Drawing comparisons to Frank Zappa and Kate Bush, performance artist-turned-musician recently released her latest record, The Game, and will be in Ottawa on April 12. The Charlatan chatted with her to learn about the record, its themes, and favourite concerts.
The Charlatan (TC): Why don’t we start with the The Game, tell me a bit about the record. What was it like putting it together?
Ronley Teper (RT): It was pretty easy and pretty natural. It’s a live record, we actually recorded it at a venue called the Piston in Toronto like three or four years ago. We went in for two nights, we did two shows . . . After that we needed a while because it needed to get mixed . . . We don’t do any rehearsing, it’s a lot of improv within structured forms. So, I had to figure out what I thought would be a good match, what would work, what songs would be a cohesive album . . . So that’s what happened, then I waited another year to get some more money. Then, basically I sat on it for some time, and people were like “What’s going on with that record?” They were like “Ron, you should put it out now, it’s time. All the stuff you’re singing about, that you’ve been singing about for years is finally coming to the surface like with #MeToo . . . You have to put it out now.”
TC: Do you want to talk about some of these themes The Game touches on?
RT: Basically, it’s power and abuse of power. It’s not just the music industry, it’s basically all industries. It’s anyone who has power in any which way, it could come from being just a landlord, it’s basically if someone has power over someone else, they could potentially abuse that power, either consciously or unconsciously. I have to write in satire, I’m very critical, I have to make fun of things in that kind of way, so this is my outlet for getting my perceptions out . . . There’s a lot of different dynamics in there. There’s a song called “The Game,” which is the title of the album . . . You have to play a certain game, you have to look a certain way, you have to act a certain way, you have to do certain things. If you want to move forward, you have to do those kinds of things, and I don’t have much time for that, I generally won’t do it. I’ve suffered from abuses of power, I’ve watched my friends suffer from abuses of power that won’t play the game, and they will not be allowed to move upward in whatever they’ve been doing.
TC: How do you think this record has been received, particularly in the wake of social movements like #MeToo?
RT: I’m not sure. It’s very new, the first single was released back in January. I think a lot of people actually haven’t heard it yet . . . Artists love it. Certain groups of activists are enjoying if they had an opportunity to hear it. It’s an incredibly challenging thing to even get your work out there . . . I’m not really sure how it’s being received. I know the shows are going well, I’ve had some really great reviews. Live reviews have been great. It’s been good, just how do you get it out?
TC: Can you describe your typical songwriting approach to me?
RT: I have many different approaches to writing lyrics. I’m an improviser, I work with many, many improvisers . . . I come to words a few different ways, sometimes I’ll write live off the floor at a show. So, I’ll come with a concept or idea of something I want to talk about. I’ll come up with a line or something, get the band to jam it out, and start blurbing and blabbing and chatting away and making up the lyrics right then and there. I record almost all my shows, so then I can go home and see what I like and didn’t like. That’s one way. Another way is a more solitary type of writing . . . I come from creative writing originally and performance art, so I would write basically a poem that is musical, and then I would go to an instrument and write parts I thought would match . . . Another way would be fiddling around on keys or guitar or whatever, and come up with some line, and the line just activates context, and I’ll just suddenly start writing crazy lyrics alongside the music. Sometimes if I have a project outside of Ronley Teper or Ronley Teper’s Lipliners, I would be given something, like it’s about a documentary and it’s about this. So, I’d get a framework to work with, or a style or certain thing, so that would be another way I’d write, based on other people’s wants and needs.
TC: Tell me about the improvisational aspect of your work.
RT: I think that life is improvisation . . . I’ve never really enjoyed doing things exactly the same way over and over again. I find it dangerous for me personally. I’d become stagnant, it’s not creative for me anymore. It’s great, being solid as a rock and stuff, but I need to always feel like I’m creating—while I’m performing, walking down the street etc. That’s sort of how I find joy in my own existence. The improv, I find is really fun on many levels. It basically allows everyone that plays with you to have their own voice, and I think that’s very important. It’s a conversation, it’s a dialogue that happens between people while they’re performing. I really enjoy performing with improvisers, because we’re having a conversation. We don’t know where the conversation is going to go until we go for it. The irony is that within improvisation, there are rules. I don’t think rules are bad, it’s freedom within a structure. You find a place where you’re all equal, and then you allow yourself to use your voice or not say anything at all. That’s my favourite way to perform, it’s my favourite way to write, it also makes me feel that the musicians that are involved get to put their own voices in as well. It’s a type of friendship, it’s a universal language. You could go anywhere in the world and not even speak the language and be able to play music together.
TC: You’ve got a very difficult to pin down sound in terms of styles and influences, what is it about your approach to music that makes it that way?
RT: That’s a good question. I never really think about genre when I’m writing. I find everything interesting, I love every genre. It’s more about feel and passion and uniqueness. With any genre, if I hear someone I like, there will be something about that person’s voice and the sincerity and the honesty of what they’re singing about or how they’re singing it, that’s what affects me. That’s how I enjoy the music. If I hear things that are the same thing all the time, it doesn’t really do anything for me. I think that doing one thing is very dangerous . . . I don’t think we need to be categorized into one genre. I just can’t be one thing. I don’t want to. If I did, it would limit my creativity and it would limit the things that I would write about because it would all just sound the same to me . . . It would also limit the people I would get to play with . . . I just want to constantly travel around the world, and see and explore what makes things different for people all over the world. That’s how my music works, genres are different countries to me.
TC: You’ve also got a varied artistic background as well, with experience in stuff like performance art. How does that factor into the way you approach music?
RT: When I’m working, I think a lot about point of view. If I’m singing certain songs, it’s not me singing—the narrator is this character that I’ve created. I’ll sing in their voice, rather than my neutral singing voice. It’s character-based, which really comes from performance art. I’m also interested in video, puppets, and dance. I think that music relates to all of those things.
TC: What would you say is the best concert you’ve ever been to in your entire life?
RT: I’m making it too complicated here, but there’s no best. I’ve seen so many amazing things. It just depends on my mood that day and everything. Some of the best things I’ve ever seen were at a tiny little venue called the Tranzac in Toronto, where you’re watching people create for the first time together. I also lost my mind watching the Grateful Dead perform once, but I’m not sure if it was the music or the whole energy and the people there . . . The Budos Band at Lee’s Palace years ago was one of the best concerts of my life. The horns playing all together, not having any lyrics . . . Sorry about this, you’ll never get a straight answer out of me.
TC: Let’s flip it around, what was the least memorable show you’ve seen?
RT: I don’t know. I would say sometimes that would be more like festivals. I think people make a decision before they go to a concert of whether or not they’re going to have a good time. Even if the band is really horrible, or they had a bad night, if that person’s not an active listener . . . They’ll already have decided if the band was great or the night was great because they went with that. If someone was going to concert and was already in a mood, they might not be fulfilled. That’s my answer.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length
Photo provided
