The Wharf Sessions: Green Room
The Green Room is Elaine Holmes and Lawren Clark, two Salmon Arm talents who are popular choices for local live music gigs. Their repertoire combines many original songs with creative mashups and re-interpretations of pop, jazz, latin, and blues style music. Lawren replied to our interview questions for the group.
1. How did the band come together?
I met Elaine at a benefit concert in 2015 and was very impressed with her singing and playing abilities. Later that year I asked her if she was interested in doing a New Year’s event with me, and that became the basis of our working relationship. In 2016 we built a repertoire of Latin, Pop and Jazz material so that we could play a variety of event, and as well started writing and honing original material. In 2017 we release our first album as Green Room: Opportunity Knocked.
2. Who writes your music, and what does the process look/feel/sound like?
Elaine and I write the basic forms of our original material seperately and then we essentially present the songs to one another and work on them very collaboratively from that point on. Most melodic, harmonic and lyrical aspects are worked on in depth together. I take on the production aspects once the song feels complete.
3. How has the pandemic affected your band?
Some of our regular summer engagements were cancelled, but we still mananged to do some outdoor events such as Farmer’s Markets, civic events and some “distanced” benefit events. Because my regular 3 day per week retaurant engagement (at Andiamo) restarted in June 2020, I was able to perform steadily, and Elaine would join me there whenever she could.
In the meantime, we had use of a large studio room to rehearse in regularly during the summer and fall 2020 and spring 2021. During the case “uptick” and the arrival of variants we took a brief hiatus until post-vaccination, but are currently back to working on new songs for a new album.
4. What was it like to come together to record at Song Sparrow Hall?
It provided a terrific proving ground for the two songs we performed, to see how they felt in live performance on a stage with an audience. It was a great experience for me in particular because I didn’t have to concern myself with recording while I was also performing…a task a I frequently have to deal with.
5. What would a dream summer performance schedule look like for your band?
Small regional festivals, civic events, wineries and club dates (hopefully with somebody else handling sound and lighting) .two or three per week
6. Tell us the story behind the song Like Leaves that’s on the album.
The seed phrase was “Where my mind blows away like leaves”..a state in which you surrender to beauty, whether music, art, another person or whatever you can attach to that. I wrote a set of original lyrics which Elaine modifiied extensively.lt’s now about the mysterious and transcendent moment of giving yourself over to another person wherein your ego vanishes and you become one with that person.
7. I’m about to press play on your track, what’s the ideal listening setup?
I would say either headphones on a quiet stretch of beach at dusk or driving along highway 97 somewhere between Salmon Arm and Penticton at night.
The Arts Centre is grateful for the support it receives from its sponsors, without whom this project would not be possible: SASCU, Chad Eliason Mortgage Broker, Askew’s Foods, the Armstrong Regional Co-op, Johnston Meier Insurance, Grant Thornton, Stella-Jones, Shuswap Tourism, the City of Salmon Arm, and the Government of British Columbia.
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Photography by Kate Fagervik