Summery style of Rasky

Toronto songstress explores her eclectic side on new CD

She may have entitled her second album Your Love's Like Spring, but Michelle Rasky acknowledges that there's a different seasonal feel to this lovely new disc. "People have written to me saying they really enjoy playing it at their cottage. It is a very summery album."
That vibe is projected by Michelle's oft upbeat melodic touch and light and breezy vocals. It is fitting then that she has just begun a summer residency upstairs at The Rivoli, appearing there every Wednesday in August as part of the Maple Lounge series.
Downstairs at The Riv, Rasky tells Tandem that those gigs "will be solo, though my bassist, Ed Roman, may join in on a few songs. I love both solo and band gigs for different reasons. Solo, there is more opportunity to chat with the audience and be flexible musically. With a band, there is a different dynamic and energy. With many of the singer/songwriters I love I prefer to see them solo. It seems the songs have more weight then."
Along with band mates Roman and drummer Ilios Steryannis, some of this city's very best players are featured on Your Love's Like Spring. The cast list includes Kurt Swinghammer, Luke Doucet (Veal), Paul Neufeld (NOJO), Kevin Fox and Anne Lindsay, and their tasty contributions add to the diversity of the sound.
"This is my eclectic period," Michelle notes. "There is so much music I love to listen to [she is even an electronica fan], and all kinds of other influences began to filter into what I was writing. It felt like something really opened up, and this is much more reflective of my diverse influences."
She terms her style "organic hybrid-pop," and it draws upon jazz, folk, swing and country elements. It has a different feel than her 2000 debut, What I Meant To Say, as she explains. "That one was half solo, and half with musicians I hadn't worked with on an ongoing basis. The arrangements were quite different. It was more of a funky-folk fusion, with lots of open tunings and rhythmic guitar playing. It was not as melodically oriented as this one."
The debut was well-received, notching plenty of CBC and campus airplay, but Rasky says "it did lead to my getting pigeonholed a little for that sound. I was compared to Ani DiFranco a lot, and I was a bit frustrated about that."
The jazz meets pop songs on the new disc will likely elicit some Norah Jones comparisons, though Michelle is quick to point out that a lot of its songs were written before the Norah phenomenon. "These songs all came out honestly and all within the time frame of leading up to and during the recording process. They capture a period of my life."
Given the budget restraints of being an independent artist, Michelle has come up with a very professional production sound on the record. She produced it in tandem with engineer Brian D'Oliviera, while her brother Tom came up with the studio.
"He had built a great-sounding studio in the basement of his previous house," she explains. "Unfortunately it's no longer there, as they sold the house, but it was a great opportunity to sneak in there and record this. My brother had done a lot of research into the acoustics of it, getting a really nice live sound. That is something I thought I'd missed on the first album. The studio we used then didn't have a very natural ambience."
Michelle is modest about her own musicianship, but the fact that she teaches piano and guitar testifies to her skill. Similarly, her creativity as a producer is impressive, and that can be partially attributed to an early habit. "Growing up, I always loved listening to albums on headphones, figuring out how the arrangements were put together. I have always liked to listen to music in a very active sense."
Your Love's Like Spring is available via www.michellerasky.com. Michelle Rasky plays the Maple Lounge series, upstairs at The Rivoli, every Wednesday in August.

Publication Date: 2004-08-08
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4252