Digging Deep – Nelly Furtado Explored Her Ethnicity And Family History In Writing Her Folklore Album
By Mike Usinger, Georgia Straight
Success didn’t ruin Nelly Furtado but it did make her think seriously about why she’d decided to get involved in the music industry. The 25-year-old Victoria-raised singer did some serious self-examining once she finished touring for Whoa, Nelly!, a debut that roared out of nowhere in 2000 to sell more than two million copies. Furtado came out of the gates with a large-calibre bullet, scoring two massive radio hits (“I’m Like a Bird”, “Turn Off the Light”), becoming ubiquitous on MTV and MuchMusic, and travelling the world to sold-out shows. She doesn’t dispute that the ride was incredible. But her first thought when it was all over was that she needed to take a break.
“When I started to reflect on everything, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is really shallow,’” Furtado says, on the line from her adopted home of Toronto. “I remember looking at a picture of myself in a magazine wearing a pretty dress and going, ‘Man, look at the job I have.’ You wear the right dress and people will like you better. Obviously that’s a very pessimistic way of looking at things, but, really, how much more face-value can you get?”
The down-to-earth singer acknowledges that it’s easy to be cynical about fame once you’ve become a celebrity. But while most musicians tend to forget about where they come from once the royalty cheques start rolling in, Furtado became more determined than ever to stay grounded.
“I’m sort of a serious person,” she says. “My public image may not get that across, but I do think a lot. I spend a lot of time ruminating on the world and my place in it. And I think you hear that a lot on the new album.”
That sophomore disc is called Folklore and it finds Furtado in a more contemplative mood than on Whoa, Nelly!. The new mum hasn’t forgotten how to have fun: tracks like “The Grass Is Green” and “Build You Up” are as irresistibly buoyant as the hits that made her a household name not just in Canada but also in Europe. But even when Furtado’s at her most upbeat, there is, as she notes, a seriousness to her lyrics this time out. Nowhere is that more obvious than on the disc’s infectious first single, “Powerless (Say What You Want)”, in which the olive-skinned artist begins with “Paint my face in your magazine/Make it look whiter than it seems”.
“If there was a theme to the first album, it was an overall one of self-confidence and finding my identity, celebrating my individuality,” Furtado says. “With Folklore I dug a little deeper. And I also did a bit of storytelling; taking what’s true to me in my life and using that for inspiration. There’s a definite social consciousness: talking about the immigrant dream and the working class, both of which are things that are very real to me.”
So instead of dwelling on her newfound celebrity and it’s trappings on Folklore, Furtado is more interested in thinking about her family history. The bouncy “Fresh off the Boat” pays tribute to everyone who’s ever started a new life in another country, while “Island of Wonder” was inspired by a trip to the Azores Islands in Portugal, where her parents were born.
“That comes from my roots–the village that my parents grew up in was really small and really rural and really poor. The island mentality was that, because you didn’t have a lot, you had to be really creative. Your worth was measured by how hard you worked and how you treated other people. I’ve never lost sight of that.”
She’s also perfectly aware of how others see her. Over the past decade, the pop landscape has been littered with one-album wonders. Furtado acknowledges she’s got something to prove to the critics with Folklore’s opening number, “One-Trick Pony”. Over a backdrop of club-kid beats, Old World mandolin, and sad-songs strings (courtesy of the Kronos Quartet), she immediately settles into a groove with the lines “I am not a one-trick pony/I really feel nothing can hold me/I really feel no one can own me”. And over the next 11 tracks, Furtado does plenty to back up that claim, mixing and mashing funkified R & B, old-school hip-hop, adult-contemporary pop, and sun-drenched world beat. Because she’s taken a more mature approach, Folklore lacks the overriding wide-eyed exuberance of Whoa, Nelly!. Furtado’s okay with that. After all, she did set out to get serious.
“I’m a very honest person, which is why I’m such a horrible liar,” she says. “So when I make music, I have to believe in what I’m doing. I think it’s important that a record reflect where an artist is at in their life.”
in & out…
Nelly Furtado sounds off on the things that enquiring minds want to know.
On approaching Caetano Veloso: “He’s been one of my musical idols since I discovered him when I was 17. When I first had to speak with him on the phone I was so nervous. I procrastinated the entire day because I was afraid to call him. And when I finally did, I had to have someone there holding my hand. I still haven’t fully absorbed that I actually got him to sing on my album.”
On Folklore’s original title: “I wanted to call it Fresh off the Boat. I remember my brother ragging on me, going, ‘You’re not fresh off the boat, you were born here, so you can’t call your album that.’ It was meant to be a declaration with a bit of irony.”
On having a social conscience: “It’s important to take action in your own life, which then sets an example. I’m doing something cool in Vancouver–a lot of the proceeds from the show are going to the B.C. Coalition of Women’s Centres. Their funding has been completely cut off by the B.C. government. Hopefully the show will help shed some light on that.”
(Source – straight.com)
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