“It’s really, really meaningful.”
That’s how Vivek Shraya describes returning to Alberta this January.
The Edmonton born-and-raised, Toronto-based artist is known for wearing a multitude of colourful creative hats, including musician, filmmaker, author, producer, and publisher. Now, she is coming back to her home province.
On January 30 in Calgary, she’ll perform a show she’s calling Part-Time Woman + Songs, with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
It’s a powerful full-circle moment for Shraya.
“I had a really difficult childhood in Alberta,” she says. “To be able to come back as an artist and perform my music, to be able to say that this is my 11th album, that is really nice.”
That return is especially important for Shraya because of the opportunity to engage with people in profound ways.
“Getting to connect with other queer people in Alberta through my music, other trans people, other BIPOC people especially,” she says. “Getting to connect to my communities through my art and my music when I come back just feels super, super special.”
New Models, released last October, took a less direct path than some of her previous projects. Shraya says the album came together slowly, beginning in 2021 during the pandemic.
“At the time, I was grappling with a lot of loneliness and confusion,” she says. “I found the format of pop quite limiting. And English also quite limiting as a way to express what I was feeling.”
That search led her to explore singing akar, a form of Indian classical singing, as well as singing without words altogether.
“It just took a really long time to figure out what the song structures would be and what the album would even look like,” she says.
“Feeling limited by pop and limited by English definitely forced me to look for new ways, new models, if you will, to express what I was feeling.”
Shraya already has another album, title yet to be revealed, slated for release in May.
She also has her 14th novel, a dystopian science-fiction work titled The Hystericals, coming out this fall.
There’s a lot going on, as usual, for Shraya. But for now, she’s just looking forward to being back in Alberta for a while.
“There’s nothing like bringing your art back to your hometown and getting that hometown hug,” she says.
Vivek Shraya is performing January 30 in Calgary at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Details can be found on her website.
“When I’m Overcome” from New Models:
