Interview: Band Of The Week - Heidi McCurdy

A little more than a month ago I covered a self-released album by a Vancouver, British Columbia-based jazz-pop vocalist by the name of Heidi McCurdy. Heidi's music is a prime example of the great singing and composing talent out there still unsigned and undiscovered by a record company. Fickle Mind is a fine document of such talent, a document that was nine years in the making.

Heidi brings a unique mixture of neo-soul, folk, jazz, pop and many other influences in smartly written, sassy tunes delivered in a sultry but well controlled singing voice. Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Heidi and discovered how she has developed and grown as a professional musician, we discussed some of the other things, aside from her CD, that she's accomplished along the way.

Tell me how you first got interested in music in general, and into singing and composing in particular.

My family is very musical, I grew up around music. My Dad used to play in bands when I was little and every time we’d get together with my mom’s family we’d sing. My aunt would play piano and we’d sing hymns and things in harmony. Some of my fondest memories growing up involved music, but I was always really scared to sing. I thought that it would be really fun to sing someday but it was the last thing I thought I’d ever do. But when I was 19 I had some friends who were really good musicians, and they sat around and jammed all day and eventually I pushed through my terror of singing in front of people, and I just started jamming with them. From there my first couple of different bands started and evolved into different formations. I started writing with my early bands; Maisha was one and then Yellow Belly. When those were no longer happening I started working at my own writing.

What sort of training did you have along the way?

I didn’t do any training until my early to mid twenties. Then, I started doing voice workshops with Laura Murphy and Rhiannon. Rhiannon is from San Francisco and sings with Bobby McFerrin. She is a really, really great vocalist and improviser. She does a lot of improv workshops that help people to free their voice and be creative with their ideas. I’ve worked with Laurel Murphy in her workshops, too, out here (Vancouver). Then later on when I decided I wanted to teach I started taking some classical lessons as well to learn a bit more about technique. In the last six years I’ve done a lot of research, read a lot of books, and listened to whole bunch of educational CDs and educational videos. I’ve put together my own system of what makes sense for me as far as the technical aspects of singing go.

Article Author: Pico

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