Favourite new local album

Begonia, Lady in Mind

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NPR called Begonia’s debut EP, Lady in Mind, “the place where synth-pop meets old soul and scrappy meets sexy,” and CBC Music called it frontwoman Alexa Dirks’ “own brand of gospel.”

Uniter readers called it their favourite local album of 2017.

“There’s no time for meaningless shit right now. I feel the weight of that,” Dirks told The Uniter in March, just after Lady in Mind was released.

“And I feel like I’m still figuring out how I can best tap into my experience, just as a woman or as a human, in order to say something that means something that can move people.”

Based on readers’ votes, it’s safe to say that Lady In Mind did an excellent job of moving people in 2017.

“WOW! This makes me emotional. That’s so sweet!” Dirks wrote in an email, after hearing that she’d won this category.

Dirks goes on to detail her anxiety on the day Lady in Mind first became available, describing her emotions as an equal mix of joy and intense fear. The response since then, she says, has been humbling.

“Lady In Mind feels like me just beginning to come into my own and trust my own instincts as a writer ... And I hear that when I listen to it,” Dirks says.

“The fact that people connect with these songs is amazing to me. I started writing for this project as a sort of catharsis for myself but also in hopes to empower other people to be themselves and express their own individual sadness, joy, hopes, dreams, creativity and freakiness, even if it doesn’t always feel perfect or ‘pretty.’ Those are feelings I continually have to own and harness within myself almost every day.”

Dirks is in the studio this month to record her full length follow-up to Lady In Mind.

“As petrified as I am,” she says, “I couldn’t be more excited.”

Published in Volume 72, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 30, 2017)

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