She's singing for the silver screen
Music: Saint John singer-songwriter Jessica Rhaye to play for bigwigs at TIFF
Telegraph Journal
August 31st, 2007
By: Ashley Joannou
Photography By: Kâté LeBlanc
Saint John singer-songwriter Jessica Rhaye is calm, cool and collected as she chatted about an important upcoming performance in Toronto. Intimidated? "Not really," she said. Nervous? "I've been doing this for a long time, I think I've worked through kost of my nerves." But no one would blame Rhaye if she were a little on edge.
The Saint John native has snagged one of 15 spots to play at this year's Canadian Music Café, Sept 11th t o 13th, during the Toronto International Film Festival.She will have a half hour to play a closed concert stage exclusively for 100 festivl delegates, primarily music supervisors and producers - those responsible for choosing the songs for the soundtracks of major films.
"I'm incredibly honoured and realize what a big opportunity this could be," she said. "Right now I'm fine, maybe the nerves will hit me when the date gets closer."
Rhaye, who was signed to a music publishing company this spring, has yet to have any of her songs play on the big screen. Past acts to grace the Café's stage include ROn Sexsmith, Sarah Slean, K'naan and Jully Black.
"Our goal is to further Canadian Music," said café organizer Chris Teeter. "Not just present the artists that are already popular, but to introduce the industry acts we think are really up and coming." Teeter who was involved in choosing this year's final performers from hundreds of submitted entries, called Rhaye's voice "angelic". "I remember picking up her debut self titled CD years ago and thinking she had real potential," he said. "Then when I heard Short Stories (Rhaye's sophomore effort from 2006) I realized that she's become a fantastic songwriter and a real talent - it's a great disc."
Since it started three years ago, the Café has expanded to the Rivoli, a club and concert space on Totonto's trendy Queen Street, and still has to turn people away at the door. "The industry knows that this is somewhere they can come to scout new talent," Teeter said.
Rhaye, who performs ont he 12th, will be doing a set of songs from her most recent album.
Following the festival, Rhaye will head to the UK in November on her first international tour to promote Short Stories' release in that market. The tour, which includes fellow Martime artists Dave Gunning and Matt Andersen, will run fortwo weeks. Like everything else, Rhaye is taking her efforts to break into the international market stride. "I try not to have any expectations for something like this," she said. "I really don;t know what it's going to be like. I try not to envision it one way or the other so that I am surprised by everything that might happen."