Sept. 2, 2009 - Elizabeth Fischer

Our guest for this show is singer for Vancouver's Dark Blue World, Elizabeth Fischer.


The Dark Blue World website has this to say about her:

"Brecht didn't have any influence on my writing, 'cause I knew nothing about Brecht when I started," she explains... "Someone--I don't remember who--always said I should be singing that stuff, but I knew nothing about it. But when I did finally get presented with it, it turned out that I have a real natural affinity for it. And now, when I look at the stuff that I write, of course it has similarities, or it has a similar point of inspiration."

"We might share a certain disappointed humanism, I guess," she adds. "Although he obviously had more faith than I, since he did manage to be a Communist, which I cannot seem to manage to achieve. You cannot idealize the human situation, because human beings will disappoint you at every turn. However, kindness counts. Really, it's the only way to behave."

Those who know Fischer only casually might find that last statement strange. She can be a harsh critic of other artists' work and there is an obvious morbidity in much of her songwriting. "I write about what I see, which is none too pretty," she says. But the horror in her work comes out of her empathy for the unhappy and oppressed, and underneath her black humour and equally black bangs lies a surprisingly generous spirit. -

Alex Varty, Georgia Straight

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