An artist who has crafted a lauded and exceptionally diverse and musically superlative career on her own terms and expectations, Jenie Thai is living melodic proof that hard work, dedication to one’s craft, unrelenting confidence and pure, good music can prevail.
Now based in Toronto, Thai was born in Thailand to Canadian parents who had wonderful wanderlust and joie de vivre that was passed on to their kids. She grew up, had her formative training and began to carve out her unique brand of jazz and pop-infused soulful blues music in Edmonton, earning a couple of Edmonton Music Award nominations in 2014, as well as a Maple Blues Award nomination in 2016.
More important than industry acclaim and accolades, Thai is a tireless live performer who has averaged between 250 and 270 shows a year for a number of years, unafraid to play any venue, for any sized audiences, knowing her music and her easy charm will win them over.
On the heels of the release of her second full-length album, and third release altogether since 2011, Night on Fire, she is embarking on a few winter dates in the Great White North, before heading to a tour of the eastern U.S. in March. Those shows include a full band spectacular at the Royal Canadian Legion in Tamworth, Ontario on Feb. 8, a trio show in Collingwood on March 1, a house concert in Toronto the following evening and a solo show in Combermere on March 10.
“When I am back in Toronto, I try to gig as much as I can; a few jobbing things like playing background music like I did recently and an event. But I am on the road a lot. I was out west for the month of October, and summers are filled with festivals all across Canada. And for the first time I am going to the States this spring. I have been down there a few times for some music business things like conferences and the International Blues Challenge a couple of times [earning a semi-final berth in 2014],” Thai said, from her home in Toronto, during a short break in between shows.
“The idea was to go along the Mississippi River starting at Ann Arbor, Michigan and Chicago, and then go down to New Orleans. But the route has sort of changed and now I am doing stuff in Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee, although I still don’t know what the full route is yet. So that will be fun and then one of my goals in the next couple of years is to get over to Europe, because I haven’t played there at all.”
The show in Tamworth will feature her full band, but Thai makes it clear that she is comfortable playing in any configuration, from full band to trio, duo and solo.
“I am bringing a four piece to Tamworth – guitar, bass, drums and me on keys – which is the same arrangement as I took out west in the fall. If I go on the road for two weeks or longer, I usually go by myself and sometimes pick up bands as I go. Sometimes I will take just one other person, but it’s expensive to bring people, so often it’s just myself. When I go the States in March, I will be going solo this first time, just me and a keyboard.”
There is both a resonant old-school tone and vibe to Thai’s compositions and singing voice, but with very modern, 21st century sensibilities. It’s not a throwback per se, but more Thai the songwriter filtering her ideas, thoughts and emotions of today, through the framework of the great songwriters of the past whose influences still continue to imbue her songs.
“I love late 1960s, 1970s R&B, as well as blues. I guess you could say it’s like Bonnie Raitt meets Carole King. Bonnie Raitt would be the most important because of the longevity of her career and all the cool things she has done with music and all the collaborations she has made. And her singing, I tell ya, when she opens her mouth it’s just insane. And she chooses really cool songs to cover, as well as being an amazing guitar player,” Thai explained.
“And Tom Waits is another writer that has been a huge influence. There are just so many – Nina Simone I love, and right now I am knee deep delving into Etta James more than I have before because I am part of a big Etta James tribute show in Toronto [held recently at Lula Lounge]. I am also really digging Loudon Wainwright III right now, although I am just starting to explore his material.”
Thai’s parents were already veteran world travellers when they met in their early 20s and had decided to move to India when they got pregnant with Jenie.
“My dad travelled all over Europe and the Middle East and then when he met my mom, they got married and I think one day he said, ‘let’s go live in India for while.’ After they bought tickets, they discovered my mom was pregnant but decided to go anyways. So, they taught English to support themselves and were just really soaking in the culture and environment. But my mom got really sick when she was there, so they went to Thailand and had me there. They kept teaching in Thailand for a little while before moving back to Canada and settling just outside Edmonton. Right now, they are currently in Ecuador. So, they have that love for travelling and they have passed it on to me, which is a cool gift,” she said, adding that they were also very encouraging of her musical gifts.
“They are very artistic people and have always supported the arts. They paid for piano lessons and always told me to find something I love and to go for it, because that’s the best thing you can do in life. I don’t get all my influences from them, but I do remember when they would have friends over, they would listen to some B.B. King and Tom Waits. I think I was just a little more interested in music and a little more studious, because they also put my three siblings into piano, but I was the only one where it became a real passion. I just loved the piano. I knew when I was a kid that I would be playing music for the rest of my life. I didn’t know that I would be doing it as a living, but I just knew it was always going to be a bit part of my life.”
Thai [her middle name, which obviously comes from the nation of her birth] continued to study music through high school, broadening her repertoire to include classical and jazz, later studied at Grant MacEwan University for music. She was so exceptional at the school that she was offered a part-time teaching position, as well as being accepted into Paul McCartney’s music school in Liverpool, England. As stated in her official bio, by this time in her life it was time to move out of the classroom and become a working musician 24/7, so she turned down both offers. This choice eventually led to the release of her debut EP Lady Flower, in 2011, and it’s been a relentlessly upward career trajectory ever since.
It’s been more than five years since her last studio album (Only the Moon, 2013). A significant reason for the delay is because of her extensive touring schedule and the fact that is difficult to find the time and space to write new material.
“I do get lots of songwriting ideas when I am on the road from all of the experiences I have, the places I go and the people I meet. But it’s really hard to get anything concrete out of it because I usually need a piano to hash my ideas out. I am not so good with just a pen and paper and I don’t play guitar. But I do get ideas and try to make the most of them. Usually when I am back home in Toronto for a period of time, I will try to flesh out some of them. I haven’t mastered that skill and am envious of how people can write when they’re on the road all the time,” she said.
“The drives in between shows are so long and once I am at the gig, especially when it’s a house concert or something like that, once I am there, I am there. And then you get up the next day and do it all again. I don’t know how people can do it. It also takes a long time because it’s a matter of cash too; I am independent and I fund everything myself, so I have to save for a few years to be able to do a full album.”
Eventually, over the intervening years, even with 270-shows a year on average, Thai managed to cobble together many wonderful ideas to create the songs for Night on Fire, which is a creative and musical tour de force in so many ways. It’s a master class in evocative, charming, ebullient and emotionally gripping songwriting, as well as a demonstration of Thai’s extraordinarily strong and unique voice.
“I like to think there are no rules in songwriting. I try not to think, ‘oh I need a bridge here or a chorus there,’ but often that just happens because most songs I listen to are structured that way. I usually find a hook and then just expand on it. Or if I am really feeling moody, I use songwriting just as therapy. Sometimes I find some good things in that process and then it turns into a song. Using music as a way of processing stuff – that’s why I started writing even as a kid. If I was feeling angry because my mom was mad at me or got in a fight with a friend or something, I would just sing it out. And it’s the same now.
“On this last album there are relationship songs, but there are also some songs about being on the road. And there’s a song about time, called Now is All You Have. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but it sort of ended up being spiritual in the end. It’s about how we all end up in the same place and how things tend to move in circles.”
Thai explained that the title track is a road song but looking at it from the adventurous side of life as a travelling musician and how it gives her confidence and great enjoyment being on the road and sharing her songs with new people every night.
Conversely, Send Your Angels Down and Dreamers and Lovers are the flip side of that coin.
“I wrote it when I was feeling pretty down and out. It has nothing to do with love or anything like that. Its about personal demons and frustrations. Dreamers and Lovers is about being on the road and just feeling incredibly lonely touring solo. And they are kind of opposites and it’s interesting because I didn’t intend that to happen, although I did write those songs pretty close together.”
For more information on Jenie Thai, including upcoming tour dates, visit https://www.jeniethai.ca.
- 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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