Yasmine Van Wilt has accomplished more in a couple of decades than the average person would in a lifetime. Not only does she have a Ph. D. in Creative Writing — which she's taught at some of the world's most prestigious universities — she's also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and the Canadian ambassador to Greenpeace's climate change action marches. When she's not acting or winning awards for her work in literature or Earth's preservation, Van Wilt stays busy playing guitar and singing in her bluesy Americana band, Van Wild. 

Hometown: Montreal

Current residence: Nashville & New York

How would you describe your music to people who had never heard it before?

Van Wild is a solo project; I am aiming to write music that challenges mainstream narratives of history. These songs explore stories of women that have been written out of the mediatized, documented historical narratives. My aim is to empower young women to see themselves as forces of nature; I am hoping young women listen to my work and feel that they are being represented, spoken-to, remembered: I want to make the stories of women important, part of the throbbing centre of our evolving Millennial Zeitgeist.

When were you first influenced by music, and who were some of those inspirations?

I am as much influenced by music as I am by critics, writers and activists. I find the work of Mary Woolstonecraft has been crucial to my evolving voice as a writer-artist. Marina Abromovich is possibly my greatest artistic influence; I so appreciate her comfort with danger, with the stakes necessary to include, to challenge audiences. Margaret Atwood ranks amongst the writers who have most impacted by thinking about writing; Pete Seeger, Richie Havens and Lucinda Willliams have had formative influences on my notion of narrative, the role of art in society, the relationship between story and the act of storytelling. I believe art exists to form an important dialogue between the populous and a higher, collective consciousness. I believe, like the ancient Greeks, that the act of making and performing music, theatre and writing is a direct action of citizenship. I feel I am making a worthwhile contribution to society when I am helping to advance dialogue about domestic violence, climate change, mental health, the role of the citizen…that dialogue makes this work meaningful for me.

How did the band start?

I’ve been writing and performing for 15 years. This is my newest performance art-music project. I have brought in wonderful collaborators since the project’s beginning, creating band sounds, bringing my writing and compositions to life. It is a joy to work with people like Dominic John Davis who are far greater at what they do than I am at my bit; I am very challenged by our collaboration. I think it is important to be the least talented person in the room. I am growing, hard and fast.

 
How did the band's unique sound come about?

My voice naturally lends itself to the blues; I have always have a natural inclination to the folk genre because I am, first and foremost, a storyteller. With a range more akin to that of a man’s these narratives allow me to challenge every aspect of the way women are perceived, even aurally, in the media. The collaborators bring rock, bluesrock and country tonality to my otherwise naturally folk-like writing.

What's the coolest experience the band has had so far?

I have just joined forces with Michelle Obama’s Change Direction campaign; I will be working with The Bellamy Brothers and many other bands to contribute music to this campaign; this is an extraordinary opportunity to help challenge the existing narrative about mental health, to challenge negative stigmas.

What's the songwriting process like for you?

I am a workhorse; I don’t think anything comes particularly easily to me. Before recording a song, I tend to go through an extensive period of performance, tweaking, exercise, massaging of melody. It takes an extraordinary amount of work to make something appear simple. I do extensive research; most of my songs begin with my own examination of personal experience. Bluebird and Momma explore my experiences of sexual and domestic abuse. I looked to greater contexts, far beyond my own to examine how women across space and time have dealt with this kind of trauma. Bluebird follows a woman refugee who is pursued by an obsessive jailor; she is a Hugenot, one of the early immigrants/colonizers of Quebec. I tried to parallel my own experience with that of contemporary refugees; I am trying to reverse my own vulnerability, to make a conversation about what women are dealing with today. My own experiences are small in comparison to what women face in countries ravaged by war, pestilence and conflict.

How do you balance your life as a musician with all of your academic endeavors?

My academic work serves my artistic work and vice versa; I have been lucky that my academic work has helped support my artistic work. It has given me the space and and time to develop my voice, to understand where I fit in the pantheon of music and the arts today. Being a Mellon Fellow is an extraordinary gift; I feel very lucky to have the support of this grant to continue exploring my work, post PhD. The RSA (Royal Society of the Arts) have also been very good to me. I appreciate the support of academia, of academics.

How did Innocence and Awakening come to be?

My father was my best friend; we worked closely together all my life. He began writing this double volume when I was a child. When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, I made it my mission to see the work published, to help him achieve his dream of “reaching a wider audience”. I decided we needed to have an additional spoken word volume so that we could do this, so we could reach people who like audiobooks, who like Americana music and spoken word poetry. It was a long labor of love, for he and I. The Bellamy family and my family have a history of inter-collaboration and partnership. I was very lucky to work with Jesse and Noah to create the audiobook. I feel they brought a great deal to the project. It also brought my father tremendous joy in the last month of his life. This remains the only professional recording I have of my father’s voice; it is my most precious “possession”; it is a joy to share it, for others to hear him speak his beautiful work. It is both sacred and profance; this work is profound. He was an extraordinary poet, entirely at home in the void-like space between life and death. He lived without fear; thus, his poetry is fearless. It delves into places most of us would rather avoid, the very crevices of the ego.

What was it like for you to work on this project?

It has been the most important creative project of my life; I cherish this opportunity. I take my responsibility, to help build and share my father’s legacy with the utmost importance. I feel as though, somehow, I am helping him to continue beyond the ether. It is heart-wrenching but important. 

What kind of impression do you think will be left upon readers?

I believe people will be left with a deep sense of comfort and catharsis; I hope people feel the same sense with my music. Both my father and I were motivated by the desire to get far below the skin, to tap into some kind of direct communication with the audience.

 
If there's one thing you wish everyone on the planet knew about you what would it be?

I don’t really feel knowing much about me is important; I think it would be really wonderful if we all shared a little more love and worked at being less hateful. The obsession with celebrity and the celebration of the individual has probably done a lot of harm to our evolving sense of community. I’m definitely a humanist, in the real sense of the word, but I also feel humans really aren’t as important as we think we are. We just need to stop screwing things up for a minute.

What's next for you/the band?

I am recording a follow-up album, working hard at the performance-art show that goes with it, filming the music video for my single with The Bellamy Brothers and cracking away at my collaboration with the Change Direction foundation. I am also working at a women’s international political performance festival; my buddy Amy Jephta is helping me; she’s one of the most brilliant writers on the planet. Please check her out! She’s a gem.