Toronto-based soul and roots performer Sandra Bouza is starting a tour that will see her play shows from Sault Ste. Marie all the way to western Saskatchewan and back east into Quebec, and she’s got a stop planned for Fort Frances.
Bouza, pronounced Bo-zah, says a lot of her music taste is thanks to her mother and her life growing up between Toronto and Spain.
“I grew up between Toronto and Galicia Lugo, Spain, in the north of Spain, and my music, I would describe it as rootsy soul, definitely influenced by the soul and blues genres,” she said.
“I was raised by folky mom, and a lot of the folk music in northern Spain influenced me a lot. So I’d say it’s kind of an amalgamation of all of that.”
Bouza has been singing and playing music for a long time. She recalled playing her first paid gig at 10 years old for an event at a local banquet hall.
“My first paid gig was, I think I was 10 years old, and we were hired by a banquet hall owner to do an event, and we got paid $100 to do three songs, which was like a lot of money at that age,” she said.
“He heard us singing for a family function, and he hired us. So that was my first paid gig, and then I’ve been writing music since then, and I started playing full time when I lived in Vancouver.”
Despite loving music from a young age Bouza said that it wasn’t always clear that it would be her career.
“I went into academia, because I was kind of socialized, and convinced that you couldn’t really do music as a career,” she said
“So I went into academia, and I actually have a master’s in Museum Studies, because that’s where my life was going for a long time.”
Even over the course of her studies, Bouza was still making music.
“I lived in Scotland, I did my Master’s there, and I started a band while I was there. And, I always had one foot kind of out the door,” she said
“I did a lot of overseas work, too, in music, but when I moved back to Toronto, in 2017 that’s when I started doing my own music, kind of more seriously, investing in myself, to take it more more seriously.”
Bouza says her music has a wide array of influences, from Neil Young, to Ella Fitzgerald, to Led Zeppelin and Radiohead.
“One of my biggest influences, I have to say, without a doubt, is Neil Young,” she said.
“I’m a huge Neil Young fan. My mom was a big folkie. She was a Scarborough chick that grew up listening to Peter, Paul and Mary, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, all that stuff. So I grew up with a big folk influence. But I always say I grew up on my mom’s record collection because she also had stuff like Gustav Mahler and some opera thrown in for good measure. She was very diverse in her collection. But the biggest influence was really the folk music, and like Gallego music too, in the north of Spain, they speak a language called Galician. So I listened to a lot of that growing up too, and Spanish folk music.”
As she grew up and she explored music she was introduced to different artists.
“When I got older, I discovered jazz, Ella Fitzgerald was another turning point for me. I always say Ella Fitzgerald taught me how to sing, because I constantly tried to emulate her. I say I’ve had several kind of music brick to the head moments that really changed me. Neil Young was my first, I’d say, Ella Fitzgerald was my second. (American blues singer and guitarist) Howlin’ Wolf was my third, specifically, Smokestack Lightning by Howlin’ Wolf. Then other ones were, like, Led Zeppelin Radiohead. So, I’ve got a lot of big influences, which kind of made it hard for me to narrow in on a music genre for myself.”
As she embarks on this tour, Bouza said she’s excited to see more of the country.
“It’s my first kind of decent sized, long tour in Canada, and it’s my first time in northern Ontario,” she said.
“So I’m pretty excited about that, because I really love Canada, and it’s such a big country, and I love being able to see more of it, and also play music. I’ve toured Europe a couple times as a backing singer or an opening act, but I’ve never done as much as Canada as I’d like to. So this is very exciting for me.”
Tickets for Sandra Bouza’s show on Monday, Apr. 27, at the Townshend Theatre are available at tourdefort.com, the Fort Frances Public Library or Ski’s Variety.
