On Friday October 27th at Gospel Music Association Canada’s
Awards two of the most popular people on the Canadian music
scene took to the stage. Seated at the piano singing backup
vocals was the incredibly talented Greg Sczebel. The lady
at the front of the stage singing lead and strumming her
acoustic guitar was Carolyn Arends perhaps the most popular
singer of Christian lyrics that this country has ever
produced.
Recently Arends released her ninth CD Pollyanna’s Attic and
it may be her best album to date. The alto voiced singer
from Surrey British Columbia on Canada’s west coast has
magically blended up tempo tunes with bold lyrics. The
woman who perennially puts the cheery smile on the face of
Christian music, this time out confronts issues that the
Christian community needs to question and come to grips
with.
The recipient of two Dove Awards, numerous Covenant Awards
(Canada’s equivalent of the Dove) and a fan favorite
throughout the United States and Canada Arends still in her
thirties now has the stature to ask big questions and do it
with a smile and charm.
Roy Salmond who may very well be Canada’s best producer
says, “For me, Pollyanna’s Attic represents a new level of
creativity for Carolyn Arends. A little less sunny in
disposition, it’s punchy and still incisive lyrics are
complimented
by
her
most
stripped
down
and
direct
instrumentation to date. After all her albums, that she can
still beguile and entice with her song craft is a testament
to her enduring artistry.” Salmond has produced some of
Arends’ past CDs and acted as Associate Producer and
Engineer for Pollyanna’s Attic. The album was produced at
his Whitewater Productions studio.
“Just Pretending” the first track on the CD thematically
represents the direction Arends took with this record. “I
think the first song is first for a reason. That song is
having fun with the tremendous effort that some of us put
into appearing that we have it all together. Sometimes I
just think about the effort that goes into that and keeping
things somewhat polished and together. If we took that
energy and put it into other things I think we would be
amazed at what we could accomplish. That song is a nudge
and a wink about ‘let’s get real’. I know when I take my
mask off and I am most real is the time when the most
Carolyn Arends Interview October 2006
By Joe Montague
All Rights Reserved-Copyright
1
amazing things can happen in my life. God can do the most
with me (at those times),” says the songstress.
It is that approach to songwriting and ministry that led
Sara Groves to comment, “I can always trust that Carolyn
Arends is going to bring the full weight of her experiences
to her songs, and that makes me anticipate any of her new
music.”
Arends explains how the project began to take shape,
“January 1st of this year I couldn’t sleep for some reason
and started thinking about all of the songs that had gotten
away from all my other projects. They were a little more
issue oriented, grappling with more shadowy things. Most of
my stuff has a lot of light sunshine in it. I thought,
‘What would happen if I put all of these songs on one album
and just kind of gave myself permission to explore this
kind of stuff?’
Arends makes the point that the issue oriented songs are
balanced with her optimistic perspective and faith. “I am
so absolutely drenched in the hope that we have because of
faith in Jesus. That was the starting point for this
record,” she says.
You can hear the smile in Arends’ words as she says, “This
record is darker but hope certainly gets the last word. The
guys who wrote the songs (Arends wrote or co-wrote all but
two songs) are just gut level honest about the problem with
evil. (They are honest) about their own questions and the
things that the wrestle with. That honesty makes their
affirmation of who God is much more powerful when they get
to, ‘I praise you and I will praise you forever.’ It is not
a praise of denial, it is a praise of, ‘There are things
that I don’t understand and there are things that I grapple
with but You are God and I do trust.”
It is with that sensitivity that Arends collaborated with
Connie Harrington to write the words to “What In The
World”. The song wonders aloud about the violence that has
so permeated our society. It poses the same question as the
Apostle Paul, ‘Why do we often do what we don’t want to do.
Arends says, “You wakeup and hear sirens in your
neighborhood and you wonder who’s hurting. You offer up a
prayer and your mind maybe goes to, ‘What’s going on with
the world anyway?’ Even some things that have been in the
Carolyn Arends Interview October 2006
By Joe Montague
All Rights Reserved-Copyright
2
news this week, I found myself once again going, ‘What?
What is going on with humanity that this kind of evil can
enter into the world and certain things can happen?”
The songwriter captured a moment from her own life in “What
In The World”. “The second verse goes into a tiny exchange
between my husband and me. I just used a careless word
sending him out the door and saw that little flicker of
(being) wounded on his face. It was like, ‘Wait a minute
what in the world is up with me?’ I am realizing that doing
what we don’t want to do is coming from the same place (as
other forms of evil) and grappling with it,” she says.
For all her success (15 top ten radio singles) Arends has
never compromised the most important aspect of her life her
seventeen year marriage to husband Mark or her children
Benjamin (8 years old) and Bethany (5 years old). The
couple met when Arends was seventeen years old and a
student at Trinity Western University.
“Mark is sort of the hidden editor in everything that I do.
On a real nuts and bolts level my marriage has a huge
impact upon my music because Mark is the first guy I
deliver a song to. He is also the guy who will take his
life in his hands to say, ‘It’s alright except for that one
line in the second verse,’ knowing how frustrated I will
get because he is always right. Creatively he is my first
sounding board. Of course the things that we go through
together always trickle down into the songs,” she says.
Arends gives credit to Mark for being one of her earliest
supporters. While they were still dating and at school she
says, “Early on a lot of it was about how he helped me. It
was about him seeing me in terms of my potential and really
believing in me. I had parents who had done that for me but
it’s different when it’s not your mom and dad particularly
when it relates to what I ended up doing for a career. He
just really believed in me right from the get go and really
gave me confidence. He helped me to expand my vision.
Spiritually he has helped me each of these seventeen years
to expand my vision of who God is.”
“I met Mark when I was seventeen. We have grown up together
and he is the biggest influence in my life in terms of how
I see the world, how I understand who God is and who I want
Carolyn Arends Interview October 2006
By Joe Montague
All Rights Reserved-Copyright
3
to be. It is kind of hard to catalogue all the ways that he
has helped me to grow,” she says.
“Anyone who has followed my career for very long knows that
the kids are a big part of my songs both in really obvious
ways and in songs about parenthood. Even on this album (it
comes through). My kids aren’t little anymore, they are
eight and five. What am I going to tell them about the
world or what am I telling them about this world? How are
Mark and I are modeling what it is to be a follower of
Jesus here in this time and this place? That requires some
effort and some thought. My family is in every note that I
sing,” she says.
Arends who is now a highly successful independent artist
parted ways amiably with Reunion Records a number of years
ago so she could spend more time with her family. “We try
to cap my touring at two weekends a month, so I am gone
every other weekend. There are lots of things they (her
children) like about having a mom who is a singer,” she
says. For instance she notes the kids think it is pretty
cool when someone else is playing mom’s music.
“They are understandably not thrilled that I have to go
away every second week. We have talked about the fact it is
a job (and she says thoughtfully) but that it is something
that I was made to do and something that God seems to use.
I think they really get that most of the time. They pray
for me and they check in at half time by phone to see how
it is going. I hope it is not naïve of me to say that so
far they feel like they are a part of it and that it is
important. For the most part I think that they see it as a
pretty positive thing,” says Arends.
Parenthood has been a continuing theme for Arends during
her pregnancy with Benjamin and since. “It started out with
a music project also called We’ve Been Waiting For You
subtitled the Parenthood Project. As a songwriter I work
through what was going on in my life and tried to
understand it as well as celebrate it,” she says. “When
Mark and I were expecting Ben our first (child) I just
started writing a lot of songs about parenthood. I would
sneak them onto my regular records. Eventually I had so
many of these songs I thought I just need to do a whole
Carolyn Arends Interview October 2006
By Joe Montague
All Rights Reserved-Copyright
4
project about
recalls.
the
adventure
that
is
parenthood,”
she
The CD Parenthood Project evolved into Arends’ second book
sharing the same title as the record.
The book is filled
with prose, short stories and anecdotes. “All the hormones
were flowing accordingly so it was really a natural thing
to write and a lot of fun. It’s cool because it has been
out a few years now and I still get emails frequently from
a mom who has received it as a shower present or dedication
present right after she has had her child. It is really fun
to hear how that little book is making its way into
people’s lives.” says Arends.
As I speak to artists across North America often I find
that the same ones who were attracted to the music of the
late Rich Mullins have also followed Arends’ career. During
her early days in the music industry Arends spent a great
deal of time with Mullins. He appeared on her debut CD and
Arends accompanied him on a tour that visited fifty-three
cities in ten weeks.
She says
loved to
that his
do. I am
in.”
of Mullins, “He was just this guy doing what he
do and chasing after God. In so many ways I hope
influence can still be seen in what I am trying to
trying to do it in the same spirit that he did it
If I may have the final word on behalf of your fans, it
does show and it is very evident. It is also why you have
been able to accomplish what so few Canadians artists in
either the general market or Christian music have and that
is remain living in Canada and establish yourself as a fan
favorite on both sides of the border.
# # #
Carolyn Arends Interview October 2006
By Joe Montague
All Rights Reserved-Copyright
5