You don’t even need to read the promotional and press material for Andrea Ramolo’s new album, Nuda, to understand that this is a work of remarkable depth, powerful emotion, breathtaking honesty, and almost inescapable sadness.
It is the creation of an artist who has literally bared her heart, stripped her psyche and spirit down to the bare essentials for the entire world and who has captured her pain, her clamouring for answers, and her deeply personal journey to self-awareness within the body of the album’s 10 songs.
It is hard to listen to at times because of the rawness and realness of the anguish, anger, frustration and soul-searing despair. Yet the catharsis one experiences while listening to it mirrors the even more expansive and evocative catharsis Ramolo endured herself – one that has brought her to a place of spiritual maturity, a radically adjusted perspective on life and her place in it, and ultimately to a mindset where she is stronger for the process of creating Nuda after surviving the life-altering personal sundering that led to its creation.
“I will be blunt, it was a worrisome time for me. It was written during a very dark period in my life. It was one of those growth spurts we have in life. And I think when they come it’s like you’re shedding pieces of yourself and you are leaving people behind. The whole process was also wrapped up in an examination of my identity. And that’s such a challenging thing for us all. Who are we? Who are we without social media? Who are we without the ‘other’ in our lives? How do we define ourselves?” she explained.
“To be honest, this album was a necessity out of that time. I needed to write this album. There was really no plan to do another solo album. I had been really busy with my duo project Scarlett Jane with Cindy Doire and we had been touring incessantly for the last five years, so a solo record wasn’t even on my mind. But, as life does, it unfolds the way it must. So these stories and moments needed to be purged – I needed to get them out. Doing the album was definitely a big step in my healing process.
“Without this album I don’t know where I would be right now. Looking back I wonder ‘oh God, why did I suffer so much?’ But this is not even an exaggeration when I tell you that I spent two months in bed. I didn’t want to see anyone or do anything. I was quite ill. Sometimes we emotional types, we take the ups and just enjoy them like crazy and then when the downs come it’s like,’ okay, what do I do now?’”
Ramolo has literally lived her entire life as a creative entity, starting off in dance the moment she could walk and also taking theatrical training. She has been writing and performing music since 2003 and released her debut album, Thank You For The Ride in 2008. In 2011 she released The Shadows and the Cracks, produced by Tim Thorney, which earned Ramolo a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination. Scarlett Jane came together in 2012 and she and Doire have released two albums under that banner: Stranger in 2012 and a self-titled offering in 2015.
And she has always utilized her artistry to help her process and express what is going on in her wonderfully sensitive and complicated mind and heart.
“I started off as a dancer and I learned how to communicate through my body, through expression, through movement and later through music. I guess it’s a natural thing for me to go there when I am feeling the highs and lows of my existence and in tumultuous situations,” she said.
A well-respected and beloved part of the Toronto music scene, Ramolo has collaborated with the likes of Tom Wilson of Junkhouse and Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, and shared the stage with everyone from Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith and Adam Cohen.
It must be said that a superficial examination of the album would make one think that this was simply a so-called ‘break up album.’ But Nuda is so much more.
“The album and the experience and everything around this whole time in my life definitely had me feeling like I was left with no skin on my body and I had to put the pieces of myself back together. I basically had to build who I was going to be from this point forward. And that was a really important part of my personal journey. I see people going through the same thing and they have different outlets and ways to deal with it,” she said.
“I am really, really lucky and I never take it for granted for one day that I get to access this sort of creative side of myself, this creative muse. A lot of people turn to music in dire times; they will put on a special record and they will have a nice bubble bath and cry to themselves over a glass of wine. But I get to go that step further and I actually get to exorcize all those demons out of me in a structured way through my art.
“With music you can create your own reality and your own future. You can create your own story. It’s always happened naturally for me and, especially for this album, I needed to go through this process. It was almost like I was possessed. And that was exemplified with the song You’re Everywhere, which became the first track on the album and the first single. It was one of the earliest songs written in this dark period and it came out of me in like 15 or 20 minutes. It’s very rare that this happens. You’re Everywhere is a song about possession – that’s the break up song. And it was the catalyst for the whole album.”
And it was also not simply an angry lashing out at a former partner, akin Alanis Morissette’s powerfully gritty and ground-breaking 1990s classic, You Oughta Know. It was much, much more.
“A relationship ended, but there wasn’t betrayal or disloyalty as people normally think of it. I think in every parting between two lovers you carry this feeling of betrayal with you for a time. You wonder what could have been. What promises were made and why didn’t you uphold those? Why couldn’t we get through this? As part of the grieving process you find anger, you find sadness – the whole gamut,” she said.
“It was a deeper relationship. But it was necessary just for the phases that we were in in our lives to make the decision to leave the relationship. So it was the right decision to make, but right decisions can still hurt like hell, especially when there’s still so much love there. And part of the issues was not only having to deal with the private pain of breaking up but we also had to go through it on a somewhat public sphere because of what we do. We are both quite big on social media. So I had to heal in both the private and public realm.
“It was quite the romance; it was a very powerful relationship for me in my life. It taught me a lot and was very deep. So when you tear apart from somebody that you’re that connected to, no matter what happened with the nitty gritty details, you are left with a hole inside of you. And if that relationship was as meaningful as you really did feel it was, that hole takes a very long time to fill. Out of it came growth for both of us individually and musically, and we were able to leave room and open new doors. And also I wrote a bunch of great songs that I connect with deeply. I feel like a different human being now.”
Ramolo took the concept of stripping away the artifice and the extraneous seriously and alongside fully-produced instrumental versions of the songs on Nuda, there is an accompanying bonus disc that features her performing each of the tracks da sola (Italian for on my own) with just her lone voice accompanying herself on guitar. These truly powerful and haunting variations are not for the faint of heart, as the extraordinary emotional tumult that precipitated the creation of this music is truly laid naked and splayed out like an emotional piñata for the world’s examination.
“It represents what I was really feeling at the time; that through all the pain and heartache and sadness and depression and confusion I needed to find out who I am on my own. At the time, musically speaking and relationship wise, I needed to be alone. I needed to show my imperfections, I needed to not have any other musicians colour the space for me between the words I was singing. I wanted it to be an intimate conversation between me and my listeners,” she confessed.
“I wanted them to feel the crack in me. I was like, ‘okay, let’s just do this. I need to be brave and take this approach.’ And I think it gives the listener a personal preference, especially for somebody who wants to get really intimate and wants to listen to the stories and feel like they are right there and that we are having a conversation. The fuller versions, with all the instrumentation, are for those who want to be taken down a road in a way that’s almost like a short film.”
Nuda was produced by Michael Timmins, co-founder of the Cowboy Junkies, and a producer/songwriter who has a long-standing, proven track record of creating deeply soulful, yet dark musical masterpieces.
“He seems to like that darkness; he is drawn to it. So this album was right up his alley. It has a real haunting vibe to it, and a lot of that is because of Michael’s input,” Ramolo said.
There are also other significant musical collaborations on Nuda, including two songs that Ramolo wrote alongside the aforementioned Tom Wilson – Hey Hey Hey and Lonely. As well, the song Fill the Spaces was co-written with friend Matt Epp.
“And I got to work with Andy Maize of The Skydiggers who is probably hands down in my top three male singers of all time. He came on board and was nice enough to sing Hey Hey Hey with me. And actually, he made up the duet version of the song, because it was originally written for one voice. Tom did a version on his album Beautiful Scars, and it’s very different from mine, because Andy added such a wonderful counterpoint to my voice on our version. I like the uniqueness of both versions side by side,” she said.
“And interestingly the two songs that I wrote with Tom Wilson we wrote before the upheaval in my life, but it’s funny because they actually foreshadowed a lot of what was about to unravel, which art often does. A part of the process for creating the album I did something new for me; I reached out to some other songwriters that I really respect and like working with, like Tom. I thought I would never co-write with anyone else other than Cindy, but because it was such a turbulent time and because I really felt like I was redefining myself, I thought I needed to go this route.
“What came out was just a diverse sound. It’s nice to collaborate and find one voice together with someone else; to try and tell a story or give a little snippet of life, like a short film, but with someone else helping you interpret it. It was challenging but it was really beneficial.”
Today, Ramolo’s more visceral and immediate wounds have healed, and she has moved on to a new , fulfilling relationship. She asserts that she has also evolved into a more complete human being, and a more courageous, contemplative and centred artist.
“It’s an album that kind of gave me the confidence – the validation – to not abide by any of the rules any more, just to do it the way that I want to do it without needing that outside approval. I feel that now naturally whereas, honestly, up until a couple of years ago I wanted to fit in, I wanted people to like what I was doing and I wanted to be part of a community of artists,” she said.
“But now I know I am part of that rewarding community and it’s a community that also includes the people who come to the shows and who host house concerts across the country. I realize it’s about communicating and being real and reaching out and finding that humane centre in all of us. It’s so important to have that human connection. And it’s why I make art. It’s not just to make art so I can look at it and be proud of myself – that’s such a self-indulgent, empty vessel and experience.
“I think what came out of this whole process, besides the album, is the strength in knowing that I know myself really well now, but also knowing that I am always changing, knowing that nothing is forever and eternal. I am also being a little easier on myself and more compassionate with the world around me. When it comes right down to it, we all really have two essential things in common – love and pain. We all love and we all feel pain. And that’s what I know now. I want to engage people who want to go through that roller coaster with me, who want to go on that ride because that ride is life. My mind and heart feel more expanded and the scars that I got, that we all have, make us who we are – they are sometimes the most beautiful parts of us.”
Nuda will be released on Jan. 27. An album release party is being held at the Lulu Lounge in Toronto on Wednesday, Feb. 1. Prior to that, she has shows in the Maritimes, before heading out west after the Toronto show.
For more information, visit www.andrearamolo.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
