Her own beat, her own time;
Saint John songstress Jessica Rhaye's sophomore album 'SHort Stories' was a long five years in the making
Telegraph Journal NB
October 14, 2006
By Grant Kerr

Singer-songwriter Jessica Rhaye still has plenty of drive. But with six years between releases, she no longer expects the long white limo to pull up and whisk her away to stardom.

"I was very green when I started out," Rhaye said on a recent rainy day, sitting comfortably in her uptown Saint John office. "So green that I thought that after putting out my first album, somebody was going to drive up in a limousine with a contract, I would sign it and that would be it."

These days, the 29-year-old said, "I still have stars in my eyes." But she knows that a big contract isn't going to drop from the sky. The music business has changed and those things don't usually happen anyway.

No matter. Rhaye is back with her long-awaited sophomore effort, Short Stories. It's more mature, assured, sexier even. So why'd she stay away for so long? "I've never stopped performing, but life got in the way," Rhaye said.

She spent a couple of years at Fredericton's N.B. College of Craft and Design, has set up a graphic design business - using her last name Grimmer - and spent four years writing songs for this release. Oh, and two months ago she married her boyfriend of 14 years, Mark Marshall, who is also her manager. "I never lost focus. We always knew we were going to do this record," Rhaye says.

Although her graphic design business keeps her busy enough and helped fund Short Stories, it also crept into the entire creative process, given she was involved in the CD booklet design, layout and website as much as she was in the music.

Rhaye shares an office in an historic building with other creative types. Her floor is filled with artists, graphic designers and writers. "It's nice on this floor. You're surrounded by creativity," she said. Rhaye's demeanour is all sunshine and smiles, a ray of light on a rainy day. Her songs, though, are filled with melancholy, loss and regret.

Rhaye smiles sweetly and shrugs, pointing out that one of her favourite singer-songwriters is a living embodiment of that duality. Jann Arden is a laugh riot in person but a thundercloud of a singer-songwriter, albeit a beautiful storm. "Running for the Door is a little bit upbeat," Rhaye said of the song she's considering for Short Stories' debut single. "I don't mean to be sad . . . Forgotten is probably the saddest song on the record and I didn't even write it. Asif Illyas (Mir) did. I do find when I do write my best songs I am kind of upset and something has rattled me. It's a good way to get things out."

Short Stories is a departure from her debut in that five of the 11 songs are co-writes. She hesitated at first but was coaxed into it by Ed Woodsworth, her producer. "I am not the kind of person who can sit down and write a new song every day. When I write, I shout out stupid words just to get a melody and then I add the words. All the songs I co-wrote I had already started," she said.

Woodsworth, who produced the album in Sydney, N.S., co-wrote three of them, with Jamie Robinson and Ken Tobias sharing writing credits on one each. Rhaye wrote a stack of songs with Tobias, the Saint John songwriting legend who had some hits in the 1970s (I Just Want to Make Music, Stay Awhile). "Working with Ken was like having a second set of ears. Ken can write a hit. With Holding Out, I was just going to sing 'la-de-da' for the chorus. He said, 'You've gotta have a chorus' and he helped me define a chorus," Rhaye said.

Rhaye's gorgeous voice still shines through, but there's a new world- weariness about the songwriter who was a finalist in the International John Lennon Songwriting Competition a few years back for her song Time Out.

Rhaye has sexed up her image a bit too, particularly in the photos that accompany her lyrics in the CD booklet. "I tried to find an image with these songs. Having learned that in school I learned to put that all together . . . I'm going for an Alice in Wonderland kind of look and feel."

But little Alice is all grown up now.

Jessica Rhaye launches Short Stories on Oct. 20 at Thandi restaurant, 33 Canterbury Street, Saint John. She also plays the Riverview Arts Centre on Oct. 22.