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Oct. 3 - Oct. 10, 2004 |
Ivana Santilli's rollercoaster ride
Toronto soul songstress rebounds with Corduroy Boogie
By Kerry Doole
Originally Published: 2004-08-22
Over lunch on The Drake patio, Ivana Santilli displays an attitude of both confidence and relief, as well as an eye-catching top emblazoned with the words "Sexy Bitch."
We're chatting the day before the official release of her second solo album, Corduroy Boogie. Her confidence comes from knowing she has delivered a genuinely classy piece of work, the relief from the fact that the long-awaited disc is finally out.
It has been close to five years since the release of Ivana's successful debut, Brown, and that has been a period of high highs and low lows. On the positive side, the eclectic strains of Brown gradually found a welcoming audience across Canada and beyond. It registered sales in the 25,000 range, a very impressive figure for an independent album.
Ivana got to tour with acts as varied as Blue Rodeo, Latin music legend Tito Puente, and hiphop stars De La Soul, but things turned sour when the serious financial difficulties of her distributor, Page, prevented her from receiving the hard-won fruits of her labours
"I spent a couple of years touring Brown. People just kept discovering it and that was very gratifying. Then, from the end of 2001, I went through a really tough time with legal and financial difficulties. You do need something. I'm not talking about millions of record sales and buying a mansion but you want some of that hard work show up in something more than just spiritual satisfaction. Spiritually, I feel whole. Making music is such a complete experience, and you are forced to deal with your soul in music.
"But it was a vicious cycle. This is where I find my completeness, but this business side was just tearing me up. I just turned away from it, the pain was too much. I couldn't even just go to the piano and play a song without thinking 'what is the focus of this?' It is a spiritual reward, but this is what I have chosen as my profession. I wasn't on the road, so I lost my drug, which is playing to people directly. That was a very low period of my life."
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