In early January, presented with the rare occurrence of some uninterrupted free time, Emily Burgess made the most of the opportunity.
Over the course of 10 days of “just me in an apartment with my guitar,” Burgess got busy, putting the finishing touches on a few songs that, up to that point, were but riffs in her head in need of lyrics.
“I was like ‘I can’t get to my guitar and write a song — there’s just so much going on’,” recalls the Peterborough guitarist and singer-songwriter of where she was at immediately before her “writing burst.”
“Things kept coming to me and, for some reason, seemed easier,” Burgess adds. “You want to take advantage because that doesn’t always happen.”
Such was the genesis of Arrow, Burgess’ third studio album released in late October.
The 10-track disc, mixed by Peterborough’s James McKenty at In Record Time Studio and mastered by Andy Pryde, follows her 2017 debut album Are We In Love? and 2019’s follow-up Never Ending Fling recorded with her trio The Emburys, comprised of herself Marcus Browne (drums) and Dawson McManus (bass).
VIDEO: “Trickin’ My Heart” – Emily Burgess
“You come up with a song and you make a little demo,” says Burgess. “The urge to send that to someone (to give a listen) is so strong. That person for me is Ryan (Weber). As soon as I’ve got something, I send it to him and ask ‘What do you think?’ Having that affirmation is good. You’re like ‘Alright, I’ve got something here’.”
Recorded in the spring, Arrow saw Burgess surround herself with musician friends she’s not only very comfortable with but who are also at the top of their game. Ryan and Sam Weber (who also produced the album), Benj Rowland, and Browne and McManus joined her in the studio, gifting their talent to the finished product. Also huge, says Burgess, was McKenty’s guidance.
“It’s so great when you’ve got someone who, you know, says ‘Let’s try this. Oh no, let’s move the mic. OK, let’s try adding that’ to get the right sound, the right feel,” assesses Burgess. “We went in ahead of time to sort of explain the vibe we were going for. James is also an incredible musician, so he gets it. He mixed it so beautifully.”
“One thing I really wanted on this (record) was a more mature-sounding voice,” Burgess points out. “Whether or not I achieved that, that’s for everyone else to say, but really layering my vocal with lots of harmonies and just having a more mature sound than the previous two (albums), that was a really important thing to me. Your voice is your voice — you can only change it so much, but there are ways to get closer to what you want.”
It helped, says Burgess, that she played some of the new songs live before heading into the studio.
“Playing week after week, fours hours at a time, gives you a lot of opportunity to try stuff out. I felt I had a really good sense of (the songs) going into the studio.”
Her previous studio experience, says Burgess, also paid a huge dividend.
“After recording the first two albums, I was like ‘Oh, I should have done that different.’ On this one, it was ‘OK, I’m going to try my very best to get to a point where I’m not looking back and be like oh, I wish this and I wish that.’ I really tried to be overly critical of each detail, trying to be as objective as possible. I definitely see it as a step up from my first two albums.”
McKenty couldn’t agree more.
“When I first recorded Emily, she was kind of new to being the front singer,” he says. “With each album, she’s become more confident in that role. She’s also fine-tuned her songwriting. When she comes into the studio now, she has a lot of the parts already worked out.”
“She’s an amazing and competent player in the world of blues. A lot of blues music artists improvise stuff in the studio — it’s like a jam session — but that’s not the case with Emily. Every guitar part is worked out as well as what the vocal should be. She comes in fully formed. She’s ready to go.”
Of note, adds McKenty, is Burgess’ transformation from her early iteration as a blues player to a multi-genre artist, represented on Arrow by “a variety of music styles.”
“What makes this album cohesive is Emily — her voice and her guitar playing. It was really fun to record because there was room for some sonic experimentation. We really got into that. How do we make each song it’s own unique thing but still hold together as an album?”
Now more distant from the blues musician label that was furthered by her 2018 Maple Blues Award win in the New Artist/Group of the Year category, Burgess acknowledges a continued affinity for the genre but admits to be more open-minded to other styles of music. For that she credits the Sam and Ryan Weber of The Weber Brothers Band, who she’s joined for countless gigs going back to 2014.
“Joining the Weber Brothers, things really opened up for me,” Burgess says. “I got exposed to a lot of different types of music and ways to play, and I get to be on stage with Sam — like the best guitar player ever. I’m picking up a lot off from them. Ryan is the reason I started to sing. Their influence I can’t put into words.”
What hasn’t changed is how grateful Burgess is to be able to do what she intended to do early on. Born and raised in Mississauga, she says pursuing a path in music “was a very conscious decision.”
“There was always music in the house. My dad played albums all the time — the supreme music appreciator. My mom played the piano, hymns and stuff. My oldest brother Andrew played guitar. There was music all around me.”
“After I switched to guitar from piano when I was 14, I had the plan for what I was going to do before I could even play. I had an understanding from taking piano that practising made you better. I didn’t practise enough on the piano, so I understood why I wasn’t as good as I should be. With the guitar, I practised many hours each day right from the get-go. You see where you want to be, and you try to get there.”
Guitar in hand, Burgess completed her formal music education in the jazz program at Humber College. What followed was time with the Etobicoke-based 24th Street Wailers, her talent featured on the band’s 2015 Juno Award-nominated album Wicked.
Also a member of that band was Jonathan “Jonny” Wong, who passed away from leukemia in October 2021. The supremely gifted saxophonist positively touched the lives of all he met and befriended, Burgess among them.
“After Jonny died, I was devastated,” recalls Burgess. “I went straight to my guitar. It wasn’t like ‘I’ve got to take this and turn it into this’ but I went straight into writing something about it. I think a lot of songwriters would say that’s the way you process things. That’s the way you work through it. You feel really fortunate to be able to do that.”
In Peterborough now for some 10 years — performing solo, with The Webers Brother Band and, on occasion, fronting her own trio — Burgess says she’s “more open than ever to finding inspiration.”
“I know it’s cliché to say, but we’ve got something really special in Peterborough,” she says. “(Juno Award nominee) Rick Fines lives two minutes away from me. He’s a legend. I don’t go to it as much as I would like to, but there’s the weekly Jethro’s blues ham — young players getting up there and killing it.”
“I have felt so much love, so much support, from this community. I feel like I’m from here. I really do.”
AUDIO: “Arrow” – Emily Burgess
And so Burgess’ journey continues. Where it will lead, who can say with certainty, but McKenty passes on a truth he has come to realize.
“Emily will continue to grow because she’s so dedicated to her craft. When you work as hard as she does, well, it’s inevitable that you’re going to get better and better.”
The local CD release party for Arrow will be held Saturday, January 27th at Erben at 379 George Street North in downtown Peterborough, with Melissa Payne opening and Burgess’ album collaborators — Ryan and Sam Weber, Marcus Browne, and Dawson McManus — joining her onstage. Tickets cost $20 and are available now at erbenptbo.com/event-details/erben-presents-emily-burgess-album-release-with-melissa-payne.
Arrow can be streamed Spotify and Apple Music. To purchase a CD and download card, email Burgess directly at emily.burgess22@gmail.com.
This story has been updated with a change of venue for Emily Burgess’ January 27th CD release party, which now takes place at Erben instead of the Gordon Best Theatre.
