It's an exciting and busy time for the Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman. Her lauded fifth LP, last year's Ignorance, earned a spot on the 2021 Polaris Music Prize short list and numerous year-end lists (including Exclaim!'s), and earlier this year she made her late-night television debut performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Not slowing down, Lindeman just released Ignorance's companion record, a collection of quiet piano ballads entitled How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars. When Exclaim! catches up with Lindeman, she's in the middle of the Ignorance world tour and is quite literally on the go.
What are you up to?
I am on tour and sitting in the backseat of the van as we drive to Portland.
What are your current fixations?
American food co-ops and health food stores.
Why do you live where you do?
I stay in Toronto because of the music community primarily and being close to my mom. And my apartment is really great.
What's the last book or movie that blew your mind?
I read Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit. She uses the ruse of talking about George Orwell's garden to spiral off into talking about a lot of things that feel really relevant to right now, like misinformation, extremism in political movements, and climate change. It's a really great book.
What has been your most memorable or inspirational concert and why?
Many years ago, there was a concert series on Toronto Island that a friend of mine used to run called Poor Pilgrim. There was a huge storm and the power went out and I saw Jennifer Castle play un-amplified by candlelight in the church on the Island.
What's been the greatest moment of your career so far?
Putting out Ignorance. The experience of that record being in the world. That's a lot of moments, but if nothing else ever happens, that will be enough.
What's been the worst moment of your career so far?
My first time playing New York City. I was pretty naïve and I didn't understand anything, and I played for a few people in the top of a café or something. There was no payment except for a metal bucket that they put down in front of me while I played, and the money that ended up in the bucket, for the duration of my set, was mine. I made like $18. It was like being a busker. The bucket wasn't passed around. You had to go up and put the money in the bucket if you deemed me worthy.
Who's a Canadian musician that should be more famous?
All of them! So many people should be more famous. But since they put out a record recently, I'll say Bernice.
What advice should you have taken, but did not?
I remember Afie Jurvanen [Bahamas] always telling me to just be myself. That was really good advice that took me a long time to know how to take.
What was the first song you ever wrote?
I wrote a song when I was about 12 or 13 that I played in a talent show. I don't have any recording of it, but I know that it was about spring and it was all black keys on the piano.
What do you think of when you think of Canada?
Say what you will, but it's home. What I also think about is the very extreme privilege of having a passport that allows me access to so much space, which is not what everyone has in the world.
What was the first album you ever bought with your own money?
A CD of Loreena McKennitt's The Visit. I was probably 13.
What was your most memorable day job?
I was an actor.
If you weren't playing music, what would you be doing instead?
I think I would be writing a book.
How do you spoil yourself?
Chocolate and expensive fermented goods.
What traits do you most like and most dislike about yourself?
I think that I can be very accepting and that can not always be great.
What's the best way to listen to music?
Headphones.
What do you fear most?
The climate crisis.
If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
I would buy a bunch of land and set up a really great off-grid system and invite a bunch of my friends to come live there and build little houses on it.
What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?
I had lunch with Susan Sarandon. I was in a movie with her [Shall We Dance?], and I was so intimidated because I thought she was really cool that I did not say anything for the entire lunch. I answered with one-word answers every time she asked me a question. So I made zero impression.
Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?
I would love to have dinner with George and Mary Oppen, a poet and his wife. I would serve some kind of beautiful salad.
What is the greatest song of all-time?
It's always impossible to pick one but the first thing that comes to mind is "Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan.
Not slowing down, Lindeman just released Ignorance's companion record, a collection of quiet piano ballads entitled How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars. When Exclaim! catches up with Lindeman, she's in the middle of the Ignorance world tour and is quite literally on the go.
What are you up to?
I am on tour and sitting in the backseat of the van as we drive to Portland.
What are your current fixations?
American food co-ops and health food stores.
Why do you live where you do?
I stay in Toronto because of the music community primarily and being close to my mom. And my apartment is really great.
What's the last book or movie that blew your mind?
I read Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit. She uses the ruse of talking about George Orwell's garden to spiral off into talking about a lot of things that feel really relevant to right now, like misinformation, extremism in political movements, and climate change. It's a really great book.
What has been your most memorable or inspirational concert and why?
Many years ago, there was a concert series on Toronto Island that a friend of mine used to run called Poor Pilgrim. There was a huge storm and the power went out and I saw Jennifer Castle play un-amplified by candlelight in the church on the Island.
What's been the greatest moment of your career so far?
Putting out Ignorance. The experience of that record being in the world. That's a lot of moments, but if nothing else ever happens, that will be enough.
What's been the worst moment of your career so far?
My first time playing New York City. I was pretty naïve and I didn't understand anything, and I played for a few people in the top of a café or something. There was no payment except for a metal bucket that they put down in front of me while I played, and the money that ended up in the bucket, for the duration of my set, was mine. I made like $18. It was like being a busker. The bucket wasn't passed around. You had to go up and put the money in the bucket if you deemed me worthy.
Who's a Canadian musician that should be more famous?
All of them! So many people should be more famous. But since they put out a record recently, I'll say Bernice.
What advice should you have taken, but did not?
I remember Afie Jurvanen [Bahamas] always telling me to just be myself. That was really good advice that took me a long time to know how to take.
What was the first song you ever wrote?
I wrote a song when I was about 12 or 13 that I played in a talent show. I don't have any recording of it, but I know that it was about spring and it was all black keys on the piano.
What do you think of when you think of Canada?
Say what you will, but it's home. What I also think about is the very extreme privilege of having a passport that allows me access to so much space, which is not what everyone has in the world.
What was the first album you ever bought with your own money?
A CD of Loreena McKennitt's The Visit. I was probably 13.
What was your most memorable day job?
I was an actor.
If you weren't playing music, what would you be doing instead?
I think I would be writing a book.
How do you spoil yourself?
Chocolate and expensive fermented goods.
What traits do you most like and most dislike about yourself?
I think that I can be very accepting and that can not always be great.
What's the best way to listen to music?
Headphones.
What do you fear most?
The climate crisis.
If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
I would buy a bunch of land and set up a really great off-grid system and invite a bunch of my friends to come live there and build little houses on it.
What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?
I had lunch with Susan Sarandon. I was in a movie with her [Shall We Dance?], and I was so intimidated because I thought she was really cool that I did not say anything for the entire lunch. I answered with one-word answers every time she asked me a question. So I made zero impression.
Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?
I would love to have dinner with George and Mary Oppen, a poet and his wife. I would serve some kind of beautiful salad.
What is the greatest song of all-time?
It's always impossible to pick one but the first thing that comes to mind is "Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan.
