The new Tarah Who ? album is full of unique compositions and collaborations with independent artists from all over the world. It’s a very eclectic album that still remains as rock, grunge, punk, and strong in emotions and powerful lyrics. Produced by Tarah herself, Jason Orme (Alanis Morissette) and Norm Block (L7).
From Tarah: “I never thought that I would one day, collaborate. Tarah Who?’s songs are so personal and autobiographical that I did not see how I could ever share the words with anyone.
During Covid, and after releasing “Supposedly, A Man”, I was already working on some new songs for Tarah Who? But I also thought that it would be a good idea and time to see if some of my friends or artists who I have met along the way would be interested in participating in this new album called “The Collaboration Project.”
I got in touch with some of my favourite independent artists and asked them if they would be into recording one song together. The idea behind doing this was for us to work together of course, but also so that Tarah Who? Fans would discover them and vice versa, and finally to show that supporting each other is easy. The process of writing and recording each song is unique and different. The idea is to have both sounds and genres on one song so that each artist can still feel that the song is part of theirs in a way, and the fans to recognize their artist. It was a bit of a challenge sometimes to get everyone’s parts on time, but we managed to make it happen and I am really happy with the result of each collaboration.
After going through the pandemic and not seeing anyone and being able to work with anyone, along with the state of world affairs, that is so polarized at this point in time. This album just came out of a desire to be with people and to collaborate with people from different places and different rock ’n roll backgrounds. This is a collaboration of people; I have incorporated people with their different ideas and different styles from different places in the world.
It was a bit of a challenge at times. We are all friends, but we never worked together, especially long distance. I had a tight schedule with the studio, and I needed certain tracks by a certain time. The collaboration with Faul for instance, I had been following V, the bass player for Faul for a while and we had been in touch in the past because of her other project she plays the drums in called Bala. We had never met. So, when I first invited her to “The Collaboration Project” album, she was really excited of course but then during COVID and lock down, it was hard to get everyone together to a studio to record vocals.
With Laura Chevalier for instance, she is such a busy artist that it was just about finding the time for her to send her vocal tracks, with Carissa we just went to New York and recorded in Brooklyn with our common friend Vanessa Silberman. Angie Joseph and I started writing the song while Tarah Who? Was on tour last summer in Europe but she went to our friends Dry Can (featured on the intro of the “R.A.D.I.O” song) to record her vocals.
Finally, I wrote two more songs and wanted to add them to the album. One of them is “The Showdown”, which is a collaboration with my wife and Fraser Campbell. Leslie (Roberts) wrote the lyrics that I am interpreting, and I wanted to add strings to the song to make it sound more epic so I called my friend from Edinburgh (Fraser) who arranges strings for orchestras and he got in touch with a few of his friends who played the violin and cello. Coralie had just moved back to France, so I recorded the songs. I played the drums, bass, guitar, and did the vocals on “R.A.D.I.O”, “The Showdown” and “Freshmeat Rockstars” which was a little bit nerve wrecking. We recorded everything in 3 days, and I am really happy with the result, but it was a lot of pressure. The studio was booked, and I just did not have the budget to hire someone else to play the drums and alleviate some of the work. We were able to shoot the music video for “The Showdown” with Coralie. Unfortunately, she recently has announced that she was quitting the band for personal reasons. We remain good friends, but I am continuing the adventure alone. I am working with new musicians right now to prepare for the tour opening for Life of Agony. We are prepping for a very exciting show presenting this new album while playing a few older favourite songs.”
