have just released the debut album 'Quick Beat Save'. Hailing from Toronto, this is the artist persona of Jen K. Wilson, an independent Canadian music artist espousing electronic avant pop.
Tomatrax caught up with Jen K. Wilson to ask a few questions.
Where did you get the title Quick Beat Save? With my recording software, if the program crashes, it automatically saves a copy of the song and renames it by adding "save" at the end of the title. The song Quick Beat crashed at one point, but when I opened the new file, it had been permanently corrupted. Rather than give up on it, I searched for new sounds for my midi keyboard tracks and ended up being happier than I had been with the original version! After decidingto rename the song Quick Beat Save, my 10 year old son suggested that I keep the original title but name the album Quick Beat Save instead. Really, I think the title is a good reflection of my recording process on the album, as I really embraced the whole digital thing.
You've played in various bands. How does performing sol o compare with being in a band? To be clear, I am currently not a performing artist; just focusing on recording. But working alone is certainly very different in terms of writing and recording. Having total control over all the decisions and playing all the instruments has its pros and cons: it's the ultimate in creative freedom, but I did miss the feeling of comraderie that you get from being in a band.
What made you decide to return from visual arts to music? All my life I've bounced back and forth between art and music, seldom working on both at the same time. I was taking a break from painting a few years ago and then I came across and fell in love with Glenn Tilbrook's demo recordings, which he released in instalments; two releases in particular, "Dreams are made of This" and "When Daylight Appears" were such an inspiration to me, both in terms of songwriting and recording sounds/production. Glenn's true genius is so evident to me on those albums! I love the quality and energy of the home demo as a medium for music - sometimes the big studio can lose some of the beauty of a song. I tried to keep a sort of demo feeling to my recordings.
Where did the name Buildings and Food come from? I struggled with a name for a long time and then I went to see David Byrne perform in August/18 in Toronto and it suddenly dawned on me. I've always been a huge Brian Eno and Talking Heads fan and especially loved their album More Songs about Buildings and Food when I was first making music. The title always made me think about the notion of infinite songs being created all over the world throughout history and a humble recognition of my little intimate expression of personal things combined with essential life needs appealed to me.
What made you decide to use an Ali as rather than your name?
Jen Wilson is a bit boring!
Now that your album is out what do you plan on doing next? I plan on getting back into the studio and writing/recording some new music.
Check out Building and Food's website to find out more!