All AV Merchandise Items

This is a full length, 10 song album with ONLY the title track ("Everybody Matters") released online-- all the other tracks are NOT YET RELEASED anywhere except via this AV Store (you cannot find it on iTunes, Spotify, etc; nor have any songs been released to the radio, nor media).  Produced by AV, and co-produced with Canadian/British producer Chris Birkett (Buffy Sainte Marie, Sinead O’Connor, etc) it is an acoustic, live-off-the-floor soul/blues/roots album; with AV on keys and vocals, and featuring Doug Organ on Hammond organ.  The album also has “old school” sounding drums, and 3 part background vocal harmonies.  With the exception of one song all the “bass” on the album is played by the organ and keys, rather than the typically expected electric guitar bass. The lyrics explore AV’s observations and insights based on living in her inner city neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, and is a follow up to her 2019 Top 100 German pop radio hit “Hurt People Hurt People,” and her 2019 Cobalt Music Prize awarding winning single, “It’s Happening”, and her 2017 single, “All That I Can,” which won the same award.  The album also features a duet with Calgary-based soul singer and bassist, Jory Kinjo.

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.  Both formats also include a download of the single artwork, which you can only get here, at the AV Store.

About the album:

This is a full length, 10 song album produced by AV, and co-produced with Canadian/British producer Chris Birkett (Buffy Sainte Marie, Sinead O’Connor, etc) it is an acoustic, live-off-the-floor soul/blues/roots album; with AV on keys and vocals, and featuring Doug Organ on Hammond organ.  The album also has “old school” sounding drums, and 3 part background vocal harmonies.  With the exception of one song all the “bass” on the album is played by the organ and keys, rather than the typically expected electric guitar bass. The lyrics explore AV’s observations and insights based on living in her inner city neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, and is a follow up to her 2019 Top 100 German pop radio hit “Hurt People Hurt People,” and her 2019 Cobalt Music Prize awarding winning single, “It’s Happening”, and her 2017 single, “All That I Can,” which won the same award.  The album also features a duet with Calgary-based soul singer and bassist, Jory Kinjo.

DETAILS:

Upon purchasing this item you will immediately receive the following EXCLUSIVE BONUS MATERIAL, which will automatically be sent to you as an attachment as soon as you complete your purchase. 

The BONUS MATERIAL CONSISTS OF:

--WAV or mp3 files (your choice) of all the songs that appear on the vinyl album you will be receiving 

--9 EXTRA songs and versions of songs that do NOT appear on the vinyl album

--the album artwork of the digipak (CD version) of the album (4 panels)

--a digital version of the 2-sided poster that comes as an insert inside the digipak CD version of the album

--the album artwork from the singles from the album that have been released individually from the album (to date this amounts to 4 songs-- but at least 2 more will be added before the vinyl is ready and sent out, and they will be automatically sent to you when it is released)

DETAILS ABOUT THE VINYL:

The gatefold (4 panel album) will be shipped to you immediately once the pressing is complete (skip to "DELIVERY TIME" to see when this will be).  Your order will serve as a receipt/proof that you have paid this money and will receive the vinyl album. 

VERY IMPORTANT: We will assume the SHIPPING DETAILS you fill out when completing this order is the exact address you would like the vinyl shipped to-- if this is NOT the case please be SURE to email us with the alternate address you would like it sent to, and make sure the subject heading of you email is: "vinyl order alternate shipping address."

WE ARE ONLY PRESSING 500 COPIES, so we will sell off the copies in a "first come, first served" manner-- the vinyl will be a "Limited Edition Pressing"; meaning only the 1st 500 customers will receive a copy.  If we do choose to press more vinyl after that we will change some aspects of the vinyl and artwork look, to differentiate the 2nd pressing from the 1st-- meaning that only 500 copies of this 1st version will ever exist.

DELIVERY TIME:
Due to a world-wide backup at the limited number of vinyl pressing plants that exist globally vinyl orders at any pressing plant takes at least 9 months to complete-- as it stands right now, only major label artists who are pressing vast quantities of vinyl can get order done more quickly. 

So you can expect your vinyl from AV by approximately Christmas time (December), 2022, and we will send an update to you via email in a few months, when we have a more exact date we can guarantee.

"If You Were Here" is a lonely, haunting duet based on a wordless chorus sung in harmony about longing, wandering, and what keeps people in relationships. It was originally released in 2012 and co-written with Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Epp while both artists were attending a music conference in Memphis.  The song was initially penned in dedication to Jeff Buckley, who drowned in the arm of the Mississippi River AV and Epp could view from the conference hotel.  The harmonies for the track were crafted in the hotel stairwell, where the natural reverb and constant stream of musicians chiming in as they went past was the initial musical inspiration for the song's vocal hook; a long stream of people wandering in hope of finding something more.

About the "Radio Version":
Reimagined with a faster tempo, the second version of "If You Were Here" features a heavier R&B groove, and adds in some retro-sounding strings and choir-like background vocals. For this rendition AV once again partnered with producer Tino Zolfo, who produced her award-winning soul single "All That I Can". The rendition blends elements of "old-school" soul reminiscent of James Brown's "It's A Man's World" with modern R&B sensibilities in similar ways to Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" or Alicia Keys' "Fallin,"  whereas the original version, co-produced with Chris Birkett, is a much rootsier, live blues band feel, heavily featuring Hammond organ and acoustic piano.

Why revamp the song, 10 years after the 2012 recording?

One of AV's reasons for re-recording this song is that the refugee and homeless crisis worldwide has been steadily growing, long before the pandemic, and long before the most recent crisis in the Ukraine.  AV's neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, has a high population of recent refugees; in fact it is the neighborhood soccer/football superstar Alphonso Davis first came to with his family as a refugee from Liberia, and now is the first soccer player-- and first Canadian-- to become an ambassador for the United Nations refugee charity UNHCR, and is an inspiration to the whole neighborhood.

The McCauley neighborhood is located on Treaty 6 land, and is also home to many 1st Nations' Canadians; many of whom, despite being on their own ancestral land, are disenfranchised to the point of being homeless.  Perhaps the darkest part of the colonial history of Canada is that multiple generations of 1st Nations children were forcibly taken away from their parents and sent to notoriously abusive residential schools; as documented means of cultural devastation and land acquisition by colonials.

 AV recorded this rendition of "If You Were Here" with Jory Kinjo, whose father is from Okinawa, Japan.  Despite another chapter of the dark side of Canada's history of putting even 3rd and 4th generations of Japanese Canadians into harsh immigration camps during the 2nd World War, Mr. Kinjo immigrated to Canada where he met his wife, a Ukrainian/Icelandic English teacher, who recently lost a brave and long battle with cancer.

As mentioned above, AV wrote "If You Were Here" with Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Epp, whose Mennonite forefathers fled Russia and many parts of Europe due to religious persecution-- persecuted due to their belief in pacifism.

AV herself is a 2nd generation Canadian whose working class grandparents on both her father and mothers' sides left the Netherlands at the end of WWII in hopes of less war-torn life.

In AV's words: "Wars are always started by the rich, but in war the poor always suffer the most.  Worldwide it is the poor who are separated the most from each other, and from their respective homelands.  This song is for all of those missing each other and their homes."

Produced in NYC by Paul Brill this is an early AV album, released in 2006, which contains songs still regularly requested at live shows, such as “Backseat Driver” (featured on Australia's "Mornings with Kerri Anne" Show); “Where My Heart Lies,” and an early rendition of “Don’t Cry”, which was later redone on AV’s self-produced album “Love & Other Messes.”  The album cover, at the request of its' graphic designer, Jeff Sylvester, has no writing on it, because he loved the image so much.  (The spine, inside 2 panels, and back cover DO have writing on them :))

Written over 3 years ago "Everybody Matters" is an energetic, old-school gospel/blues tune, with congregational clapping as the main rhythmic pulse throughout the song.The lyrics are a long list of contrasts between "first world" ideas of what"everybody matters" looks like: life support, cheap consumer goods made elsewhere, and rich people making headlines-- versus what the rest of the world experiences : starvation, slave labor, little to no media attention.  The observation AV makes is if "everybody matters" certainly a greedy and classist society seems to say, well: "some a little more" (or a lot more). By the end of the song the lyrics admit that even those in "first world" countries feel the anxiety of this "need to get ahead, you can feel it to your core"-- and leaves the listener wondering, alongside AV herself, if it is really possible to truly value human rights AND believe in the unquestioned, unchecked, unlimited greed of insatiable materialism. 

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

Released in 2008 this is a “live off the floor” jazz album of inventive renditions of 1980’s pop songs; performed by renowned Edmonton-based jazz musicians Juno-winner Sandro Dominelli (drums), Chris Andrew (keys), and Mike Lent (bass), with AV’s vocals at the helm.  

The concept behind the project stemmed from AV’s desire to record some jazz renditions of classics that weren’t the typical jazz classics from the American songbook of musicals, such as Cole Porter and Rogers and Hart, etc; but instead to do renditions of songs in the ear of people who grew up listening in the 80’s and afterward.  So, she picked a list of 80’s songs such a “Material Girl” and “Smooth Criminal”, and set about recording them.  

When gigging the material she took on the persona of “April Valiant”, (also with the initials AV), who wore a pink hair wig and ‘80s bling— to differentiate between her jazz singer presence and her career as an original songwriter, and though the album was released over a decade ago it still enjoys play on several jazz programs across Canada.

The album artwork is taken from an original painting by Edmonton-based artist Sandra Kunz, www.strokeofsoul.com.

"If You Were Here" is a lonely, haunting duet based on a wordless chorus sung in harmony about longing, wandering, and what keeps people in relationships. It was originally released in 2012 and co-written with Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Epp while both artists were attending a music conference in Memphis.  The song was initially penned in dedication to Jeff Buckley, who drowned in the arm of the Mississippi River AV and Epp could view from the conference hotel.  The harmonies for the track were crafted in the hotel stairwell, where the natural reverb and constant stream of musicians chiming in as they went past was the initial musical inspiration for the song's vocal hook; a long stream of people wandering in hope of finding something more.

Why revamp the song, 10 years after the 2012 recording?

One of AV's reasons for re-recording this song is that the refugee and homeless crisis worldwide has been steadily growing, long before the pandemic, and long before the most recent crisis in the Ukraine.  AV's neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, has a high population of recent refugees; in fact it is the neighborhood soccer/football superstar Alphonso Davis first came to with his family as a refugee from Liberia, and now is the first soccer player-- and first Canadian-- to become an ambassador for the United Nations refugee charity UNHCR, and is an inspiration to the whole neighborhood.

The McCauley neighborhood is located on Treaty 6 land, and is also home to many 1st Nations' Canadians; many of whom, despite being on their own ancestral land, are disenfranchised to the point of being homeless.  Perhaps the darkest part of the colonial history of Canada is that multiple generations of 1st Nations children were forcibly taken away from their parents and sent to notoriously abusive residential schools; as documented means of cultural devastation and land acquisition by colonials.

 AV recorded this rendition of "If You Were Here" with Jory Kinjo, whose father is from Okinawa, Japan.  Despite another chapter of the dark side of Canada's history of putting even 3rd and 4th generations of Japanese Canadians into harsh immigration camps during the 2nd World War, Mr. Kinjo immigrated to Canada where he met his wife, a Ukrainian/Icelandic English teacher, who recently lost a brave and long battle with cancer.

As mentioned above, AV wrote "If You Were Here" with Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Epp, whose Mennonite forefathers fled Russia and many parts of Europe due to religious persecution-- persecuted due to their belief in pacifism.

AV herself is a 2nd generation Canadian whose working class grandparents on both her father and mothers' sides left the Netherlands at the end of WWII in hopes of less war-torn life.

In AV's words: "Wars are always started by the rich, but in war the poor always suffer the most.  Worldwide it is the poor who are separated the most from each other, and from their respective homelands.  This song is for all of those missing each other and their homes."

My approach to teaching this skill is to enable you to sing harmonies to ALL western music songs-- rather than learning song-by-song what the harmony part is or could be.  It involves learning some simple theory and ear training, which scares some people off, but I promise to not make it too boring or overwhelming. 

What you'll need:

1.  A good internet connection
2. A link to 2 example songs you would like to start with, sent in an email in advance.
3. Also sent in an email in advance: very short explanation of your training-- if any-- none is fine-- in the areas of music theory, ear training, choir singing, or backup vocal singing.
4. A keyboard-- even if it's a keyboard app on your phone-- it will be used mainly to help visualize and hear distances between notes (intervals).

My related experience in this area:

I am a graduate of Grant MacEwan's Music Performance Program, at which I received a scholarship in academics, and besides my performance skills and extensive experience I have solid knowledge and background in music theory and ear training. I also studied classical music for a few years at the King's University College, where I sang in an auditioned choir, directed by professional director Trent Worthington (Pro Coro Canada, 3 Tenors, etc).

I have worked with many esteemed producers around the world, such as Ray Bardani, Joe Chicarelli, Chris Birkett, and many more; and have produced 2 albums myself (including my most recent one, "Everybody Matters"). 

Occasionally am hired to do studio and live work as a backup singer, in addition to singing my own harmonies on my own album (on which I play keys and do the vocal arranging).  I have led bands for the past 18 years, and recently started a community choir during the pandemic-- my first, and through that have gotten excited about learning how to teach harmony singing. 

If you would like to know more about my professional achievements, career history, and musical influences you can find them at my bio on my website www.annvriend.com/bio.html.

Explanation from AV:

Like most musicians, I got into music because I love music-- and not because I love promoting, or marketing, or booking, or grant writing, or tour managing, or social media promotion, or administration, or publicity, or merchandising, or team management, or meetings and emails, or setting up this Shopify store so you can read this very sentence.

And yet, those are all jobs I have had to do and many of which I continue to do-- and jobs for which I had zero training.  (See the "General Eductation/Related Experience section of this link https://av-music-store.myshopify.com/collections/music-lessons-in-songwriting-harmony-singing-song-evaluaton-theory-and-more-from-a-multi-award-winning-songwriter regarding my credentials, awards, and education: you'll note there are lots in music-- and none in business.) 

So in retrospect, it's not that surprising I made a lot of mistakes along the way at those jobs-- and at trying to hand those jobs off to other people, for hope of -- but often not-- any or much return on investment (a term I NOW know is shortened to ROI ;)).

The music business is FULL of people who want to take your money and your music and your time and talent, and it is very lean when it comes to who will MAKE you money in return, and truly help you build your career. 

And if you do find and identify these people, it is another matter that they might want to work with YOU. 

The music business is also full of advice and seminars and workshops and conferences you can go to ( and pay for), at which there are people who will advise you about what to do-- which may or may not include hiring them to do the thing they are telling you you should do.

Also: each one of the "hats" I listed: those are all full-time jobs in and of themselves, each and every one of them.  And there is only one you, with only 24 hours a day to work within, and you also want to, say, be a musician-- write, perform, sing, play, work on your chops, record albums, go on tour, film music videos.  And maybe even have a life, besides!

So.  How do you navigate ALL THAT.  Who do you delegate what to, how do you find and choose them?  How do you excel at and balance everything. 

These are good questions.  And, if there was a "one size fits all" answer to them we would be in the field of science instead of art.  Art reflects the vast diversity and ever-changing everything-- so the advice of what Madonna should or shouldn't do certainly is different from Miles Davis which is different from Leonard Cohen which is different from L'il Naz-- all very successful artists-- all very different from one another-- and, in fact, that is in part why they stand out and are successful.

So-- hence the need to find what YOU, individually YOU- should do, and not do, and what you should take on, and not take on. 

On that note, if you would like some guidance/advice/tips on any of the "hats" mentioned, or navigation thereof, you could book me for a consultation session, and I will do my best to you help YOU.

In doing so I will ask you to send me, in 1 email:

1. 1-2 recorded songs you are most proud of, and when they were released (if they have been)
2. 1-2 live videos, preferably the most recent you've got
3. 1-2 produced videos ("music" videos that are NOT live-- if you have them-- if not no worries)
4. A short bio or list of career accomplishments
5. 1-3 career goals and a realistic date by which you would like to achieve them.
6. What specifically you would like to discuss in the consultation, in relation to #5, or in general.

This is an easy-to-follow "guitar style" chord chart, designed by AV herself.  It also includes a lyric sheet of the full lyrics to this song, which is clearly labeled and divided into the sections of the corresponding chord chart. 

A download link of the chart and lyrics will be sent to you upon checking out and paying.

Written by AV for her mom’s birthday, this song chronicles the tough immigration story of her mother’s mother (AV’s grandmother); who would always tell her daughter when she left home for far away not to cry— and if she could manage that she would get a dollar.  The song was not meant to be released publicly, but after a lot of prompting by her mother AV added it to a few concerts, and thus ended up with a live-in-studio recording of “A Dollar and a Suitcase” — and it has since become one of AV’ most popular songs to date, requested at nearly every concert since.  AV added it to her live performance in 2016 on the CBC program “Vinyl Cafe”, hosted by the late Stuart McLean, with her mother seated in the audience.  The show is syndicated to the USA via NPR radio, and served to expand AV’s audience to that market.

Both formats also include a download of the single artwork, which you can only get here, at the AV Store.

Written by AV for her mom’s birthday, this song chronicles the tough immigration story of her mother’s mother (AV’s grandmother); who would always tell her daughter when she left home for far away not to cry— and if she could manage that she would get a dollar.  The song was not meant to be released publicly, but after a lot of prompting by her mother AV added it to a few concerts, and thus ended up with a live-in-studio recording of “A Dollar and a Suitcase” — and it has since become one of AV’ most popular songs to date, requested at nearly every concert since.  AV added it to her live performance in 2016 on the CBC program “Vinyl Cafe”, hosted by the late Stuart McLean, with her mother seated in the audience.  The show is syndicated to the USA via NPR radio, and served to expand AV’s audience to that market.

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

This is a full length, 11 song album.  Released in 2008 it is a concept album built around the fictitious story that AV was an international spy, who fell in love with a spy from the “other side”, who then, through their love affair, decided eventually to defect together.  The premise (perhaps ahead of its time) was that once something was on the internet people would believe it as fact— this happened to AV when a journalist once wrote she played guitar (which she didn’t/doesn’t), and then other journalists read this and wrote it into their own pieces when covering AV.  So, she decided to make up an entire story, and re-wrote her bio on her website to reflect it.  She assumed most would be in on the joke, but, as with the “guitar playing fable,” an astonishing amount of people believed it.  Relatedly, the spy story explores topics like if it’s always best to tell the truth; if loyalty is more important than love; if ideals are more important than pragmatism.

It is a lush, epic, indie-pop album, with swirling big strings, digital keyboard sounds, and AV at the piano (not guitar!)

The track “St.Paul,” ended up on heavy rotation on commercial station Magic 99, and AV’s cover of “Rockin’ In The Free World” was placed at #13 in “CoverMe” Magazine, in the “50 Best Neil Young Covers Ever”, with a blurb stating:

“The only “Rockin’ in the Free World” cover I’ve heard that wasn’t, well, rockin’. Canadian singer-songwriter Ann Vriend dispenses with the endless guitar solos and hollering that characterize pretty much every other cover. But don’t mistake this for some soft ballad. In her own way, Vriend rocks, putting piss and vinegar into her vocals that still roar over the lush orchestral production. Her cover may be kinder and gentler, but the machine-gun hand remains.” 

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

This is a full length, 11 song album.  Released in 2014 it was critically acclaimed, and contains the heavily requested "A Need So Wide” and “Those Records”, as well as “The Greatest Killer”, co-written with Canadian hit songwriter Dan Hill.  It is the first AV album produced with Tino Zolfo/Poppa Champagne, and this album marks the new sound of AV's "ghetto soul pop”, that continued with her award winning singles “All That I Can” and “It’s Happening”, and her German radio hit “Hurt People Hurt People”.  The album is AV’s first project in which she delved into her neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, for the inspiration and subject matter of the songs.