Getting to Know. . . EVE GOLDBERG
 by Kathy S-B  ·  5 May 2008

One terrific thing about volunteering at the me & thee is that I get lots of opportunities to hear all kinds of new music. I try to listen to as much as I can and often respond personally if the music strikes a chord with me. I recently had the chance to listen to Eve Goldberg’s CD “A Kinder Season.” Eve has been getting airplay on www.folkalley.com and other internet radio sites that I find myself listening to every now and again. I made my way to Eve’s website to find out more about her and decided to get in touch and ask her to tell us a little bit more about herself and her music. I’m hoping that this summer series of introductions to new artists will give them all a little bit of a boost to raise consciousness about all the great music that’s out there if you know where to find it!

You’ll find a lot about Eve at: www.evegoldberg and www.myspace.com/evegoldberg. Listen to her song “When the Leaves Begin to Fall” (a new window will open; hit your Back button to return). I hope you enjoy finding out more about Eve and exploring all the various dimensions of her music.

Do you recall the first time you ever sang in public? What was it like for you?

I grew up in a house with lots of music. My mom sang with us and to us all the time, and she played guitar and piano, and later banjo. For us singing was something we did for fun. I took guitar lessons from an early age, and also violin for several years through the schools.

I did a little bit of performing in high school. I went to an alternative high school with lots of creative artistic types. My first year there, Ken Whiteley (one of Canada’s premier roots musicians, and now one of my good friends and producer of my last two albums!) came in and did a music class with a bunch of us where we basically formed a band. We sang lots of Motown and early R&B songs. That was a blast! And it also connected me to all these musically talented kids in my school who were into roots music in a big way. That kind of performing was a lot of fun for me because we were a huge group of people (I think there might have been about fifteen or twenty of us all together in this group!)

After that, I sang in a trio with two friends who were really fantastic musicians — both have gone on to music careers. We used to get up at all the school variety shows and sing. At the time, I didn’t think of music as something I would pursue seriously.

After high school I didn’t play music for a long time, but when I moved back to Toronto after university I started getting involved with the folk scene here. I was singing a lot at song circles and just for fun with friends, and the guy that booked the local folk club asked me to get up on stage and sing a few songs. That was the first time I ever thought seriously about performing. Slowly after that one thing sort of organically led to the next thing until now I’m a full-time musician.

I love the description of you on your biography that asks the listener to imagine Mother Maybelle Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Mississippi John Hurt, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, the Beatles and Patsy Cline inside your head. It’s so true. I can hear those influences throughout your latest CD. You’re a regular potpourri of styles. Do you feel slightly schizophrenic at times? ;-)

Sometimes I wonder if I should pick one style of music and just stick to it. But every time I’ve tried to do that, somehow it doesn’t feel right. Inevitably I feel like I’ve cut off a part of myself. So I’m starting to embrace the fact that I’m eclectic, and that’s what makes me who I am as a musician. Someday I’m hoping to record a series of albums in different styles, but for now it makes me really happy to mix everything together!

What comes first for you — the music or the words?

Different songs are born in different ways. Sometimes I write all the words first, and then try to set it to a melody that fits. Sometimes I come up with a melody or chord progression or a lick on the guitar that I really like and the words come later. And sometimes they come together. I don’t think there’s any one right way to write a song, but obviously people find what works for them and go with it. For me, mostly it’s about being open to the creative force inside you and allowing it to lead you someplace. That’s always first, whether it’s a musical idea or a lyrical idea. Shaping the idea into a finished song comes later — that’s the hard part!

Do songs percolate in your head and in your heart for a long time before they finally emerge?

Some songs come very quickly. Others are ideas I carry around for a long time before I try to distill them, and still others are little bits and pieces that I work on over time and somehow eventually come together. Unlike some songwriters, I’m not very disciplined about sitting down every day to write. I’d probably be a lot more prolific if I could manage that! But I find when I do set aside regular time to write, the ideas come much faster and the crafting process becomes much easier. It’s like exercising muscles — at first it’s pretty painful but after a little while of doing it every day, you start to build up strength and agility. Songwriting reminds me of that kind of process.

I get ideas for songs almost every day, but usually I’m not able to follow up right at that moment and make songs out of them. Sometimes the ideas just disappear back into the primordial ooze of my unconscious, in which case I figure they will emerge again in some other form. And sometimes they stick with me for long periods of time. I have one song that took me about fifteen years to complete. On a larger level, I think probably most songs I write are the result of having something on my mind, either consciously or unconsciously, for a long time. Because hopefully they are about things that matter to me — life, love, work, death, politics, the world around me, and so on.