canada in september for k.d. lang

The singer born in Edmonton, Alberta, celebrated a quarter-century of making records last year with the release of Sing It Loud, which she recorded with Siss Boom Bang. While 2010’s Recollection highlighted the different styles lang has worked with since emerging in the late 1980s, Sing It Loud marked the first time she had worked with a band of her choice since her first releases with The Reclines so many years ago.

“I always felt like there was a part of me that wanted to continue the cow punk thing,” lang said in a statement talking about the making of Sing It Loud. “But I didn’t want to push it. It’s something that has to arise naturally. And this was just the year. I felt it in the back of my soul. I kept thinking I was going to find this guitar player who was a lyricist and more rock oriented. And then Joe appeared.”

The “Joe” lang refers to is multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia. Introduced to him by a member of her road crew, lang and Pisapia hit it off immediately, composing two songs for Sing It Loud – “The Water’s Edge” and “Perfect Word” – during their first afternoon of working together.

“I just really struck gold when I found Joe,” lang said. “When he writes, that boy will go off like a kid. When you write from a place of naïveté or childlike expression, it’s the best because it erases the restraints of self-consciousness. Generally you pre-edit yourself, but he erases that. There’s a freedom, a liberty.”

But the collaboration didn’t end with writing songs for the album. Pisapia also serves as Siss Boom Bang’s musical director.