[Daniela Andrade photo by contributor]
“Black Sheep” (Metric cover) by Daniela Andrade [Watch the video by clicking the song title]
Lawrence: “Black Sheep” is one of my favorite songs. Four years ago Metric posted Daniela’s cover of it on Facebook. I was blown away. It was one of the most haunting and soulful things I’ve ever heard. The original has energy and angst, but Daniela’s rendition is melancholy and cathartic. I was so surprised to have had such a different reaction to it than the original. It’s a song that often causes me to stop whatever it is I’m doing for a moment before listening to it. Her stripped down covers are beautiful and at times better than the originals. There’s something about acoustic songs that make you feel more deeply when you listen to them. I became an instant fan. She got her start on YouTube and has come along way. I saw her play at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in November 2016. It was a guitar, a mic, and raw emotion. What can I say? I love the deep emo feels at shows.
5songpjct: Wow! She is so good. Thank you for introducing her to me. I have to admit I spent at least an hour listening to her other covers on YouTube. “Where is My Mind?” Is pretty amazing. When you saw her was it all covers, or did she do her original work?
Lawrence: She’s amazing. Like you, once I heard her cover of “Black Sheep” I went through all of her other videos. I waited a long time to see her in concert. It was close to two years after the posting of “Black Sheep.” At one point I saw that she was playing some tiny venue in Toronto or maybe Vancouver and I seriously considered taking a trip up there. Luckily, she came to San Francisco.
5songpjct: I am an unabashed lover of covers, as people might already know from my posts and Facebook questions of the week. I am not sure what it is about it, maybe it is the the familiarity of singing along or the way songs are reinterpreted, perhaps. My favorite cover is “Jealous Guy” done by Donny Hathaway, it was originally a John Lennon song.
Lawrence: There’s nothing wrong with covers, I know some people may disagree. That’s how Daniela got her start. She’s a kid from Edmonton who loves to sing and do covers. Now she has original stuff. At her show, it was more or less an even split of covers and originals. I definitely wanted to hear both. If you follow me on instagram, I did post a short clip of her performing “Where is My Mind” from that concert. Her cover of that song is truly amazing.
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