Don't let the girl-next-door appearances fool you. Britt Meierhofer is a road warrior, a stage veteran, and can slam down a Black Sabbath version that would make Ozzy himself swoon. The Prince George singer-songwriter is making a summer out of 2014, filling it with more of her music than one act can hold. She performs under her own name, under the side solo project Goodnightmare, and with the five-piece band Crones. Together, they are keys that unlock almost every musical door in the city.
"I feel really lucky to have so many incarnations of who I am, musically," she said. "It lets me access more audiences."
The most regular Britt sightings are Thursday nights when she is the featured performer at the Twisted Cork from 7 to 9 p.m., but she tunes the guitar to Goodnightmare settings this coming Wednesday at the next outdoor Stay Downtown concert held by the Young Professionals of PG and the Downtown Prince George business improvement association.
"It's interesting to me because when I left Prince George in 2004 [she took the music program at Selkirk College, moved to the States for awhile, etc.] there wasn't much happening for musicians, or at least not much I was privy to. Now, I see it flourishing. It adds a nice energy to the city. I think business owners are starting to see the value in having live music in their establishment."
When she was on a sciences path of studies at College of New Caledonia, prior to shifting gears into music full-time, she felt less of a student movement than what Prince George has now that she's outside the varsity walls. "P.G. feels like a college town, finally," she said. That audience is behind a lot of her Goodnightmare appearances, where the songs are more frequently written in a minor key, the lyrical content is a bit darker or more personal, and she steps up the performance elements with creative guitar playing and sound looping.
"Having that edge to it is a good release for me because in everyday life, I'm pretty peppy," she said. "I'm generally drawn to music that sounds on the heavy side. I like a good, strong, happy beat like everyone does, but I also have a side that has a cynical lean to it, and I have a side that appreciates the melancholy."
The origin of the name Goodnighmare is not as dark as it might seem. It was something her sister frequently said when they were trundled off to bed as children. It was a witticism that stuck with Meierhofer all this time.
She needs her wits to survive in the new age of original music. Gone are the big record company machines dictating all forms of popular songs, perpetuating massive careers for a chosen few. In the new digital age, it is harder to win the rock 'n' roll lottery, but easier to play at least a modest role in the international music game. You have to do it mostly yourself, but you are available to more people in more ways who might actually appreciate who you are as an artist than ever before in history.
"It seems to be changing and evolving fast," Meierhofer said from inside that tumble. "You stay on top of the trends as best you can, or you ignore the trends and just plow forth. Either way, you have to work hard at it, you have to have good material and put on a good show, but if you do that, the opportunities truly are there for musicians. People seem more enthusiastic about embracing live music now, because it breaks that impersonal wall between the audience and their favourite musicians. The internet is a great way to provide information and support the tour by reaching out to people near and far, but touring is the most lucrative aspect of music for me. Most of my money comes from touring, and a smaller amount from online sales. People like to make that personal connection. As an artist, you are a product, you're a brand, so if you can make that personal connection and involve people in your process, then it all works better."
This summer alone, only half over, she has been to perform at the Hootstock Festival near 100 Mile House, the Prophouse Cafe on the Commercial Drive strip in Vancouver, the iconic Vancouver music house The Railway Club, and the Midsummer's Dream Festival here in P.G. Getting out and putting the music on the road is what will make a musician a professional, she said.
Regardless of your aspirations, you have to find contentment in the process and the results for your own sake, she said.
"All art is is a pure form of expression of your passions. If you are a cook, or a mechanic, or an accountant, if you do what you do from that inner place, an ego-less foundation, you are more likely to be successful. Art is especially that way, and people can appreciate that if they stopped to look at the ways art is involved in your everyday life. Just look up and down this block right now. The flower baskets hanging from the poles, the sign over Alison's Embroidery, the mug your coffee is in, that all took someone's creative efforts. Even that wooden chair has been machined on the flat part there so someone's cute little bum can sit in it more comfortably, and that is the combination of creativity and effort playing a role in your day. We all have energy we put into our daily tasks, so if you love what you're doing you can feel that positive energy, and you can feel negative energy too."
The audience can mix and mingle its energies with Meierhofer's creative offerings starting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the miniature park beside Dale's Heating on Third Avenue, underneath the original public art by Jean-Jacques Gigure.
