Canada’s latest darling, Basia Bulat whose Oh My Darling WILL break your heart, brings her out-of-this-world voice and string-along skills (along with a jolly band of friends and family that compose her, well, band) to 930 Club this Friday.

We sent Rachel to talk to her about touring, food, family matters and some other stuff.
Until lines broke.

How is your tour going?
Really well. It’s been really fun. We’re in Chicago right now.

How many cities will you be hitting on the tour?
23.

You’re touring with Devotchka, correct? (ed. I pronounced this band’s name with the stress on the “de” sound. Basia pronounced it with the stress on the “otch” sound.)
Yes, we’re touring with Devotchka, but also different bands play with us in different cities.

Oh, is that how you pronounce it? In Russian, девочка (devotchka in English) means girl, and is pronounced with emphasis on the “de”.
(Laughs). I didn’t realize that. In Polish, it’s a different word altogether, “Dziewczyna.” It’s funny, because there are some Russian words I can recognize, because the roots are similar to Polish, but
not all.

Are you Polish?
Yeah, my mom is Polish, and my name is Polish as well.

I was wondering about your ethnic background since I had read you were Canadian but found your name to sound Slavic.
Yeah, most Canadians are from elsewhere as well.

Speaking of Canada, what can you tell me about the Canadian music scene right now?
I’ve found that I haven’t gotten to know many Canadian bands until I’ve gone on tour and met people on the road. I’m not really familiar with the scene, I’m never felt like I was part of a particular
scene at all. It’s funny now that I’m traveling, I end up running into quite a few Canadians bands while around the world.

What are some of the bands you’ve run into?
I’ve gotten to know Patrick Watson, and his band a little bit, and the Great Lake Swimmers.

Tell us about your band members.
My brother plays drums, my friend Allison plays the viola and sings, and my friend Holly plays Ukulele and sings. She has a blog actually, HollyRancher.blogspot.com. Currently she’s blogging about the random food that is available at truck stops. It’s pretty entertaining, I recommend it highly. Also, my friend Dave plays cello and sings. That’s our band for this tour.

What’s the craziest food you’ve seen or eaten while on tour?
Well, Holly is right here, want to talk to her?

Sure.
(Holly) Yesterday I ate something called a Salted Nut Roll, it was apparently a local thing to Chicago and Wisconsin. It had peanuts, caramel and nougat. I wrote about it on my blog. I also took a bunch of “trucker pills” which are basically mega vitamins sold in little bags by the cash register, but the pills are pretty huge.

How did that make you feel?
Not bad, but not great.

A DC band Middle Distance Runner did a photo essay from the road on their tour, where they chronicled the many types of hot dogs available to them. It was amusing.
I bet!

(back to Basia) How have you found getting along with everyone in the band since
you’re all so close?

(Basia) Everyone knows each other pretty well, so it’s really nice. I think once you get into a band you become a mini family anyway, so your stuck with each other whether you like it or not! Just kidding!
(laughs.) My brother feels that way about me, probably.

How did you get started in this particular group? I read that you’ve been doing music since you were a kid.
Just a bit by chance, I guess. I was writing songs and my friends were playing on my songs, and I made a record for fun to document that. It wasn’t super planned out, I wasn’t conspiring to make a certain kind of record, it just kind of happened. I’d like to say that there was a real conscious effort to make it but there wasn’t. The first record
was more of a documentation of an experiment than anything else. I’m
starting to plan out the next record more deliberately.

How would you describe your songwriting process?
Every song is a little bit different. Some songs I can finish in a couple of minutes, and some songs take me a year which is really weird. It’s more of an intuitive process I guess, I don’t really decide to
just write a song about a certain subject. I more realize after a song’s been written, what it was about.

Who are some of your musical inspirations?
My friends in this band, Oveshou (NOTE the reception on the call was really bad and I don’t think that’s the real name of the band), in Tornoto, are really inspiring people. Neutral Milk Hotel is a band that’s inspired me alot, they haven’t necessarily influenced my sound, but I definitely love
everything that Jeff Mangum wrote and sang, I love all of his stuff. Most music I like will end up inspiring me, and books and art, if I feel something from it, it will usually have an affect on me.

Good segue way to my next question, have you read any good books lately?
A friend of mine just gave me the Lee Gone Helmnes (NOTE call started cutting out again and I’m guessing this isn’t the right spelling) autobiography so I just read that, the first week we were on tour. It’s pretty awesome, I actually just re-read it a few days ago. It’s a really riveting
read. I also read Bob Dylan’s chronicles which were excellent. I’ve been really getting into memoirs and autobiographies.

Any movie recommendations?
I haven’t really seen much recently. Although in our band, we have this joke where we really like the infomercial for the Magic Bullet, this contraption that chops everything up for you, and we find it
entertaining. You can make instant anything with it, without ever using a knife! But, that’s not a movie, so maybe it doesn’t count. Actually, I saw this really interesting short film that a friend gave
to me, called “That High Lonesome Sound” which was great as well.

How was your experience with the Daytrotter?
When bands are coming through, they invite them into their studio to do a little session. It’s nice, live off the floor, to tape. We did a couple songs that we felt like playing that day, it wasn’t super
planned out or anything, but it was kinda neat. They are really nice guys. They get really excited about the music that they love.

NOTE: at this point the call cut out for the 5th time, and we lost reception for good. Basia called back to sweetly apologize for cutting the interview short but that their reception was just too terrible.

Want more (and uniterrupted) Basia?
befriend her on the space: http://www.myspace.com/basiamyspace
and come see her open for Devotchka at 930 club tomorrow

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