Vancouver’s Bif Naked tours the East Coast this month with one New Brunswick show November 20 in Fredericton.
Autobiographies are a dime a dozen. In many ways, they’ve become just another expected rung on the ladder of celebrity culture with everyone from news anchors to chefs choosing to share their deepest and darkest secrets with anyone who will read them – 350 pages of fluff and filler that will most likely end up squatting on someone’s bookshelf, occupying otherwise valuable real estate. Thankfully, there are some exceptions.
Earlier this year, Vancouver Renaissance woman Bif Naked released I Bificus, a revealing collection of stories that highlight a life and career more exciting than most Hollywood films, complete with pimps, drugs, punk rock, mental hospitals and Methodist missionaries. And this month, she’s bringing these stories on the road with dates throughout Atlantic Canada from November 19 to the 26.
While her career as an artist includes six studio albums, several EPs and singles, nearly two dozen music videos and even a few movie appearances, I Bificus is her first published book.
“I believe making records prepared me for making books,” she said, speaking from her Vancouver home in early October. “My book took almost two years to write. Of course you can submit 200,000 words but a publisher only wants 50,000. It’s just like making a record. You can submit 60 songs but the record company only wants 10.”
“This is exactly the same process [as making a record] and so as a writer you have to be really flexible about your stories. Like, I tend to think that a story about cooking Nepali food for my dad and burning it is an interesting story but a publisher may think a story about me screwing a pimp is more interesting. Fair enough. An editor is basically like a record producer and sometimes it requires a little artistic resiliency when someone is picking apart your work.”
The concept for this tour was road tested throughout Western Canada in May following the book’s release. Instead of the full-blown rock show with laser, flash pops and a PA that will leave your ears ringing for days, Bif’s Songs and Stories Tour will blend readings and stories from the book with many of the songs they’ve inspired, with just herself and her husband/guitar player on stage.
“I didn’t want to just do a book tour where I just sat and read from the book,” she said. “I love reading at writing festivals but for this tour I really wanted to see my music fans. So this is a book tour where I can read the stories that I’ve written songs about and then play the song inspired by the story.”
“I have no idea what is going to transpire at each show,” she said. “We’ve had someone come up and propose to their girlfriend and we’ve had other people just talk about what a songs means to them. Every show is really different and it’s such an amazing experience so far.”
The East Coast leg of Bif Naked’s Songs and Stories Tour begins in St. John’s, NL on November 19 and wraps up November 26 in Truro, NS.
Bif Naked | November 20, 2016 | The Capital Complex | Fredericton, NB | Doors at 8 p.m. – Show at 9 p.m. | Buy Tickets
