Bohrn to play the music of Charlie Brown

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This article was published 28/11/2022 (1275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After two years, 85 per cent of people will quit playing their instrument, according to an article published by Simply. People will quit playing for a variety of reasons: loss of interest or a lack of time, among others. Some people do manage to keep playing and sometimes even make a career out of it. One example is a bassist, vocalist, songwriter, Neelin graduate, and former Brandon Sun columnist, Natalie Bohrn.

Bohrn is a musician raised in Brandon, who graduated from École secondaire Neelin High School in 2009. She attended Brandon University, earning many scholarships, such as the President’s Scholarship for the Brandon Jazz Festival, the J.W. “Bill” Cowan String Bursary, and the Westman Communications Group/880 CKLQ/94.7 Star FM Scholarship in Music. From there she began a career in music.

Bohrn is the bassist and singer for an indie-rock band called Slow Spirit. She has also played in many touring bands such as Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards, The Crooked Brothers, Fish & Bird, and Heavy Bell. With these bands, she has toured Canada and several countries, including Beligum, England, Scotland, Germany, Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States.

Currently, Bohrn is rehearsing for “A Charlie Brown Double Bill.” Seeing as Bohrn is such a talented local musician and is preparing for a Charlie Brown show with the Manitoba Theatre of Young People, we thought it would be interesting to reach out to her and ask some questions regarding her life as a Brandon-born musician, and about the show.

Neelin: How did your musical experiences at Neelin influence you? What exactly did you do?

Natalie Bohrn (NB): I was definitely influenced by Carolyn Gwyer, by her amazing hard work as a teacher. You see, I was involved in all the choir programs and all the extracurricular choir projects, like the Christmas caroling and the Serenaders. It really gave me a sense of just how you can make music, that there’s so many opportunities to make music in the world. And, you know, you can just go out singing to people in their workplaces sometimes. I did the musical theatre and the major productions, and I think it really set me up for the work that I’m doing now.

Neelin: Were you in the pit for any of those shows or on stage?

NB: Both, really. Sometimes on stage performing, sometimes in the pit playing.

Neelin: When and why did you choose the double bass as your instrument?

NB: I was just hanging around with my best friend at the time who played guitar, and we thought it would be cool to be in a band, so I got a bass so we could just play along together, and it went from there.

Neelin: What other instruments did you pick up?

NB: Piano and guitar.

Neelin: What was it that attracted you to playing bass?

NB: At first it was just so I could play along with my friend who already played guitar.

Neelin: Do you recall the first band you played with or gig you played?

NB: It was actually for a Harry Potter book launch, the sixth book, I think. It was a street party at an independent book shop that doesn’t exist in Brandon anymore.

Neelin: What would you say is your most important moment or decision in your career as a musician so far?

NB: I mean, importantly to me, a moment where I decided or felt that music was the right thing to keep doing and keep prioritizing, was when I was at the Westman Youth Honour Choir program, at Camp Wannakumbak. And we thought, you know, all my friends were making music. And I realized this is the best thing to do with my time. And that was something I realized pretty early on.

Neelin: What’s a gig that really sticks out in your memory?

NB: I can recall some. For instance, at the Shetland Islands in Scotland. There’s a folk festival there, where they just have such an amazing culture for music, such an appreciation. I remember playing there and travelling so far by plane and by boat to get to these islands, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and performing music for these people who have this strong love of music. That was with Laura Cortese, an artist based in Boston. And also with her, I remember playing a music festival in northern Sweden. We’re at a place called Korrö, where people have been gathering for thousands of years and playing music and coming together. So that felt like a very special place to play music as well.

Neelin: What can you tell us about your current show? What exactly excites you about it?

NB: The Manitoba Theatre for Young People is producing “A Charlie Brown Double Bill.” And what excites me about it is that it’s just excellent — the charm, the nostalgia. And for people to just experience joy and have a sweet holiday feeling. They’re hopefully with their friends and family after so many years of not being able to gather and enjoy music. I think that’s really special, too.

Neelin: When you’re playing or touring solo or as a side person, you’re playing a lot of original music. How daunting or challenging is it to face a score that so many people know so well that they’ve grown up with for generations?

NB: It’s not that hard, because it’s great music. That’s all writing on the part of Vince Guaraldi. It’s music I grew up with myself, so I don’t find it very hard.

Neelin: How does playing as theatre accompaniment differ from playing as a solo artist or as a side person?

NB: The theatre has perks and challenges. One thing that’s great about playing theatre gigs is that you don’t have to load your gear in and out of various venues and places and move around a lot, as you often do as a touring musician, where you’re always encountering the new scenario. But when you’re working with a theatre, you just have the same spaces, and that’s a great. It’s concrete and you know what you’re going to get into every time you play the show. A challenge with the theatre is that there’s so many moving parts with the theatre production, so you have to be very patient and focus even if you’re not called on all the time, they’ll be producing music or being creative. You just have to know your presence is required in this space, but you have to be patient because you’re not always on. You need it at every moment.

Neelin: Can you walk us through your process of how you make your music? And can you also explain the role of nature in your creative process?

NB: I find the environment really affects my creative output and I think a lot of artists would agree that that’s true. I find I love being in the space where there are less people around to influence my writing. I find being in nature is like having a kind of a blank canvas. I think I am inspired lyrically by the processes of nature like the cycle of the seasons, that I think personally, my writing lately explores.

Neelin: How?

NB: Because human beings also go through seasons of life. And the more closely you live, and by letting the seasons influence your own activities, I find them more [influential]. You can access different parts of your emotional life and personally what I love to explore in my writing. It’s all natural writing.

Neelin: You’ve been at this for a while now, long enough that you’re becoming a mentor to others.

NB: I love coaching songwriting, it’s one of my great pleasures in life.

Neelin: What kind of advice do you give to aspiring artists and/or songwriters about how to pursue their craft?

NB: I feel like the best advice I can offer to other people is that you really need help often to actually carve out the time in your weekly or daily life to make room for your creative practice, because the life you know, we’re all so busy, busier than ever, and you really need other people and deadlines to help you make that time. So my best advice is to create a group of like-minded people who write songs. You don’t necessarily have to write together, but just be accountable to each other. I find that’s the best way to make more music, to get your friends involved.

Neelin: So that’s interesting if you’ve got those two contrasting elements of being alone with yourself and your thoughts and nature, but also collaborating with a group creatively.

NB: Absolutely, yeah. I think that you often have creative people that need to step away from other people to make their work. But you don’t live in a vacuum, you need to come back and have your audience in mind as you write.

Neelin: How would you say your musical style or process of making music has evolved over the years?

NB: Yeah, it’s evolved a lot. I would say I’m super influenced by the music that I listen to and the music that I’m studying at the moment. And you know, like when I was younger, I was listening to a lot of CDs and the radio and that was influencing my writing. Now my writing is more influenced by my friends who write music, so it’s become a lot more community-oriented as I make a lot more friends and meet a lot more people who write music themselves.

Neelin: If you’ve been doing this long enough, everyone’s got a gig disaster story, so what’s your gig disaster story?

NB: I would think most of the time, if you’re playing a gig, just always brace yourself for disaster, because so many things can go wrong. You know you might be playing a gig and someone might break into your van and steal your stuff that you left in there while you are busy, or you might park your car in the wrong place and get it towed, and you have to finish your gig and then you realize your car is gone. You’re always in a new place. On stage there was the time my keyboard player’s stand broke in the middle of her keyboard solo and it was like a needle drop record. So you have to keep going, you know? Things go wrong. Just go on. Keep going.

Neelin: So if you’re Charlie Brown, you just say, “Good grief!” and continue on?

NB: Exactly. That is the major takeaway from working on the Charlie Brown show is that life is not always awesome, but you just keep going.

•••

“A Charlie Brown Double Bill” will take place Dec. 2-23 at Winnipeg’s Theatre in the Round. The musicians will also act out scenes from the beloved cartoons. It is recommended for those aged five years and older. Tickets are available online at mtyp.ca. If you are a fan or know someone who is a fan of these classic cartoons, it would be well worth your time to come and watch the show.

» Lowdin Lourenco is a Grade 10 student at École secondaire Neelin High School.