Jann Arden
Jann Arden is a Canadian treasure. This Calgary native is best known for her music, her wit and her many charitable endeavors. Jann is passionate for just about anything – her friendships, her family, her pets, words, writing, art – and looks and marvels about the seemly normal world of everyday life. This was exemplified on her summer weekly radio show, 'Being Jann' where she spoke with people as diverse as Olivia Newton John, hockey player Mike Pecca and the illustrious author, Jackie Collins. One thing they all had in common, they all love Jann.
Jann beyond doubt demonstrates her passion of life throughout her daily routine. She paints in her spare time and has been producing for the last 3 years in Nashville. She's also writing an Autobiography of her first 35 years.
The finest ice cream dipped in a coating made with Häagen-Dazs chocolate. Enjoy Häagen-Dazs anytime.
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A Quick Twenty Questions
- I collect: Bosson heads. They're clay heads from the 60's. And I collect gnomes. And I collect crosses.
- Biggest performance disaster: I split my pants in Cologne, Germany and I had to staple them together because we had to go on stage quickly. So I used a staple gun, not a good idea.
- You can't live without: My parents, my friends, my dog, my house, my pants, my kitchen stuff, there's just too many things. My second option – tweezers.
- In another life I would have been a: A haram girl
- My dream vacation would be: My house for a year.
- My must have item when I travel: Dog food
- If I could live anywhere else it would be: I would try Halifax. I think it's gorgeous.
- I'd like to spend more time: Reading
- If I could live in a different time, I'd live in: Well I don't want to do dinosaurs and I don't want to do pioneers, so although they didn't have good teeth, I'd try 1480 England.
- My absolute food favourite food is: Vietnamese
- My pet's name is: My dog's name is Middy, my cat's name is Shroddy, and then there's Maybe-Baby and Sweet-Pea.
- My work day starts at: 8pm at night
- I wish I could: Fly
- Favorite time of year is: Fall
- Best time of the day is: I like the evening around 7pm where you can sit down, enjoy a glass of wine and see what's happened during the day.
- My nickname is: I don't think I have one.
- Proudest moment: I've had a lot of them. It wasn't anything musical believe it or not. I think it was buying my first home.
- In 20 years I will be: I'll be happy and content and be very grateful being able to look back over my life and saying "I did that."
After almost 30 years of song writing where do you turn to for influence? Have the topics remained the same or have you seen them shift over the decades?
Jann: I think my content has remained relatively consistent. I do write about relationships. I write about simple human sentiment. I write about every day things, ordinary things. But I think my language has changed. As I've gotten older I think I express myself differently. I'm a little more economical than I used to be. I can wind it up when I need to instead of having 27 verses. I'd have to say, I pretty much have done the same thing for 30 years. I found something that I liked and I think it's variations on the theme at this point.
Do you think it's necessary for an artist to change in order to maintain longevity? Can this compromise or taint a person's love for music or disconnect the person from the craft?
Jann: I always think change is good. But you have to be calculated about it as well. I think Nietzsche used to say "change in order to be effective must be radical." I think we do see that in pop music from time to time. Madonna is a good example of someone who's always trying to reinvent themselves. I think that if that works for you that's great. My change over the years has been subtle. I buy a new shirt once in a while, new pants. That's change enough for me. There's something to be said about branding too, which applies to anything multi-media these days. Anything in art, you want to have that recognition factor. When people buy my music, come see one of shows and when they hear my name they do have an understanding of what it is that I do. That I'm good humoured and consistent and they're not there to see me on a trapeze. They're there for an intimate evening of just interacting. I'd like to think that I could sit and remake myself, but I have no desire too and I have worked for 48 years to become this version of myself. That in and of itself is change enough indeed.
What song do you wish you could sing that someone else has written but for some reason you didn't and what is it?
Jann: I would have liked to take a stab at Ave Maria. Seriously. I think it's such a gorgeous song.