Shania Twain on ABBA’s influence, potential Shania Twain music, and a possible collaboration with Bjorn…
Shania: Yes, I’m interested in actually doing a musical. I want to tell you just a little bit how much ABBA’s music has affected me in terms of expanding my whole being…I grew up listening to three chord songs. So simple, so much storytelling. But musically, when I heard ABBA, I thought, ‘This is another planet of arrangement. And the time signature changes went in so many unexpected places. It would be interesting to see what a Shania Twain musical would look like.
Bjorn: Because Katherine Johnson, who wrote the script for Mamma Mia!, apart from the song itself, she said the reason it works is because the song itself is a little story. like you. you should try it.
Shania: Yes. Well, listen, you’re probably going to need help. You are going through all this now.
Shania Twain influenced by Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson…
For me, Dolly Parton has always been a great storyteller, a great songwriter, and melodically always very, very, very unique. So songs like Jolene aren’t usually country chord progressions. She also really put together a hybrid style of mountain music with banjo, bluegrass styles and folk. Looking back now, as an older woman, I am proud to say that she was a stylist, a songwriter, an artist, and a stylist at that time. And one of her great songwriters, Kris Kristofferson, is more folky. Joni Mitchell has had a huge impact on me, even though she’s not a country artist. Because when she was a kid she thought she was country. I was always thinking about her country.
…which is why I mentioned Dolly Parton. Because she got into movies and she had some big movie themes, well, music that was used in some big movies. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is a mountain girl from the Blue Ridge Mountains, and she’s on pop radio. And this really got me thinking. “Wow, if she’s coming from this little place, this little shack, to where she ends up being an international pop radio crossover artist, so can I.” It gave me hope. for me…
Shania Twain early in her career…
When I first went to Nashville, I couldn’t convince the A&R department that my song was so good. So I never imagined having another artist sing my song. So they tried to match me with other writers, but I really didn’t like the writing. Because I was the only one who always wrote my own lyrics. That didn’t work. And I just got to writing and recording other people’s music. So Mutt[Lange]came in and said, ‘Are you a songwriter?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I have a lot of songs. So I started playing them to him.
…. Mutt is very, very… I think that’s a big part of his talent. And besides… he has other huge genius musical talents. But I think he finds a voice to sing the song and respects it. If they’re writers and you’re a good producer, you want to take advantage of that. that’s what he did.
Shania Twain in Las Vegas…
I had to train a lot, and that was my wish. I was in the thick of it. But I said that one way to visually write a storyline for a production is to include things that make me feel comfortable, at home, relaxed and focused. Horse is one of them. I wrote a horse for the show because I needed a horse for the show. I wanted black and white, and I had all of this… I mean, if you look at the whole production, you’ll find that horses are the theme of the whole show. It was hard to sing that song again, and distracting the horse was like therapy. So I focused more on managing horse psychology. It helped me out of any mental traps that might get in my way. That was the reason for the number.