Sep. 26, 2012 - Issue #884: Strangelove
Lisa Bozikovic
/ Reynard Li
With loss can come new beginnings, a notion which resonates throughout Toronto singer-songwriter Lisa Bozikovic's latest album, This Is How We Swim.
The subject matter, touching on ending relationships and other personal losses, is inspired by the movement of water, a concept that surfaced rather organically for Bozikovic during her time at an artist residency at Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island.
"It wasn't like a very highly disciplined writing process where I woke up everyday and had to write a song about water," she explains. "I kind of just wandered around and I really did feel like a lot of the melodies and kind of instrumental, orchestral arrangements and all of the ideas did sort of just come through the process of just having the time and space to be in this environment and not really have to do other things, which is pretty rare."
This Is How We Swim was the first time Bozikovic worked a concept throughout an entire album. The framework of moving water conjures an ongoing visual image throughout the album, and the accompanying instrumental arrangements further emulate the rolling of waves or falling of rain.
"When you're around water, you can't not think about the fact that movement is always happening all around us—it's just more obvious with water because it's always moving. I think sometimes we go through periods in our lives where we feel like change is happening all around us all at once, and then we go through periods where we feel like things are stagnant," she notes, adding she was in a more focused head space for this record and wasn't just considering death and loss, but also the way difficult experiences can deepen a person's understanding of life. "Losing a close friend or parent can connect to other kinds of loss in your life, like losing a relationship, and just sort of meditating on all the ways in which these things are connected, but sort of seeing the other side of the equation. I mean, anything we do in life that's difficult, if we get through it then we have strength and it adds valuable perspective we wouldn't have had before."
Sun, Sep 30 (8 pm)
With Kate Hill, Bad Channels
Haven Social Club,
$8 (advance), $10 (door)
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