Roxanne Potvin Takes Control with “All It Was” (premiere)

On her new EP, All It Was, Canadian singer/songwriter Roxanne Potvin builds on the “roots-pop” approach she established with her self-produced 2016 album For Dreaming, going deeper into her personal journey while adding elements of psychedelia and neo-soul to an ever-expanding sound.

As a bonus, Potvin has teamed up with Ottawa filmmaker Petr Maur to create videos for all five songs on All It Was, with the title track the latest to be released. Describing the song itself, Potvin explains that after writing it, she realized it was the key to the overall message she wanted to convey this time out.

“At first, I thought ‘All It Was’ was too simple as a song, but it really grew on me,” she says. “I like the ambivalence of the statement it makes — ‘all’ meaning ‘everything,’ or ‘all’ meaning ‘nothing.’ That’s how I felt during that period, with my emotions being a huge distorted blur.”

However, what’s perhaps most addictive about All It Was in total is the EP’s sultry and sexy vibe, something Potvin says came out of dating again after the end of a long-term relationship. “Dealing with the longing and loneliness that I went through after being on my own again was something I’d never experienced that strongly before,” she admits. “It stirred up a lot of stuff, and so I had a lot to say.”

Embracing new concepts has never been a problem for Potvin, who maintains a busy touring schedule on top of constantly writing and recording new material. It’s an outgrowth of the decision she made in 2013 to get formal training in audio engineering, which opened up previously untapped creative resources.

Having also learned from her past experiences working with noted producers such as Colin Linden and Steve Dawson, Potvin has taken another major creative step forward on All It Was, five songs that explore the complexities of love in its many incarnations.