By Stan Ashbee
Amanda Marshall’s open-ended Dirty 30 tour kicks off next month in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.
“We’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of my debut album,” Marshall said.
Marshall will be in Nanaimo for a sold-out performance Nov. 18 at The Port Theatre and in Duncan at the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre Nov. 22 for a sold-out performance.
“I can’t believe it’s been 30 years.”
Growing up, Marshall was always aware music could be a vehicle to see the world. “It was something that was really important to me. I always wanted to travel. I knew I wasn’t going to have a lot of opportunities to travel outside of work, outside of my job.”
“I got really lucky. I picked a job that sent me around the world. I’ve been to most of the places I really wanted to see,” she noted. “I think we forget, even though you’re travelling internationally, you forget Canada’s huge. There are so many places I’ve not seen.”
“When you get a chance to go someplace in your own country, you haven’t seen, it’s like discovering gold in your own backyard,” Marshall added, who grew up in Toronto, ON.
To get to see the country, Marshall said, is incredible. “You’re reminded everyday of what a vast melting pot we really are. It’s amazing.”
Marshall’s perspective as a Canadian musician comes from travelling internationally and seeing how Canadians are received. “As a Canadian, particularly as musicians, you really do get to see places other people don’t get to see.”
“The reception you get as a Canadian is remarkable because Canada has a phenomenally positive reputation around the world, no matter what you do,” she shared. “When I was coming up there was that old joke of always make sure you have your Canadian flag on your backpack to let people know we’re very close to the United States, but we’re not them.”
Canadians have their own distinct identity, which has become transcendent over the last few years, Marshall said. “You can’t go anywhere in the world without somebody knowing who The Weeknd or Drake is. We’ve infiltrated every part of the culture, quietly.”
As for Marshall’s plethora of hit songs, people ask her all the time if she ever gets tired of singing the same songs, including Let It Rain, Birmingham, and Dark Horse.
“They’re my songs. Why would I get tired of singing them? I feel tremendously lucky to be a catalogue artist. It’s a gift. It’s a privilege to have a bunch of songs people want to hear wherever you go. People get excited and they know the words,” Marshall explained. “That’s why we make music. You’re trying to connect with an audience and maintain that kind of connection with an audience.”
As a music fan, Marshall loves going to shows to hear the songs she knows. “Play it like the record. I want people to feel like they’re getting to experience what they paid for and what they came for. We’re here to entertain people.”
Music is supposed to be the physical expression of an emotional experience, Marshall noted. “We’re here to make a connection with the audience. I’m not here to bamboozle anybody. We’re not here to rewrite the material and confuse people.”
Marshall said there’s an old expression in the music business, “When is the time to play your new material? Never, but we’ve been lucky audiences have embraced the new songs.
It doesn’t mean it’s a deluge of new material. Once you earn the trust of the audience, and they feel like you know what you’re doing and you’re here to take them on a ride, they’re willing to go on that ride with you.”
Marshall is also sharing the stage for a couple of dates with fellow Canadian singer and songwriter Tom Cochrane.
As for other Canadian musicians, Marshall noted she doesn’t run into them that frequently.
“When Sass Jordan passed away recently, I posted a thing on Instagram saying people assume we all know each other. Some of us do, but a lot of us don’t. You sort of see each other at gigs. Sass was somebody I didn’t know at all,” Marshall added. “I met her for the first and only time in 2024. She was on right before me at a festival in Quebec. I was a huge fan of hers. I got to tell her how much I admired her. I was a fan all the way back to the days when she used to sing with a band out of Quebec called The Box. I used to go and see her. It was an interaction that really felt familiar to me. I walked away from it feeling like we could be friends. You don’t necessarily feel that way about everybody. We knew a lot of the same people. We had a lot of the same experiences. We had a lot of stuff in common. She was really funny and very charming.”
In the future, Marshall is debating putting out some sort of holiday record. “I like other people’s Christmas music, but I haven’t been dying to put out a Christmas record, but I might do that.”
Marshall also believes music is cyclical and has come back around to the age of the single, where people are putting out singles online every six months or a year.
“I don’t know if we’re going to see a lot of albums anymore, which I don’t necessarily think is a bad thing. That has its place, certainly. I’m excited to pursue every flight of fancy. I like the immediacy of it,” she said.
