She cooks her food
according to the alphabet — next stop, R for ribs. She’s had to slow down on her alphabetic cooking project,
though, as she has just recently recorded and released her eighth album. “That’s taken priority,” she says.
“My cooking is definitely something I like to do on my time off.” Her creativity knows many facets — in and
out of the kitchen.
Emilie-Claire Barlow was nominated at this year’s Juno Awards for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, for her album
Haven’t We Met? Receiving a nod in the same category as Carol Welsman, Diana Krall, Michael Kaeshammer and
Ranee Lee, Barlow is humble about all of her success. She attributes most of it to just being comfortable
with taking risks.
Barlow is certainly not your typical musician, surrounded by an entourage of producers, songwriters and the
like. She has complete creative control of her album, singing on the disc, producing and arranging the songs
— and even conducting the string section. She also applies her belief in broadening your horizons by taking
on multiple projects that sometimes don’t even involve music.
Aside from her singing career, Barlow also does a lot of voice work, because, as she says, “I absolutely love
it!” One of her very first experiences with dubbing and voice acting came from the anime series Sailor
Moon. “It’s the cartoon that everyone talks about, but it was such a long time ago. It’s funny to me
that it has endured,” says Barlow. “The legend of Sailor Moon lives on.” It may come as a surprise to some,
but Barlow has been the voice of many cartoons and commercials over the years. She’s currently the voice of
Courtney in the Teletoon series Total Drama Island, and she’s sung the jingles for Tim Hortons and
Sun Life Financial.
“It’s a pretty complementary job to my jazz career, believe it or not,” she says. “It keeps my voice in
shape. It’s allowed me to really use every part of my voice and explore different parts of my voice.” She
says that the parallels to voice acting and jazz help to give her vocal stamina — something that is evident
in her music. It is also a testament to her creativity as an artist. She says, “To put a voice to a character
and see it come to life is really amazing.”
The critical acclaim she’s received for her music has lead to many comparisons to fellow jazz singer and Juno
nominee Diana Krall. Although the two artists each evoke a different sound, Barlow is still quite flattered
to be ranked with the singer. “She’s a household name, and I’m honoured to be compared to her. I admire her
very much,” she says.
It would come as no surprise if Barlow quickly became a household name herself. A frequent blogger and member
of Twitter, she keeps fans updated on her adventures in both her everyday life and career. On one of her
“tweets,” she writes about a performance on Canada AM: “One day, I got up early, put on a lot of makeup, and
sang a fast song on the TV in ridiculously high heels.” That, and her early-morning performance, provide a
refreshing peek into the life of an independent musician, and perfectly reflect her light-hearted disposition
and passion for her music.
Emilie-Claire
Barlow’s eighth album, The Beat Goes On, is set to be released on Oct. 12.
