Q&A: AV on her new album, ‘Everybody Matters’

Everybody Matters is an album that demonstrates the evolution of Ann Vriend’s musicality. With a refined sound that comes from her use of limited instruments, local artist Ann Vriend (AV) makes her harmonic voice the centrepiece of her songs. 

The Gateway sat down with AV to discuss her new album, including topics such as the opioid crisis, her neighbourhood McCauley, as well as musical inspirations. 

Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity. 

The Gateway: What inspired you to use “Everybody Matters” as the title of your album?

Vriend: I was just thinking about the play on words about matters that involve everybody. [Everybody Matters is] inspired by my neighbourhood McCauley. It’s said to be one of the worst economically distressed neighbourhoods in all of Alberta, apparently. In a way, those sorts of human rights issues [like poverty, inequality, and the opioid crisis] definitely affect the neighbourhood that I live in, in a long-standing way.

Q: The inspiration from the blue’s genre is undeniably present in this record. How did you come to discover and include this genre in your music?

[There are] a couple [of] reasons. I’ve been experimenting and delving into a play of that genre for over 20 years. I discovered all that stuff when I was a teenager — some of it earlier. My mom had gospel records from during the Civil Rights Movement. That kind of music just seemed full of pain and suffering but was also a [form of] cathartic release by expressing it too. All music is important to me in one way or another but that one seemed so raw and vulnerable but also empowering. 

Q: A lot of the reoccurring themes within your songs seem to be critiques of things such as capitalism, poverty and inequality; have you always wanted to write about these kinds of topics?

Not always, but certainly. Even when I was a teenager I was interested in civil rights. So justice, in general, has been a topic I’ve been interested in various ways. And when I moved to [McCauley] — I moved here almost 14 years ago, and when I first moved here it felt like nobody lived here. Now with the opioid crisis, especially [when it] hit around 2014 and 2015, it totally feels like a zombie apocalypse out here. The last eight years [in McCauley] have been really crazy. You can really tell that the opioid crisis hit here hard and it hasn’t stopped hitting here hard.

Q: Your decision to do porch concerts seemed to really unify people together during a very bleak and isolating moment during the pandemic. Would you say that there was any inspiration or new perspectives from the pandemic that you incorporated into making this album?

The whole decision to do the porch concerts was very much organically spontaneous — something that I’d do once cause I was bored. I had all my shows cancelled and didn’t know what to do with myself so it was just a one-time thing. [Live performing] feels like you have a purpose in this world and everyone goes away feeling better. I realize that it was a really important thing to do as an artist to keep my sense of purpose going at a time when everyone is pretty vulnerable and shaky about the future of the performing arts in general.

A [unintended] side effect of the whole porch concerts was [that] lots of people in the audience were people that just walked by and happened upon our show in the neighbourhood. It ended up being that there were lots of people that came to McCauley who had no idea it was like this here with the opioid crisis and with the amount of people walking by with shopping carts. It was an eye-opening experience for a lot of people. Having lived here so long, [I] sometimes forget that. [McCauley residents] felt proud that their neighbourhood was [doing] this thing. I think everybody just really revelled in the experience of being treated like everybody else and felt welcomed.