Andrea Superstein is a mix of everything.
The singer and songwriter who performs in English, French and Hebrew got her start on the stage in musical theatre, where she performed in “all the old classics” from Annie to The Sound of Music to My Fair Lady.
Now the singing-and-dancing actress sticks to music, but won’t be contained to one or two genres. Instead she said she inhabits the Venn diagram space where jazz, pop and indie music meet. And she keeps a little of the theatrical in her act.
“I like to hear the stories behind the music and get to know the performer in a more personal way… I really understand the importance of the connection between the audience and the performer,” she said. “It’s not a concert. It’s a dialogue in some ways.”
When she was 18 years old, Ms. Superstein went to Israel to learn about her heritage. During her six-month stay, she immersed herself in the culture and wondered how people could go about their daily routines in the midst of such conflict.
“How do people live through this all the time… and still have this intense drive and love to live?” the young Ms. Superstein asked herself.
How did they board the bus every day knowing it was always a possibility that the bus could blow up? How did they move so freely through their lives without being controlled by fear? How did they live knowing they could die?
Filled with questions, Ms. Superstein began writing lyrics in Hebrew, puzzling over the opposites she saw in the streets.
Years later, while she was developing her latest album, Worlds Apart, the lyrics from her time in Israel “kind of re-emerged” and she set them to music.
Her Hebrew song – called Hakol – and the album as a whole are about “reconciling all of these opposites” between love and fear, strife and freedom, and loneliness and connection.
“There are two sides to everything, even in one situation,” she said, and has the song to prove it.
While she uses the same lyrics for two renditions of Star Blues, the songs are otherwise opposites. She describes one version as “grey and stoney… kind of heartbreaking… and full of longing,” while the second version is exuberant, includes a horn section and is “really easy to groove along to.”
Ms. Superstein, who is from Vancouver, will be stopping in Invermere on her fall tour across Western Canada. She will be performing at Pynelogs Art Gallery and Cultural Centre on Tuesday, October 2nd.
She’s is “really stoked to get on the road” and is especially enthusiastic about her gig in Invermere after having played in town a few times before.
“It’s one of my all-time favourite places to be. It’s a magical place,” she said.
