Bria Salmena, known as frontwoman for Canadia post-punk FRIGS and a vocalist for Orville Peck’s band, is breaking out of the box for her debut album Big Dog. For the first time in lieu of any accompaniment, Salmena is stepping into something bigger than herself. Completing Big Dog meant Salmena had to block out the noise.
Over Zoom, I learn how how some feelings of apprehension has begun to leak into her environment: “The idea of a debut record feels really daunting, and I don’t think that’s necessarily me putting that feeling on myself. That’s just what everybody else tells me. It’s really important. So I had to block that out a little bit.”
Years of playing as part of a collective, never under her own name, had a part to play in this trepidation. “I think the scariest thing is having it be… Truthfully, it’s a debut record under my name, and in some ways, that feels solidifying that this is now the box that I have to create my art in from now on, which to me is too defining.”
Apprehension at being “too defining” is a thorough theme with artist Bria Salemna, as Big Dog is an amalgamation of contradictions. With softer moments evoking Mazzy Star on ‘Twilight’ and the wilder ‘Drastic’ recalling Sharon Van Etten’s cathartic ‘Seventeen’ to mind, I was intrigued to know just what influences Salmena had amidst creating this record.
With a self-professed “spongey brain” as a songwriter, she absorbed the solemn songwriting of Adrienne Lenker, as well as Yves Tumor, in particular his 2023 release Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds). “There are certain sonic qualities and local manipulations that we really liked.”
Salmena also was drawn to Amen Dunes (“He was an artist that we both really admired for a long time, and we really liked his songwriting.”) and Berlin based RIP Swirl (“His production I really loved; I remember talking to Duncan about his record a lot”].
Big Dog comes out kicking and screaming. Opening tracks like ‘Drastic’ and ‘Backs of Birds’, transition to the contrast of ‘Radisson’ and ‘Twilight’. On her sequencing process, Salmena loosens the reigns, feeling “far too involved” to complete the sequencing herself. There is surely some workload to be found in the sequencing a record like Big Dog with Salmena describes as consisting of “a lot of colours” which she ultimately left her collaborator Duncan and her manager to construct.
“With this record because there was such an array of tempos, heavy to fast to mid to then quite slow, it was really difficult for me to think of the sequencing. A large portion of the process is that I wanted to take a step back, and I wanted to, in the spirit of collaboration, bring people in and have their interpretation.”
A debut spanning altering energies from track to track, Salmena finds frenzy on ‘Drastic’ and encounters contemplation on ‘Radisson’. The sheer contrast of Big Dog’s tracks, each fully formed, creating their own world is the product of several years of work. Contemplative ‘Water Memory’ was written long before a debut record was even a concept: “[Water Memory] was written at the end of 2020, beginning of 2021, when I was in a mandatory travel quarantine, locked in a house over Christmas by myself.”
“The actual creating and recording and playing these songs is the easiest. Not easy, but it feels the best… And it feels cathartic and natural.”
Not jumping at the chance to hear Big Dog live would be criminal. The wild energy on tracks like ‘Drastic’ and ‘Backs of Birds’ are destined to be erratically danced to in a room full of strangers. Salmena shares this excitement. “[It] feels like the best way to showcase a really vulnerable record, I guess. It feels safe.”
On her upcoming tour the singer tells me of the close comraderie she found with her on tour family, getting to play music with her Big Dog collaborator Duncan Hay Jennings as well as his partner Jamie and best friend Lucas. “It’s just like I get to be on stage with my family and travel with my family, and that.”
A ticket to her Big Dog tour will also ensure some emotional labour of your own, with “Twilight” already enshrined into the setlist as Salmena tells me, “Every time we play that live, [it] has really resonated with people.”
With Big Dog, to be released on March 28th Salmena has not run out of steam yet with the energy in already released singles “Hammer” and “Stretch The Struggle” only being amplified.
The latest single from Bria Salmena, ‘Hammer’, is out now. Listen here.
