Cape Breton rocker surprise

Leslie Armstrong
Arts Editor
“You guys can come closer,” Carmen Townsend says to the polite Toronto crowd gathered at the Horseshoe Tavern, June 2. “We do bite, but you’ll live forever.”
The spunky, mischievous Cape Bretoner sports long red hair and a warm smile—I was waiting for her band to pull out the bagpipes and the fiddle. Instead, she surprised me with a ’90s grunge sound and a Stevie Nicks attitude.
Carmen Townsend’s first studio album as a solo artist, Waitin’ and Seein’, released in late January this year, is noted for its fierce, hard rock sound, but in retrospect the album is equal parts hard and soft. While the lasting impression of the album sees heavy tracks like “Open Sea” and “River Rat”, Townsend compensates with intricate acoustic tracks, like the sugary “Sweet Little Bird” and the introspective “All That Was Left”.

But the prime influence in Townsend’s sound is admittedly the long-forgotten grunge era, which took root during the Nirvana invasion of the early ’90s.
“I felt and still feel really blessed to have gone through my teenage years in that time,” Townsend says nostalgically. “All of these bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, they would all talk about Tom Waits and Neil Young […] they’d praise him as the godfather of grunge. It opened so many doors.”
Back at home, the signature Maritime Celtic-inspired music scene is still going strong, but it’s tough to survive redundancy in the industry.
“I’ve always been inspired by those traditional musicians—those Celtic musicians are so talented. And it really does take a lot of work to make a career in that kind of music as well. It’s really hard to be original,” she admits.
Townsend’s personal favourite Celtic artist from Cape Breton is Colin Grant. “He’s fantastic— [it’s] really neat stuff that he’s doing,” she indulges. “I wouldn’t necessarily buy a record of that type of music, but to see his live show is amazing, so I would buy his record.”
But in the midst of traditional records of jigs and reels, a pleasure to any ear, is a “massive indie rock scene”.
Growing up in a household of classic rock shaped her sound. “Whenever I remember hearing melody for the first time, it was listening to my mom sing Joni Mitchell songs,” she recalls.
Several people have affectionately compared Waitin’ and Seein’ to the late Jeff Buckley’s album Grace; Townsend affirms the notion. “I’ve been told that I sound like a female Jeff Buckley. That’s an amazing compliment for me.”
For her big sound, Townsend was going to have to leave Cape Breton, moving to Vancouver at the age of 19 and then to Toronto, where she finally went solo. She has since toured in Texas, the UK, and Australia twice, and she even got the chance to tour with Heart in February in Newfoundland.
“It was big, and it was a little scary—just me and an acoustic guitar, and all these people want to hear ‘Barracuda’,” she says humbly. “I used to lip-sync [their] songs into my hairbrush… It was really a dream come true.”
Townsend says the touring has been steadily unsteady.
“It’s hard work, especially with this tour right now. We’re three of us in a Dodge Caravan. [We think,] where are we going to sleep tonight? What are we going to eat? Or, let’s go to the grocery store and put our money together,” she laughs. “It’s wonderful, there are a lot of positive things in it, but you have to have a really good sense of humour.”
Balancing an extra job was never easy. “I used to work both nine to fives, that was the joke in our band,” she continues.
Townsend says that quitting her teacher’s assistant job was very difficult for her. “I was working with this sweet little boy who was autistic and he was just a dream to work with, he really opened my eyes to patience, to everything. It’s brought a lot into my music career I think because I have a different view—the sense of humour, that’s where it comes in.”
Amidst the financial struggle, Townsend remains positive and married to her music career. “I love it,” she says. “And it’s obviously working in my favour because I’m still doing it. It’s just what I do.”
Carmen Townsend and her band are hoping to release a new album in the near future.
Visit carmentownsend.ca for more information.