The Charlatan

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A singer/songwriter’s rebirth

Rozalind MacPhail is starting a new chapter in her life, and the Charlatan was there to hear her speak about her past, the good and the bad

by Rahul Kalvapalle

Flutist Rozalind MacPhail grew up in a small but creative community in Toronto Island, a tiny piece of land off the harbour.
She suffered from severe chronic asthma as a child. Surprisingly, the ailment actually led her to the flute. A newspaper article describing the positive effects playing wind instruments can have on asthmatics led her parents to make her start playing the flute.
Initially though, MacPhail was reluctant to take up the flute because “the whole idea at that age of spit was really disgusting.”
But she soon got rid of her spit inhibitions and developed a passion for the flute, as well as other arts, such as painting, sculpting and acting.
“I had a really lonely childhood. I didn’t fit in and didn’t have many friends in public school,” says MacPhail. “I wanted to be in an environment that would be very creative for me and would accept who I was.”
It was this passion for the creative arts that lead MacPhail to pursue a diploma, majoring in flute performance.
“It was there that I found my group of friends and was able to feel accepted and part of the community for the first time as an artist.”
Soon after, MacPhail decided to pursue a classical music career as an orchestral performer. However, after completing her degree at the University of Toronto, she realized orchestral playing wasn’t for her. She then decided to move to Ottawa to study contemporary Canadian music under nationally renowned flutist Robert Cram, a professor at the University of Ottawa.
However, just weeks before she was to leave for Ottawa, catastrophe struck. MacPhail was raped by a man who slipped date-rape drugs into her drink.
The horrific incident nearly destroyed her entire life.
As MacPhail points out, most rape victims display suicidal tendencies and veer toward alcohol and drug abuse.
“And lets just say I dabbled in quite a bit of all the above.”
To make things worse, she also had to work two full-time jobs while studying in Ottawa. The excrutiating pressure became too much and after completing only a year of her studies with Cram, she left.
Soon after, she quit playing the flute for six months — a period she describes as “probably one of the most miserable times of my entire life.”
The situation soon started to change for the better. MacPhail began staying with flute teacher Tina Fedeski to “get myself playing again.”
Fedeski helped MacPhail regain her love for the flute and classical music.
“Since then,” reflects MacPhail, “I made a 100 per cent — 200 per cent maybe — turnaround.”
MacPhail soon started visiting open stages across the city, where she gradually began to discover her previously unearthed talent and passion for improvisation.
“I really enjoyed not having the written page in front of me. There was just a type of freedom in improvisation that I wasn’t able to get with classical music.”
After playing with a band called Lighthousekeepers for two years, MacPhail was left high and dry when the band songwriter Neil Gurster decided to pursue a solo career, effectively breaking up the band.
It was after the break up of Lighthousekeepers that MacPhail began making unplanned guest appearances on stage with bands such as the Great Lake Swimmers and The Constantines, the latter in front of 6,000 people in her hometown.
She has also performed with world-renowned musicians such as Yo La Tengo and indie-rock great Lou Barlow. Again, both performances were spontaneous and unplanned.
Soon after, following advice from a member of the Great Lake Swimmers, MacPhail decided to start writing her own tracks and began to develop an aptitude for songwriting.
After learning to play guitar in order to back up her songwriting, MacPhail began penning her own songs. Not long after, the Gas Station Sessions EP was conceived. MacPhail collaborated with singer-songwriter Lindsay Ferguson on the seven-track EP — “seven tracks for seven years in Ottawa,” explains MacPhail — all under the wathchful eye of producer Dale Morningstar.
The EP includes four of MacPhail’s original tracks, which feature her on the flute and guitar as well as vocals.
The EP celebrates the seven years MacPhail spent in Ottawa and marks her last album before she relocates to Alberta in January and joins the Banff Centre for the Arts, where she will take part in a songwriting residency while also learning about and studying her latest obsession, the North Indian bamboo flute, or bansuri.
Her plan is to eventually release a full-length album after completing the residency in Banff.
So after three recordings and working with numerous musicians, the question remains: What genre does Rozalind MacPhail belong to?
“Alternative folk with an indie vibe,” says MacPhail, who learned about indie-rock from her ex-boyfriend.
MacPhail says he left a strong but dubious mark on the Gas Station Sessions EP. “He gave me a lot of inspiration for the CD actually, not in a good way though. He’s not written about in a nice way, let’s put it that way.”
It’s also worth mentioning that MacPhail successfully negotiated a difficult audition with the world’s most prestigious circus company — Cirque du soleil — and is on their list of potential performers.
So if the offer does come from Cirque du soleil, would she leave her songwriting aspirations behind for the dazzling lights, high-roller audiences and big money of the circus?
“No.”
“I don’t think so, ever, because I don’t think I ever want to be in a position where I’m sitting and playing the same show for a year straight on contract. I think it would suck all the creativity out of me. It would be great for income by all means, but it wouldn’t help in any other way.”
MacPhail says her eventual dream is to go to India and study under Indian flute maestro Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia.
“I just love the haunting sound of the bamboo flute, and I want to incorporate that into my alternative folk sound, eventually.”
The Gas Station Sessions EP is set to be released Nov. 27, following a six-hour CD release and benefit concert at Zaphod’s, to be performed by MacPhail along with her numerous friends from the Ottawa music scene.
On the EP, MacPhail asserts that “people will appreciate it if they listen to it not for technical expertise and not listen to it for perfection, but more to really go inside and see what it’s like for a singer-songwriter at the beginning of their songwriting journey.”
“I want to document everything that I’m doing, you know. Every CD that I record, I treat as a chapter of my life. It’s my musical journal, and so this is just another part of my musical journal.”
WHO: Rozalind MacPhail and friends
WHERE: Zaphod Beeblebrox - 27 York St.
WHEN: Sunday Nov. 27, 5-10 p.m., $15 at the door