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Laila Biali discusses Wintersongs on The Song Break

John Bommarito: You're listening to The Song Break on 891 WEMU. Every now and then, we like to have guests on the program who've got something relevant going on that we like to talk about. We've had guests from the jazz community locally, and, I find sometimes, there are records that are being released that I want to talk about. This time it is from a friendly neighbor to the north who was born in Vancouver some 40 odd years ago. Laila Biali is my guest today. Welcome, Laila.

Laila Biali: Thanks, John. It's great to be here.

John Bommarito: The Song Break on WEMU features singer songwriters, The Great American Songbook, meeting the modern-day songbook. And you kind of do both. You write your own songs, and you cover these classic songs as well, so you fit in nicely. It's nice to have a modern artist who still alive and with us.

Laila Biali: Thank you. Yeah, I like the original stuff, but it's also really fun to reimagine the old chestnuts.

John Bommarito: Absolutely. Laila, for those of you who don't know, is a Juno Award winner, a fellow radio host on the CBC. When are you on, by the way?

Laila Biali: Saturday nights. But it's prerecorded. I know that it's so much nicer to think of things happening in real time, but I tour so much that we need to get those episodes in the can every week ahead of time.

John Bommarito: Yes, understandably. Well, as an NPR station, we carry a lot of prerecorded programs like Mountain Stage and things like that, so we get it. Also, a performer, you are, as you mentioned. You’ve been active about 25 years. And it is, of course, my pleasure to speak to you. You've just released a new album, a beautiful collection called Wintersongs, which I believe is your 10th release. Is that correct?

Laila Biali That is correct.

John Bommarito: Unlike most winter themed albums that come out this time of year, this one is almost entirely made up of originals.

Laila Biali: That's right, yeah.

John Bommarito: Is it hard to write songs about winter? I guess you're Canadian, so probably not.

Laila Biali: Well, I'm Canadian, but I'm from Vancouver. Right. So, in Vancouver, it's more rain and snow. But I happened to be in Banff, which is in the Rocky Mountains, and it’s so, so beautiful during the winter months. In fact, winter begins much earlier in Banff than many other places in Canada. So when I was there in November of 2021, I was already surrounded by snowy scenes. And so, Winterssongs is essentially my soundtrack for what I was looking out on while I was in Banff, and it was exquisitely beautiful.

John Bommarito: I imagine somebody living in Florida would have a harder time writing a record like this because they don't really know how to experience winter the way we do here in the north end of the country.

Laila Biali: Well, it's funny you should say that, because I used to tour with Paula Cole and with a mutual friend who now hosts a radio show in I think it's in Orlando. No, no, no. It's somewhere in Florida. Might be near Fort Myers. Anyway, her name is Louise Coogan. She's fabulous. She was with the label Decca for a while. And now she's got a radio show. And when I released Winter songs, the first single was “Rocky Mountain Lullaby”, which, you know, does reference the snow, I think a little bit. And she was one of the first hosts to play the song. And she reached out to me right away and I thought, oh how fabulous. I have no idea how people in Florida would relate to a song like this in early October, which was when I released it never mind, you know, other times of the year, I mean, Florida's beautiful year round. There's no snow to speak of. I don't believe the state has ever seen snow, has it? Do you know, John?

John Bommarito: I lived there for 14 months. I do not remember any snow. It’s the only other place I've ever lived was Pembroke Pines, Florida. But yeah, I don't remember anything other than maybe a 40-degree day down there, but it does get 30s sometimes so…

Laila Biali: Well the name is promising because I have a song called "Dance of the Pines," so at least you know, we've got some beautiful nature down there so that they can relate to. Right? Nature inspired music, which Wintersongs is.

John Bommarito: How long have you been planning on putting out an album like this? I mean, 10th album in, has has been on the radar for a while?

Laila Biali: Yeah, it has. In fact, it was in the making before I released Your Requests, which was the album that precedes this release. And so Wintersongs was written in November of 2021 and it was going to come out the following year, 2022. And what happened was we debuted the music live at a beautiful venue in Toronto where I live. Since about 1,200. We sold out. We made a huge deal of it. I had some incredible special guests, some of whom you might know Larnell Lewis, Emily Claire Barlow, Jane Bunnett. Jane, of course, is on the record. And it was essentially supposed to be a launch for the CD, but life happened and I wasn't able to get it all finished by then. Fast forward to the following year and my husband and co-producer and I still had more that we envisioned for the project. So it just kept growing over the three or so years that followed the initial writing of the material. And so finally, this year, November 2024, I was able to release it to the world.

John Bommarito: Well, congratulations and thank you for doing that because I enjoy it very much. I used it as a nice dinner music album when my in-laws were over for dinner the other day. And it was perfect. That perfect winter feel for a meal around the table. So it was just right.

Laila Biali: Thank you. Yeah, that's what we want. We want it to be atmospheric and in such a way that people can enjoy it for various occasions. That's the idea.

John Bommarito: You're listening to The Song Break on 891 WEMU. I'm here with Laila Biali. She's got a new record called Wintersongs, and though we are primarily a jazz station, the orchestral feel of this album isn't completely out of place here. There are songs with sax, trumpet, Hammond B3. On The Song Break as I mentioned, I celebrate the art of the song…oh! Something crashed.

Laila Biali: I'm so sorry. That's my husband in the background making coffee. And he asked permission. And he's a sound engineer, so there's no excuse. He knows how this works.

John Bommarito: I find the track on the record “Outside” to be a great example of a well-crafted song. So it fits the song break very nicely. It soars. It's beautiful. I just played it, so listeners heard what I hear. What tracks are really standing out to other fans of the record? Have you been hearing feedback from others?

Laila Biali: That’s such a lovely question. You know, I have been delighted to see that, in fact, it's pretty equal across the board. So I thought “Outside“ had…I would never say hit potential. A, that's arrogant and B, that's like, what does that even mean these days, John? But I felt like there was kind of a stickiness to “Outside.” The production values. And you know, something about it to me even feels like, you know, maybe Disney is not quite the right word.

John Bommarito: But it stands out

Laila Biali: Yeah, it's sort of a sweeping, dramatic experience. And there's something kind of catchy about it as it moves forward. And so, from my perspective, I thought that was one that might really kind of stand out for folks. And it and it does. A number of people have commented on it and radio folks have spun it. But as I look at my numbers. like streaming numbers, “Rocky Mountain” is ahead of the lot because it was released first and got picked up by some playlist editors and that sort of thing, which is the game these days on Spotify and other digital service providers. But “Snow” has also seen some uplift, which sort of surprises me because that one is a little slower and a little moodier. But something about that tune seems to have captured people's imaginations, which I really, really appreciate. And yeah, so it's been a real range.

John Bommarito: That is a good thing. You don't want to be pigeonholed anyway. Speaking of which, you are classified as jazz, right?

Laila Biali: For sure I am. Yeah, absolutely.

John Bommarito: It's not traditional necessarily. I mean, you do cover the classics Hoagy Carmichael, Cy Coleman, Johnny Mercer Jobim. But you also get to the songwriting talents of Billy Joel, k.d. lang, Coldplay, Joni Mitchell, which is, again, perfect for my show. That's the kind of… that's exactly what this show is about. It's covering these classic songs from the past and what I'm calling the modern songbook, right? The Modern-day songbook is all of these songs that have been done over and over. I mean, even Radiohead's “Creep” could be considered a modern classic because it's been done so many times, right?

Laila Biali: Sure.

John Bommarito: How do you choose songs for a record going in when you're not writing ones.

Laila Biali: You know, they're fan driven. So in 2013 so 11 years ago now, almost 12 years ago now, because it was in early 2013, March of 2013, I believe. I launched something that we have playfully dubbed the request-o-matic. And it actually began, as you know, an initiative that would mobilize my listeners, my fans, people coming to shows, people over social media, to submit their requests. And the idea was to have them choose songs that weren't from the Great American Songbook. So in air quotes, non jazz, right? So, songs like some of the ones that you just mentioned by k.d. lang, Coldplay, etc. And so, I took great pleasure in combining jazz with other genres, and I've been doing that now for over ten years. But in 2022, I decided that I would put a call out on social media for people to choose songs from the Great American Songbook. And so that was how Your Requests came to be. And the first volume or first edition of what I imagine will be a multi volume series does focus on the old standards, which for me, John was actually something novel. You know, I of course, when I started singing and playing jazz 20 plus years ago, I did take a deep dive into the Great American Songbook. But before long, I found myself in what I call the Great Canadian Songbook, covering Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn, k.d. lang Jane Siberry, Leonard Cohen, the list goes on. And then I really made that my specialty was covering non jazz tunes. But now I'm really back into the old standards and it feels great. It feels great to kind of be in both worlds.

John Bommarito: We're going to hear a song from Your Requests when we wrap up the interview just to kind of tie the two ends together here. But I appreciate you taking time today. Laila Biali is the guest today on The Song Break. Where is home these days? NYC It was for a little while, says Wikipedia anyway.

Laila Biali: Yep! That's accurate. That's where I met my husband. So, I lived in New York from 2008 through 2015. I actually moved there because I was touring with both Paula Cole and Suzanne Vega. Wonderful songwriters.

John Bommarito: You poor thing.

Laila Biali: I know, right? It's a terrible life. And then actually before long, I got to tour with Sting, which for me was a bucket list item. You know, Sting remains very dear to both Ben and I. He's a really, really special human being. So he was part of our New York chapter and remains in touch as well, as you know, Paula. And not as much, Suzanne these days, though, I track with her on social media. So now we're back in Canada or I'm back in Canada. Ben is from Vermont, so he moved up to Canada with me once we'd had our son Josh. And we've been up here for over nine years now and we miss New York. New York is forever the home of our hearts. I'm a dual citizen. I belong to both countries. I have great fondness for both Canada and the US. We talk about possibly coming back south of the border, our south of the border, when Josh has finished high school, just, you know, to perhaps reconnect with the scene. It would most likely be New York. But in the meantime, Toronto is home.

John Bommarito: Toronto, one of my favorite cities. Love it. Paula Cole and Suzanne Vega are people I've interviewed, and I've got a very short list of people who I would be nervous to interview, and Sting and Paul McCartney are on it. So, you've got half of the equation already covered on my bucket list, so...

Laila Biali: Yeah, he's so cool. He would love you. He's just… he's really… he's so down to earth. He's surprisingly down to earth and just really a lovely, lovely human being. So it's been a highlight for sure of my career in life to be able to say that I've worked with him and to know him.

John Bommarito: Paula actually has a voice that you remind me of. And I wonder who you're most compared to when people are trying to write a “if you like X. you’ll also like Laila.” Do you ever get that?

Laila Biali: You know, I do. And I'm always surprised and delighted and humbled by some of the comparisons because they are all artists that I greatly admire. So Paula is one that I do sometimes get. My voice does not hold a candle to hers, but there might be something about, I don't know, the phrasing, maybe having worked with her for a number of years, I think you just sort of absorb some of those things, those inflections, by osmosis. I've also been compared to Norah Jones. I don't know why that is. It's so that's that surprises me. Maybe it's the piano player, the singer thing, and Diana Krall. We're very different, but we're both piano player singers from the West Coast. Canadian who love jazz and play jazz. And I've also gotten Sara Bareilles, which has really surprised me. I sort of would put her in the same category as Paula. She's a real power vocalist. And then Sarah McLachlan, who I was a huge fan of growing up. She was one of my desert island artists where if you asked me who I would take to a desert island if I got stranded. Sarah McLachlan surely would have been an artist. At least when I was in my teen years. I still love her, but I lived and breathed her music.

John Bommarito: My favorite album of all time. Fumbling.

Laila Biali: That's the one! Fumbling Towards Ecstasy! That's the one!

John Bommarito: It's no wonder I like you because everybody you named are favorites of mine, so. it's absolutely no wonder that I've attached myself to your music. Any plans to tour and play Ann Arbor or Detroit or anywhere nearby so I can actually enjoy you live in concert?

Laila Biali: I'd love to meet you. We've been trying to get back to the Blue LLama since we played there in 2019, so I looked it up. I was there in May of 2019, and David Sharp heard me at the APAP conference in New York and scooped me up and presented me and we actually sold out. So it's really time we got back. The thing about Ann Arbor and Detroit is that you're driving distance. So we can just zip down there for a show and then come right back home the next day. So, there's no excuse. We got to make it happen.

John Bommarito: Yeah. I mean, I can come pick you up in Windsor if you need.

Laila Biali: You absolutely could. Careful what you ask for there, John.

John Bommarito: That's true, because I had to get you across customs don't I.

Laila Biali:  Exactly. Yeah, you do. We’ve got Nexus passes.

John Bommarito: Right! Where can people find out more about you? Give your websites.

Laila Biali Yeah, absolutely. https://lailabiali.com/. And I’m on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, etc. The list goes on YouTube and then also Facebook, Instagram and X though, you know, I'm hot and cold on that these days.

John Bommarito: Same.

Laila Biali: Yeah, right. Exactly. And I'm also on Twitter or not Twitter. I'm sorry. TikTok, the other T. TikTok.
 
John Bommarito: That's your teen’s influence.
 
Laila Biali: Oh yes. Yeah. No, only because of him and my there and I'm, you know, with great trepidation.

John Bommarito: Well, thank you so much for taking time to talk about Wintersongs, your latest record. And I do look forward to having you come back to Ann Arbor. Dave Sharp, I know sometimes you listen to the station. Get her back in will ya buddy?

Laila Biali: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, John. And I really appreciate it. So nice speaking with you and really fun to discover some mutual connections.

John Bommarito: Absolutely. Have a great holiday and I hope the record continues to get more attention for you.

Laila Biali: Thank you. You too.

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My background is almost entirely music industry related. I have worked record retail, record wholesale, radio and been a mobile disc jockey as the four primary jobs I've held since 1985. Sure, there were a few other things in there - an assistant to a financial advisor, management level banker (hired during the pandemic with no banking experience), I cleaned a tennis club and couple of banks. The true version of myself is involved in music somehow. Since I don't play any instruments, my best outlet is to play other people's music and maybe inspire you to support that artist.
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