Vancouver's Only A Visitor blurs boundaries between art music and pop
The quintet founded by Robyn Jacob performs at IronFest2: Electric Bugaloo
Only A Visitor.
Coastal Jazz & Blues Society presents Only A Visitor on February 18 at 9:30 pm at the Ironworks as part of IronFest2: Electric Boogaloo.
VANCOUVER ART-POP quintet Only A Visitor blurs the lines between genres. Classically trained composer Robyn Jacob started the act in 2015 as a song-writing project to experiment with vocals and contemporary music styles, “a project in which the voices were treated as one of the main instruments, rather than a vehicle for lyrics”, Jacob tells Stir.
After graduating from university training as a composer at UBC, Jacob became interested in the works of composer György Ligeti and contemporary music by the likes of the Dirty Projectors, an indie-rock band reminiscent of 1980s new wave music.
“I was interested in anything that was weird, anything that subverted genre or played around with expectations,” Jacob says. “Being classically trained and interested in contemporary concert and art music, I was really interested in finding that spot straddled between art music and pop, and playing in that grey area.”
Jacob has been exploring that liminal space ever since and brings Only A Visitor’s genre-mashing style to IronFest2: Electric Bugaloo.
The vision of Only A Visitor came to fruition after Jacob, on vocals and keyboard, met vocalists Emma Postl and Celina Kurz, drummer Kevin Romain, and bassist Jeff Gammon through Vancouver’s DIY music scene nearly a decade ago. Throughout Jacob’s interview with Stir, she speaks of how the people she has met through the local music community has helped the band become what it is today.
“It was 2014 at the time, and I was like ‘Hey, I’m looking for some singers to join this band, and I don’t have money to pay everyone properly, but we can go for pizza afterwards with the money we get at the door,” she says. “It was the most DIY act ever. Without finding these particular folks, I don’t think the project could have gotten to where it is now.”
Only A Visitor released its first EP, Tower Temporary, in 2015, followed by its debut album Lines, which was released in 2017.
The band released its second full-length album, Technicolour Education, in 2019, which Jacob wrote during a solo music residency at the Banff Centre in 2016. It came about following a newly discovered chapter of her family’s story.
“Technicolour Education was sparked by my mother showing me her grandfather’s head tax certificate that she had found,” Jacob says. “That really brought up a lot of questions for me in terms of why I knew so little about my mom’s family history.”
Jacob explains that this information inspired multiple projects related to her identity as a member of the Chinese diaspora. One of her more recent projects, Double Happiness: Detour This Way, is a collaboration with local composer and multimedia artist Nancy Tam. “Double Happiness is a multidisciplinary theatre piece featuring songs talking about the Chinese diaspora and experience,” she says.
Prior to the onset of COVID-19, Jacob was experimenting with new ways to present music live, with both Only A Visitor and Double Happiness. “Before the pandemic, I was interested in expanding on the concert as a medium. Only A Visitor collaborated with the Kingsgate Choir, and we did a show with Mind of a Snail, which is a shadow puppet theatre company,” Jacob says. “We were thinking about expanding from simply having a band play on stage to playing with possibilities.”
Only A Visitor is now working on its latest album, Decay, which will be released in 2023. In Jacob’s words, the album explores questions such as: “What is the beauty in decomposition, changing of form, fragility? What is beautiful about death and renewal?” Jacob says that although the production of the album is finished, the band is taking its time releasing it.
“These days I’ve been thinking about how as an artist, you feel the need to constantly produce work, and constantly renew the fact that you exist,” she says. “So I’m kind of resisting making the record and letting it stew, making a bunch of videos and then putting it out, but not rushing to put it out.”
The musical project Only A Visitor is a journey in experimentation, a work of art that is always in flux. “The thing that really strikes me is that there’s no handbook on how to make art, you just blunder through it and try things out, ask people what they did and they help you,” Jacob says. “I feel like I would be nowhere without all these people offering me great advice.”
For more information, see Coastal Jazz.
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