Going native

>> Eleni Mandell makes herself comfortable

COOL KID: Eleni Mandell

by SHANE SINNOTT

“I felt a bit like I was an animal in a zoo,” chuckles Eleni Mandell over the phone, describing her show the night before in La Tuque, a small pulp-and-paper town in northeastern Quebec with a population of just over 10,000, where performances by sultry, L.A.-born songwriters are no doubt rare. The occasion is a small tour of Quebec organized by Bonsound, who just released a seven-inch EP of Mandell’s first French-language songs, called Dis-moi au revoir encore.

Mandell has always been a bit of an anomaly in the music world. For over 10 years, she’s been writing songs that recall smoky nightclubs and dim lighting, with intimate pillow whispering and hints of seedy violence, all without the help of a record contract. As far back as 2001, New Yorker called her “perhaps the best unsigned artist in the business,” which has resulted in neither a contract nor discouragement. “For a long time, I’ve felt left out of the cool kids’ club of being on a big label,” says Mandell, “but the way things are now, I feel like I’m really lucky to have what I have with Ian [Pearson]”, who started Zedtone records in 2000 specifically to release her—and only her—music.

When making her sixth and latest full-length record, Miracle of Five, Mandell recorded her vocals and guitar first, and the band was added later. “It worked out really well,” she says. “It’s one of my quieter records in general, and the producer, Andy Kaulkin, wanted the vocals to have more energy, and that forced that to happen.” The result is her most accessible record to date, one that showcases her songwriting and is full of quotable lines like, “I am the dice you roll in the alley/I am the pennies that come in handy.”

Whether or not Miracle of Five, and the fact that it’s licensed to V2 in Europe, will bring Mandell a bigger audience, she isn’t sweating it. “I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m not very concerned about that, actually. I’m pretty confident that I can keep making music.

“I wish I felt this comfortable 10 years ago.”

With Torngat at la Tulipe tonight,
Thursday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m., $26