After winning the Polaris Music Prize, Debby Friday bet on herself
That album ended up winning the Polaris Music Prize, which brought Friday a lot more attention and tons of new fans. But when she sat down to write her latest record, The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life, she made a conscious decision to do things differently. Instead of leaning into the experimental sound she had become known for, she wanted to make a more pop-influenced record.
"I have made experimental work pretty much the majority of my career," she says. "That's like my bread and butter. But what I wanted to do was figure out a way to kind of, I would say, bridge the gap between experimental and then also accessible…. I was like, 'What would a Debby Friday pop song sound like?'"
WATCH | Debby Friday's full interview with Tom Power:
Besides making her music sound catchy, Friday found that the biggest challenge of writing a pop song was that it required her to tap into her vulnerable side.
"I think a lot of people, when they meet me through my music, they see the hard side, the rougher side, the side that's more like this powerful — can I say bitch? — this powerful bitch," she tells Power. "But that side, I think, came up more as a self-defense mechanism that I developed earlier on in my life."
After winning the Polaris Music Prize, Friday made the decision to be self-managed so she could have complete control over her creative vision. She wrote the song Bet On Me about taking that leap.
"Something that is really important to me is just being true to myself and being true to my vision," she says. " I have a very strong vision. I know exactly what I want to get out of this career. And a big part of that is this honesty — honesty and clarity in self-expression, and that's not always going to look like what other people's ideas are."
WATCH | Official video for Bet On Me:
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Melanie Stevenson: That story follows Christmas with Portia Ivy, who is actually trying to avoid Christmas. She's in Quebec City over the holidays. She's giving a keynote address, which she thinks has failed miserably and is leaving on a train to go back to Toronto to escape Christmas in the Bahamas. But an ice storm comes in and she actually gets stranded. It shows the story of her actually meeting this bell ringing Santa on the streets while she's slipping around in her high heels. He actually ends up being the one who quasi-rescues her for Christmas and brings her back to his family home and she ends up having to face Christmas and all that it entails. Josette Lafleur: This is written in first person, which is a little different. Why did you decide to do that? Melanie Stevenson: Well, it was the first crack I actually did at first person. I actually took a real risk in talking directly to the reader on several occasions throughout the book. 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She ends up returning to Cambridge and she reunites with her first love. A bit of tragedy happens in that part of the story. In about a 10-year span we see her as an established artist and we find out who she ends up with. Josette Lafleur: You also have a book that's very different called Soul Focus, which is a devotional book. Can you explain what that book is about and how people can use it? Melanie Stevenson: It's sort of 31 days of daily readings that will help you. It's catered to if you're struggling or you're going through a hard time. These are daily encouragements that you would read. It has a verse and then a little blessing at the end to sort of uplift you for the day if you're struggling through certain things. Josette Lafleur: Your books are all published by a Christian publisher. What role does faith play in your writing? Melanie Stevenson: It threads throughout all of my writing. I write a blog and I also write magazine articles and all of them have a faith element to encourage you in your walk with God. One More Tomorrow is a bit more overt and Where My Heart Belongs is a little lighter. She's not a believer until a certain portion in the book. Soul Focus is definitely to encourage you and your faith. Josette Lafleur: What happens in your brain when you're writing all of these different things? Melanie Stevenson: I find that writing articles, the blogs and the devotionals are very short. So what it does is it makes you tighten up your writing. Even in a book you're still always like, is this driving the plot? Is this moving along? Is this on the topic that I'm dealing with in this chapter? So it all kind of overlaps and helps each other. Josette Lafleur: You also write poetry, but you haven't published it. What pushes you to write so much? Melanie Stevenson: I started writing when I was young. I spent copious amounts of time in my room doing all the arts. So I just naturally started writing poems, especially throughout high school and university. I have binders of poetry. It's just the beauty of words, especially poetry. I find that you have to choose the exact word and just the beauty and succinctness that poetry offers. It translates into my fiction because I find that as you write sentences it can be really quite literary and poetic, depending on what you're writing. Josette Lafleur: Are there plans to publish a poetry book? Melanie Stevenson: Not at this point. Sometimes I'll take a photo and put the poetry to it online. That's as far as I've gone with that. Josette Lafleur: Most people might see writing as a pretty solitary experience, but you actually have a group of author friends and you guys all support each other. Tell me about what it means to have that kind of a connection with other authors? Melanie Stevenson: It's massive. The actual act of writing is very solitary. I have this group, we call ourselves the Fab Four, and we get together several times a year. We'll go to a cottage retreat and we'll just write, we'll share our work and we'll brainstorm. This has been invaluable for me. These relationships are incredible. We actually wrote I'll Be Home. We're actually going to do another one this Christmas. Josette Lafleur: What is next for you aside from the Christmas release? Melanie Stevenson: I have two novels that I've written that are waiting in the wings. One is a lovely British romantic comedy that follows a fuddy duddy fellow called Oxford Dunnigan. The other is a real departure. It's telling the story of a girl who is trafficked. I have a marriage book that I'm working on. It's kind of like Soul Focus, daily readings to enrich your marriage. Soul Focus is meant to be a series. The first one was on trials, but I'll also cover forgiveness, humility and releasing control, stuff like that. All to encourage you in the difficulties or things that we struggle with in life.
