Elizabeth Shepherd

Michael Elves: What are your top three Jazz albums?

Elizabeth Shepherd: Study In Brown by Clifford Brown, Abbey Lincoln – Abbey Lincoln Is Blue, or Abbey Is Blue, I think it's called [Ed. Note: it's the latter] and maybe Bobby Hutcherson, Happenings.

Michael Elves: You came up with those pretty quickly – what's so immediate or memorable about those records in particular for you?

Elizabeth Shepherd: I could listen to them over and over and never get sick of them. I guess there's a rare thing… maybe Kind of Blue too but I can't say Kind of Blue, it's everyone's favourite record!

Michael Elves: If you could work with any artist out there right now, is there any particular person you haven't worked with that you'd love to work with?

Elizabeth Shepherd: Oh man, um. I have trouble working with people – I think a lot of that is rooted in fear that I won't be good enough or that I won't be able to keep up, whereas if I do everything on my own terms it's very safe. But in a perfect world, devoid of fear, I'd love to work with someone like Dave Holland or I just heard Rudder – they're from New York – and they don't have any vocals but I was thinking "oh man, it would be wicked even just to play keys with them," something like that.

Michael Elves: Is there a song that you're dying to cover?

Elizabeth Shepherd: There is. There's a Bobby Hutcherson song called "When You Are Near" – from Happenings actually, and it's an instrumental tune but I wrote some lyrics to it and I really want to get a version of that out.

Michael Elves: When you're on the road – touring and playing – what are your vital routines? What keeps you sane on the road?

Elizabeth Shepherd: Sleep – getting enough sleep, eating more-or-less healthy, having time to myself – meditating, and writing. I'm doing 'other writing.' My partner and I have this thing where – right now, for example, this week we take a word a day and write a poem around that word  - and just honing my skills as a writer separate from musical skills right now. Taking time – which is difficult because I feel like I can't justify that. Part of me wants to say "no, you've got to be practicing more; you've got to be working on music," but I'm kind of taking a hiatus from that. I'm still playing tonnes because of the amount of gigs that we do but my creative endeavours are more focused on writing right now and honing that skill. So not necessarily lyrics, not necessarily with any musical idea in mind – just working out that process.

Michael Elves: If you were to pick a track off your new album to play right now – what would it be, and why would you pick it?

Elizabeth Shepherd: Well I think my favourite song right now is "Let Me Be" because I feel I'm just becoming very critical of myself – I'm noticing the extent to which, when I write, I really do it. I try to keep it honest but inevitably there are all these voices that creep in, one of them being "it has to be original," "it has to be challenging," a whole litany of "has-to's" when I think it just has to be sincere – that's probably the only thing that really matters and I feel like with "Let Me Be" it's a simple, straightforward tune.

Download “Shining Star of the Sun” from Elizabeth's new CD, Parkdale.