucked, we’re all fucked up. We’re all full of love and it’s great, but we’re all inside and we’re all full of everything. For some reason we’re not supposed to express it. I guess I’m just not embarrassed to do that. Okay world, here’s me and this is how I feel about things. Hopefully you can understand and, best case scenario, maybe you take something away that helps you in life a little. That’s kind of my goal. Hopefully I’ll take something that helps me. It should be reciprocal but it not always is. It’s so funny how people think that when you’re a performer, you’re just giving. Who’s in the audience and how they react makes such a huge difference as far as performance goes. If the audience is really supportive and if the audience is open, then…

You’re improvising a lot when you perform. Is that right?
Yeah.

So that must play into that as well.
Yeah.

So we’re all messed up no matter how much bacon or whisky we have, or how much running we do.
Well, no matter what. You know when you’re a kid and you think oh goodness, when I turn whatever everything’s going to be so much better. No one tells kids that oh by the way there’s no Santa, no Tooth Fairy and it just gets harder. You know? You know, why? Why don’t we set people up so they know what’s going on, and oh, by the way you’re going to die? You’re going to die and dying’s okay and it’s going to hurt but it’s okay to die, everyone. Nobody talks about that kind of stuff and it’s too bad because we should be prepared for death in this culture, we should have more ritual and celebration around it. We should make ourselves healthier when it comes to ideas of certain things. I mean, I’ve got a lot of weird opinions.

Well, I think you’re not afraid to be human.
Well, or not human. I kind of wish I wasn’t. We’re kind of an embarrassing species ruining the world.

You went to NSCAD [the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax] and did Visual Art there. Right?
Yes.

Is the way you make music kind of like painting, in a way?
Kind of what?

Like painting.
Oh, I thought you said painful. What? Is this the critic/interviewer?

Ha! Yeah, your music: Do you consider your music so bad?
Ha ha! Sometimes it is.

No, no, like paint! Painting. Do you have a similar kind of approach to painting as you do to your music? Or is that another thing entirely?
Painting’s a totally different thing. Painting’s more internal. It has nothing to do with anyone else. It’s more intimate because if it ends up on someone’s wall that’s a direct correlation between me and them. It’s calmer, more meditative. Yeah. I generally say that they’re quite separate other than the creative process itself.

In the Kronos Quartet video, the part where the colors were laid out in a sequence to help guide the music, even though you were improvising. That’s what made me think that…
Oh, well I suppose sometimes when you’re deep in that realm and you put a color next to another color, maybe as you do with reality, I think painting’s interesting because you have to remove yourself from logic. Logic means orange is orange, right? But then if you go into it and you start looking – or snow, snow is white. Snow can be any color. So you have to just remove yourself from what the idea of what everything are to treat them properly.

And do you think music is more social? So when you’re performing do you think you’re singing like in the traditional way when you’re facing another person but the other person is the audience, in a way?
No. The other person is my backup band. The audience is the universe.

Well, I’m excited to see you and I hope you have a good time in between there. Do you have anything else that you’d like to say?
Just that I know the East Coast is my favorite place in Canada by far, other than my home of course, right? Other than the North, there’s the East Coast, which is cool and everyone’s really warm and friendly and open and no pretention. I don’t know, I just really, I’m so excited mostly because I know I’m coming to good people. I know I’m going to go there and leave so happy with a whole bunch of new friends and will have drank my face off and had a million laughs and hugged strangers and I know it’s coming. I can tell you’re good down there. So just hi and I’m really excited.

Come out to the show. It’ll be weird but I think you can handle it.

Well, thanks a lot Tanya. It’s been fun.
You’re welcome. Take care.

Tanya Tagaq will perform on Wednesday, July 14th at the Wreckhouse International Jazz and Blues Festival at the Masonic Temple at 7pm. Ticket info here.

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