By Jim Barber
Champion is the identify of Bif Bare’s newest studio album. Launched in early 2025, it’s an incendiary, powerfully sincere, uncooked, delightfully ragged, but properly produced launch, which is imbued with the attribute authenticity, sense of surprise, knowledge and inspiration which have turn into the hallmarks of the enduring Canadian pop/punk/rock artist’s music over the previous quarter century,
It might simply as simply have additionally been the title of her unbelievable documentary, which hit the screens of communities throughout Canada, in addition to on the Superchannel final November. As a substitute, the documentary is successfully and appropriately simply referred to as Bif Bare. It’s as easy a title as it’s evocative as a result of those that know the topic – the human behind the identify – know that there’s going to be one thing very particular contained inside this cinematic story. They know it’ll be a narrative about raucous riot, elegant artistry, daring humanity. It’s a story about extra than simply surviving the proverbial slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, however thriving amidst the vagaries and vicissitudes of a life full of an virtually unbelievable degree of hazard, abuse, shady characters, existential pitfalls and stifling music trade paperwork.
Timed with a second run of screenings of the documentary is the discharge of a brand new single and video from Champion. ‘Snowblinded’ sees Bif (actual identify Beth Torbert) at her incendiary, soul-stirring, ‘get-off-your-ass-and-do-something-about-it’ finest. In her personal phrases, the tune ‘may be very totally different, as a result of it serves as an anthem from my feeling of emotional discontent. ‘Snowblinded,’ in the end, is my remark of society numbing themselves. The refrain says you’re so snow blinded; and I repeat that as a result of I really feel individuals have to get up!”
The screenings of Bif Bare start Feb. 26 on the Isabel Bader Centre, in Kingston, Ontario on Feb. 26, earlier than shifting on to a swing via Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, earlier than wrapping up March 13 in Thunder Bay, Ontario on the Group Auditorium.
Should you’re going to remove something after absorbing the message and that means of the documentary about this outstanding artist and human, it may be distilled down to a couple key themes. First, it’s a breathtakingly affirming story of resilience, perseverance and the way it’s doable to retain one’s surprise, one’s hopefulness and one’s positivity even after enduring heartaches, disappointments, incidents of exploitation, injustice and abuse.
Second, the movie is, in its personal splendidly singular approach, a narrative of affection. A lot of the narrative hinges on the dynamics of the powerfully uplifting relationship between Bif and her longtime supervisor/enterprise associate/pal Peter Karroll, who, quite than being a Svengali-like manipulator, is extra like a finest pal/father determine. He is aware of his cost higher than anybody, and is as protecting as a papa bear. But his oversight shouldn’t be oppressive, and is undertaken with out dampening the effusive pleasure and unpredictably, erratically fabulous artistry that has marked Bif Bare out as a one-in-a-million artist since her early days on the Canadian punk scene with the bands Gorilla Gorilla and Chrome Canine, and later as a critically and popularly-acclaimed alt-rock powerhouse.
It’s also a revealing story of the incomprehensibly cliquey, demonstrably cynical and outright prejudicial nature of the music enterprise from the angle of a unicorn of an artist and a girl making an attempt to retain her inventive independence, distinctive character and inventive integrity. It’s really form of a tragic commentary on how, even in what many understand to be extra enlightened occasions, particularly when in comparison with the hedonism of the Nineteen Seventies and decadence of the Nineteen Eighties, being a girl, and a girl artist who doesn’t match the conventions of a feminine pop or rock artist, nonetheless counted in opposition to her.
However what elevates the spirit of the viewer is the elementally indomitability of Bif Bare herself all through. Nonetheless smiling, eyes nonetheless brilliant with surprise, but additionally knowledge. Amusing not removed from her lips, an expression of affection in the direction of her mates, her household, her followers not removed from her thoughts. There’s a trace of world-weariness, which provides to the energy of her enthusiasm for all times and for creativity, and as battered-and bruised as she might have felt at occasions, her pleasure, love and optimism is unabated.
As with the discharge of her critically acclaimed autobiography, I Bificus, launched by HarperCollins in 2016, Karroll was the one who pushed for Bif’s story to be made right into a documentary.
“I’ve guilty him. I blame him for the e-book. I by no means needed to do a memoir, for instance. So, yeah, I blame him for it as a result of he form of pressured me and badgered me to do it. And I’ve been saying that he made me do it as a result of I didn’t croak,” she stated, including a full-throated chuckle.
“The factor about it was Peter and our mates Yaz Taalat and Gabriel Napora [producers on the documentary] from Electrical Panda Leisure [a film production/financing company] are already engaged on the characteristic movie based mostly on the e-book I Bificus. And Peter was form of bemoaning the truth that he was being harassed by a bunch of documentary filmmakers on a regular basis to make a documentary,” she stated.
“He was form of whining about it however then Yaz and Gabriel stated, ‘why aren’t you simply utilizing our guys to make a documentary?’ They usually stated, ‘yeah, Adam Scorgie and his bunch over in Alberta with Rating G Productions. They’ve the primary documentary on this planet with this factor.’ They usually had been engaged on the [former NHLer] Jordan Tootoo documentary and Issues within the Ring and all of those implausible athletic documentaries. So we began working with Rating G Productions about three and a half, practically 4 years in the past. And it was simply unbelievable, particularly working with the director [Pollyana Hardwicke-Brown]. I imply, gosh, she’s actually my guardian angel. She was such a fan, and simply actually introduced the story out so properly. She simply actually honoured the true story of my life in some ways, together with bringing my beginning mother into it. I’m simply actually blissful that she was in a position to carry out all the delicate and tender, tender tales that form of made me who I’m.”
Bif stated there have been no reservations or limitations placed on the filmmakers and that she had none after seeing the ultimate reduce of the movie earlier than it was launched.
“Clearly if I had any reservations, I actually would have made them recognized, as a result of that’s simply the form of individual I’ve at all times been. However on the similar time, I’d by no means stand in the way in which of their creativity. I had full religion in not solely Rating G, however in Pollyanna, and naturally in Peter. I had 100 per cent religion in them. After I noticed the film for the primary time, I used to be simply so blissful the way it turned out. I used to be so blissful that Maureen, my beginning mother, was in a position to have her story instructed. I used to be so moved by that. And naturally, my pricey pal George who I’ve been mates with since I used to be 13 years previous. We’re nonetheless mates as we speak and he’s been a giant a part of my life and my story. George has at all times been in my life. All of those fantastic individuals have been included and my coronary heart simply explodes seeing them on the display,” she stated.
“I adore it all. I simply, I cry via the entire thing. After which then to have the ability to sit within the viewers and be there with the power of the individuals there on the screening, seeing that movie and seeing the people who I really like in that ambiance, has been so extremely, extremely shifting. And to have an organization like Superchannel, which is a Canadian firm, get entangled is so vital to me. All of it feels magical nonetheless. I simply can’t imagine it. And yearly that goes on, all of us grow old, I feel ‘properly, life can’t get any higher,’ however then, sure, it could. It’s so thrilling. I really feel like I’m simply starting – I really feel like a mid-career artist, like a painter starting a brand new section.”
And lots of who she is, and who she has turn into is as a result of unfettered assist, unwavering encouragement and matchless understanding of Bif’s character, character, predilections and energy as an artist of Karroll.
“I couldn’t be extra humbled by the way in which they did the movie. I beloved the way in which they handled the story between my supervisor and myself as a result of I feel it’s form of uncommon on this enterprise. The music enterprise is form of bizarre and I feel lots of people don’t essentially have a code of honour, if you’ll. I come from punk rock, and in punk rock there’s this actual unstated code of honour, however lots of my mates and mentors in that world are lengthy gone. Numerous them didn’t actually survive – they simply didn’t reside that lengthy. So for Peter and I to nonetheless have maintained this long-time relationship, I really feel it’s an actual love story. It’s a legacy story too, and I’m very pleased with that,” she stated.
The connection is multifaceted. At occasions Karroll comes throughout as virtually parental, others as a ‘bestie’ together with a touching scene within the documentary the place the 2 are interacting, bantering backwards and forwards, whereas Karroll lovingly and fairly adeptly trims Bif’s shock of jet-black hair. Karroll is a component guardian angel, half muse, half street supervisor, and half minder.
“It’s a really tender scene and it’s very distinctive. Our relationship may be very pure and true,” she stated, her voice getting softer because the sentence trailed off.
Karroll after all can be chargeable for a lot of the enterprise pursuits that Bif is concerned in, together with her personal file label, Her Royal Majesty’s Data. With a prolonged and various background within the music enterprise, in addition to being a quite intimidating bodily specimen, possessing an excellent organizational thoughts, he’s been essential in serving to Bif navigate via the minefield that’s the music enterprise – one populated with far more sharks than guppies.
Sexism, misogyny and exploitation of feminine artists has been the bane of a lot of the leisure enterprise, with the music trade being as terrible as movie and different media. It was hoped that with the rise of artists reminiscent of Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, and feminine fronted or all feminine alt-rock and punk acts through the grunge period of the Nineteen Nineties that a few of that vile behaviour perpetrated by an old-boys community throughout the nonetheless male-dominated file enterprise would have abated. Bif disabuses anybody of that notion boldly and bluntly within the documentary.
“It exists, and it exists nonetheless, at the same time as we grow old. At this time it exists occasions one million. The entire artists that I do know which can be my friends needed to take care of it, and this goes for feminine actors too. It could be worse for People; I don’t know as a result of they appear just a little totally different down in Hollywood [speaking about their culture of youth],” she stated, not really sidestepping the topic however permitting the tales from the documentary to talk for themselves, together with moments the place she talks about being ostracized on McLachlan’s Lilith Honest tour, and the way on multiple event, a push from her file label was squelched by an government as a result of they thought she was too ‘tough across the edges’ and never marketable sufficient. Curiously, in among the most impactful damaging choices, it was a feminine government who made the decision.
“I do know that stuff occurred to me and it occurred to different ladies too. And the factor about it’s, and I keep this to at the present time, with stuff like that, I by no means took something personally. By no means. And the identical with the place we had been positioned on the invoice on the Lilith Honest and different festivals. If I used to be on a competition invoice, I used to be at all times on first. I by no means took that personally and I nonetheless don’t. I’m really blissful as a result of it simply implies that I’m going to be the one which’s enjoying for the group after they’re sober they usually’ll bear in mind it they usually’re going to purchase a file or one thing from the merch desk. Whereas later within the evening, they’re drunk, they’re not going to recollect the songs for the bands, they usually’re going to have spent all their cash on booze and my merch,” she stated.
“With Lilith Honest, that summer season we had been on tour with The Cult, and I used to be terribly enthusiastic about that and seeing Ian [Astbury], Billy [Duffy] and Matt Sorum was the drummer on that tour for them. We had been all so excited to be on that tour with them. We weren’t actually apprehensive about the rest, when it comes to the opposite women who had been on the Lilith Honest tour, the place we dropped into in between reveals with The Cult. Half the time we’ve got our personal groupies on the bus that will suntan on prime of our tour bus bare. I bear in mind USA At this time referred to as me ‘Porno Heidi.’ So we spray painted that on my tour bus. Each time we pulled as much as a cease on the Lilith Honest it stated, ‘Porno Heidi,’ which all of us thought was fairly hilarious, though it was in all probability not appreciated. However, I imply, we discovered our personal enjoyable. So, yeah, it was form of excessive schoolish. We had been kind of sneered at by the remainder of the tour. I at all times say that you’re who you might be and other people in these conditions are at all times going to behave prefer it’s Grade 8. And that’s okay.”
This led to a extra common dialogue of the music trade and the way it’s modified in different methods since releasing her first self-titled album in 1994, adopted by the masterfully, mayhem and melodic I Bificus in 1998. Purge was issued in 2001 adopted by Superbeautifulmonster in 2005, The Promise in 2009, and Champion early final yr. She’s additionally launched numerous EPs, and had her songs included within the soundtrack for TV reveals reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Able to Rumble, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Charmed and The West Wing. Bif has additionally had numerous reside motion and voice appearing roles in tv and movie, and hosted reside sports activities occasions on the previous Bodog channel, making for a real inventive polymath.
“We had been very fortunate, in a single sense, to come back of age after we offered our cassette tapes off the stage or out of the again of the tour van. That was serendipity. Younger artists as we speak and younger bands as we speak, they’ll by no means have that chance, although they’ll stream and their tune can probably be heard by the whole globe immediately, which is a chance we didn’t have. As a lot as individuals do bemoan streaming, it’s really an incredible alternative. As I stated even again then, there’s room for everyone within the music enterprise. There’s room for each artist, and there nonetheless is as we speak,” she stated.
“However the music enterprise was bananas. I heard an interview simply final week the place they had been speaking about how two executives mainly had a pissing contest they usually dropped Katy Perry and another person on the similar degree, simply to show some extent. There’s simply no rhyme or purpose generally.”
One of many fixed themes of the documentary, and in Bif’s feedback to members of the media concerning the movie, is the significance of music in her life, not simply as her vocation and medium of expression, however how she credit music for saving her life.
“I nonetheless assume that performing music might be my absolute favorite factor. And I nonetheless keep that there’s nothing in any respect like a mosh pit wherever else on the planet. It’s humorous, I used to be simply having a dialog with my guitar participant, Doug Fury, and we had been speaking concerning the harm that probably we might have been doing all alongside to our carotid arteries with all of the headbanging. Actually and really. Ask any vascular surgeon about what we’ve got been doing for all these years simply whipping our heads round, it’s like being in a automotive crash – flipping our heads and our necks. However, what, throw on some music we love and you’ll wager your backside greenback that we’re going to overlook ourselves. It doesn’t matter what’s occurring, we’re gonna throw off the neck brace and go bananas – throwing all warning to the wind and risking our lives, flipping our hair and whipping our head as we’re taken by the music,” she stated.
“Music saved me as a result of it’s so liberating. It’s liberating for everyone concerned. And there’s this sense of group that you just all have at a gig. Everybody feels that there’s this unstated mutuality the place in the event you go to any live performance that you just all have one thing in widespread. It’s your favorite act up there, whether or not you’re a fan of Hip Hop or nation or no matter you’re going to see, you simply have this wonderful reference to all these strangers and for that two-hour present, you may overlook the world. And we want that connection, particularly these days. I feel that, particularly with music, for me anyway, I’ve at all times been such a music fan. It’s simply essentially the most stunning connection you may have with different individuals. And it actually does, it actually saves individuals. And it saved me. Writing music and performing is absolutely my favorite factor to do. It truly is, and it at all times will likely be.”
Just like the physique ink that adorns her body, one thing for which she is rightly seen as a pioneer within the music trade again within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, Bif Bare’s music has not solely saved her life, given her objective and an outlet for her good, badass and fantastically melodic voice and mind that made her a unicorn ‘again within the day,’ and now a bona fide folks hero to so many women and girls of succeeding generations.
And she or he wanted all of the reserves of objective and energy and motivation in 2008 when she battled breast most cancers. Doing so together with her normal joie de vivre and boundless optimism, in addition to her blithely matter-of-fact directness, garnered a complete new viewers, a brand new tribe if you’ll, for the punk rock icon – anybody who has battled most cancers. Talking forthrightly concerning the ups and downs of remedy, turning into a veritable strolling ‘most cancers warrior’ billboard, she is as appreciative of the connections she has made via the most cancers battle as via her music.
“All of us grow old. I get older and my followers from earlier than are all getting older. So a lot of my followers grew up with me, and now we’re rising previous collectively. I’ve shared all the pieces else with my followers, I’ve at all times obtained such wonderful assist from people who it was solely pure to share my most cancers journey too,” she stated.
Within the introductory paragraphs to this text, the writer gave you his [my] takeaways. However right here’s what Bif herself hopes audiences get from witnessing her story on the display in such a visceral, open and relentlessly sincere method.
“I hope that folks can see themselves in anybody’s story, clearly. I’ve at all times maintained, and I proceed to keep up this with the e-book as properly, that folks know of their hearts that everybody’s story is equally vital to inform. Everybody has a narrative. I’ve at all times stated, and I’ve at all times understood that my story was fascinating to individuals as a result of I used to be an adoptee, I used to be a runaway, and for no matter purpose, I didn’t get reduce up into little items, . I didn’t find yourself within the morgue. I used to at all times say, ‘why wasn’t I within the morgue?’ So there’s lots of survivor talent that goes together with that,” she stated.
“And I suppose I survived. I assumed, ‘properly, I’ve a giant mouth, so I’ve to make use of it.’ Because of this, if I didn’t croak, then I’ve a accountability on this lifetime to try to be useful indirectly. Like, actually and really, how can I be useful because of not winding up within the morgue. So, if I can share my story in order that any individual else, even one individual, can see my story and see themselves transcending their obstacles, or see themselves and choose themselves up and keep it up indirectly, and are overcoming one thing, then that’s wonderful. I feel that folks will hopefully chuckle at occasions too – hopefully, they’ll be capable of chuckle at themselves too and keep it up. Hopefully, they fell like they can also overcome a few of their very own circumstances. Hopefully, they’ll be impressed. Perhaps they’ll see themselves like me now, a 55-year-old and go, ‘yeah, I’m mid-career and I’m going to maintain going too! Why not?’”
In addition to the documentary screenings, Bif Bare – the band – will likely be hitting the summer season competition circuit together with her full-on rock present this coming summer season, in addition to an up to date model of her I Bificus e-book, the continued characteristic movie based mostly on that e-book, in addition to writing new music for a comply with as much as Champion.
For extra data, go to https://www.bifnaked.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and writer based mostly in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and advertising and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his group. Contact him at bigjim1428@hotmail.com.
