Review Fix Exclusive: Ronley Teper Talks ‘Everyone Loves A Good Story’

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Ronley Teper, who discusses her goals and upcoming LP, “Everyone Loves A Good Story.”

About Ronley Teper:

Born in South Africa and growing up in Toronto, she is an active composer, producer & multimedia artist. Her storytelling and songwriting styles cycle through many influences from folk, funk, jazz, cabaret, art rock, and pop sensibilities.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Ronley Teper: I guess I would answer this as music involved me. Ever since I was little, singing songs in kindergarten circle, junior. high grade 7 to 9 music mandatory pick an instrument, then onto the common deeply depressed teenager phase that I found solitude and therapeutic comfort in writing poetry and learning to play guitar to accompany my sorrows and then meeting similar minded people and community and passion for music on life’s journey. Nowadays, it seems to be part of who I am.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Teper: My creative process varies. Sometimes it is solitary. In that I have something to say, and I need to hear my own thoughts out loud and then music just comes to me. Other times I struggle for months on end to come up with the right music to match these thoughts. Sometimes I have no thoughts and I just desire the elation of playing music and an instrumental movement will be evoked. Other times, the process of making music happens live on stage with the band (pre and hopefully post Covid times). Right then and there with a theme or a riff and suddenly we are all contributing and playing off each other and voila  a song is created.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Teper: Oh so much! The sheer strength and resilience of everyone right now. The incredible art and passions of others. The pureness of and love for animals, random acts of kindness. Oh I could go on and on.

Review Fix: What does music mean to you?

Teper: Music is essence. It is not only the musical notes, melodies and rhythms we generally think of as music, Music is happiness, bliss, sadness, grief. Music is in everything from the beat of a heart, the chirps of the birds singing, the synthesizing sounds of the wind. Music is the only memory that remains as our minds forget. Music is life.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Teper: Genre bending and blending. Depends on the song

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Teper: There is nothing more magical than the live performance. It is ALIVE! no song is ever played the same way twice. It is full of improvisation. Songs often are created on the fly with a rotating roster of some of the finest Toronto and international musicians. You never know what’s going to happen. The studio is another world. It is an art form in itself. It is more regulated. You need patience, and it is at times challenging to feel  so alive like the live shows. We do them with bed tracks, and then overdubs, and most of  We all have to channel the thoughts of the bands live performance. AND with the studio songs become set in stone. Like I said a totally different entity.

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?

Teper: Oh that feeling of new love, the inspiration, the muse of new love. The potential that comes with possibility, hope, and intention and connecting to a person, or place or thing, I’ve always want this, It is a driving force that makes living seem meaningful. In that hope creates intention and that’s what inspired the latest single New Love.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2020 and 2021?

Teper: Most important goals… Stay healthy, stay connected, check in with friends and loved ones, continue to create and meditate. Process what is happening in these bizarre Covid times, and continue researching and thinking about what’s next. I can’t see us touring until 2021. And so then, the big cliche question “What’s the plan Stan?”

Review Fix: What’s next?

Teper: I am going to attempt to write new works while blending older works into a one hour multimedia theatrical music cacophony. Oh, and hang out with my puppets.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Teper: Thanks for including me and this project here and to all those reading these musings. I hope everyone stays safe, healthy and as mentally stable as possible in these bizarre times. Personally I admit I have been challenged to stay musically creative but have found that if I have Covid writers block I am finding therapy in other pursuits and at times doing nothing and just processing this time. Whatever you can find to soothe the soul right now, advocating for others, advocating for yourself or even if it’s doing nothing. This is ok. Not many of us have gone through such an experience. Lots of love to you all. Ron