In this era of the manufactured product that passes as popular music, Bono becomes an expert on world hunger because we certainly don’t expect Britney to be one. So thank goodness for artists like Chris Brown and Kate Fenner, who aren’t mere pretenders, but the vanguard of a new generation of protest singers.
The duo honed their activist chops in the early nineties when their much-loved Toronto indie collective, the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, played benefit shows and other community events. When the Bourbons came to an end in the mid-nineties, despite their deep roots in the local scene, Brown and Fenner left for Brooklyn.
“Toronto is the best. So is NYC,” Brown said from their home in New York. “I can’t even think of them separately. We had to let what we had in Canada die a little to keep it… We’ve never really been popular enough to support ourselves without extensive travel, and New York is basically travelling without going anywhere. Even when we’re not in Canada we’re in Canada. NYC basically is Canada. There, everything is easy now. I wish Mike Harris hadn’t been elected.”
A conversation with Brown is peppered with the same keen social awareness that pervades Brown and Fenner’s music. There’s no sloganeering in their work, though. Instead, their sound is a symbiotic pairing of Brown’s searing, poetic lyrics and Fenner’s dusky, hypnotic vocals, showcased on their most recent release, O Witness.
Intelligent pop music doesn’t translate easily into commercial success, something that’s eluded Brown and Fenner. But you sense that they wouldn’t have it any other way. They’ve had their brushes with the big time—Brown subbed for Barenaked Lady Kevin Hearn while he battled cancer, and Brown and Fenner both opened for and played with the Tragically Hip during their arena tour three years ago. But they’re content to continue to do things their own way, releasing quality albums and playing for their loyal and vocal fanbase.
“We have been really blessed, both in Canada and NYC, to be surrounded by a very strong circle of friends for whom music is first and foremost social,” Brown said. “We have never taken part in an activity which feels in violation to that fundamental sense. Some business offers come along which are entirely inappropriate, and it wouldn’t matter what was offered, there is no question to even entertain (them). I just think you have to be brave, creative and know the difference between work and lies.”
Brown gained prominence last year when he spearheaded the GasCD project after attending the protests at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. An ambitious double CD featuring many of Brown and Fenner’s musical friends from Sarah Harmer to Spearhead, the project has raised over $5000 to date for the Quebec Legal Collective and spawned a series of benefit concerts this past spring featuring some of the album artists. A second album is also in the works.
Brown and Fenner continue to make music as they spread their message. A box set re-release of their first two albums is planned, and the two have been recording solo albums for the first time. They also found the time for a rare hometown show last week at the Rivoli.
Naomi Klein, who wrote the liner notes for the GasCD, has pointed out how we tend to put musicians on a pedestal unless they get political. But for Brown, there’s a clear link between art and activism.
“I don’t really feel any distinction between ‘political’ or ‘non-political’ work,” he said. “They are all love songs—and if that sense of connection presents itself sexually/romantically, or in the context of an intense desire for societal accountability, I really think it’s the same thing.”
