Arden, Jann

views updated May 18 2018

Jann Arden

Pop singer, songwriter

Canadian singer/songwriter Jann Arden traveled a circuitous road to success, spending more than a decade singing rock ’n’ roll covers and jazz and blues standards in smoky Canadian bars and lounges. She also worked a string of odd jobs to pay the rent, including busking on the street—until she was knocked out and robbed of the four dollars she had earned that day. After a series of failed relationships and a bout with alcoholism, Arden emerged from the fog with a major-label recording contract, a million-selling album, and international fame. Today, she is Alberta’s hottest musical export since k.d. lang. Meanwhile, her wicked sense of humor remains intact, sharply contrasting her endearing, melancholy folk/pop songs. “We’re going to be doing various songs about despair, heartbreak and loneliness,” she once told the crowd at an Edmonton concert, reported Mike Ross in an Arden website article. “We’ll be moving on to guilt later, so feel free to slump against the person next to you.”

Arden and her two brothers grew up in Springbank, Alberta, a rural town near Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Her father was a construction contractor and her mother was a dental assistant. Friends remember Jann as a happy, rambunctious child who was chronically anxious for approval. “This need was always there, as if she felt it was her responsibility to entertain everyone,” a childhood friend told Chatelaine magazine. Despite that yearning, however, Arden kept her musical interests quiet. She listened to Karen Carpenter and ABBA and headed down to the family’s basement when she played her hand-me-down guitar and sang her songs. After she was asked to sing one of her compositions at her high school graduation ceremony, her mother said, “We didn’t even know you sang.”

After high school, Arden moved to Vancouver and began singing with a series of forgettable bar bands. Alcohol was her steadiest companion. “I was making sixty dollars a week, although I usually owed the bar more than I made,” she told Chatelaine. “I was going home with different people. I thought it was part of the rock’n’roll life, but it was awful. I didn’t like who I was. I can’t even think of the specific incidents now, because they’re cringes to me. I’m ashamed of that time in my life.”

Arden sang covers as varied and Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner to Karen Carpenter and Billie Holiday in bars, lounges, and ski resorts. She worked as a ball washer at a golf course, a singing waitress, and a deckhand on a salmon boat, where she gutted up to 700 fish a day. She tried to launch a solo career, but the booze held her back. “I was 26 and dysfunctional and struggling hard,” she said in an interview with Bill-board’s Timothy White. At about that time NeilMacGonigill, a record promoter who’d grown disillusioned with the music business, took an interest in Arden. He saw enormous potential in her raw talent and offered to manage her career—if she was ready to take her singing seriously. She said she was; they agreed the first step was for Arden to work on her songwriting. Eventually, she quit drinking. “January 20, 1989. You don’t forget the date,” she told Chatelaine.

Success and Yearning

Success, however, remained elusive. Arden and MacGonigill spent nearly three years trying to interest a record company in the young singer. Then, in October 1991, A&M executive Allan Reid heard Arden’s demo tape and signed her to a recording contract, giving her the break she needed. Her first album, 1993’s Time for Mercy, achieved critical and popular success in her homeland. It registered strong sales, went gold in Canada, spawned the hit single “I Would Die for You,” and earned two Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy.

The second album, Living Under June, vaulted Arden to international fame. It churned out five singles—“Could I Be Your Girl,” “Wonder Drug,” “Unloved (a duet with Arden-fan Jackson Browne),” “Good Mother,” and “Insensitive.” The latter song hit the Top 10 in Canada,

For the Record…

Born Jann Arden Richards, March 27, 1962 in Calgary, Alberta; Canada; daughter of Derrell Richards (a construction contractor) and Joan Bentley (a retired dental assistant).

Released three albums on A&M: Time for Mercy, 1993; the million-selling Living Under June, 1994; and Happy?, 1997. Singles include “I Would Die for You,” “Could I Be Your Girl,” “Good Mother,” and “Insensitive.” On the strength of Living Under June, Arden has appeared on countless TV shows, including The Late Show with David Letterman, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Good Morning America, and The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She also hosted the 1997 Juno Awards.

Awards: Junos include Best Solo Performer and Best Video, 1993, and Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Single of the Year, 1995.

Addresses: Record company —A&M Records, 595 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022.

the United States, Italy, and Australia. Living Under June sold more than one million copies, earned Arden three more Junos, and kept her touring for more than two years. Meanwhile, the music press raved. Billboard editor Timothy White wrote that Arden exhibits a “thrillingly subtle and full-throated vocal vigor that makes Living Under June an extraordinary listening adventure.” Ellemagazine stated that the singer “pours out her gorgeous, wise songs with transcendent intensity.” Stereo Review noted that Arden “crafts smart, provocative songs about complex human relationships and sings them in a wise, knowing soprano…. Arden is usually nothing short of exquisite.” Chatelaine attributed Arden’s wisdom and emotionally revealing songs to her difficult past. “She’s still not sure how, early on, her life went from good to bad—the downward spiral that carried her into hard drinking, hard living and scrambling for money before she was 20,” the magazine wrote. “The songs on Living Under June explore elements of that painful past and reach out with a child’s yearning for her parents.”

By the time Arden released her third album, 1997’s Happy?, she was an international recording artist. Yet she remained as down-to-earth as ever. “Album sales change. Jann Arden doesn’t,” James Muretich wrote in the Calgary Herald. “At least not at the core. She is still very much the same Jann she always was, although there’ve been dramatic changes in her external life, like the way she’s gone from hard-drinking to abstaining from liquor, cigarettes and even caffeine.” The new album, Muretich noted, “is sparsely arranged but much more richly textured than before…. And her lyrics, buoyed by her powerful vocals—have become more direct, more heart-wrenching, constantly turning melancholy into a thing of beauty, of defiant hope.”

Despite the melancholy that invades Arden’s songs and the difficult detours she experienced on her way to success, hope permeates her music and her outlook. Although she admits to being used to failure, the artist is proud of her resilience and tenacity. “I used to worry that my songs were too sad or depressing,” Arden confessed to Nicholas Jennings of Maclean’s. “Now, I don’t really care because life is about imperfection and making mistakes. It’s not a beer commercial. And I feel so much happier that I know that now.” Arden’s ability to maintain her sense of humor has also been essential to her survival. When asked if her songs are autobiographical, Arden replied to Barbara Wickens of Maclean’s, “They must be. I couldn’t make up that pathetic life.”

Selected discography

Time for Mercy, A&M Records, 1993.

Living Under June, A&M Records, 1994.

Happy?, A&M Records, 1997.

Sources

Billboard, April 13, 1994; September 28, 1996.

Calgary Herald, March 5, 1997; February 7, 1997; September 22, 1997.

Chatelaine, October 1995.

Edmonton Journal, March 7, 1997.

Elle, April 1995.

Entertainment Weekly, March 10, 1995.

Hamilton Spectator, September 22, 1997.

Maclean’s, April 10, 1995; October 6, 1997; December 23, 1996.

Ottawa Citizen, November 23, 1995.

Southam News, November 23, 1995.

Stereo Review, July 1995.

Variety, June 16, 1995.

Additional information was provided by A&M Records press materials.

—Dave Wilkins

Contemporary Musicians Wilkins, Dave

Arden, Jann

views updated Jun 11 2018

Jann Arden

Singer, songwriter

Canadian singer/songwriter Jann Arden traveled a circuitous road to success, after spending more than a decade singing rock 'n' roll covers and jazz and blues standards in smoky Canadian bars and lounges. After a series of failed relationships and a bout with alcoholism, Arden emerged with a major-label recording contract, a million-selling album, and international fame. She has been considered Alberta's hottest musical export since k.d. lang.

Arden and her two brothers grew up in Springbank, Alberta, Canada, a rural town near Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Her father was a construction contractor and her mother was a dental assistant. Friends remember Jann as a happy, rambunctious child who was chronically anxious for approval. "This need was always there, as if she felt it was her responsibility to entertain everyone," a childhood friend told Chatelaine magazine. Despite that yearning, however, Arden kept her own musical interests quiet. She listened to Karen Carpenter, John Denver, and ABBA, and headed down to the family's basement when she played her hand-me-down guitar and sang her songs.

After high school Arden moved to Vancouver and began singing with a series of bar bands such as Factor Four and Hip Hugger. She recorded her debut single, "Never Love a Sailor," in 1980 under the name Jann Richards. Alcohol reportedly became her steady companion during this period. "I was making sixty dollars a week, although I usually owed the bar more than I made," she told Chatelaine.

Arden sang covers as varied as Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner, Karen Carpenter, and Billie Holiday, in bars, lounges, and at ski resorts. She tried to launch a solo career, but her addiction held her back. At about that time Neil MacGonigill, a record promoter who had grown disillusioned with the music business, took an interest in Arden. He saw enormous potential in her raw talent and offered to manage her career—if she was ready to take her singing seriously. She said she was, and the two agreed that the first step was for Arden to work on her songwriting. Eventually she quit drinking. "January 20, 1989. You don't forget the date," she told Chatelaine.

Success, however, remained elusive. Arden and MacGonigill spent nearly three years trying to interest a record company in the young singer. Then, in October of 1991, A&M executive Allan Reid heard Arden's demo tape and signed her to a recording contract, giving her the break she needed. Her first album, 1993's Time for Mercy, achieved critical and popular success in Canada. It registered strong sales, went gold in Canada, spawned the hit single "I Would Die for You," and earned Arden two Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy.

Her second album, Living Under June, vaulted Arden to international fame. One of its tracks, "Insensitive," hit the top ten lists in Canada, the United States, Italy, and Australia. Living Under June sold more than one million copies, earned Arden three more Junos, and kept her touring for more than two years. Billboard 's Timothy White wrote that Arden exhibits a "thrillingly subtle and full-throated vocal vigor that makes Living Under June an extraordinary listening adventure." Elle magazine stated that the singer "pours out her gorgeous, wise songs with transcendent intensity." Chatelaine attributed Arden's wisdom and emotionally revealing songs to her difficult past, commenting that "the songs on Living Under June explore elements of that painful past and reach out with a child's yearning for her parents."

By the time Arden released her third album, 1997's Happy?, she had become a well-known international recording artist. Although the album's title seemed to pose a rhetorical question, Blood Red Cherry followed in 2001 with "14 songs proving the answer is 'yes,'" according to James Reaney in the London Free Press.

By June of 2000 Arden had sold more than two million records worldwide since her 1993 debut. She told the Ottawa Sun 's Ian Nathanson that celebrity is a bit unsettling for such a private person. "If I'm going to be an icon or role model of any sort, I'd like to be one that helps people see a part of themselves that's capable of doing anything and being anything, and not being suppressed by what society thinks they should be." To that end, she began participating in charitable works such as an art auction for Children's Wish Foundation, and in performances benefiting the East Africa Maternal Newborn Aid Society and World Vision.

Although she has continued to be humble and self-deprecating in media interviews, Arden has remained a highly visible, award-winning artist, and has won countless Juno awards since her debut. "It's vindicating in some ways because I don't sell nine million records and I'm a moderate artist and I'm not 20 years old and I'm not a sex kitten," she told the Calgary Sun in 2001.

Arden was selected to participate in a Canadian touring production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues in 2001. According to the Winnipeg Sun, Arden was already familiar with the work when she was asked to participate. "I really wanted to do this. It's a really interesting piece of writing, an interesting discourse on the nature of being a woman," she commented. She followed that production with a brief appearance as a real estate agent in the film Snowbound, a.k.a White Lies. "It was a walk in the park really—it was 20 lines and a kooky little character," she explained in the Calgary Sun.

After these experiences, Arden decided to make a half-hour pilot called "The Arden Diner." The sitcom-variety-talkshow aired on CTV and the Comedy Network in November of 2001. In late 2001 a greatest hits collection titled Greatest Hurts: The Best of Jann Arden was released. Also included on the 16-track collection were new two tracks, "Thing for You" and "Nevermind," and a dance remix of "Sleepless."

In 2002 Arden began a Canadian tour in support of the album, in which she performed with various symphony orchestras. One performance was recorded and released as a live album. A follow-up studio project was the 2003 release of her seventh album, Love Is the Only Soldier. It was the first album that Arden had produced and recorded in her basement, and on which she used her touring band.

Despite the melancholy that frequently invades Arden's songs and the difficult detours she has experienced on her way to success, hope permeates her music and her outlook. The artist is proud of her resilience and tenacity. "I used to worry that my songs were too sad or depressing," Arden confessed to Nicholas Jennings of Maclean's. "Now, I don't really care because life is about imperfection and making mistakes." Arden's ability to maintain her sense of humor has also been essential to her survival. When asked whether her songs are autobiographical, Arden replied to Maclean's Barbara Wickens, "They must be. I couldn't make up that pathetic life."

For the Record . . .

Born Jann Arden Richards on March 27, 1962, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; daughter of Derrell Richards (a construction contractor) and Joan (Bentley) Richards (a retired dental assistant). Education: Attended Mount Royal College drama program, c. 1980s.

Recorded debut single, "Never Love a Sailor," as Jann Richards, 1980; worked in bars and with cover bands, c. 1980s; signed to A&M Records, 1991; released Time for Mercy, 1993; the million-selling Living Under June, 1994; and Happy?, 1997, on A&M; singles included "I Would Die for You," "Could I Be Your Girl," "Good Mother," and "Insensitive"; hosted Juno Awards, 1997; released Blood Red Cherry on Zoe label, 2001; toured with Canadian production of The Vagina Monologues, 2001; took small role in film Snowbound; produced television pilot, "The Arden Diner," 2001; released Greatest Hurts compilation, 2001; Live With the Vancouver Symphony, 2002; and Love Is the Only Soldier, 2003.

Awards: CJ92 (Calgary Radio), Best Female Vocalist, 1993-94; Juno Award, Best New Solo Artist, 1994; Juno Awards, Single of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Female Vocalist of the Year, 1995; Much Music Video Award, Video of the Year, 1995; Juno Award, Best Video, 1996; Western Canadian Music Awards, Outstanding Major Label Album, Outstanding Pop Recording, and Outstanding Songwriter of the Year, 2000; Juno Award, Best Female Artist, 2001; Juno Award, Best Songwriter, 2002; Western Canadian Music Award, Outstanding Songwriter, 2003; Western Canadian Music Award, Outstanding Producer (with Russell Broom), 2004.

Addresses: Record company—Universal Music, 2450 Victoria Park Ave., Willowdale, ON M2J 4A2, website: http://www.umusic.ca/jannarden/. Management— S.L. Feldman & Associates, 8 Elm St., Toronto, ON M5G 1G7, website: http://www.slfa.com. Website— Jann Arden Official Website: http://www.jannarden.com.