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Danielle has now released 3 compact discs. They were all produced with her husband Commodor Perry Barrett.The first CD 50/50 was a bilingual collections of songs that she had written up to that time. It took 5 years to finish. With no financial support of any kind, a musicians' salary and travel schedule ,it was a true test to complete the project.
Commercially the bilingual product was a mixed blessing. The English media did not know what to do with such a product. On the other hand, the French media and communities accross Canada were extremely receptive, playing songs on the radio, inviting Danielle for numerous festivals and events from coast to coast.
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With the second CD the Alien Suite, it was a new musical situation. Danielle had been playing and touring with the same musicians for a few years and the material had grown out of live performances, everyone knew the songs and had put their stamp on them.
In the studio she had a much better idea and knowledge of the tools of the trade. She learned to edit herself the materials recorded . That permitted her to be truer to her musical vision. And a vision she had. The whole project came out of a feverish nights where she wrote the ideas, structure, songs and direction of the project. It was to be a concept album about the place of humans in the universe.
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The third CD Aventurière Accidentelle takes yet another turn. After some years of touring constantly, a blown up engine in California, and the realisation that she was not really getting anywhere, she made big changes. No more band, no more touring, no more trying to fit in this crazy music business. She reconnected with her own self, soul and dreams. She also reconnected with art, something she had always been talented at but put away in order to "make it".
After a well deserved break she started writing the material that was to be her 3rd CD. She was to write the whole project in French. Her native tongue. And she was to make no concessions but just write the music that told the story. She wrote the songs for over a year.
In 2002 a big break came in the form of not one but two recording grants. Musicaction (the French equivalent of FACTOR) and the Canada Council for the Arts responded to her grant applications. Her budget was secured. She could start recording with the best people she knew.
That is when Francois Houle, clarinet virtuoso, avant-garde musician and visionnary came into the picture. He inspired her to write the music she envisionned without any worry as to what format or how it was going to be played. With a rock band, you write rock music and Danielle was tired of that format and the mind set with it. With this new freedom she could go and dig in her musical background which was classical and jazz.. In 2004 Aventurière Accidentelle was finally recorded, manufactured and ready for the world.
