"lad te Metcalfe ready to record second (D From pane 23 Bur that was then, and this is know. Disappointed with EMP’s failure to get her debut into the American market, and the company’s reluctance to let her record dive tracks, Mercalle and the company had a mutual parting of the ways carlier Uris year. But the experience of “being in the belly of the big machine,” as she put it over a latte at Starbucks on Lonsdale, has made her stronger. And wiser. “Pm writing a song ar the moment called That's not who vou are, that’s just where you live,” savs the high-energy Metealte. (In addition to the great smile she inherit ed from her mother, the effervescent and ever-present Vancouver media maven Joy Metcalfe, Megan also received her mother’s optimistic and bright nature.) “it’s a quote from a woman who was doing my nails at the Elmwood Spa in Toronto.” With a sparkle in her cye she laughs at the pretension, then explains that EME sent her to the pamper palace to have a manicure ant pedicure for an upcoming video shoor. (“When you're independent vou do yous own nails, when you're with a major they don’t /et you do your own nails.”) Back to her first-ever spa experience: “This incredibly fovely woman is giving me this pedicure, and at one point she says ta me ‘So, what are you, a model?’,” recalls Metealte. “1 said ‘Not bloody likely,’ and then we started talking. “At one point in the conversa- tion, she gestured to my whole body and said ‘That’s not who you are, that’s just where you live.” ™ “Paul Hyde is one of the most spectacular writers of our generation, yet he’s Metcalfe never forgot the line, stuccoing houses. In because, she says, it is an eternal 5 . truth. Vancouver, there’s a certain “That's something that will make . . the record companies, female artists, disconnectedness. Where 1S the whole kind of fame industry crumble from within because it is, . . Andreas Trauttmansdorft photo AFTER a year under contract with EMI Music Canada, North Vancouver's Megan the grassroots support for Metcalfe walked away from a six-record deal. Lessons learned from her “belly of ultimately, the truth,” she says. Substance over style. . . . the beast” experience, she says, have made her stronger and more focussed. these incredible artists? Asked about the recent explosion of female artists on the musical land- | Cheerleaders are sadly lack- scape, Metcalfe believes it is great for. . : * ” those musicians, but adds she finds ing in this country for art. inspiration in very few. With the exception of Patti Sciafila. - Megan Metcalfe “To put it in the vernacular, ‘She don’t write like a girl” And that’s what [ love about her. She doesn’t write like a woman writer.” Metcalfe adds that the stigma that goes along with thi: Grrrl rock invasion is something she’d like tc avoid. “] didn’t go to Lillith Fair,” she admits. “I have nothing but respect for the woman who participated.” But the styling, the imagery, the packaging that so often overshadows the excep- tional creative gifts of these artists is what Metcalfe sees as the fatal flaw in the recording industry. Style over substance. But her hope springs eternal. “Ir’s not possible to avoid it, but it is possible to get inside the machine and change it from within,” she says, “That's what I'm working towards.” She is not alone. Her husband, Robbie Steininger, has just produced a compilation of five Vancouver-area musicians, each of whom weigh-in heavily on the substance «caie. In addition to Metcalfe, Modera Troubadours: A Stonecutrer Muste Compilation includes the original works of Paul Hyde, Geoff Gibbons, Oliver and the Elements and Ed Bak. “Paul Hyde is one of the most spectacular writers of oar generation, yet he's stuccoing houses,” she savs. Like Mercalte, Hyde, of Pavolas and Rock and Hyde fame, fell between the cracks at EMI Music Canada. “In Vancouver, there’s a certain disconnectediess. Where is the grassroots sup- port for these incredible artists? Cheerleaders are sadly lacking in this country for art.” Merealf Jets the thought settle, then alighes upon one of the darker days in the city’s musical history. “Bryan Adams offers to do a free concert at Stanley Park, and he's told “No you'll stamp the gras?,” her voice rising at the end. “1 was appalled.” So why doesn’t she pull.an Alannah Myles and head for Los Angeles? “Pve seriously considered it, but | have this thing in the back of my head saying ‘Am [abandoning € a?” And Edon’t want to do that.” But odes are she will be signed with a U.S. label soon, as taiks with people in Nashville — the 1990s version of Tin Pan Alley — are ata fever prich. “Emmytou Harris’ management cc .npany and [are working together on a trial basis,” she says. : Others who have expressed interest in the North Shore native are piano man Bruce Hornsby and a certain Nashville-based singer who's just-released album has crities proclaiming his return after a near-decade fall trom grace. Simply put, Metcalfe wants to be involved in music that is ter listening to, not looking at. “Theyre too many pretty people out there who are all style and no substance. And Pm bored with i.” [fyou're in need of a good dose of musical substance, check out Megan Metcalfe tonight at the Portsidde Roows in tie Seven Seas Restaurant in North Vancouver. Only TWO weeks to Christmas! 3 FENDER, WASHBURN, YAMAHA Acoustic Guitars * G & L, SQUIER, YAMAHA Electric Guitars & Basses 3 MARSHALL, PEAVEY, SQUIER, SWR Amplifiers % KORG, ROLAND, YAMAHA Digital Pianos % YAMAHA fuil line of portable Keyboards 3 SABIAN, ZILDJIAN Cymbals at 50% off + PEARL, WESTBURY, YAMAHA Drums 3% Gift certificates from $5 to ??? _ 3% The greatest selection of Print Music Arde COME TO THE LARGEST FULL LINE MUSIC STORE ON THE NORTH SHORE + North Vancouver 1615 Lonsdale: Ave. 986-0: