Looking for a new groove

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

By Bruce Deachman

Amanda Marshall is looking for a new groove. The Toronto singer who shot to the top of Canada's charts six years ago with her punchy, melodic rock for adults is back with a record geared to the younger MuchMusic set. Now 28, Marshall even brings in Brooklyn DJ Molecule to provide a little hip percussion.

"I wanted to make a modern-sounding record," says Marshall, who performs a sold-out National Arts Centre show Friday, "something that was going to fit into the landscape of modern radio. I wanted to make a groove-oriented record."

Marshall was only 17 when she was discovered by bluesman Jeff Healey and invited to tour with him. Her self-titled debut album, which went multi-platinum, spawned a half-dozen hits, including Let It Rain, Dark Horse, Trust Me (This Is Love) and, the track that sent the record onto both Canadian and U.S. charts, Birmingham.

Her music is a pop-rock blend with soft edges, occasional hard vocals, and a heartfelt message or two thrown in (more than once she has sung of the prejudice she faced by being the child of a mixed marriage). Her appeal reached well beyond the mosh pit crowd, and the airplay she got crossed a number of radio formats.

But her second album, Tuesday's Child, which, in her own words, "did OK," didn't match the success of her debut, and many wondered whether Marshall was simply a strong-voiced flash in the pan.

With Everybody's Got A Story, Marshall admits that she's deliberately aiming for a younger audience. The theme of the title track, and indeed the entire record, is the simple notion that yes, everybody does have a story, one that often lies beneath the surface persona. It was an idea Marshall came up with in a conversation with the record's producer and co-writer Billy Mann.

"We were talking about the nature of celebrity," explains Marshall, "and specifically how it shapes people's judgment. When people see you on TV or hear you on radio, they kind of think they know you. And they don't; what they know is a select chunk of your personality.

"And, offhandedly in conversation, I said, 'It just goes to show you; everybody's got a story that could break your heart' because there's always more to the story.

"It was such a compelling, provocative idea to me. It works on so many levels, and that grew into the record."

It's difficult to gauge how much better Marshall's fans will know her after listening to the album, now in stores and which was written and recorded in the studio in 2-1/2 weeks.

She is certainly more involved in the creation of the music than she was with her self-titled debut album, on which she wrote one song (Sitting On Top Of The World) and co-wrote two others. The new disc lists Marshall as co-writer of every song, along with Asher, Molecules, Billy Mann and Rob Misener, but when asked who did what, she only says that it was a bit of a hodgepodge jumble of efforts.

"I was extremely timid," she says of her first songwriting efforts. "I never thought of myself as a songwriter. The reason I wanted to get into (it) was because, by the end of the first record, it occurred to me that 'I'm getting up and singing these songs every night and I put a lot of my focus and energy into selecting material that's representative of where I am, and I have stuff I want to say. I think I should get in there and say it.

"I think the idea that everybody's got a story was a strong idea, and I think it makes it easier for people to digest the big picture, and it hangs together well. People can listen to the record from beginning to end and feel like they're listening to a complete body of work, and they've had a conversation with the person singing."

Maybe so, but the opening title track, a bit of a facile, hook-laden hit with lyrics like, "Don't assume everything on the surface is what you see" and "It's the human condition that keeps us apart," comes across as, well, young, and hardly sets the plate for some of the stronger songs that follow.

"There's a lot of stuff on the record that initially, lyrically, is kind of goofy-sounding," she admits, "and it sounds a bit shallow, but there's always something underneath it. It's the kind of record that you can lie on your bedroom floor with headphones on and read the lyric sheet (an image that probably lets her older fans off the hook) and every time you hear it, you're like 'Oh, Brand New Beau is about a girl who comes home and finds her boyfriend in bed with someone else ... but it's a guy!' And some people are going to get it the first time they hear it, and some people aren't going to get it until the seventh time they hear it.

"And that's cool. That's what I wanted."

She says the new record was the easiest to make because she was "off the radar." That, and the fact that she doesn't feel the pressure to make another Amanda Marshall album.

"I don't know if it's that I don't think it'll ever happen and I'm just cool with that," she says, "or if it's just that I don't think about it enough to really have an opinion about it.

"If the record sells and people appreciate what you do, that's nice," she says. "I feel pressure to make it true. The pressure with this record was that I wanted it to sound like me. I wanted it to look like me."


	THE OTTAWA CITIZEN By Bruce Deachman Amanda Marshall is looking for a new groove. The Toronto singer who shot to the top of Canada's charts six years ago with her punchy, melodic rock for adults is back with a record geared to the younger MuchMusic set. Now 28, Marshall even brings in Brooklyn DJ Molecule to provide a little hip percussion. "I wanted to make a modern-sounding record," says Marshall, who performs a sold-out National Arts Centre show Friday, "something that was going to fit into the landscape of modern radio. I wanted to make a groove-oriented record." Marshall was only 17 when she was discovered by bluesman Jeff Healey and invited to tour with him. Her self-titled debut album, which went multi-platinum, spawned a half-dozen hits, including Let It Rain, Dark Horse, Trust Me (This Is Love) and, the track that sent the record onto both Canadian and U.S. charts, Birmingham. Her music is a pop-rock blend with soft edges, occasional hard vocals, and a heartfelt message or two thrown in (more than once she has sung of the prejudice she faced by being the child of a mixed marriage). Her appeal reached well beyond the mosh pit crowd, and the airplay she got crossed a number of radio formats. But her second album, Tuesday's Child, which, in her own words, "did OK," didn't match the success of her debut, and many wondered whether Marshall was simply a strong-voiced flash in the pan. With Everybody's Got A Story, Marshall admits that she's deliberately aiming for a younger audience. The theme of the title track, and indeed the entire record, is the simple notion that yes, everybody does have a story, one that often lies beneath the surface persona. It was an idea Marshall came up with in a conversation with the record's producer and co-writer Billy Mann. "We were talking about the nature of celebrity," explains Marshall, "and specifically how it shapes people's judgment. When people see you on TV or hear you on radio, they kind of think they know you. And they don't; what they know is a select chunk of your personality. "And, offhandedly in conversation, I said, 'It just goes to show you; everybody's got a story that could break your heart' because there's always more to the story. "It was such a compelling, provocative idea to me. It works on so many levels, and that grew into the record." It's difficult to gauge how much better Marshall's fans will know her after listening to the album, now in stores and which was written and recorded in the studio in 2-1/2 weeks. She is certainly more involved in the creation of the music than she was with her self-titled debut album, on which she wrote one song (Sitting On Top Of The World) and co-wrote two others. The new disc lists Marshall as co-writer of every song, along with Asher, Molecules, Billy Mann and Rob Misener, but when asked who did what, she only says that it was a bit of a hodgepodge jumble of efforts. "I was extremely timid," she says of her first songwriting efforts. "I never thought of myself as a songwriter. The reason I wanted to get into (it) was because, by the end of the first record, it occurred to me that 'I'm getting up and singing these songs every night and I put a lot of my focus and energy into selecting material that's representative of where I am, and I have stuff I want to say. I think I should get in there and say it. "I think the idea that everybody's got a story was a strong idea, and I think it makes it easier for people to digest the big picture, and it hangs together well. People can listen to the record from beginning to end and feel like they're listening to a complete body of work, and they've had a conversation with the person singing." Maybe so, but the opening title track, a bit of a facile, hook-laden hit with lyrics like, "Don't assume everything on the surface is what you see" and "It's the human condition that keeps us apart," comes across as, well, young, and hardly sets the plate for some of the stronger songs that follow. "There's a lot of stuff on the record that initially, lyrically, is kind of goofy-sounding," she admits, "and it sounds a bit shallow, but there's always something underneath it. It's the kind of record that you can lie on your bedroom floor with headphones on and read the lyric sheet (an image that probably lets her older fans off the hook) and every time you hear it, you're like 'Oh, Brand New Beau is about a girl who comes home and finds her boyfriend in bed with someone else ... but it's a guy!' And some people are going to get it the first time they hear it, and some people aren't going to get it until the seventh time they hear it. "And that's cool. That's what I wanted." She says the new record was the easiest to make because she was "off the radar." That, and the fact that she doesn't feel the pressure to make another Amanda Marshall album. "I don't know if it's that I don't think it'll ever happen and I'm just cool with that," she says, "or if it's just that I don't think about it enough to really have an opinion about it. "If the record sells and people appreciate what you do, that's nice," she says. "I feel pressure to make it true. The pressure with this record was that I wanted it to sound like me. I wanted it to look like me."