lily frost

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Cine-Magique is an appropriate title for the fourth solo album from Canadian chanteuse Lily Frost, given the qualities both cinematic et Francais of the dreamy pop music contained therein. Certainly, if you’re jonesin’ for a Feist fix, you’ve come to the right place; this, too, is where languid Franco-torch chansons (“You’ve Shaken Every Part of Me,” the classy “Je Reviendrai Toujours Vers Toi”) and jaunty acoustic pop numbers (“Enchantment,” “I Called You”) sit happily side-by-side though, sadly, no Bee Gees covers here. Meanwhile, ballads worthy of a ’40s film noir (or a David Lynch movie) echo throughout Cine-Magique, with Frost’s voice deceptively or achingly sweet depending on the scene, as on the political “Raise the Veil” or the pretty shuffle of “Warm Dawn.” Not to be typecast, Frost ends the album with “Priscilla,” a catchy homage to the girl group/Phil Spector sound. Top-notch, as the French say. It's fitting that there's a song called ‘Enchantment’ on the latest effort from Toronto chanteuse Lily Frost.

Cine-Magique's 13 tracks are quite enchanting. While they don't come close to capturing Frost's charming and seductive stage presence, producer and husband Jose Contreras (By Divine Right) has come close with the album's minimal production.

The aforementioned ‘Enchantment’ and ‘Psychic Cat Fight’ are both whimsical love songs. French-flavoured pop numbers like ‘You've Shaken Every Part of Me’ and the mournful ‘Je Reviendrai’ may invite comparisons to a certain Canadian singer presently living in the City of Light, but the songs’ decidedly retro sound help to distinguish her from Feist. There's even a 60s-style girl group number, ‘The Priscillas' Song’.

The album's bare bones production keeps her gorgeous and versatile voice front and centre. Whether she's purring seductively in French or belting it out over Spaghetti Western riffs on tracks like ‘Secrets’, her voice weaves a spell over the listener.

While Cine-Magique is, for the most part, light-hearted, Frost does display a serious side on the sombre ‘Pacha Mama’.

Cine-Magiqueis a truly magical experience. While it may sound corny, there's no other way to describe the album. Frost has crafted yet another sterling release that will, if all is right with the world, push her onto the A-list of Canadian singer/songwriters. What is it with white Canadian girls who marry South American musicians and name their kids things like Meesha Moon? They feel the need to tell everyone, even in, say, a completely uninformative bio, like they just invented intercultural relationships. That aside, this is a nice album of dreamy slow pop like "You've Shaken Every Part of Me," the verging-on-cartoonish "Enchantment" and the wonderful girl-group throwback "The Priscillas' Song." The perfect album to help raise a hip little Chilean-Canadian baby. Lily Frost and Jose Contreras have made a home for themselves and their child. Quaintly, constantly running the hazard of over-preciousness, they’ve crafted an album called Cine-Magique that is emblematic of their homemaking. Home is where we make a place, it is also notably where we take place. It is natural for a songwriter to draw from the wellspring of their experience and relationships - where a romantic and musical bond is shared, all the better.

If you think about it for a moment the metaphor of home is central to most every song, album, novel, poem and painful expression going. Even where it is not seen working, still it is working. Homecoming is the central concern of Homer’s Odyssey and the Coen Brothers O Brother Where Art Thou- although that’s an unfair pairing because the story is one in the same. Suitably songs and tales of home making and perhaps more importantly home wrecking are central to our popular culture.

What do you need to know about Lily Frost? A lot, in a short period; she is a stalwart, an academic, a chanteuse, and a persona creator. She has eked out a better than decent living in the often miserly Canadian music scene. One might think of her naively at first glance as a poor-woman’s Leslie Feist or Emily Haines. Certainly she lacks an element of intellectual severity present in both these Canadian songstresses works. Then again one doesn’t think of those artists singing and working in four odd languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French, English). It should probably also be mentioned in a one degree of separation sort of way that Feist first came to national attention as a member of Contreras’ group By Divine Right.

Lily is in many ways the product of the very fertile west coast swingabilly scene. In fact she’s writing the book, the Subterranean Jungle Book. “It’s on hold for now. It’s all about the underground rockabilly/swingabilly/swing/garage rock scene in Canada in the late 80’s and 90’s, starring Ray Condo, The Gruesomes, Za Za Velvet, the Colorifics and more.” This musical phenomena is decidedly rooted in Canada’s Pacific coast and in a certain time and place. Lily carries on its torch lighting tradition.

When asked about recognizable feminine musical influences such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Patsy Cline she further tips her hat to the breadth of her musical knowledge. “What appeals to me about jazz singers is the way the voice is used as a spontaneous, dynamic, emotional instrument. It is empowering to sing that way. You could clump others from different eras, genders and races into that group such as Janis Joplin, Anita O’Day and Jeff Buckley. Patsy Cline doesn’t really fit. She’s a country belter and others like her would be Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee. I don’t find Billie Holiday and lla very similar. Billie was a hooker, a junkie, and a fighter/victim while Ella was pretty straight. Although Ella’s vocal range is amazing, she’d be having milk and doughnuts at set break while Billie would be shooting up, ya know?”

Beyond the unique circumstance of sharing the musical arrangement and production duties with her husband, Lily also carried their first child throughout the recording of this album. “I actually feared I might die in childbearing and considered this album a possible last and so tried my best to give the best I had.” Of her recording history she recounts “I’ve made eight records so far and all are different and the same. They all have flares of flamenco, french ballads and diary songs. I used to sing swingabilly out west and the whole room was dancing. Now my stuff is a sit down show, quiet, candles, romantic. Cine-Magique is the best record I’ve ever made. I wanted to make a record I would be jealous of if it wasn’t mine, a record I would buy.”

The album is certainly something a musician could rightly be jealous of. Cine-Magique has a storybook quality from it’s opening track “You’ve Shaken Every Part Of Me,” which ambles easily from Portuguese into English and back, to the closing “Priscillas’ Song” (billed as the ‘encore’). There is an even mix of co-penned Frost/Contreras songs, Frost originals and treatments of timeless love songs. While songs such as the couple’s "Enchantment" truly sing, one could argue fairly that it is the songs Lily wrote solo that rise best. For instance two Lily originals “Secrets” and “Warm Dawn” nicely bookend Cole Porter’s “So In Love.” Frost truly renders Porter’s song her own, such that one can’t rightly distinguish where her sordid past and his meet and end. As with Porter’s gem, Lily makes “Je Reviendrai,” a song she first heard sung by Brigitte Bardot, her own. “That song had Jose in tears. I was very pregnant, tired and moody. I sang it in our downstairs bathroom where the reverb is nice because of the tub. It was cold winter so I bundled up in scarves and a hat.” Like our sense of being home, the changing seasons pervade our lives and music, in fact it is our home that shelters us from the elements. As Lily sings on Seasons’ Song when the rainy seasons come “your true colours start to show”. A fourth album wasn’t the only thing Lily Frost (aka Lindsay Davis) and her CanCon husband José Miguel Contreras produced in their Toronto studio. The former Colorifics crooner recorded her latest pop-tinted effort while fully preggers. The result is the sexy and sweet Cine-Magique and a son named Meesha Moon. No word on when the baby shower is, but you can celebrate the birth of such gems as the French chanson "Je Reviendrai," the cheeky acoustic number "Enchantment," and the Cole Porter cover "So In Love" at her Media Club CD release party on Wednesday (October 25). With no bass nor drums, is Cine-Magique a pop record? Well, yes and no. The songs are hummable if that's what's expected of a pop record, but most pop records have bass and drums and that's exactly what Lily Frost didn't want. "For me," the singer says, "it's always been my dream not to have drums or bass. It's a given. Every record automatically has drums and bass. I always wanted to make a record that didn't have drums and bass. I'd always made records that way."

As the album title suggests, Cine-Magique has a European 1960s pop flavour and a cinematic sweep but amid the ye-ye and the imagery are folk-rock and, in "The Priscillas' Song," the girl-group influence of such as Leslie Gore. "Yes," Frost says, singing a line from a Gore tune, "I enjoy that song ('The Priscillas' Song') and it gets a good reaction. The album is called Cine-Magique because I frequently go to the cinematheque and whenever I do I always come away with a song. The cinematheque has so many ideas."

The album, then, is a product of Frost knowing what she wanted and isn't the normal singer-writer record. Similarly, the live show she is presenting at the Media Club will offer an unusual line up: Two guitars, a back- up singer and a three-piece string section (viola, violin, cello). For this Frost is grateful to Jose Miguel, her husband, father of their four-month-old child, Misha Moon, guitarist in her band and its music director. It was his idea to tour with a string section. He has produced Cine-Magique and, as music director, lifted the burden of being a bandleader off her shoulders, to her relief. "Oh my God, are you kidding?" she says. "Entirely. He's good about it, though. Very charming. When he criticizes, you aren't offended."

When she speaks of Miguel, there is love in Frost's voice.

"I really wanted to have a child with Jose," she volunteers. "We finally did it, two years after we met.

"He's loving the road," the new mother notes of Misha Moon. "Totally adapting. He's able to sleep anywhere."

Frost began in the Maritimes singing full-bodied blues, relocated to the B.C. coast and made her name singing the stylized pop of The Colorifics (a vestige of which can be heard on Cine-Magique's Cole Porter cover, "So in Love") before moving again to Toronto. Cine-Magique might be seen as a culmination of her experiences as a singer, in which a direction revealed itself.

"Every step of the way there was a clear thought," Frost says. "The album was very targeted. It's definitely a holistic approach. There's not much individuality (meaning nobody steps out for a solo but all the musicians retain the totality of her sound). When we all hit that level together, such as on 'Pacha Mama' or 'Secrets,' it's the most incredible feeling I've ever experienced." Might as well get the unavoidable Feist reference out of the way first. For a female Canadian singer/songwriter who’s made a soulful folk album with a cozy vocal glow, the comparison is inevitable. But Lily Frost’s fifth album, Cine-Magique, flows into even more detached rivulets of genre than Let It Die: Morricone-inspired balladry, 60s girl pop, Dresden Doll-y cabaret and harmonized church spiritual. Frost’s try-it-all ambition works more for than against her – only occasionally does she not seem totally in her element. Credit goes to Frost’s husband and producer Jose Contreras of By Divine Right, who renders a lush, detailed sonic backdrop. Lily Frost launches her disc at the Drake Friday (Nov. 3).  Many musicians compare the experience of making an album to giving birth. In Lily Frost's case, the birth of her first son Meesha Moon this summer was followed by another delivery in September, her fourth album Cine-Magique.

The Toronto chanteuse was pregnant when she recorded the album; she described the experience as intense, focused and emotional in an e-mail interview.

"None of the usual vices," Frost wrote. "Just calling on myself for the performances."

Add having her husband, By Divine Right's Jose Contreras, produce the album to the mix and one might expect that the couple drove each other insane during the making of the record. This wasn't the case according to Frost.

While she admitted that she was "higher maintenance" due to the raging hormones and that she ended up hyperventilating because the changes her body went through made it difficult to get air, the chemistry she has with her husband ended up helping.

"We hold each other true to the artistic vision and didn't let this record stray like so many have in the past for both of us," she typed.

The result is yet another mélange of sounds that runs the gamut from retro French lounge pop to sweeping Spaghetti Western-style numbers. The album's most striking song is ‘The Priscillas' Song’, an homage to 60s girl groups.

Frost wrote that the song was originally written for The Priscillas, a group that Contreras' former By Divine Right bandmate Colleen Hixenbaugh used to be in. He wrote the song for Hixenbaugh but the band split up before they could record it.

Frost wrote that she fell in love with the song and when it was up for grabs she jumped on the opportunity to record it.
"It's fun to play live," she wrote. "And the recording turned out very Phil Spector-esque."

She wrote that exotic blend of sounds found on her albums stems from her jazz background, where it's common to sing in Portuguese and Spanish as well as exploring rhythms and styles from around the world.

"I don't know why artists are expected to sound the same from song to song," she wrote. "As a writer, I took this world influence and created songs whose musical geography is determined by the lyrics."

Frost wrote that she would like to sing in German and do more cabaret; she'd also love to go to Brazil to study percussion.

The birth of her son may curtail these travel plans. It almost goes without saying that becoming a mother has changed things for her. She wrote that it has made shows count more and that she doesn't have as much time to write now. Yet at the same time, it has given her a deeper understanding of life and death and admitted she isn't as vain.

While she may have had the material for Cine-Magique pre-produced about six months after her 2004 effort Situation came out, she obviously won't start work on the next album as quickly. There has been some discussion about coming up with a more contemporary sound for her next outing, but her main focus at the moment is making sure the baby is taken care of, rehearsing, touring and trying to find the time to get some sleep.

"I can't even think about the next record yet," she wrote. "In the moment is all that counts right now."

However, she is looking as far ahead as her upcoming show at the Drake Hotel, and wrote that a string quartet will join her. "There are other surprises in the works but I don't want to give it away.” Singer, song-writer Lily Frost will put a spell on you - that is, if she hasn't already!

Miss Frost's enchanting allure began with her 2001 single "Who Am I" featured on the soundtracks of the film Crazy Beautiful, starring Kirsten Dunst, and TV's popular series Charmed.

The songstress seduced many ears with her 2004 release Situation. Situation, where she showcased her own variety of Lounge Pop. It invoked the charms of crooner Julie London, hints of 30's jazz and sultry sounds of cultures she's absorbed from her travels around the world.

"Musical flavours from different ethnicities dress up lyrics to speak more clearly" the artist explained, describing her exotic sound. "I find French speaks for that romantic side of me, where Spanish is more passionate and fiery and English is more philosophical. My songs are like islands, each one has its own unique qualities."

Frost conjures her charms once again, with Cine-Magique, produced closely with her husband Jose Contreras, front man of Canadian band By Divine Right. "It's great working together! He really knows me and what my true essence is. You can expect a deeper, stronger source," the chanteuse said about her new release.

Calling her husband her "favourite person in the whole world," she revealed she's more in love now than ever before. They've just had a beautiful baby boy, a much cherished addition to their life. "It's all new and feels like a new chapter of adventure to explore! I feel like I'm on the right path," she said.

Infused with Frost's diverse inspirations and musings, this album possesses a refined and focussed sound, resonating French romance, Spanish flair and as the title implies, a cinematic ambiance. "Cine-Magique takes a minimal direction, with flourishes of musical magic realism and cinematic dimensions," she told her fans on her official website

Within the album, Enchantment is a dreamy folk rhyming-rhythmic bundle of playful bliss; "Pacha Mama" is a drum layered pulsating chant about Mother Earth; and the heart wrenching, noir-vintage and string escorted "So in Love" is fit for a David Lynch soundtrack. The music inside Cine-Magique weaves itself through the artist's diary-spawned lyrics creating a personal, passionate realm. "My lyrics are spurred by emotions that are too huge to process normally. The only thing that has kept me sane and alive is letting it out through music. Lyrically, I have always kept a diary and written poetry. [This] comes from the depths of my soul", she affirmed.

Lily Frost constantly opens the deep end of her heart and in one fine and recent occasion, her home. In the wake of a Toronto venue's sudden withdrawal from a festival, the performer and her husband offered their home as a stand-in location. "When I heard that the club owner was bailing, we put up maps and held the show at our place. It was packed with strangers, press and T.V. and my dog was going nuts! It was such a success; real teamwork!" This charming chanteuse has long been one of Canada's most under-rated talents. Hopefully that will change with the release of her lovely fourth album, Cine-Magique (on Aporia). It's a diverse creation, moving from classic French pop to a COLE PORTER tune ("So In Love") to girl group pop ("The Priscillas' Song"). Husband JOSE MIGUEL CONTRERAS (BY DIVINE RIGHT) played on and produced the disc, as well as co-writing some tunes with Lily. Fans of FEIST or KEREN ANN should certainly investigate. A CD release party is on at Buddies In Bad Times on Sept. 22nd, with other local gigs to follow.

Produced and co-written by her Chilean husband José Miguel Contreras, this Toronto singer-songwriter’s fourth album is a lovely, eclectic confection that subtly evokes bossa nova, French chanson, spaghetti Westerns and rockabilly balladry. The accessibility of her cabaret pop grab-bag lies not only in the strength of the songs (among them a cover of Cole Porter’s “So in Love”), but the versatility of Contreras’s minimalist arrangements—strings, guitars, piano and keys form a thin but wiry base for Frost’s trilingual vocals, a fine balance of sweetness, melancholy and mystery. 8/10 ( Lorraine Carpenter) With Aide-de-Camp, Mother, Shotgun & Jaybird, Mardeen at O Patro Vys, Wed., Oct. 4, 8 p.m. ily Frost. Cooler temperatures inevitably bring Lily Frost, a soft-voiced charmer who occasionally sings in French. The new disc is Ciné-Magique, a haunting collection that splits the difference between the cosmopolitan pop of fellow chanteuses Feist and Keren Ann. Today, 8 p.m. $13. Tallulah's Cabaret, 12 Alexander St., 416-975-8555. Lily Frost may have made her fourth record, Ciné-Magique, at home, but it sounds like a window on the world: '60s-styled French ballads ("Je Reviendrai") sit comfortably alongside wide-screen torch tunes with a smattering of Spanish, and there's even a glorious girl-group homage ("The Priscillas' Song") to seal the deal. If it sounds romantic, that's because the record was made with love -- it was produced by Frost's husband, José Contreras (By Divine Right), while she was pregnant with their son, Meesha Moon (now three and a half months old). While the baby was away so his parents could play (music, that is -- they had to rehearse for Frost's CD release show this week), we impinged on Frost's increasingly rare quiet time for a chat.

The songs on the album run the gamut of styles -- what sorts of things influenced your writing?

I come from a lot of different influences, particularly cinematic. Going to Cinematheque or seeing a foreign film always inspires a song. Also, reading Isabel Allende or other magic-realism writers. It wasn't a deliberate attempt to do songs of different styles. I just wanted to make a record that I would buy.

What was it like to be pregnant while making the record?

I always thought making a record was like having a baby, because it's like giving birth, but having a baby is way more time-consuming! [Laughs] Being pregnant while making the record was really intense. Your whole body changes, so your voice changes. I sang my whole record while he was inside me, so if we put it on or rehearse, he gets really calm.

You let your husband produce your record -- didn't you drive each other crazy while in the studio?

It was pretty sexy, actually. We would often get distracted because it's such a passionate thing. But at the same time, he's a perfectionist and so am I. I think he's a really amazing producer, but at the same time I was a bit apprehensive about making it with him. But there was nothing to be afraid of. When José works on a production, he finds an artist's strengths and says no to what doesn't work. And he's very honest, in a tactful way, which is a rare quality. He's also very passionate -- for him, above making music technically perfect is feeling. He was crying for the third song on the record. He was just in tears. And I just thought, "How amazing."

How did you two meet?

We met across a crowded room. I was stood up by my friend, so I went alone to a Martin Tielli show, and he was there alone also. Every time I looked over at him, he was staring back. When I saw him three weeks later, we totally recognized each other. We went on a date for tea, and that was that. It's cool because we keep each other on our toes. Our families are so different -- mine is so WASPy, and his is totally the opposite, passionate South Americans. But they're really starting to come together, and it's really amazing. Meesha is going to have an incredible family surrounding him.

You came back to your hometown of Toronto from Vancouver a couple of years ago. Do you feel part of the local music scene?

I was really connected to the Vancouver music scene, but I felt, at the risk of sounding arrogant, like a big fish in a small pond. I needed a kick in the pants. So coming back to Toronto, the scene is so different from Vancouver; it's just huge. I knew Torquil [Campbell] from Stars out there, and when I bumped into him here, I felt so out of place -- there was so much going on and I didn't know where I fit in. I hadn't heard of Broken Social Scene at the time, but Andrew Whiteman lived next to me on Shaw Street, and José is connected to all those people, but that doesn't mean that I'm in the club. At one point, I wrote a song called "Anti-social Neighbour," because I felt like I was in high school, the nerdy girl in the corner. I felt that if I had lived in Toronto, I might have been part of that group, but because I didn't, it's a tall wall to penetrate. It was hard for me to come to a city where there's such an established thing going on, but all I can do is my own thing and follow my own vision, and hopefully people will also catch on to what I do.

• For more information about Lily Frost visit her website: lilyfrost.com
• Find Lily on MySpace.