Shawna Caspi has performed all over Vancouver Island but on Oct. 29 the Toronto-based singer-songwriter makes her Nanaimo debut opening for local trio the Peripheral Visionaries at Unitarian Hall.
Caspi recently participated in an international songwriters residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and she said it was a “utopia” and her writing is now more personal and vulnerable than ever.
“That’s really a goal for any artist is to just go as deep as possible and access those parts of yourself that sometimes we push away because we feel them so much,” she said. “And I just feel like I’m writing the best songs yet and I’m accessing a deeper and more personal part of myself.”
Since releasing her last album, Forest Fire, in 2017, Caspi’s been touring “pretty hard” across North America. When her travels slowed down and she finally turned her attention back to writing she found she was at a creative dead end.
“I was just so exhausted and burnt out from the road that I couldn’t really do anything,” she said.
That’s when the opportunity at the Banff Centre presented itself. She said the residency reenergized her and helped her focus on her craft.
“All I had to do was write songs and meet other songwriters and learn from them and collaborate with them,” she said. “And I had never really had a solid three weeks of time where I could just focus on creating and Banff gave that to me and it really opened up my perspective on songwriting and on life and it inspired many new songs.”
Caspi is also a landscape painter who paints scenes from the places she’s visited. She said she has a couple days off when she’s on the Island and she’s hoping to add the Nanaimo area to her body of work.
“Certainly on the Island you’ve got mountains and oceans and the climate is so different so different things grow there. And I love mountains, that’s always a novelty to me living in Ontario, so I do look for that,” she said. “But I’m also totally open to recommendations, especially from local people who would know where all of the little secret places are that the tourists don’t know about.”
WHAT’S ON … Shawna Caspi opens for the Peripheral Visionaries at Unitarian Hall, 595 Townsite Rd., on Tuesday, Oct. 29. Doors at 7 p.m., show at 7:30. Tickets are $20, available at Arbutus Music, Fascinating Rhythm, online and at the door.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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