Category: Music

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Music

Top 10 bad rap brags

These lyrical flaunts are anything but good

  1. “I got so much money / I should start a bank!” – Wiz Khalifa

Unlike most rappers, Wiz is thinking long-term. Nowadays, very few new banks are popping up so this is an untapped market, and Wiz is getting into it on the ground floor. This may seem like a bad line now, but just you wait.

  1. “Got so many whips / they call me whipalicious” – Yung Joc

Poor Yung Joc. Not everyone has an entourage that is creative enough to come up with great nicknames. It’s unfortunate, but this is something I believe Joc has come to terms with.

  1.  “Rock star / I’m flyer than an ostrich” – Juelz Santana

We’re onto number three, and I still have yet to see a bad brag. Juelz Santana is a man of the people, therefore he is flyer than an ostrich. Every time I hear this line, it makes me feel like I too am flyer than an ostrich. Plus it’s about time these cocky ostriches were knocked down a peg.

  1. “That gun automatic / My car automatic” – French Montana

This is a great brag; automatic cars are the new thing. French Montana is not living that stick shift life. #AUTOBOYZ

  1. “Follow me, follow me I’m the leader / And when I park cars I don’t pay for the metre” – Chiddy Bang

Nothing makes you look like a leader more than repeatedly saying, “Follow me.” And not paying for the metre is a legitimate badass move. Those fines add up, but he’s still parking his car and never paying. And I bet that car is an automatic #AUTOBOYZ4EVA

  1. “Big house, long hallways, got 10 bathrooms / I could shit all day” – Lil Wayne

I am merely a humble #AUTOBOY, but I can aspire to someday live in a house with extra long hallways. Lil Wayne now gets to shit all day in all of his bathrooms. Can you say the same for yourself?

  1. “I know how to rip thongs and I’m pretty good at beer pong” – Joey Bada$$

No one wants to be amazing at beer pong. That means you spend way too much time practicing a game in which success means drinking less. All you want is to be pretty good. You will win some games and you will lose some games, but you will be forever and ever pretty good.

  1. “I got so many clothes I keep them at my aunt’s house” – Tinie Tempah

I don’t know about your family, but my Aunt Jan has a very large house. I bet your family could fit all of their clothes in her basement easily, because it turns out running a curling rink pays pretty well. Having this on the list is a direct insult to my aunt.

  1. “Bitch I’m cooler than a cooler” – Chief Keef

This is a classic brag by a classic man. On a camping trip in the summer, nothing is cooler than a cooler. Chief Keef making this claim is a very bold statement, and it takes guts. Respect to the Chief.

  1. “I spit tighter, I’m not like all the rest / I’m not a playa but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express” – KRS-One

One night at a Montreal Holiday Inn Express can cost up to $130 a night. KRS-One is not an idiot who will stay at a regular Holiday Inn. He doesn’t need that fancy continental breakfast. All he needs is some bread and those weird small containers of peanut butter and jam, which are very hard to scoop out with a knife.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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Music Quickspins

The Neighbourhood – The Neighbourhood

The Neighbourhood – The Neighbourhood (Columbia, 2018)

The self-titled album of California indie rock band The Neighbourhood is a mess. The album is a mix of angesty lyrics, dark beats and strange vocal performances by lead singer Jesse Rutherford. While some of the instrumentation is pleasant, like the 80s bells on the song “Void,” the vocals are unbearable. The lyrics are basically comprised of clichéd rhymes and simple platitudes. The lyrics on “Softcore” made me cringe: “I’ve been confused as of late (yeah) / Watching my youth slip away (yeah) / You’re like the sun, you make me young.” The vocals are processed and the melody is uninspiring. This album is a unexceptional collection of songs that are competently made, and although sometimes pleasant, not worth your time.

Trial track: “Void”

Rating: 3.7/10

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Music Quickspins

Mount Eerie – Now Only

Mount Eerie – Now Only (P.W. Elverum & Sun, 2018)

Phil Elverum, who performs under the moniker Mount Eerie, sings with an incredible sadness and self-reflection on Now Only. Like his last album, A Crow Looked at Me , Elverum reflects on life after his wife’s death on this newest album. Elverum’s soft, melancholic voice is accompanied by minimalistic guitars, sparse drums and the occasional distorted instruments. The songs are just as emotional as when he performed them live last year in Montreal. People were crying during every song, and I was struck by the honest in Elverum’s lyrics—it’s like reading someone’s diary and understanding how they truly feel. On the titular song, Elverum reflects on how touring has affected him personally, singing: “As my grief becomes calcified, frozen in stories / And in these songs I keep singing, numbing it down.” Elverum has come out with another special and emotionally challenging album. Highly recommended.

Trial track: “Now Only”

Rating: 9.5/10

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Music

Linking horror and synth

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Analyzing Annihilation’s soundtrack and the unmitigated fear it produces while viewing

*Spoilers for the movie Annihilation

Annihilation is the first movie in a long time to actually scare me. The movie doesn’t use cheap jump scares; instead, it taps into our fear of the unknown, our anxieties around ideas beyond our reality and imagination. The soundtrack, by composer Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow of the band Portishead, extends these themes through its eerie sounds.

The movie centres around Lena, a biologist and former soldier in the United States army, masterfully played by Natalie Portman, who is trying to find answers about the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her husband (played by Oscar Isaac) and his sudden reappearance. Lena sets off, alongside a crew of experts, to explore an area called “The Shimmer” where her husband was sent as part of a covert military operation.

Many unexpected and reality-bending things happen inside The Shimmer: a person’s consciousness is folded into a bear’s body, trees shaped like people decorate the land, and the crew’s DNA mutates in inexplicable ways. Since the movie is cleverly written, none of it seems ridiculous. Everything feels grounded within the movie’s world.

Every scene inside The Shimmer feels deliberately tense. It had me questioning every plot point, and that’s an uncomfortable feeling. The music is mind-bending. It includes so many strange noises, and amplifies the emotions of every scene inside The Shimmer with shocking sounds.

My favourite scene is near the end of the movie, when Lena reaches the lighthouse from which The Shimmer originates. Dr. Ventress, a psychologist and leader of the crew, loses her senses and starts changing, transforming into a strange creature made of light and colours. Lena’s blood gets sucked into the multi-coloured void-creature, creating a featureless human-like figure that mimics Lena’s every move.

The evocative track “The Alien” plays during this part. The bass-heavy synth sounds are contorting and pulsating—I originally thought it was the sound of the creature talking. As the creature ominously mirrors Lena, the music becomes continually more layered—strings, a choir and ambient noises start getting mixed in. I was enthralled by this moment; the theatre’s sound system was blaring with all the enveloping sounds, and I could feel the seats shaking.

When Lena finally escaped from the lighthouse, I cherished the silence that came after. It made me feel safe. Great music utilizes loud sounds and silence effectively, using pockets of calm to bolster moments of raucous sounds. The silence creates a space for meditation and reflection.

Synthesizers used for the scenes inside The Shimmer sound simultaneously aggressive and passive. This dichotomy helps convey fear, because unlike string or other such instruments, synths don’t make sounds physically, but rather electronically. Playing a note on a synth produces electronic sounds, usually conducted through a electronic oscillator, unlike a physical object hitting a string.

Sci-fi and electronic music have almost become synonymous. Movies like Annihilation, Ex Machina and both Blade Runner movies revolve around a fear of technology and the exotic, so it’s no mistake they all feature synth-heavy soundtracks. Electronic sounds are unnaturally consistent, at least compared to acoustic instruments, creating a synthetic vibe and texture.

Blade Runner 2049 similarly uses synths to communicate fear. In 2049, people fear the Replicant population, sentient androids manufactured to have human-like abilities, because of an uprising a few years back. Replicants are socially marginalized and used for slave labour. The soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, also uses loud synths to intensify the dystopian atmosphere, augmenting the movie’s themes. By the end, the music sounds melancholic and sweet.

Annihilation and its soundtrack resonated with me on a deep level. The film’s existential horror and ambiguity still have me thinking about the narrowness of human reality. The movie’s sci-fi trappings are elevated by great writing and an amazing soundtrack; it’s visually memorable, the characters are complicated, smart and subvert many genre clichés. The movie’s soundtrack transcends the sci-fi movie template, while retaining the memorable aspects that fans of the genre love.

The films asks many questions unexplored by other surface-level alien fiction: What if we can’t handle the reality of other species? What if alien species have no concept of good and evil? Should we question our sense of rationality? What makes us individuals? The movie never answers these questions, giving us room for interpretation and analysis. For now, I’ll listen to the memorable soundtrack and reflect about the meaning of Annihilation.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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Music

Top 10 timeless Canadian albums

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Records from the great north you can’t pass on

Disclaimer: This list was compiled from the perspective of a Canadian millennial.

  1. Feist – The Reminder (2007)

This album spans across a variety of music genres, including influences from jazz to disco, with both Leslie Feist’s introspective originals and covers made entirely her own. The Reminder is adventurous and bright, and its jangly up-tempo indie pop emulates a multifaceted complexity that still resonates today.

  1. Joni Mitchell – Blue (1971)

This classic folk record took on a more experimental territory in its song structures, which have raised the bar for folk music ever since. Joni Mitchell is strikingly forthright in her lyricism and imagery. Blue is gorgeously confessional and raw, but there is strength in Mitchell’s vulnerability that stands against time, making it a seminal record that will most likely set off waterworks, even for us millennials.

  1. Eric’s Trip – Love, Tara (1993)

A hidden gem, this New Brunswick indie album has a lo-fi quality that makes it feel personal and accessible. While the songs incorporate 90s noise influence, the song structures remain pop-y and melodic in a way that’s nostalgic and easy to listen to even in 2018.

  1. Neil Young – On The Beach (1974)

Mixing dark humour with solitude and affection, Neil Young steers in a softer rock direction rather than folk with this album. Its minimal-but-smooth production makes it stand against time, and marks it as a hidden gem in Canadian discography.

  1. Sloan – One Chord to Another (1996)

This Halifax quartet incorporates the jangly power-pop of the 90s with 1960s pop melodies. With just the right amount of British Invasion and garage adolescent energy, Sloan mirrors the rawness of The Who and The Beatles while still retaining their own sound. There is no other Canadian band quite like them.

  1. Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary (2005)

Montreal outfit Wolf Parade’s debut record was produced by Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, creating an album of brittle indie pop with the energy of post-punk. There is a strong David Bowie-driven influence, though the squiggly guitar riffs and video-game synths give it that distinct 2000s sound that still happily floods our ears.

  1. Neil Young – Harvest (1972)

Harvest is a classic that paints a picture of Young’s experience of Americana in the 70s through his own Canadian perspective. An easy listen on the surface, Young contrasts a humbling folk/country rock sound with darker undertones in a way that feels nothing but human in his most accessible album. This is the perfect album to listen to when you need to sonically escape from the city into the barren but endearing country.

  1. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)

Arcade Fire describes Canada’s snowy suburban neighborhoods in Funeral, with stories of the tragedies, growing pains and bittersweet family memories that happened there. In the end, the band guides the listener through how these obstacles are overcome and accepted. It’s a cinematic record and a slightly orchestral instrumental lineup that remains rock at its core in the way it screams.

  1. Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)

Cohen is a master at describing the strong connections between people. The beloved late Montreal native showed us that music could be poetic. He crafts stories of men and women into poems of erotic despair, revealing the pleasures and pain of lust in ways that sound like love. This classic album is vulnerable and mesmerizing, while still emulating the unique grace only Cohen could craft.

  1. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It in People (2002)

There aren’t many bands like Broken Social Scene, and it makes me proud to know these guys are Canadian. This album has a human energy that’s cathartic like no other pop album. The band stems from the experimental Toronto music scene with 15 members, creating a sprawling bittersweet treasure. It’s both orchestral and noisy, with the perfect balance of slow melodic lullabies and sprawling power ballads. You Forgot It in People is the perfect example of what magic can occur when the right creative minds come together.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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Music Quickspins

Lil Yachty – Lil Boat 2

Lil Yachty – Lil Boat 2 (Quality Control)

Lil Yachty’s latest mixtape is a sequel to his debut mixtape, Lil Boat. The original Lil Boat featured the autotuned crooner switching between two personas: Lil Yachty and Lil Boat. Yachty is the sensitive singing artist, while Boat focused more on rapping and was more aggressive. Lil Boat 2 deviates from this formula with more of the Boat persona shining through. On the majority of the 18 tracks, Yachty trades in bubbly beats for more ominous and cavernous trap production. His rapping has come a long way since the Lil Boat tape, with the flows being more pronounced and hard-hitting. Songs like “She Ready” and “Love Me Forever” are examples of when Yachty goes for a singing approach, but it works. Not to mention songs like “BOOM!” and “66” are certified bangers. This project’s big weak spot is its length, with over half the songs running too short and too generic.

Trial Track: “BOOM!” ft. Ugly God

Score: 6/10

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Music Quickspins

XXXTentacion – ?

XXXTentacion – ? (Capitol)

The infamous Florida rapper is back with his second full-length album, a follow-up to August’s 17. Unlike 17, which was only 27 minutes long, ? nearly doubles that with a plethora of tracks ranging in various music styles. XXXTentacion’s talent is his ability to operate within many different genres. Songs like “Moonlight” and “SAD!” are a mix between hip hop and sad emo rock, while the hilariously titled “I don’t even speak Spanish lol” is a reggaeton track that is not only rhythmic but catchy as hell. Other highlights on the album are “$$$” featuring pre-teen rap sensation Matt Ox and “SMASH!” with PnB Rock. Warning though, like all XXX albums, there are a lot of cringy emo rap tracks that will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. ? is a huge improvement on 17, but the recent domestic violence case against XXX is definitely a turnoff. If you really want to listen to this, I suggest pirating it rather than buying it.

Trial Track: “SAD!”

Score: 7/10

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Music

The experiences that shape music

Greta Kline talks about her new album, touring and dogs

Greta Kline is on her way to having a long career in music, but she keeps her songs short. She has been releasing music for almost 10 years now, and her upcoming third album, Vessel, released under the stage name Frankie Cosmos, will come out at the end of March. Kline combines illustrative lyrics with a crispy sound, and the drums and guitar sound fantastic and distinct.

Frankie Cosmos’s songs are usually concise and dynamic at the same time. They may seem minimalistic, but Kline does not intentionally truncate songs. “It depends on the song—some start short and others get cut down to become shorter,” Kline said. “I don’t try to make songs short, but I like them to be concise […] For me, the song is just done when I know it’s done, and that means it doesn’t always need a repeated chorus or extra parts that feel unnecessary.”

However, she does give collaborators creative freedom. “In general, I just like to keep [the visual aspect] really ‘me’ without too much stylization of anything. The album art always stems from images I have in my mind and then collaborate on with visual artists,” Kline said.

The visuals for Frankie Cosmos are evocative, like the new music video for the song “Jesse,” where a poodle stands on the rim of a bathtub—similar to the album cover of Vessel. “With videos, I generally just try to let people I trust make whatever they want,” Kline said.

The music of Frankie Cosmos (right) is delicate and meditative, but mired in anxiety.
Photo by: Loroto Productions

Dogs are a recurring fixture in her work; her music, videos and even the cover to her latest album feature dogs. “I love every kind of dog, and I think they’re all special in their own way,” Kline said. “One of my favourite breeds is a bedlington terrier because they just look so weird, like they are part-sheep part-dog. I have yet to meet a full bedlington in person, though, so they really just exist in pictures to me.” The dog seen on the album cover, Kline mentioned, is actually named Goose, and is part bedlington terrier.

“The main experiences that shaped this album [Vessel] were a lot of touring and playing in bands,” Kline said. Touring creates a space where Kline can write freely. “I think just being in a new place every day and meeting strangers and having a lot of external stimuli inspires me to write a lot,” she added, “I probably write more lyrics on tour than when I’m home, but I’m also just on tour more than I’m at home.”

Ironically, being on tour and in the mindset of making music means musicians often do not have the time or energy to listen to a lot music. “I go through phases of [listening to music], but I’m more often inclined to want silence,” Kline said. However, there are some influences that can be heard in her music. “I remember listening to Anna McClellan and Big Thief during [my down time while touring], and I think some of those influences can be heard in my melodies, maybe.”

Having released three albums, Kline has learned a few things about touring. “This time, the touring will feel really fresh because the new album will still feel new to us live,” she said. “I also am learning to hold onto my relationship to each song and not let the fact that they are out in the world affect that too much.”

Kline said she hopes these new lessons come across in Vessel. “I think every Frankie Cosmos song is just like a chapter for me. So in these chapters, I think I grow a lot and face some truths I hadn’t faced as much in the past, and maybe that will come across.” She feels that, sometimes, it is important to ask ourselves questions we do not know the answers to and see how our opinions change. “Sometimes, the in-between feeling is the answer […] The song is the only place that feeling exists for me sometimes, so for that moment, there is the answer,” Kline said.

Vessel will be released on March 30. Frankie Cosmos will be performing in Montreal on May 4 at the Fairmount Theatre.

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Music

Tune-Yards wowed at Corona

Photo by Alex Hutchins

The band played in support of their latest album, I can feel you creep into my private life

Experimental Tune-Yards graced the Corona Theatre stage last Saturday and delivered a set of off-kilter electronica mixed with organic instrumentation. The band’s sound on record is exceptionally produced. It was interesting to speculate just how well it would translate live. The band excelled with flying colours, delivering their trademark sound while flexing a more experimental edge. Often making slight changes to the structure of their songs, Tune-Yards proved that musicianship and sharp performances aren’t enough to keep an audience’s attention. You have to give them a reason, and Tune-Yards did just that.

Photos by Alex Hutchins

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Music Quickspins

Beauty >> Forward – AtomTM

Beauty >> Forward – AtomTM (Audio Archiv)

Having released music under 72 different aliases (no joke), it really is tricky to keep up with Uwe Schmidt’s output. The Berlin-born producer, label manager and designer and Berghain resident is busier than most, yet manages to release music at an alarming rate. Regardless, the newest album from his AtomTM project, Beauty >> Forward, should not slip under the radar. The nine tracks range from glitchy and abrasive “Phonopollution” to the smooth and dreamy “Petrified Rimshot,” each with nods to the many styles Schmidt has experimented with before— with a particular emphasis on electro and dub techno. While Beauty >> Forward doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table, it definitely features a few club-ready stormers that are hard not to move to. Having said that, listen for highlight track “Recycled Term” on a dancefloor near you.

Rating: 7/10

Trial track: “Recycled Term”

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Music

Staff picks for the best study albums

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

A bit of easy listening for your end-of-semester woes

At its most effective, music is an artform that evokes a physical response. Whether you’re dancing, moshing or grooving along, the medium creates a sense of euphoria that can’t be replicated. But sometimes you just need a good album to put you in the zone. Here are our staff picks for the best albums to study to.

Alt J – An Awesome Wave

Katya Teague, editor-in-chief

Alt J’s sleeper-hit debut, An Awesome Wave, is mired in Radiohead-style electronica and indie-rock quirks. Twisting and turning from art rock tendencies to a cappella vocal interludes and jangly guitar rock, Alt J channels immediate pop accessibility without compromising their more experimental leanings. The record is rich with a variety of sounds but maintains a palette of glitch-heavy electronica beats at the album’s forefront.

Homeshake – Midnight Snack

Maggie Hope, arts editor

Homeshake’s Midnight Snack is a comforting indie LP laden with spacey R&B textures and an overall laid-back ambience. Known for his stint as Mac DeMarco’s back up guitarist, leading man Peter Sagar composes songs with a kind of easy-breezy infectiousness that actually comes off as more earnest than its slacker demeanor suggests. Locking into moods that soundtrack rainy days, Sagar adopts a delicate falsetto and pairs it with bubbling synths and bass to compose an album that’s utterly relaxing in its lethargic moments.

Luciano Pavarotti – Nessun Dorma

Kenneth Gibson, video editor

Nessun Dorma is an expressive aria melody from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot. The song achieved mainstream success after Luciano Pavarotti’s recording was used as the main theme for the BBC’s coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. The song has long been established as a seminal piece of opera. That reputation is undoubtedly felt, as the album of the concert went triple platinum in the United States and went on to be the most sold classical recording in the world.

Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

Candice Pye, news editor

The Four Seasons is a series of four violin concerti by famed Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Each piece is an expression of the four seasons in a year. Vivaldi published the concerti with a set of sonnets that eluded to each season the music was meant to represent. This is one of the very first instances of music structured with a narrative component.

Beach House – Depression Cherry

Alex Hutchins, photo editor

Beach House fluctuates between a dynamic dichotomy of beauty and melancholy. The duo’s 2015 effort, Depression Cherry, dials back on the muddy lo-fi production of their early work in exchange for a lushly orchestrated experience filled with dazzling instrumentation and vocal performances that are the stuff of dreams. The album spins in a web of its own ethereality, unperturbed by outside forces, and instead focused on progressing with sounds of grace and beauty.

Nosaj Thing – Parallels

Kirubel Mehari, assistant photo editor

This project from L.A. producer Jason Chung is a dissonant collection of meditative soul grooves. Chung mixes various genres into a synthesis of unique musical flavours, dipping his toes in everything from neo-soul to trap. The melodies are rich with layers, but the approach is minimalistic, revealing subtle embellishments in the mix.

24/7 Live Youtube Lo-fi Mixes

Matthew Coyte, assistant sports editor

These mixes on Youtube interweave hip-hop instrumentation with a lo-fi aesthetic, culminating in a millennial interpretation of ambient music. The beats are basically wallpaper music, creating an effective mood for zoning out, chilling out or simply getting lost in your mind. The artists and song names are usually never mentioned, creating a sense of ambiguity while maintaining a linear listening experience.

Hans Zimmer – Inception: Music from the Motion Picture

Mia Anhoury, assistant life editor

The soundtrack to Christopher Nolan’s accomplished film Inception is towering in breadth and absolutely halting in its approach. The sounds aren’t exactly the most complex in the world, but composer Hans Zimmer uses this minimalism to create an emotionally harrowing atmosphere out of a mere three or four droning tones.

Andrea Bocelli – Romanza

Nicholas Di Giovanni, sports editor

Despite it being a compilation album, Andrea Bocelli’s Romanza was the singer’s first release in the United States and Canada. It is widely considered Bocelli’s most accomplished work, selling over 20 million units worldwide and garnering the Italian singer an international following in the process. On top of that, the album topped charts all around the world, further cementing Bocelli’s status as an operatic pop icon.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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Music

The power of music therapy

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Music as an avenue for recovery, a tool for personal betterment

Music is much more than just the content of a song or album; it has the potential to empower people and help improve their lives.

Music therapy is different from traditional therapy, where people talk to a therapist about their problems. “Music, because it affects you in a complicated fashion physically, emotionally, psychologically and cognitively all at the same time, sometimes helps break through these barriers of getting past that [problem],” said Sandi Curtis, a long-time music therapist and a professor at Concordia.

Sometimes people are not ready to talk about their traumatic experiences, so music can help them express themselves. When Curtis works with women who have survived psychological, physical or sexual abuse, music is an important tool that fosters the conversation. “It’s not me talking to them or them even talking to me,” Curtis explained. “Music makes that opening where, they might not be prepared yet to talk […], but they can put it into music.”

Curtis recounted the case of a woman who had been sexually abused by her uncle as a child. “The family was fractured. Half the family believed her, and the other half didn’t.”

Some music therapy programs encourage participants to write songs as a cathartic release. “When she finished writing and recording the song, she took the recording and gave it to her abuser, and she said: ‘You know the truth, and I know the truth,’” Curtis said. “That was a powerful moment for her, to get over the fact that half of her family was never going to believe her.”

Music is an outlet for deeply personal feelings and thoughts. Yet, before I spoke with Curtis, I didn’t know the impact music therapy could have. It was extraordinary to hear about the power of music in traumatic situations.

Although Curtis studied music at McGill, she knew performing and, at the time, teaching were not for her. “Back in the day, there wasn’t that much understanding or awareness of music therapy, but I did some exploration,” she said. “There were no programs in Canada at all.” Instead, she decided to study music therapy in the United States.

Curtis’s experience ranges from working in palliative care and the deaf community to working with people with disabilities, survivors of violence and domestic abuse, and even prison inmates in the United States. “I got an opportunity to work at a maximum security correctional facility for women in Georgia. That was quite interesting—I thought, at the time, that I was too much of a Canadian to handle it,” Curtis said with a laugh.

At the correctional facility, Curtis met women who had survived domestic abuse, women who used had violence to escape their abuser. “I began to see how much of an impact that male violence against women has in their lives,” Curtis said. “And that was way back in the day, before the #MeToo movement where we are beginning to understand that it’s in almost every woman’s life.”

During that time, she began to realize the power of music as therapy. “It’s a wonderful creative tool, but it also gives a voice,” Curtis said. “Survivors are so often silenced by their abuser. Music gives them a voice, a physical voice expressing how they’re feeling and a very powerful way of recovering from incredible trauma.”

Therapy sessions typically begin with listening to artists who sing about violence, which helps enforce the idea that survivors are not to blame for the violence enacted on them. “So often,” Curtis said, “survivors of violence think it’s their problem. They’re isolated purposely by the abuser; they are told it’s their fault.”

Curtis aims to integrate music that will resonate with the person when they listen to it. She noted that hearing artists like Beyonce and Lady Gaga sing about how they don’t deserve abuse can empower the patient to feel the same. “They could begin to think: ‘Oh, maybe I don’t deserve it too.’”

Next comes music creation, working together to make music and discussing the experience. People who attend music therapy sessions do not need any experience or background to participate in the music process. “In music therapy, all of you can be singing the same thing [in group sessions], and maybe sharing a common experience or maybe having completely different meaning of the experience,” Curtis said.

For her, the most important part of being a music therapist is using her musical talents to help people. “So, rather than being the audience far-removed and just applauding, you are working very intimately with somebody,” she said. “You’re helping them improve their quality of life.”

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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