"... You sing...uhh... evocatively..."
- Chris Penton Musician and World Traveler
" When I listen to Janet's music, I think of how her neighbour upstairs used to bang on the floor to tell her to shut up when she was hammering on her piano late into the night. And then I think about a photo I have of her sitting next to her piano-- the elephant of musical instruments-- wearing a lab coat and those glasses that make her look like a person transported from a red-scare-era nineteen-forties-0r-fifties. And then I think of sitting on her fire escape, closing my eyes to the summer sun, breathing quietly listening to her voice warbling like a bird that remembers flying out over the city last night, but sometimes enjoys sitting on the windowsill peeking in at us, wondering what humans are doing sitting in a building like this and realizing how nice it would be to be wingless and only imagine that you could fly."
- Kevin Ward Writer and happy cartoonist
Terrible (1min 28sec) 343k
Test Me (43 second) 170k
Swing Your Hips (2min 24sec FULL SONG!!) 601k
To hear these samples, use an MP3 player like Sonique, available for free at www.sonique.com
The 10 songs which make up blissfrett were recorded during the summer of 1999. I played by candle light in a closet/makeshift sound booth in Rob and Tanya's apartment above my own in Montreal. The audience consisted of Rob (sound engineer), Tanya and Jen. Together they acted as both my critics and my cheerleaders.
Most songs on the album are the first takes as I sang and played them simultaneously in the heat of July.
In a closet (A few times, I swear, I ran out of air and almost got dizzy in that there closet )
"... It definately sounds a lot like... along the lines of Tori Amos... Who else? (2 minute pause)... I dunno... Like Tori Amos but less poppy - electronic? Pianoey. Ani Difranco with a piano..."
Nicolas Panetta Friend and Futurist
About the songs/song writinq:
I think of myself as a sort of musical anarchist, a purist and traditionalist. These are my heartfelt songs, both soothing and frantic. I aim for reincarnation of a song's theme, instead of a musical summary thereof. Rather than telling the listener how I felt. I want the music to be how I felt at the songs conception. (There is a great deal of self-revealing honesty to blissfrett.) I act out songs with the characters I play. Thus, Terrible is meant to start out terribly & the Trilogy is literally the personification of three divided areas of need and frustration:
The Lake - Mystical hippie wonder
Test Me - Individual perseverance
Oh Dear - Love with happy endings
I realize it is crazy didactic of me to explain my intentions this way. I have high hopes I suppose. What else can I have? ...When I sing Fly, I feel sixteen.... when I sing South, I want to run away to Mexico. I've Got A Headache makes me wallow in a moment's quiet. blah blah...