There was something about the eyes. A glint of mischievousness or a kind of ‘wait till they get a load of me’ bravado. But there is also a steely determination, an iron clad confidence, and sense of purpose. There is resolve, and a sense of accomplishment. Those who follow Ottawa singer/songwriter Amanda Rheaume closely could see from her new promotional photos, released in advance of her new single, The Best, that things were different – in a wonderfully, powerfully, beautifully compelling way.
Give credit for capturing the power of the occasion and the person to Toronto photographer Jen Squires, who seems to be able to innately tap into the spirit and character of every artist she shoots, especially the newly emboldened Amanda Rheaume. This she did, and so much more as the Amanda Rheaume we see peering directly into the lens is fierce and focused like never before.
The Best is more than a song borne out of a renewed sense of self, or an anthem of empowerment. Both the song and the exceptionally well produced new companion video are evidence of an artist and a human being who has undergone a radical reimagination of her own sense of self, sense of worth and sense of the significant role she plays in this world.
With the genre shattering production, the emphatically potent and self possessed lyrics, through the addition of a spoken word verse by the equally inimitable Kinnie Starr, and the way Rheaume steps out of the comfort zone creatively, vocally and genre-wise – The Best is a superlative example of the power of music to transform the hearts and minds of not only the listeners, but also for the creators themselves.
Best known for her roots/folk stylings, with definite leanings into the singer/songwriter genre, The Best owes more to modern pop, indie alt-rock and even hip hop, than to anything else in Rheaume’s impressive catalogue. Defying the way she has been portrayed and perceived by the music industry and the music consuming public is one of the reasons for such a bold departure, and it is this defiance of other people’s opinions, other peoples barriers and boundaries, and other people’s ideas of who one should be and how would should conduct themselves that is the rock solid underpinning of The Best and of Rheamue’s new, welcome and delightfully badass attitude.
“I just think I started to believe in myself more, which has been hard for me. The Skin I’m In [her amazingly honest and revelatory album released last fall] was all about me saying, ‘okay, I am accepting who I am.’ And following that I think it’s a natural progression to then say, ‘hey, I’m awesome.’ I was getting a little bit sick of my own patterns in personal relationship and working relationships and just realizing how important it is to just stand up for yourself in an industry and in a life where there is so much comparison and so many reasons to not feel awesome about yourself. On a bigger level it’s more like this is the skin I’m in and I am awesome. Not just that I accept myself, but hey, I am actually pretty amazing. With this song, I am totally stepping into my power and my own space even more,” said Rheaume from her home in Ottawa.
“And let me tell you, this is not easy for me. And this might sound crazy, but it’s still, to this day, a challenge to really believe in myself. This song is really a message about that and a reminder for myself and a reminder to other people to just say, ‘you’re amazing, don’t let anybody tell you any different,’ and be okay with your own power. Especially for women, we’re not really taught to celebrate out power a lot and there’s still that age old thing about staying quiet and do what you’re expected to do. I think that it’s time to change that narrative.
“I love this song. I am so excited. It’s a real, true feeling and something that a lot of people feel it’s hard to do, to celebrate themselves. And I think this could be a really cool opportunity to sing the words to this song to yourself in your car and just feel empowered to say, ‘wow, I am awesome.’ I couldn’t have done this song if I hadn’t gone through the process for The Skin I’m In for sure. I couldn’t have put this out and felt good about it, especially in this genre and with this production. I really feel like I am stepping into a zone where it’s like I don’t want to do what I think I am supposed to do any more. I am going to do what I want to do. And I don’t mean that in a dicky way, but I love this song and I love this sound and I feel like The Skin I’m In was a chapter before this sort of newly empowered state.”
The Best was written with Rheaume’s long-time friend and collaborator Robyn Dell’Unto, a rising Canadian songwriter/producer now living in Nashville.
“This song is an outlier; this is a departure for sure. And I don’t know yet if this is a one off. It’s an experiment. I love this kind of music and I loved working with Robyn. We have written tons of songs together and this was the first one she has ever produced for me. I love working with Robyn in general, but the fact that it’s kind of a triple threat, with Robyn and I co-writing the song, and Kinnie Starr adding that rap, it was just so fun, and the song itself in its own way is so fun. I just think as musicians we worry too much about staying in our own lane and not deviating from the genre that people expect us to be in all the time. This is just music, and I am excited about it and I thought, f*** it, I am going to put it out because it’s damn fun,” she said, explaining the process that she and Dell’Unto used to create this masterpiece of emotional conveyance.
“It just started as a demo. I was just in a place where, truthfully, I have been in some relationships and just dating and just in my life in general, where I feel like I was always expecting less that I actually deserved. And I got into the room with Robyn and she and I both have pretty self-deprecating senses of humour and we’ve been friends through the days of the music biz and stuff. And we both thought how funny it would be to have a person who has a hard time believing in themselves and in way standing up for themselves over the years, to write a song saying, ‘I’m the best.’ How good would that be? And that’s sort of where it started from and that’s where we landed.
“After doing a demo I thought I would try recording it one way and it didn’t sound the same and it didn’t really capture what it was all about. And then I said to Robyn, we really need her to go to town on this. So, she produced it properly, but even then, I just thought that it didn’t feel like it was done.”
Enter Kinnie Starr.
The B.C. resident is a past Juno nominee, known for her wonderful blend of alternative rock, indie rock and hip hop, who has had songs placed in TV shows, and documentaries throughout her eclectic career.
“She just came into my head out of nowhere and I thought, oh my God, I am going to ask her if she wants to throw down a verse on this song. I think I had met her one time, so we were not tight at all. I just sent her a message and said, ‘hey, I know you really don’t know me, but I have this song and I would absolutely love it if you collaborated and threw down a verse, what do you think?’ And she said yes. And she was so stoked and that’s how that started,” Rheaume said.
For her part, once she heard the song, even though there was no real connection between the two, Starr was in.
“The song sounded finished when Amanda sent it, and I was so flattered because it’s such an amazing track. It was just an email out of the blue. An interesting thing about this story is people contact me all the time and want me to cowrite with them, but they write me with no plan and no song and no money, and no anything really. So, people write me and say, ‘I have an idea and maybe you should come in and do you have any beats or any ideas.’ That’s kind of like people saying, ‘can you write my song for me.’ These people are using my name, and my energy, my brain energy. I do love co-writing and I co-write a lot but the difference here is when somebody comes with something so formed, with so much energy, as an artist you’re just kind of like f*** yeah. You just want to get involved with someone who has energy like that,” said Starr from her home on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast.
“First of all, I loved the arrangement of the song, the way the melody moves is quite uplifting, but then the contest itself hit home. Because my younger brother died of a Fentanyl overdose, so I am kind of coming up for air here, and Amanda’s track was so uplifting, so it’s very nice for my family at this time, because we’re still mourning. So, the content of the song, was really important to me, because my brother who died, he has three little girls that he left behind and they are entering a world they are eight, seven and four. So, these for these kids, for Auntie to put out a song like this, it’s going to give these kids a lot of power.”
Starr wrote her own part of the song and delivered it with bot intensity and verve.
“In the verse I say, ‘go ahead and try to convince me that I am off base, I can see you try and shake me from my state of grace.’ That is very much about what it is like to be a content creator now. I left Twitter and Facebook over the last couple of years, although I still use Instagram. The record label manages my Facebook page, but I don’t look at that shit any more because of the way that the internet functions. As a content creator, you’ve got to be always ready for some jackass who comes in there trying to pull apart your self esteem. And I don’t like it and that’s why I don’t use Twitter and Facebook and I know they are very combative platforms and you can gain a lot of traction by being very combative and very aggressive, but I don’t want that in my life,” Starr said, adding that she identifies with a lot of the same internal struggles as Rheaume and has also had to deal with the expectations, limitations and categorizations of others as a woman, as an Indigenous person and as an artist.
“I’ve dealt with the same kind of bullshit. I don’t consider myself a super famous person, but I am very happy with the success and some of the things I have done. But with every step you take into the public eye, you’ve got eyes on you and some of those eyes are full of envy, some of those eyes are full of hatred. That is why this song, The Best, related to me. I know I am not the greatest songwriter, and the most native person in the city, and the prettiest girl and the best artist. I know I am not of those things, But it doesn’t mean I am not a kick ass person. And that’s the interesting thing about Amanda’s song; it doesn’t come across as egotistical, whereas sometimes when you make statements like that, it does. But there is some kind of nuance in the melody or maybe it’s the production, but it doesn’t come across as ‘f*** you I’m the best.’ It comes across as, ‘I am going to walk my path here, you go ahead and do what you want.”
The video for The Best is a delightful and insightful companion to the song itself. Director Stefano Barberis’ visuals are colourfully cinematic, yet also capture the drama and the exceptional performances of the actors so well. The video shows people in situations where they finally choose to shed the chrysalis of their false selves, the identities and personalities that were put upon them by society, by culture, by friends and family, to reveal their real selves and revel in their own awesomeness.
“Stefano loved the song. It was clear to us and I am sure it was clear to Amanda, that this guy gets the song. He feels the story in it, and it was exciting to see his vision come to life,” said Starr.
As for the future for Rheaume, and whether there will be more songs that follow this more pop/oriented, lushly produced, kinetic and kick as vibe, she said she is open to anything.
“I am taking it a step at a time. I am only going to do singles for the next little bit. Music right now is consumed in such a different way, and I feel like I really want to honour each song that I record and give it the appropriate attention and time. So, I am excited to put out one song at a time, and then eventually collect them into an EP or full length. At the stage I’m at, I have done a number of albums and I am happy to work this song for a while, and just celebrate different genres and different approaches and being an artist and just letting go and see what happens. I think we all need to celebrate ourselves more,” she said.
Rheaume is playing two Ontario shows in March. She will be at The Burdock in Toronto on March 19, and at the NAC Fourth Stage on March 21. For more information about tour dates, The Best and more, visit http://www.amandarheaume.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.
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