Sometimes all it takes is some inspiring friends and fresh perspectives for a creative breakthrough. This is something folk-pop singer-songwriter Breagh Mackinnon particularly agrees with. The young talent plays a release show Where the Days Went Saturday, November 17 at the Company House, with a set that will feature a few of the special guests who have inspired her.
Where the Days Went shows a new direction for the Mackinnon, a more mature, developed sound she attributes to working with others. "I think with this record it definitely kind of shows me growing up a little bit as a musician and songwriter," Mackinnon says. "How I choose to portray the songs and instrumentation is I think partly due to co-writing with Gordie Sampson, or Carleton [Stone] and Molly [Thomason] and Dylan [Guthro]. You learn from their style and it helps you develop your own voice. That's what partially helped me develop as a songwriter."
Mackinnon's musical background shows a lot of range. A folk fan by nature, she's in her third year studying jazz piano at St. Francis Xavier. "Being able to play these years at X and devote myself to learning the style of jazz I think has kind of broadened my musical horizons," says Mackinnon. "By allowing myself to sink into this type of music I think it's inevitable that it would effect my pop stuff as well, it effects some of the arrangements, a few tunes are just a little more jazzy."
Honest, autobiographical lyrics run throughout Where the Days Went; Mackinnon describes her songs as odes to important moments---and people---in her life. "As I listen to the songs and think back to when I wrote them, they're like snapshots of all the experiences I've had in the last couple of years: going away to school or living away from home for the first time," she says. "A lot of it seems to be about making connections, whether to a place like home or to a person, like a boyfriend or girlfriend, or within yourself you're always growing or making connections with other people." --Stephanie Johns
Breagh Mackinnon w/Dylan Guthro
Saturday, November 17, 8:30pm , $8
The Company House, 2202 Gottingen Street
