John Beaudin - Hi Jann, so nice to have you here today at the Breeze for our first anniversary considering you were the one who put us on the air last year!

Jann Arden - That was a lot of fun last year. Thanks so much for the invitation last year and today. It was funny coming in on that first day because the place wasn't finished and walls weren't in.

John - It was crazy. You know what I remember from that day? Seeing you in here and I was trying to get some pictures and some people were very nervous, others excited and some way to serious but not you. I remember you were cracking jokes left, right and centre (laughing) and that really loosened up everybody.

Jann - Well, you have to be. It was exciting to see a new station get launched and it was exciting for the city and it just shows how much we're growing and that's what I said that day also. We're no longer a city with just two FM stations. I remember when 107 FM was Kick FM in the early eighties and here we are with almost a million people living her so it's great and the place looks gorgeous.

John - Well thanks. Tonight you're going to be playing a few songs at our one year anniversary bash and were celebrating the release of your brand new album "Love Is The Only Soldier," so it's two parties in one. I kinda like that.

Jann - Yeah, I do too.

John - How many tunes are you going to be playing?

Jann - I don't know. We're certainly open to people yelling out a few requests if there are some things that they want to hear and certainly a few songs from the new record. We'll be there just to be entertaining and participate with all the people who want to come see the show and to celebrate the one year anniversary of The Breeze. It's going to be really great food and drinks and hopefully people will have a really good time.

John - The new album is out on Tuesday September 9th. When you release an album can you let it go or do you regret some spots. Are you really pleased with it?

Jann - I'm really pleased with it. You know you have lots of time to fix things and you have lots of time to live with it until that day when it gets pressed and mastered and all those things. I worked with my great friend and colleague Russ Broom who's played guitar with me for a better part of ten years. I trust his instincts and when I was in doubt I'd say, "Russ, am I crazy is this working here, is the bagpipe working on this one buddy?"

John - (Laughing)

Jann - So, we had a lot of confidence going into it and we recorded most of it in my basement at home so that made it very, very easy.

John - Quite common these days.

Jann - Digital technology has changed that. I think if it was twenty years ago dragging an analogue eighty ton machine into your basement and all the tapes, well it couldn't have been done. With digital technology you can record an album on an airplane.

John - "Love is the Only Soldier" where did you come up with that title?

Jann - I don't know.

John - Really? It just came out?

Jann - It just fell into my head. I remember taking this guitar chord progression that I'd written over to Russell's place and in his studio we kind of put a drum beat on it and he started playing and I started scribbling some lyrics and I just scribbled "Love is the Only Soldier." I thought wow I don't really know what that means. Now that I've had time to think about it, it's kind of a metaphor for how precious love is. It gets much better results than hatred and animosity does in this world. So hopefully things will improve among the global folk in the next ten years or so. We're kind of nutty right now but there are a lot of beautiful places and lots of beautiful people left. The world is certainly not what it looks like on TV and I hope people remember that.

John - Tell me about all the goodies that come with the new album through your website?

Jann - Well, you can go there on the 9th and it's quite amazing. There's a demo of "Good Mother" that I did in the late eighties in the lock section. When you get the album you get a lock content number and you can experience all kinds of neat stuff.

John - The cover is cool, it looks like a letter from Jann Arden.

Jann - I didn't want my head on it. It's just not about me and the label was fine with it.

John - Speaking of the label how have they been?

Jann - Oh yeah, they do anything I want.

John - Really?

Jann - Yep. I have another five original records to complete with Universal Records and originally I signed for ten albums.

John - That was a big record deal for a new Canadian singer.

Jann - Yeah, I've only done five and I've done two compilations. They never thought of me as Mariah Carey, they thought of me as a singer/songwriter that they wanted to have on their roster for twenty years and that's what they're going to end up having. It's just going to take me another ten years to make another five records and by then I'll be fifty one years old.

John - Do they give you a time limit for each album? Do they ask you to find the muse after a few years?

Jann - No, they don't put any time limit on me at all. It's like do it whenever you can.

John - I'm looking at the new album here and I like the packaging.

Jann - Yeah, it's beautiful. The girl in the art department did a really great job. She's made it look like an old letter that was lost in the mail during the first world war. It's got those tea stains and she designed a little postage stamp that has a little heart on a white flap flapping in the wind. They had me do all the writing and all the lyric reprinting so it's all my handwriting. The first twenty five thousand are limited editions. On the inside of this record you get a little card that gives you a serial number that allows you to get into a lock content site. (laughing) I tell you it would be worth getting this record even if you hate the record.

John - Oh, so there's juicy stuff on there?

Jann - This lock content site is hilarious. It has band movies and clips that we've taken over the last ten years and a whole bunch of pictures from my family photo albums that I've dreaded anyone ever seeing.

John - Hey, I'll buy it! (laughing)

Jann - Oh yeah and all the lyrics come in their own little sheet and they all fit in an envelope so it really is a nice keepsake.

John - Going back to the demo of "Good Mother" on the lock site when was it originally recorded?

Jann - The demo of "Good Mother" is from 1989 or 1990 when I wrote it and it's the slowest most painful thing you've ever hear in your life and my keyboardist's baby was crying in the background.

John - Now there's a demo!

Jann - There's a demo of "Insensitive" on there that's really hilarious to listen to so it's a site that you could spend a week going through because there's so much stuff on there. We've received so much feedback about it and also the packaging and how different it is. They're only doing twenty five thousand of those and then they go to a booklet. It's just too expensive, look at the sleeve every one of those was handed folded, glued and stuffed. So someone sat and stuffed twenty five thousand of those things. So yes, I'm trying to encourage people to go out there and get one of the first lots before it turns into a booklet.

John - I know you're not famous for playing that industry game and I like that about you. Do you put a little more of yourself in every album?

Jann - Well, I think as we all get older time gets a little more precious and you surrender things that were somehow seemingly important ten years ago that completely change your priority list. So, I can't do anything about an industry that may or may not play my music. I can't change my image changing and suddenly wear tube tops and learn dance routines and do all that so I have to be satisfied with my work in general and not judge it on how many units I sell or if it's massively appealing. It has to be much more personal and I think that is what this record is. It's just a very personal little glimpse. I would compare it to kind of peeking through a keyhole into somebody's life. That's how I like to think of my music. It's a bit voyeuristic and it gives people a chance to kind of explore that room for an hour or so and say, "Wow, I'm not doing too badly."

John - Yeah, I think that's what people like about your music because it is like being a fly on the wall. In the industry we are all used to big writing teams behind young musicians.

Jann - Oh, yes!

John - And we don't get to know them unless they're dating Ben Affleck and still we don't know them and maybe we don't want to know them because they have paper thin voices. Don't get me started anyway, let's talk about the comedy aspect of Jann Arden. I think you should have a drummer following you around on guard ready for a drum role opportunity.(laughing)

Jann - (laughing) Sometimes my drummer Lyle (Molzan) helps me out and I say, "Hey, where's the damn cymbal buddy?"

John - (laughing) You've done some acting and TV things. Can you tell me a little about that?

Jann - Well, once in a while we'll get a script through the office where basically all I have to say is, "Hey, how are you? Come in and sit down and I'll get the doctor."

John - (laughing) I was just moved by that. Fine acting Jann!

Jann - Why thank you that was method acting I studied with the physicians here at the Rocky View hospital. (laughing) Well, little things will come across and I want to keep my life interesting too. I want to take on projects that I don't think I'm necessarily good at doing but by God that shouldn't stop you from doing anything in life.

John- What the heck!

Jann - If you want to try something by all means go try it. So, I'm doing a little bit of television and a little film stuff. As far as the comedy goes, well the band and I have to let ourselves off the hook so we do pause in between songs and say, "Hey, did you hear about the guys with the..." You know people usually leave a show exhausted. They'll be at a two and a half hour show with me and say, "Oh my God, that was so funny and I loved the music." Let's face it I'm not Celine Dion in Vegas with a four million dollar production.

John - (laughing) Hey maybe that's what missing in the show.

Jann - (laughing) Yeah, on the next tour I'll be shot out of a cannon.

John - I want to congratulate you on your nominations for the Western Canadian Music Awards. Hey, your house must be filled with awards?

Jann - Not that I know of. I think my parents are selling them on EBAY. I've never seen an award. Have I won something?

John - The first single "Love is the Only Soldier" has that nice Jann Arden introspective feel.

Jann - It has a few surprises I'm singing falsetto during the chorus which has perplexed a few people they are like, "Have you changed your style?" My older brother asked me if I did something with my voice with a machine. Russell and I just wanted to do something really haunting and dust it with a little fairy dust. The song is very fun to sing, believe me, if I tried to sing the chorus full board I think I'd blow my shoes off so it's just as well that I'm singing it falsetto.

John - Is it hard for you to pick a single?

Jann - Yes, it is. I'm so glad that Universal said, "Go ahead, we know it's a different song and it's not unlike what you do but it's different from what you've normally done." They took a chance with it and I think it's been a real lovely way to start this record off.

John - Well, it's a year later and Calgarians have welcomed Smooth Jazz and you have the new album. It's all good.

Jann - Well, lets face it that we're inundated with so much heavy music that it's almost unsettling to a human soul, you have to have a little bit of Smooth Jazz or contemporary music to even out the day.

John - Good luck with the new album.

Jann - It's exciting. I don't know what it'll do or where it'll go but Russ and I like it. We have a motto that two people can't be wrong. (laughing)

John - (laughing) Well, thanks Jann you're tops. You're an easy interview.

Jann - Well, thanks you're very good too. The nicest interviews are when they're a conversation like this one. You know what can makes an interview difficult is when the person is nervous and when they launch in this type of timber that is uncomfortable for them and everybody else. So yeah, it works if you have a conversation with me. This was fun. Thanks John!