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By: Adam Grant click to listen to: Parables Winding Watch
There's always been a theory that people can wind up becoming a product of their environment, and for Rebekah Higgs, being brought up within Canada's East Coast makes that theory very relevant in regard to her musical ways. Growing up in the Halifax, Nova Scotia music community, Higgs had the great pleasure of being surrounded by such coastal rock n' roll pioneers like Sloan and the Julie Doiron fronted Eric's Trip in the early '90's. Now as she makes a go at her own musical career in this millennium, Higgs is still surrounded by a creatively fertile scene that features such diverse acts as Brian Borcherdt's Holy Fuck, Wintersleep and Contrived - only this time she is a part of it. 
However, in order to get to this spot, Higgs has not only had the local artist assistance organization Music Nova Scotia give her a hand, but has also managed to benefit from an upbringing that kept her and various counterparts musically inclined from a very early age, onward.
"The Maritimes has always had a rich cultural history, and for me, I grew up in a musical family and whenever we had family get-togethers there was always music involved - I think that infiltrates itself into most of the musicians in the area," believes Higgs. "You grow up on Christmas carols and church songs, and Maritime Celtic songs, but as you get older you start to filter things through and write your own music - it is just part of society, it is part of your culture here in Nova Scotia. Everything socially revolves around live music, so that's the base of where you're coming from."  With her roots firmly planted, Higgs released her self-titled second record this past summer, which strongly combines folk and electronic for a style that has been dubbed "Folk/Electronic." Primarily created by Higgs and Joydrop's Thomas Ryder Payne within his Toronto basement studio, the album itself has afforded the woman behind it to hit the road with a sound that's both new and exciting.
And while her style may not be comparable to a whole host of modern artists, what has influenced Higgs' current musical point-of-view doesn't only have a lot to do with being way different than the mainstream, but also the decade known for overly feathered hairdos, cheesy music videos, and un-intentional wardrobe malfunctions. Yes, that's right, the 1980's.
"Nowadays it seems to be getting trickier and trickier to come up with a name for a genre," explains Higgs. "Everything is so fused together and people are becoming more creative and the lines are becoming more blurry between genres. "I guess it just kind of happened that way - it was what I was interested in and what I was listening to." she continues when asked about combining folk and electronic. "I mean, I love the '80's and some of the synthesizer stuff that came out of there and it's a matter of making it relevant now and being creative by drawing a little from the past." For more information on Rebekah Higgs, please visit www.myspace.com/rebekahhiggs |
