Toronto, ON-based artist Dinah Thorpe has unveiled her brand new album, For The Birds, which features the lead single, “The Spring Flowers”.
For The Birds showcases the work of an artist who has arrived. It is thoughtful and danceable, intricate and beautiful, and like the album’s music, Janet Kimber’s iconic cover photographs display both Thorpe’s softness and her muscle. The record is comprised of 10 new fully original tracks, all written by Thorpe herself, as well as an enchanting cover of the Kacey Musgraves song, Slow Burn, and album closer, Karpas, which features words from the Haggadah.
For Thorpe, the album title has three meanings.
“First, I realized I was singing about birds a lot, and joked that I should name the album for them. Then I learned the meaning of the phrase – worthless, unimportant, like horse droppings in the street – and I liked the double meaning,” she explains. “It’s a sort of tongue-in-cheek reference to life as a working artist. Most recently, I realized that “for the birds” can also mean “for the women,” and so of course I am down with that one as well. It’s all sort of serious and sort of a joke, which is perhaps a good introduction to my artistic work more generally.”
“I wrote The Spring Flowers in the early days of COVID in Toronto,” Thorpe adds. “Everything was shutting down and life was really scary and uncertain. In the midst of it, the most spectacular spring arrived. It was the strangest time of terror and beauty.”
Check out “For The Birds” below, and find out more about Dinah via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Dinah Thorpe and I write and produce music in Toronto.
Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.
I sing and make beats. I like to bring together organic and electronic sounds, and to play with loud and soft, deep and light. I grew up singing in choirs and singing with my sister, and so there are almost always layers of harmonies in my songs.
Sometimes I cry when I write songs and sometimes I dance. They seem to have similar effects on others. I hope my music can be useful for people as company and/or as therapy—especially in these lonely times.
How have you been keeping creative during the pandemic?
I feel very lucky to have a little music studio at home, where I can play instruments and sing and write. I miss hearing live music so much, and I also miss singing for people, but writing music alone in a room is my major preoccupation—and a good one for a pandemic as it turns out. I also do a lot of gardening and making things for my house.
Listening to albums has also been so helpful for me. Aldous Harding’s Designer record basically got me through the first few months of COVID! And books, hooray for books.
If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?
Probably The Spring Flowers. All of the pieces that I like to work with are there.
Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?
I am really enjoying the new Jennifer Castle record, Monarch Season. TR/ST and A Tribe Called Red are also among my current favs.