BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition - December 2019

12.19YYCMUSC
LOCAL ARTIST
SPOTLIGHT
CHILD
ACTRESS
Rena Kozak works through loss and grief on upcoming single
release By SEBASTIAN BUZZALINO
F
ebruary
2020 will mark the eight-year anniversary of a life-altering moment
for Rena Kozak: her boyfriend, Chris Reimer (guitarist for seminal Calgary
post-punk/no-wave band, Women), passed away unexpectedly in his sleep
and she woke up to a world tinged black with grief and loss. That trauma
split her life into two distinct phases, before and after, and in the years
following, she had to figure out who she was as a person and an artist again.
Kozak dove deep into writing music, in part, as a way of working through the trauma
of losing a loved one. A long-time fixture in the Calgary music scene (though she now
lives in Montréal), most notably playing in The Shematomas and Gold, she went solo,
writing under the Child Actress name. Cutting, punky riffs were rounded out to more
synth-forward, New Wave-inspired post-punk and goth, a sound that had defined her
tastes since childhood.
“I’m a huge Cocteau Twins fan,” she says over lunch at the Ship & Anchor in Calgary.
“I’ve been a fan of this sound since I was a child. My sisters are ten years older than me
and would always listen to New Order all the time and that really influenced my own
love of music. I like things that are dark and beautiful. I like it when people can dance
and cry at the same time.”
As Child Actress, she has a single out this month, “Vague Seasons” b/w “Twins,”
anticipating a full-length out later next year and marking a turning point in how she’s
learned to deal with the shattering grief of her boyfriend’s death: namely embracing the
feelings as part of her and learning to grow from them.
“I think that I feel pretty confident in the singles I’m putting out that are saying what
I need to say. Especially [on ‘Twins,’] I’m applying the state of loss and grief towards
continuing to exist. A lot of the songs I’ve written ended up being about attempting to
have new relationships with living men, as opposed to a dead man, which is, I suppose,
my primary relationship still.
“For a couple of years there, I was trying to kind of forget about it, in a way. But now,
I’m more focused on having it be a part of me, enjoying it, revelling in it a bit more for as
long as I want to. So I think, artistically, that’s where I’m going to stay for a while: I’m going
to sit here in this continued state of loss and death, and live with that in as positive
way as I can.”
Child Actress will release “Vague Seasons” b/w “Twins” in December, with a 7” release party
planned for January 10 at the Palomino (Calgary).
HEATHER SAITZ
DECEMBER 2019 BEATROUTE 37