Bria Salmena Talks Vulnerability and Self-Criticism With 'Big Dog'
By Kelly Darroch
The thunderous voice of Bria Salmena has been bouncing off the cavernous walls of the music industry for over a decade, and she’s finally tearing out of the mouth of the cave solo.
Bria Salmena; Photo Provided by Stereo Sanctity.
Between being the vocalist for Canadian post-punk band FRIGS, her vocal and guitar contributions to Orville Peck’s projects and tours, and her two brazen but beautiful Cuntry Covers EPs, her debut solo record, Big Dog, has been a long time coming. The Sub Pop artist tows us through the album’s raw, volatile maze of the four years she spent stringing it together, accompanied by an unparalleled, intimate, and primal vocal performance. One year after the album’s release in March 2025, Salmena reflected on the road leading up to Big Dog.
Salmena’s transition into a solo artist took time to simmer before she knew when the right moment was. Coming from the band-based writing process of FRIGS, reimagining herself as a solo artist proved to be an endeavor, which she began on her own between her time with Frigs and playing for Orville Peck. While she began exploring, she experimented with covers to build the confidence she needed to ultimately make that jump. Salmena’s Cuntry Covers Pt. 1 and 2 was treated as a passion project, which effectively functioned as a stepping stone towards an eventual solo record of originals; she never thought of it as her debut solo work.
Through this project, Salmena would step into the country genre and create an entire universe by subverting and reimaging country classics by interacting with their history, peeling back the layers, and configuring them within her own life and spaces.
One song she covered on Vol. 1 was John Cale’s “Buffalo Ballet” off his 1974 album, Fear. Salmena explained how, during the summer she recorded and arranged the first EP, she listened to an abundance of John Cale.
“There was something about that song in particular that felt to me like kind of a weird choice for him,” said Salmena.
The “Buffalo Ballet” cover, a personal favorite of Salmena’s, is one of many within the Cuntry Covers universe that launched her deep into research, thus fueling her own interpretations. I wondered if there were any musical genres Salmena would ever consider exploring similarly. However, considering country’s cultural reputation, she doesn’t believe there is another genre she could acceptably play into, speak on, and conceptualize from the same angle.
“There are purists in every genre, but it's more kind of acceptable to be like, 'Yeah, I'm going to fuck around in a cowboy hat and like fuck around with a country riff,’ whereas you can't do that in classical music the same way,” Salmena explained.
She enjoys genre-bending and experimenting outside her usual genre-circle; for example, she said she also has an electronic Balearic project. However, creating a new visual and sonic universe for a genre that could be viewed as parody (which I say lightly) is not something she foresees attempting again.
Like with FRIGS and Country Covers, Salmena worked with Duncan Hay Jennings on Big Dog, who holds producer, composer, and engineer credits. Being able to bounce ideas off of her long-time trusted collaborator was rather encouraging, but Salmena considers herself to be a hyper self-critical person, and this project was no exception. Moments of pride were still filled with the desire to develop and improve.
“I’m a hard-headed Virgo and like nothing I do is ever good enough,” Salmena laughed. “This is probably so counter to what you’re supposed to say, but if I gave myself too much grace, I wouldn’t be as motivated.”
Salmena was certainly not the only person to challenge herself on this project, especially when it came down to vocal performance. A co-producer on the album was American-Canadian royalty, Meg Remy, the creative force behind the experimental pop project, U.S. Girls. Salmena, who describes herself as a “huge sucker” for Remy’s 2018 album In A Poem Unlimited, knew she could entrust Remy to guide vocal production on the album. Together, they weren’t tied up in getting the perfect take; instead, Remy laid out a path to capture a “strong, intentional, and sincere performance,” or in other words, something special.
“Working with her was just incredible, but it was scary because it was going deep into lyricism, and I was not mentally prepared to be that vulnerable,” said Salmena. “It was a very good exercise, and it was just really encouraging, and having another woman in the studio was just beautiful.”
This comes as no surprise, given the musical environment she was raised in. Salmena recalled her first musical memory listening to the 60s classic, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” on her cassette-tape toy boombox. The rest of her memories are filled with the singers her parents loved, like Annie Lennox or 80s Italian rock and pop singers such as Lucio Dalla or Pino Daniele. Between her mom and dad, her young and impressionable ears constantly rang with impressive vocalists.
Big Dog also featured contributions from another rock legend: Lee Ranaldo, co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist of Sonic Youth. Although they never physically worked in the same space together, he sent guitar stems for the tenth track, “See’er.” This collaboration is a result of the “just-ask” philosophy. Salmena doesn’t personally know Ranaldo, but her team asked, and he was keen to deliver. The two have still not met, even when she played a set in New York; he was out of town. Salmena referred to the two of them as “ships in the night.”
Bria Salmena; Photo Provided by Stereo Sanctity.
Salmena had mentioned before that it was important to her that she make a Canadian record. This meant a couple of things, one being “a tonality to it that I think is kind of inherently Canadian.” She finds the Canadian influence to be extremely specific, especially amongst musicians her age.
“When I said I wanted it to be quintessentially Canadian, I meant also just in terms of where it was created and who we made it with, like kind of planting it as a Canadian record made in Canada by Canadians,” Salmena clarified. “Not to be like nationalistic about it, it’s not about that, it’s just about supporting and utilizing the community, because Canada, I think, is an extremely underrated and cultural kind of music.
There’s also a leap from Canadian to German, as krautrock was another heavy influence. That has trailed over from FRIGS, where Jennings’ and Salmena’s sound was heavily inspired by the classics like NEU! and Can.
The final track of the album, “Water Memory,” which was actually the earliest written track, was intended by Salmena to feel like a new beginning, or a cliffhanger of sorts. Every great story has a genre, and I’m not talking musical genre. Salmena views the album as a psychological romance thriller because of its elaborate nature and the climactic yet interpretive ending. Salmena said, “You can be at peace at the end, or you can choose to continue to be sad.”
Some of the best cliffhangers have sequels, and some do not. With the next record, there will be a sonic continuation in some aspects, but she’s also hoping to create a tighter, more concise feeling and sound.
“I think with Big Dog, you’re really going on a fucking roller coaster ride, and with this next record, I really want it to feel kind of like time goes by quickly,” said Salmena.
The goal is still to make a memorable record, but the new challenge is to hone in on some of the ideas of Big Dog and sonically keep it more within one wheelhouse.
At the end of 2025, Salmena joined Wolf Alice on their tour dates in the UK and Ireland, something she also did back in 2021. I managed to catch Salmena play a headline set at the Windmill Brixton in London on this tour circuit, where her voice dominated the room to the same heights it did on the record. If you happen to witness a Bria Salmena live set, you might even hear her cover Peaches, or a blend between “Water Memory” and Bonnie Raitt. Salmena confirmed that the Wolf Alice audience has been extremely receptive and welcoming to her; in fact, she even recognized a few attendees at The Windmill show from the front row for a few nights of the Wolf Alice tour. Salmena has loved chatting with the people she met on tour and especially loved how many young women resonated with her music.
Bria Salmena performing live at The Windmill Brixton; Photo by Kelly Darroch.
“That’s the best part, like, I’d like to think you want to make music for everybody, but obviously, I would love to connect more with a female audience, being a woman,” Salmena added.
Salmena just recently played an acoustic set in Los Angeles, her new home, but it might be a while before another live set or tour of hers. She’s been focusing more on the recording of the next record, but also, a few of her bandmates and collaborators have just had babies in the last year. “So no shows coming up now until like everybody gets off paternity leave,” Salmena joked.
Big Dog serves as a marker to Salmena; the album holds multiple timestamps of heightened, raw emotional states and others that were a “written in a bedroom kind of vibe.” According to Salmena, she may have to go over her next record millions of times, but one day, she’ll throw in the critical towel and release it for all to enjoy.
