When Jann Arden rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in 1996 with her breakout hit “Insensitive,” almost no one would’ve guessed how much technology was about to fundamentally change the music industry… especially not Arden.
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But 25 years later, the now-59-year-old singer, songwriter, author and actress finds herself navigating an almost unrecognizable industry, one full of data, streams and viral internet moments. Yet, she’s far from lost—rather, she’s sharper than ever and is enjoying some of her greatest success to date. In 2019, she co-created Jann, a sitcom centered around a fictitious version of herself. Since debuting on Canada’s CTV network (and, subsequently, on Hulu for international streaming), the show has been a runaway hit, earning the distinction of the most-watched Canadian show of the year for its first season.
Following that up, she released a new memoir in October 2020, If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging, which shows her highly adept ability to reflect—and throughout 2020, she got the chance to do a lot of reflecting. In addition to taping the third season of Jann, she wrote a new album of introspective, story-rich songs, which is due in the yet-to-be-determined future. And on top of it all, on May 20, Arden will be streaming a special online concert event that’ll feature old songs, new songs, a few special covers and a plethora of meaningful stories.
So, as busy as Arden keeps herself, American Songwriter got a half-hour of her time to discuss all of her new ventures and more. While she’s been around for a few decades, she’s never lost her spark nor her stellar ability to maneuver through the industry. Talking about everything from difficult family relationships to authentic song craft to the ins and outs of TikTok to the changing economy of music, her language was precise and insightful, pointing towards the talent and wisdom of the artist herself. Read our conversation below:
American Songwriter: How have you been? What has your experience through the pandemic been like?
Jann Arden: I really leaned into it… and kinda enjoyed myself. I live in a very rural area—my nearest neighbor is a half-mile away. I feel really blessed, almost like I’ve been on the outside looking in. I’m certainly feeling the impact of the profound tragedies that are hitting people just out of the blue. It’s frustrating. Some people get through it without any problems at all and other people find themselves in trouble in a matter of hours.
But creatively, it’s been really great. I think that touring coming to a complete halt made me look inward. I finished up a book that I’ve been working on for a decade. I wrote a record this year—it’s actually recorded and finished, we’re mixing it this month. And then, we made season three of my television show. So, it’s not been idle by any stretch of the imagination. I feel very fortunate. But then, I feel conflicted because I’m looking around me going ‘My God…’ It’s so hard to wrap your head around.
AS: You mention that you were able to write a new record—do you feel like this pause gave you a chance to tap into a new headspace for songwriting?
JA: Oh for sure. I really loved what I’ve written about—and they’re things I didn’t expect to write about. Both of my parents are gone now, but my dad in particular somehow didn’t make it into my music all that much. My mom has long influenced how I’ve thought and how I’ve written—even now that she’s gone, she still informs my big decisions. All the time, I’m like ‘Well, what would my mother do?’
But I wrote quite a bit about my dad this time. There’s probably going to be around 16 songs on this record, which is insane for me. Usually, I’ll write 14 or 15 things and then 10 make it on. But this time, I want to include all of them. While it’s not that people listen to frickin’ whole albums anymore—it feels like people just release singles to Spotify now every second Sunday—I feel like my audience, the people who have been following me for a number of years, still really appreciate stories. So yeah, I think all 16 songs will make it on. It’s going to be really interesting to have people go through that journey.
AS: You’ve spoken before about having a very complicated relationship with your father. What was it like to finally write about him?
JA: Sometimes, you write things you never expected to. I have this one song in particular called ‘Glass Jar’—it’s really about having a relationship with someone you just don’t know. He’s been gone just five years and I think I’m just starting to like him. I loved him, but I didn’t like him very much. He was a typical guy that you could get along with, but he was very private and he had his own demons. I think I’m seeing that more and more now.
I was really relieved to write about him in a passionate way. Even trying to have a relationship with someone after they’re gone is a kinda new concept to me. I’ve certainly read about stuff like that before and I’ve always rolled my eyes like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But I think it is very possible to do that. So, writing about it has been very interesting.
AS: Another thing you mentioned you’ve been working on is your sitcom, which has been a huge hit in Canada and around the world. What has that experience been like? Did you ever think you’d end up being a television star?
JA: Oh God no. This particular opportunity came about in a roundabout way and I just thought ‘Well, why not?’ I sat with my co-creators and we kinda hashed out a storyline. Fast forward—we ended up just calling the character ‘Jann Arden,’ but it’s certainly not me. I thank God every day that I’m not this person and that it’s absolutely a fictitious show. Yes, it’s somebody with a music career, but it’s somebody who’s struggling for relevance. I don’t have parents anymore, but in this show my mother’s alive. I don’t have a sister, but in this show I have a fictitious sister. We kinda cherry-picked aspects of my life.
And I’m a person who’d like to think I have a good sense of humor—most of my live shows are very conversational and funny. I play my music and then I tell another story… that’s the way I’ve done it for years, it’s become my show. So, putting this concept into a sitcom actually wasn’t too much of a leap. I’m not an actor by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not like I’m performing Shakespeare. I’m just doing a bizarre version of myself. The writer’s are great, they don’t give me many diatribes. I’m like ‘For God’s sake don’t have me fucking memorize 17 paragraphs of some kind monologue.’ But a lot of my lines are ‘What do you mean?’ or ‘Hey!’ or ‘What?’ or ‘Why?’ That’s the kind of dialogue I can wrap my head around.
So yeah, I never thought we’d get it made, but we just finished the third season three weeks ago. Lots of protocall, lots of masks, lots of hand-washing, lots of eating by yourself in the trailer—but it’s possible. Hulu has been wonderful to partner up with in the states—we loved getting all of the letters, tweets and Instagram messages every day from people who were discovering the show. They all go ‘Oh my God, are you the woman who sang ‘Insensitive’ all those years ago?’ People are making all of these connections. Both seasons we aired here in Canada became the top-rated sitcom in the country… we were flabbergasted by the response. It’s been such an adventure.
AS: Another thing you’ve been working on recently is getting prepared for a big online concert on May 20—what can you tell us about that show? What was it like to put together?
JA: I think we’ve all gotten used to digesting music through the internet, but all of these things sound crappy, for the most part. We all did free livestream shows in those days—I did a few of them on Facebook. You get 15,000 people to log on and you think ‘Holy crap, I didn’t think this many people would tune in.’
So, fast-forward to a year later—I had to postpone my tour twice over the course of 2020. So, I just feel like we owe it to the fans to cheer people on and play this music in a setting that’s really polished and beautiful. The production’s great, the sound quality is world-class, the setlist is fantastic and I tell a lot of stories. There’s no audience there because of COVID, obviously—the crew has masks on, we’re all strategically placed apart on stage.
But I think it’s an opportunity to share the music and where I’m at right now in life. You’ll hear some cool new stuff as well as old favorites. So, we’re really proud of the look and the feel and the immediacy of being able to sit at home with a bowl of popcorn and watch a full-length concert.
AS: Your career has unfolded alongside some of the most incredible technological innovation in human history. How does it feel to be doing something like an online concert? Or even engaging on social media at all? Is it surreal in a way?
JA: I signed my record deal in 1992. In the early ‘90s, it was sorta the end of something and the beginning of something really cool. The grunge scene had just started gaining steam—you saw bands like Alice In Chains and Nirvana. There was that West Coast sound that was undeniably taking over the airwaves. It was a kind of music that people had never heard before. Every label was looking to sign anything like that in its wake. At the same time there was another thing happening too—Sinéad O’Connor came out with ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ in the early ‘90s and turned the world upside down. This girl who shaved her head and put Ireland on the map—she was the biggest thing to happen since U2 coming out of that country.
So, it was a really interesting time. Format was changing. Compact discs had taken over everything—vinyl was disappearing, it was sorta the last breath of the cassette. The cassette’s hand was sorta reaching up out of the water, but still sinking into the tides (although, I’m hearing lots of rumors that the cassette may well make a comeback, which blows my mind).
But we’ve seen the story over and over again—what’s old becomes new again. Now, vinyl is the biggest physical format labels have that’s actually sold outside streaming… through streaming is still the No. 1 thing. Labels are scrambling trying to figure out how to monetize streaming. You have these huge companies like Spotify who put up hundreds of millions of dollars to access these big catalogs, whether that’s Universal or Sony or independents. They pay big bucks that the labels are supposedly distributing among the artists… but, you have to understand that in order to monetize streaming, you have to have millions of fans. That’s when you start seeing money come back in—otherwise, it’s literally pennies. Just a few cents. That takes a long time to add up.
So, labels are still trying to figure out how to monetize that. Right now, artists’ currency is almost a cryptocurrency: how many times they can get someone to stream a song. That can lead to something—‘It’s been streamed 10 million times’ or ‘It’s been viewed 14 million times’—that’s the currency that matters. Although, I don’t know if it ends up lining people’s pockets. Really, you have to tour. It’s one thing to have an eight-second clip on TikTok that goes viral around the world and is ‘Liked’ by 10 million people. But where do you go from that? I’d be very unhappy if that was what my career was, if my career just existed in this virtual world. I think I’d be depressed. But for kids, it seems to be enough. It’s kinda like a glimpse of a weird kind of fame—even though it’s not really real, in my opinion.
But as far as looking at iconic people—like Elton John or Cher or Bette Midler or Barbra Streisand or The Rolling Stones or The Beatles or Pearl Jam—these artists can go out and play their music in stadiums to 25,000 people. To me, that’s the heart of music. James Taylor is in his 70s and he can sell out stadiums of 30,000 people—they want to hear ‘Fire and Rain.’
So, we’ll see what the future brings. We’re in a precarious time. It’s anybody’s game and I don’t think that anybody can predict what’s coming out.
AS: Yeah, you mention the fleeting nature of TikTok fame, or just viral-ness in general—it’s fascinating how some artists are getting a record-setting number of hits, but then their online notoriety isn’t translating to in-person success in regards to touring and building an enduring career.
JA: It doesn’t matter because it’s too swift. It’s as quick as the TikTok format is. I’m not saying that it’s going to go away, but there will be a ‘new TikTok.’ It’ll get swapped out with something else. But, you’ll never see someone touring on TikTok songs alone. The kids might show up and see some of those artists or something, but it’s not tangible. And I don’t think it’s anything you can look into the future for.
I think younger people need to really start concentrating on ‘What does having a 20 or 30-year-long career look like?’ People like Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars got in right at the edge of things changing. They were able to hang onto the old format of releasing albums and going on big tours. Taylor Swift is right on the edge of it too—she’s got a catalog that’s undeniably brilliant and she can get 30,000 fans in a room to listen to her songs. But she would never have survived TikTok fame and I doubt she would have aspired to that.
But that’s what kids have access to now, just a few seconds. Their currency is the amount of streams, but it’s not a real-life thing. The kind of music that’s the backdrop to people’s lives—the kind of music you hear at weddings and funerals or driving on long trips—I don’t think it’s turning TikTok on and listening to seconds-long clips of whatever the catchiest thing is. I think its artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday—even though they’ve long since been dead, their music is relevant and important now. Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra still stream like fucking crazy.
So, it’s all very precarious. Those 60-second hits of someone doing a dance is nothing I would ever aspire to and I don’t think I would’ve aspired to it when I was 15 trying to become a songwriter. I would rather sell 10,000 records off the back of a pickup truck, I’d rather be able to work live in my industry, pursuing my craft, playing my guitar and connecting with people on a level of emotional equality where we’re dealing with pain and grief and happiness and sorrow. I wanted to have a personal experience with people in their bedrooms over heartbreak… music is just so special to human life.
Jann Arden will be unveiling an online concert on May 20—more info and tickets are available HERE. Watch the trailer for it below:
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