FeFe Dobson

Walking the line somewhere in between fellow female Canadian pop-rock vocalists Alanis Morissette and Avril Lavigne, while adding a more metallic sound and extremely personal lyrics all her own, 18-year-old FeFe Dobson seems poised to be the next angst-ridden voice to come down from the North and take over the American airwaves. Already an experienced songwriter, having written songs and recorded demos since she was only 11 years old, Dobson is set on making it to rock superstardom, which she might just do when her self-titled debut album is released on Dec. 9 via Island Records, the label she ultimately ended up signing with after being courted by several major companies, including pop powerhouse Zomba/Jive Records. Recoil spent a few minutes talking with Dobson about her brief but busy past as a recording artist and, hopefully, her long future.

Recoil: What was it like when Zomba/Jive Records first took interest in you earlier in your career?
FeFe Dobson: It was really an honor, first of all, to have a label like them interested in me. And that was when I was about sixteen and they were really looking forward to signing me and they had a vision for me and their vision wasn't my vision, so that's why I kind of walked away from that.

R: Do you think that the music you've made now will help people look at teen music, or music made by teen artists, differently?
FD: Yes. With my music, I think that it will touch people and people will relate to it, from teenagers to adults. There're so many topics on the album that I think that it will be very universal.

R: I've read that one of your biggest influences as a songwriter is Silverchair's Daniel Johns, who is another artist who started out very young. What is it about his music that you identify with most?
FD: When I first heard the album Neon Ballroom is when I really decided to write, which is when I was twelve or thirteen. And it was just the way he spoke, the way he put his lyrics down, it was just about his life and his depression and growing up it was really hard for me so I understood what he was going through and he just really spoke to me.

R: When did you start working with your producer and co-songwriter Jay Lavine?
FD: Well, I was actually passed around from producer to producer when I was working with Zomba, and one of the producers I was working with brought Jay on board on the project to work with me and I didn't really know I was going to work with Jay and Zomba didn't know at all. And then when they found out, they freaked out, and they were like, 'We don't want you to work with him.' But [in] the first ten minutes we met we wrote a song, so there was chemistry right away, so that's why I had to decide between the company or Jay.

R: What is your writing process with him like?
FD: It's really, really good. We do it very differently every time. Sometimes I'll come up with a riff and I'll have old lyrics that I'll bring to the table, or sometimes he plays a guitar riff and I sing something over it. It really depends, but he always tries to dig something out of me, about my life, and that's what we talk about.

R: What do you like about working in America so far?
FD: I love it, I mean, you walk into America [and] you just feel so great. It's just awesome. And being in Canada is awesome, too, because Canada's home and then America's this place where [I] can be free almost. I love America.

R: What were some of your earliest live shows like?
FD: Well, with this project I've only been performing this material for about a year and a half, but before that I was always performing, but with this material the live shows have always been pretty intense. I think they're becoming stronger because we keep rehearsing them and we keep doing them and the more shows you do, you know, the more you get better at it. The live show is a very strong aspect of me.

R: Who would you like to tour with?
FD: I would want to tour with The Vines. They would be my favorite group to tour with.

December 2003