Eden Rohatensky, formerly of Yorkton, has launched a new solo album; 'Amateur'.
Rohatensky, now living in Regina, said recording a solo album was something she sort of evolved to want to do.
"After playing with Orphan Mothers and Eden & Escrow for a while, I really wanted to make something entirely by myself," she said. "All of my band mates have some sort of real musical training and are extremely talented, but that also meant that I had to take a step back from the instrumental side of things. I really wanted to make something that I could perform live by myself.
"I had also been wanting to learn how to record my own stuff and make it sound decent.
"I decided to make an EP. I had a few songs kicking around and thought I'd just try my hand at recording them while going on a small trip to visit my mom in Saskatoon. I ended up writing seven more songs and recording them all within three days and all of a sudden I had an album. I recorded them entirely in mom's craft room in Saskatoon while drinking far too many beers."
While her first solo effort, Rohatensky said she likes the way 'Amateur' turned out.
"Very, as I'm writing this Amatuer hit the #1 spot on Bandcamp, the distribution platform that I used to sell it," she said." I've had a lot of success with it, despite how rushed of a release it was - and I'm really proud of the way it sounds."
To further help promote the new disk the track Ghost is available for radio stations to add to their rotation.
"I've sent it out to a few and am working to get it out to as many as possible," said Rohatensky.
So what style is the music?
Like many musicians these days, Rohatensky does not wear a single label comfortably.
"Most people describe it as folk, some people are describing it as a folk-punk hybrid," she offered. "There's a mix of a cappella songs, simple songs with guitar, and the last song (Amateur) features me playing patty cake with myself."
As you might expect from the description of her music, Rohatensky has diverse influences.
"I grew up listening to a mix of pop and punk and then slowly into acoustic music," she said. "I never really liked softer music at all until I started playing shows and people would say that I sounded like someone and I should go to check them out.
"My main influences now are Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Jenny Lewis and Father John Misty. I listen to different stuff every day but these people are rad solo artists that make me feel all happy inside and stuff."
As far as her own music, Rohatensky said it has been interest of hers for years.
"I started by playing talent shows at my elementary school in Yorkton - St. Michael's. When I was in Grade 4, I decided I'd write a song and perform it for the school after a horrendous performance of Britney Spears' 'Sometimes'," she said.
"A procrastinator at heart, I left actually writing the song until the point that I hit the stage and free-styled it. It was a disaster and resulted in me running off the stage crying and the students and staff trying to hold in laughter. Looking back, it was probably kind of adorable.
"Since then, however, I've sat down to write music almost weekly."
The effort to write songs had Rohatensky doing more with her music.
"I started playing shows after mentioning that I'd been writing music for a while to my friend Sean Craib-Petkau - who is now an amazing barber at Parlour Barber Shop and whose music has always astounded me," she said. "He kindly asked me to play at one of his CD release shows and I've been playing music ever since.
"After playing by myself for a few years I decided I wanted to make an EP. I met my bandmate in Eden & Escrow, Jerry Shen, while attending University of Regina for Computer Science and he offered to record my EP, Hobbies. My guitar talents at the time were limited and he became frustrated by this during recording so he ended up playing on the EP and eventually we decided to be in a band together. After playing as a duo together for a while and eventually recruited Cassandra Loustel and Ryan Bennett and became a full band."
And the evolution has continued.
"I eventually felt that my songwriting had become somewhat stagnant and wanted to explore new genres," said Rohatensky. "After talking about this on Twitter, Jon Neher reached out to me and we decided to form Orphan Mothers. Orphan Mothers is a chillwave electronic pop band and it's been really great working with Jon, who has been one of my favourite musicians for years through his work with one of my best pals, Nick Faye."
And now comes promoting the solo album, and taking on other musical projects.
"I haven't played anywhere with this project yet as I decided that I wanted to debut the album first, but I'm in the process of planning some tour dates across Saskatchewan and hopefully Manitoba and Alberta," said Rohatensky. She added, "Orphan Mothers and Eden & Escrow both have releases coming up, and I'd really like to tour. I also kind of want to make a few music videos, and try to collaborate with different artists as much as possible."
You can purchase the disk at http://edenthecat.bandcamp.com/releases
