We all know that U of T boasts brilliant professors, talented researchers, and promising students, but in the race to celebrate our brightest and best, often the incredible artists on campus get left behind. From the indie film kids at Innis College to the masters of classical music at Walter Hall, we have a plethora of talent right under our noses. And sometimes you can stumble across some of these hidden gems in the most unlikely places.
Meet Rae Billing. The former frontwoman for acclaimed local alt-country band Crybaby just happens to be the undergraduate secretary to the department of history. Just think, when you had trouble getting into that History course you needed, you might have been helped by one of the city’s best independent musicians.
Billing didn’t start writing songs until the early 1990s, following a nomadic existence that found her doing everything from working in the fashion industry in the UK to skydiving in Western Canada. Upon arriving in Toronto, Billing honed her craft at open stages and eventually formed Crybaby with three top local musicians in 1994. Their 1996 debut album, Paintings, was met with effusive critical acclaim and named one of the top three country albums of the year by eye Weekly. But the band only lasted three years before they split and Billing decided to go solo.
“Last year, after almost four years and as many attempts at recording a second album, we released the solo work,” Billing said. “It was a long, tough journey, with the album started originally before Crybaby split up. The process of attempting to record a second album with Crybaby made me realize how unsupportive the situation was and so I pulled out of it. I came to this music thing somewhat late, never having sung a note before hitting my late twenties, and so it was a bit of a fantasy for me. I couldn’t imagine it turning so sour. But sometimes you have to cut your losses and start again.”
Starting again seems to have worked in Billing’s favour—her self-titled solo disc expands on Crybaby’s potential, anchored by her world-weary melancholic vocals and edgy, country-rock tunes. Billing says that producer Peter J. Moore (Cowboy Junkies) is responsible for rounding up the slate of master players that contribute to the album’s loose vibe.
“I’m very proud of it. I feel as though the songs can really be heard,” Billing said. “It took time to get to their heart, but in the end I know we did. When we finally got to the point of playing with these guys, all the tension fell away and really, it just happened. I loved it and for me that energy comes through in the album.”
Billing has spent the past year playing key gigs in support of the album, including a show opening for Garth Hudson from The Band and a series of opening dates for Canadian folk icon Willie P. Bennett. This week, Billing adds yet another career highlight to that list – she’ll be opening for torch country heroine Neko Case on Thursday at The Phoenix.
“I look forward to the Neko gig, both because she is a very fine artist and because I think her audience will be an interested and alternative crowd,” Billing said. “We’ll be playing acoustically at the Phoenix, which will be interesting, so to speak. It’s a pretty big room to fill with two acoustic guitars, but it’s a great challenge. I’ve been working for the last year with a long-time musician, Bob McNiven, who has toured and recorded with the likes of Stompin Tom Connors. I love sharing vocals with him. I have a song, ‘Smiles and Little Knives,’ that talks about the duality of that world, and he gets into it like it’s his own.”
Billing sees a future for her edgy brand of country-folk in Europe, where the genre is currently taking off. She laments the Canadian scene’s propensity to try to fit certain sounds into particular boxes, which she feels has limited her to the folk circuit.
Meanwhile, one of campus’ best-kept secrets continues to spend her Mondays and Tuesdays dealing with history undergrads. How does she manage to balance such a successful career in music with a demanding job at Canada’s largest university?
“I kept working—on my songs, on my singing, and on the recording,” said Billing of life after Crybaby. “And I kept my part-time day job, working 2-3 days a week at the U of T. In a way, it saves me. It’s hard-working, respectful, and requires a good chunk of brain action, so it keeps me from too much of that evil pondering stuff.”
