Edmonton

Interview: Ann Vriend (Canada) 2015 Australian Tour, January 2015

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Image courtesy of Ann Vriend
Image courtesy of Ann Vriend. Photo by Brad Gibbons.

Ann Vriend is always a popular visitor to Australia at about this time every year.

The contrasts between frozen Alberta, Canada and sizzling Australia are rarely more stark than in January/February. So Ann can hopefully leave the tissues and cough syrup behind, and look forward to sandy beaches, dazzling coral reefs, and the inside of a string of popular Australian venues on her ‘For The People In The Mean Time’ tour.

On an afternoon when frying eggs on the pavement in rural Queensland was definitely an option, Bill Quinn spoke with Ann from her sick bed in Edmonton, as she was putting the final touches on her tour, and readying to hop on a plane the following week.

It was a baking hot day in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland, and the only place to get a half-decent phone signal was from the front deck at Maleny Hotel, battling the sound spill from rumbling trucks and other traffic on the main road through town.

*** Audio file will be removed be the end of March 2020 ***

*** Audio file will be removed be the end of March 2020 ***

AV2
Image courtesy of Ann Vriend

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Ann Vriend: A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events — On Tour In Europe

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Ann Vriend: A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events -- On Tour In Europe
Ann Vriend: A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events — On Tour In Europe

Ann Vriend at The Basement in Sydney, March 2013 with Ted E. Quinn of Overheard Productions (chauffeur, cook, minder and police liaison)

Ann Vriend’s Tour Mishaps #3663 or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love BBC News In The Airport Hotel

Ann Vriend is at it again: touring relentlessly and sharing her sweet music, sumptuous lyrics and those wonderful ivories and keys in far flung locales. And she’s also up to her other signature move: having wonderfully Tati-like, British 70s comedy slapstick challenges, and farcical misadventures.

The ones that you can laugh about and blog about afterwards or during, but at the time they can be massively distressing and painful and expensive and inducing of tears of pain, tears of rage.

But with the crunchy comes the smooth. And Ann found that a rather stormy set of clouds did indeed have a silver lining.

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Interview: Ann Vriend (Canada), 2014 Australian tour

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Image courtesy of Ann Vriend
Image courtesy of Ann Vriend

Not too many summers go by in Australia these days without a tour by Canadian singer-songwriter-keyboardian Ann Vriend.

2014 continues that rich tradition.

Ann has already started this year’s tour on the Gold Coast and she’s heading south to Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales before winding things up in Brisbane later this month.

In between dips in the pool on a Saturday afternoon (and no doubt a stack of photos on social media back home to envious and shivering Albertans), Ann talked to Bill Quinn about this year’s Australian tour.

Bill Quinn: Ann, from memory this is your ninth tour of Australia. Does it get easier, or harder or different?

Ann Vriend: I definitely think it’s getting easier. I have more and more people coming on board to help me out, and the fan base is slowly growing. And also different because I’m getting more and more used to being here!

Every tour I have different shows and different itineraries, so it doesn’t get boring.

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