Many girls are bending under the weight of sexual pressure and verbal and physical abuse, says Canadian singer Kandle.
She wrote the song Not Up To Me after a good friend came close to ending her life over some toxic relationships.
“You can feel alone, ridiculed, and super depressed. ... It’s just heart-breaking,” said the Montreal-based singer, whose father is 54-40 frontman Neil Osborne.
In the haunting music video, a young woman is rescued from drowning by a friend — and that’s what the singer sought to do through her tune’s lyrics.
“So many girls in the world are dealing with so much stuff,” said Kandle. “There’s sexual pressure on girls as young as 10 these days ... I wanted to help them rise up and realize they are not alone.”
She also suffered emotionally when younger from dealings with males outside her family. Kandle didn’t want to elaborate, but expressed relief that she grew up before social media made it easier for bullying to become more publicly humiliating for victims.
“The things that can happen online and through Facebook, I’m amazed by what young kids have to go through and how awful it is.”
She feels the pressures are getting worse because women are becoming more sexualized through the media. For instance, she noted, a decade ago, no female pop performers were twerking on TV.
“It wasn’t acceptable for female singers to shake their bare bums.”
Kandle, who performs with her band The Krooks on Wednesday at Fratters Speakeasy in Red Deer, is glad her small Montreal record label puts no demands on her, regarding appearance. “I could play in a turtleneck and it would be good.”
She released her first full-length album In Flames earlier this year, and is becoming known for writing and performing thoughtful songs that poetically express deeper feelings about situations. Even people who didn’t take her seriously for following her famous father into a music career are starting to come around.
Kandle laughingly said, “Now I hear, ‘Oh, you’re actually good’ — like it’s a surprise.”
For the record, her dad initially wasn’t thrilled she decided to be a performer after first studying photography. Osborne was worried about the financial stress his daughter would face, but was ultimately supportive.
“He said I’d have to marry rich,” said Kandle, who joked that since she’s single “there’s still hope.”
As a songwriter, she draws inspiration from “all things in life. But I tend to write when I’m in a darker mood, or feeling impacted by something. ... When I’m happy, I might write a joke song for my dog.”
Kandle wrote Gimme A Pill about the chronic migraines she experiences. “I have a crooked neck. It’s like I had an injury, but I didn’t. I have to be heavily medicated. ...”
Demon came out of watching a series of Quentin Tarantino movies and spaghetti westerns, and then thinking about how life must be easier for religious people.
“I’m envious” of believers, admitted Kandle, since they can blame bad things on extraneous forces. “It wasn’t me, it was a demon.”
The singer followed a musician friend out to Montreal from her native Victoria four years ago and is thriving in the city’s diverse cultural scene.
“I can’t imagine any other place that I can have a band like this,” said Kandle.
The Krooks includes guitarist/keyboardist Tim Fletcher, who’s former lead singer of The Stills, and lead guitarist Sam Goldberg Jr. from Broken Social Scene. Other band members are Jason Kent on bass, David Deias on drums and Felix Dyotte on guitar and keyboards.
Although Kandle and The Krooks have toured to France several times, they’ve never performed in Red Deer before, and Kandle is looking forward to it.
There’s a $5 cover for the 8:30 p.m. show.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com