Soul vocalist Janelle Reid learned to sing before she could speak

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 31, 2021

By Steve Newton

When Janelle Reid was a baby in Trinidad her parents used to play music on cassette tapes to keep her and her twin sister still. They were super-active kids, but the harmonious voices on the tapes really worked to calm them down. In Janelle’s case, the singing had a profound effect.

“I learned to sing before I spoke,” says Reid, on the line from her Surrey home, “so technically, I’ve always been singing. I wasn’t much of a talker as a baby, really, but I sang, and so singing was my way of talking. I actually was able to harmonize as a toddler as well, which is an interesting story about me.”

When you hear Reid sing today, it’s easy to believe that she had been crooning from the crib. She moved to B.C. from Trinidad with her family 13 years ago and spent a year-and-a-half in Burnaby before settling in Surrey. There she kept her vocal chops up singing in church, her love of gospel originally instilled by American vocalist Helen Baylor.

“I loved her,” she stresses. “She sang beautiful songs, with really in-depth, rich melodies, and different stories—she would always tell a story with her songs about her struggle and how she was liberated to freedom and hope because of faith. I just thought it was interesting how I was able to marry my love for gospel and that storytelling and the kind of voice that I admired at first.

“Then I started to gravitate more towards soul music and discover artists like Gladys Knight, and circle back to other gospel artists that kind of dabbled in jazz, like Yolanda Adams. And then there were these two sisters, these west coast American singers called Mary Mary [Erica Atkins-Campbell and Trecina Atkins-Campbell]. With my love for harmonies, their style of singing really influenced me.”

Five years ago Reid started immersing herself in another form of music: reggae-dub. Branching out from solely performing in church, she sang at a Motown concert where Mad Riddim’s Richard Brown was the drummer.

“After the show he was like, ‘Hey, I really like your voice, I’d like you to come sing with my band’,” recalls Reid. “That was my first time singing a different genre, like soul music, which I secretly love doing, but at the time I was super shy. He just kind of embraced me with the band, and I’ve been doing features with them up until now, so it’s pretty good.”

Reid performed with Mad Riddim as part of the online Surrey Fusion Festival last year, and in a smartly shot YouTube video she’s seen sharing the virtual stage with local rapper Ndidi Cascade.

“She’s my girl,” says Reid, “we have a really good time, love bringing the good hype and energy. I performed with Desirée Dawson as well, an amazing singer and beautiful soul, and Erica Dee. I’ve also performed with Khari [Wendell] McClelland, who kind of marries that sense of soul and gospel and storytelling and, honestly, liberation.”

To read over 100 of my interviews with local Vancouver musicians since 1983, go here.