LUCIDMEDIA

Diana Panton’s Journey from then to now

Written by Lisa M. Knapp Thursday, 21 May 2009 14:57

High school teacher by day, jazz singer by night, the beautiful Diana Panton took the stage at The Hamilton Studio Theatre following a feature documentary screened for Earth Week. This young, Juno-nominee from Steel Town certainly has a busy schedule but she admits that she’s having the time of her life.

Prior to the show, this Lucid writer had the opportunity to have a little one-on-one time with this young talent. She mulled over the past, the present and the future during our conversation and I must say, she has lived quite the life between traveling to Paris and waiting 10 years to make her first recording. She’s found many passions in life and has chosen to live them out no matter how hard she has to work.

Lucid Forge: Regarding the Juno’s, you went, how was the experience?

Diane Panton: It was fun. It was the first time I’ve been and it was new and interesting. The first night was a meet and greet with a lot of people I didn’t know and some I recognized. The following evening they hosted a big gala dinner where the majority of the categories are presented. Though many winners were not in attendance, big names such as Sam Roberts and Sarah McLachlan were there.

The third night was the big televised event. It began with the red carpet, which I tried out (though I skipped out of the media line because it was a little overwhelming). I took the short access to the VIP lounge before heading to the big show that gets aired on TV. The nominees were all seated together in the arena and another group from Hamilton, St Avila, sat in front of me.

LF: It sounds like it was a good time.

DP: It was … and the weather and city were great too. I had a chance to explore Vancouver during the day and found it to be a very welcoming city.

LF: Tell me a little bit about yourself in terms of your musical journey!

DP: I started playing violin when I was 7, that was my first instrument and I played that until Grade 10 in school. At 13, my sister dared me to audition for a musical, so I did and ended up being cast in the lead. It was a demanding singing role and by the time the show was to be presented, I muddled through with laryngitis.

There was an opera singer in the audience that gave me a dozen roses and said I must never do that again. She told me it was imperative that I get proper singing lessons and stop performing in front of 500+ audiences with no microphone! It was three to four years later that I began classical training with Dr. Joan Heels. She happened to live a few blocks away which was convenient as we had no car and I could walk there.

LF: When did you take up jazz?

Though I was studying classical voice, I had a keen interest in jazz after discovering my dad’s jazz vinyl collection around the age of 17. There happened to be a community-based jazz big band that rehearsed at my high school, the Hamilton All-Star Jazz Band – so I tried out and was eventually accepted. I performed with that band for a number of years and we played original arrangements by Quincy Jones and others. We twice travelled to Europe to play top jazz festivals and I met many musicians that have continued on successfully in music, such as pianist David Braid, Jeremy Fisher, Chris Gale and Dan Snaith, aka Cariboo. The band was a very fruitful place for people to jump off from.

The HASJB also provided an opportunity to meet Don Thompson one of Canada’s leading jazz musicians. The HASJB opened a show for a jazz trio including Thompson and after the concert he approached me about attending the Banff Centre for the Arts, which is one of the country’s top training grounds for aspiring jazz musicians. I auditioned at age 18 and was accepted. I felt I was in a little over my head there, most of the other musicians had completed music studies at Berklee, for example, and I had only been singing jazz for a year at that point. But Don was a great mentor for me. We had an opportunity to perform together and he said when I was ready to make an album I should call him. I didn’t feel anywhere close to ready at that point, but I was thrilled by the invitation and definitely kept it in mind.

LF: When did you take him up on his offer?

[Well,] I didn’t enrol as a music student at university, but I did stay in the HASJB while completing my French studies at McMaster. After completing my masters in French Lit, the university invited me to teach in France on their behalf. It had been approximately 10 years since I had last spoken with Don Thompson, but I finally felt ready to record, so I called him and asked if he would be interested in going into the studio upon my return from France.

While in France, I was alone a lot so it was perfect because I was able to mull over the upcoming recording. Once back in Canada, Don and I invited Reg Schwager, one of Canada’s finest guitarists, to join us in the studio. We were so pleased with the trio sound on the first album that we kept the same instrumentation for the second [Juno-nominated] album. We have just finished recording a third CD which will be officially released in the fall.

LF: What is the name of the new album?

DP: I have not fully decided yet, but it is falling into place.

LF: What are you looking forward to for the future?

DP: I am excited about the new album. I always think ahead and I have full concepts of albums ready long before we get into the studio to record them. When I’m finished one CD, I always start working on the next one. It’s fun to have ideas, put them through the artistic process and see them come to be.

I never really anticipated all this and it was really not on my list of things to do, but it has become a big part of my life and I have no complaints and I am really happy about it.

LF: It sounds like you never really knew what direction you were going.

DP: And I still don’t. Although I have a very clear idea about which direction I want to go with the creation of the albums, after that, I can’t anticipate what will happen with them. I can’t anticipate the unanticipated. All I do know is that I love working with Don and Reg and it is an absolute treat to create music with them.

LF: So you preformed during Earth week. Why did you want to mark this event?

DP: I think that it is wonderful that this event is being hosted in Hamilton. The "Steel City” doesn't always project the best eco-friendly message to outsiders and yet we have many beautiful green spaces and an arts community that is generally very environmentally conscious. I believe Hamilton and all cities need to do their utmost to be earth-friendly as soon as possible ... [But] we still have a lot of work to do in this regard.

LF: Do you feel our planet needs to be more consciously aware of "greener ideas," or do you feel it is useless and that the planet is already doomed in this regards?

DP: We absolutely need to be more consciously aware of greener ideas! The human race has caused a lot of irreversible damage and we continue to make poor choices with very little thought for the consequences of our actions. It saddens me to drive through what used to be the countryside and see valuable farmland in the greenbelt area, in particular, being swallowed whole by building developments. Some of the best agricultural land in all of North America is right here and we are not protecting it as we should.

There are also rising complaints of animal infiltration in residential areas and yet few people stop to consider the fact that we are destroying animal habitats at an alarming rate and on vast scale.

Still, I would like to hope that with the appropriate counter-action we could turn things around or at least stop the accelerated rate of destruction. I believe education is key here, and we need to increase public awareness so that people have all the facts and can make the appropriate choices. The government also has to become more responsible and start focusing on the long-term implications of its decision on a national and global level.

LF: Do you live a "greener"/energy conscious life?

DP: At the end of high school, I spent some time in the rainforests of B.C. with Greenpeace in protest of the logging of old-growth forests.

LF: Wow you have done a lot in life in such a short period of time,

DP: It was an eye-opening experience on numerous levels. Firstly, the sheer beauty of the Canadian landscape was breathtaking, but to see all of that intact and then suddenly shaved to the ground was extremely shocking and disturbing. I also learned that you often cannot depend on what you read in the papers for the truth. What I saw first-hand, and the accounts I later read of the events, were so diametrically opposed that I seriously began to question everything.

For example, I now do my research when purchasing products, especially those that claim to be green, as many companies are using the trend for earth-friendly products as a marketing tool. I also try to buy my produce directly from farms and I buy organic as well. I have tried to make my home as environmentally-friendly as possible and I take frequent walks to keep my connection with my environment alive.

LF: What is your motto?

DP: Life's too short for bad tunes.

LF: Do you have any advice for younger audiences looking to pursue a career in music?

DP: Be yourself.