Celina Wolfe says growing up in N.D.G. shaped her as a musician
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“A lot of the notes I get about my music or myself are, ‘You’re raw, it’s real, it’s powerful,'” says the singer-songwriter. Wolfe’s six-song debut is out now.
“I knew if I wanted to do pop, I had to make it real,” says singer-songwriter Celina Wolfe. Photo by Allen McInnis/Montreal Gazette
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You can take the singer out of NDG, but you can’t take NDG out of the singer.
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Celina Wolfe grew up on the west side of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, near the corner of Randall and Fielding Aves., and the 26-year-old singer-songwriter honed her craft on many Friday nights belting out rocking covers at the popular Honey Martin Saloon at Sherbrooke St.
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She recently relocated to Toronto believing it will advance her career to be at the heart of the English Canadian music industry. But speaking this week at Cafe Toranj, a cozy Iranian cafe-resto just down the road from Honey Martin, Wolfe said she’s maintained a superficial approach to the world that stems directly from walking the streets of NDG grew up
“I call it the hood,” Wolfe said.
Her debut six-song mini-album, Celina, is very radio-ready mainstream pop in the vein of Adele or Lewis Capaldi. As with both of these artists, there’s an earthy power in Wolfe’s voice that makes this anything but cookie cutter fare. The album will be released by leading Quebec label Artifice and distributed by Warner Music Canada.
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She attributes the rawness of her music to coming of age in “the hood.”
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“NDG baseball, NDG hockey, NDG ringette — my dad coached all the teams,” Wolfe said. “A big part of being a musician or doing anything in life is giving a name to where you come from. That’s very important to me, whether it’s NDG, Montreal or Canada. A lot of the comments I get about my music or myself are, ‘You’re raw, it’s real, it’s powerful.’ Maybe it’s because of my NDG upbringing. Being with Honey Martin, playing there all the time, that shapes you as a musician.”
Before hitting the bar scene solo, she fronted indie band The Empty Yellers, which played a darker style of alternative rock. She calls the Honey Martin years her “musical education”.
“I didn’t go to music school; I applied to Vanier and didn’t get in,” Wolfe said. “Obviously that didn’t stop me. That’s when I founded the band The Empty Yellers. That was my primary education. Then I went to Honey’s, which I consider my university. That was it. Practiced every Friday night. It was like being thrown into this community. This place is like home. Now I have reached another part of my journey.”
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Wolfe began to move to another stage in her musical education when she began playing with guitarist Ken Presse of the band The Franklin Electric, and they began writing more mainstream pop songs.
“I wasn’t the best version of myself during those years[with the Empty Yellers],” Wolfe said, speaking of trying too hard to be cool.
“I was this 17-year-old,” Wolfe said. “Left of school to work at Costco, to have money to start this band, to pay rent. And it worked. people loved it. But I was still so young, clueless, stupid. Now that’s what I’m doing and that’s my career.”
She realized she needed to take music more seriously.
“After graduating from college with Honey Martin, I had this realization, ‘What’s the closest thing a musician does to taking this seriously? What are other artists doing?’ And it started with being able to write different kinds of music, being open to writing pop music. This was something I’ve been closed to all my life. Being put in a room with another songwriter who was a little better off than I was at the time, namely Ken Presse. We wrote a few songs together and it just opened up a whole different world of creative possibilities for me.
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“I thought, ‘Not only can I make pop music, I can kill singing pop music.’ And I loved it. And once I found that I loved it, there was no stopping me. I thought, ‘I’m just going to write great music and become the best possible singer and just keep going.’ ”
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Presse and Wolfe co-wrote the songs on the album, while Montreal singer-songwriter Maia Davies co-wrote the song Birthday Candles. Wolfe wanted the album to sound good and polished, but not at the expense of emotion.
“I knew if I was going to do pop, I had to make it real,” Wolfe said. “Because I’m an NDGer, a raw real woman, it has to be honest and vulnerable. But it also has to be pop. It has to be catchy. I wanted it to stick in your head.”
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