NDG songbird sticks up for SPCA cats and dogs

”Adopting Stella from the Montreal SPCA made me more aware than I’ve ever been before of the dire need that exists at these shelters,” says the soft-spoken Nilia.

“You go in there and you see these animals curled up on the floor and they have such a sad look on their faces and you can only imagine what they’ve been through. I wanted to do something to help and so I’m mixing music with a bit of activism and it feels good,”

Nilia is donating 2/3 of all her CD sales directly to the SPCA for the purchase of Kuranda beds. kuranda.com)

“These doggie beds are chew-proof and washable and just all around great for older dogs who need the comfort of being able to lie on something soft.”

Pounding piano keys from the tender age of four, when she started taking classical music lessons, Nilia studied classical piano at Vanier College and Concordia University, as well as dabbled in choral singing. Then, at the end of university, she tagged along to a friend’s rehearsal space to watch his band and everything changed

“I was instantly mesmerized,” she recalls. “I knew I had to join this group.” By the end of the month, she had joined Les Poupées Gonflables as background singer and center stage dancer.

“I wasn’t really doing too much up there but I got to wear go-go boots and be in a rock band. It’s everyone’s fantasy, really.” After playing Montreal and the Quebec region for a number of years, band members went their separate ways.

Fast forward two years and Nilia found herself immersed in piano playing once again but this time under the tutelage of Montreal jazz pianist, Lorraine Desmarais.

“I studied with her for two years. She was such a dynamo and a real musical force,” Nilia recalls, who eventually started performing as a duo with guitarist, TJ Plenty (the Asexuals).

In 2000, she met a local agent who booked her a 3-month cocktail pianist gig in Japan. Upon her return she started writing songs for her new album. “I knew it was something that I had to do so I just sat down every morning for half a year until I had 12 songs. I’d think about the lyrics while walking Beast. We’d wander around endlessly sometimes; me, just mumbling to myself like a lunatic while he took a half an hour to sniff a snow bank. Those walks served a huge purpose for both of us.”

Whirlwind is Nilia’s debut album and an intensely intimate work. “The songs are mostly little musings on my view of the world and question what happens in the spaces that we can’t see. Where do we go when we fall asleep, when we die, when we daydream? I’ve always been interested in symbols and coincidences.

Sometimes when you’re perfectly still, the world starts to reveal itself in ways you can’t pick up on when you’re distracted by all this living.”

Whirlwind was produced by TJ Plenty at their home studio. “I paid him in pizza, mostly.”

While www.CDBaby.com describes Whirlwind as ‘Indie pop creations that are a blend of pop, jazz and classical with a sprinkle of punk-rock” and the music as “sultry, mysterious, retro”, there’s no mistaking the jazz undertones in songs like Dusty White Moon.

“Jazz requires hours and hours of practice to perfect, just like classical music, and there’s no question that everything I studied in school has helped me acquire a richer vocabulary musically,” says Nilia.

The NDG resident lives right on the border of NDG and Westmount, but can only be claimed by the latter. “TJ and I sometimes forget and think we live in Westmount, and then we go to the Westmount Pool and they make us pay and then we remember,” she says laughing.

Nilia’s gig this coming Friday at NDG’s very own Shaika Café at 8 p.m. includes one set from her CD and one set of jazz standards.

“It should be a fun evening and I hope West End residents come out and enjoy a fun time and support a great cause.”

Nilia also has plans to perform a benefit show sometime in the fall with all the proceeds, once again, going to the SPCA and the purchase of Kuranda beds.

Nilia Berkin performs at Shaika Café (5526 Sherbrooke Street West) this Friday, June 12, at 8 p.m. For more information on her music and/or to purchase a copy of her CD, you can go to: www.niliaberkin.com.