For the past six years, multi-talented, US-born and Canadian-based artist Patricia Summersett has captured the hearts of millions as the voice of Zelda in the iconic Nintendo video game Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But her famous voice is just one of the down-to-earth Montrealer’s many talents.
“I go by ‘Patricia’,” she announces, as we begin our virtual correspondence. “And if this interaction were in person,” she continues, “I’d probably be smiling at you warmly through much of it.” That warmth is palpable in our conversation, and I come to see that it’s related to a fire that powers those various talents. Growing up in rural Michigan, she was encouraged with her three sisters to explore her artistic passions, including singing, dancing, and figure skating. Competitive ice dancing brought her to Quebec after high school, and when an ice-dance partnership dissolved at age 20, she found herself desperate for an artistic outlet.
Her transition to Montreal set her on a path to finding it. There, while preparing for nursing school, she joined a theatre class at Concordia University. “The results on my spirit were instantaneous,” she enthuses. “Getting into theatre school gave me the permission to pursue a professional career as an artist. It was game-changing. It was all or nothing.”
Of course, she chose all. And so, while currently dividing her time between Montreal and Los Angeles, Patricia shines not only as a voice artist and actor, but as a musician, as well. She and fellow musician, composer and National Theatre School alum Nick Carpenter form the Montreal-based art-folk duo Summersett, and they have just unveiled their sophomore album More of the World. It’s a collection of rueful and jubilant songs that blend the worlds of folk, chanson, classical, and cabaret. The fruit of six years of dedicated effort, More of the World showcases the duo’s growth, artistry and versatility as musicians – and the ethereal combination of voice, keys and strings delivers anew the band’s signature earthy intimacy.
Patricia recently sat down with SesayArts Magazine to discuss the songs and styles found on the new album, its hidden link to Zelda, and how her skill as a deer hunter inspired her next project.
Sesayarts: Congratulations on the release of Summersett’s new album More of the World! What is the significance of this title?
Patricia: ‘More of the World’ is the name of one of our favourite songs on the LP. Every song on the album explores a facet of our human ability to inhabit imaginary worlds; for better and for worse. ‘More of the World’ (the song itself) is about how art invites us to disappear into fantastical alternate realities. But because the joy of art is so universal, disappearing into a painting, a book, a song, paradoxically makes us…well…more of the world.
Sesayarts: What songs have special meaning for you personally?
Patricia: Each song has a special meaning for us; and we work together closely on all of them. But a piece like ‘Goodbye London’, for example, was inspired by Nick strolling into a London church one day and getting emotionally swept up in a rehearsal of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘The Lark Ascending’. Whereas ‘In the Throes’ is my attempt at describing a panic attack and somehow transforming it through song.
Sesayarts: I read in the media release that you and your musical partner Nick describe yourselves as a ‘art-folk duo’. How does this description encapsulate your musical style and perhaps even influences on that style?
Patricia: Nick grew up listening to a lot of classical music and I grew up with country/folk/rock in the air. Nick was also a military brat and spent a lot of time adjusting to the musical fads of whichever country he happened to be in. Whereas for me it was Classic rock on the truck radio and Broadway soundtracks at the ice rink. You can hear all these influences coming out in our songs (on our first album too).
Folk has always been at the heart of our music. But you can hear threads of jazz, cabaret, musical theatre and classical in so much of our sound that folk or folk-pop or alt-folk didn’t seem to describe.
Sesayarts: You both have a background in theatre, as well as being musicians. How does your acting influence your music and vice versa?
Patricia: Well, Nick would describe himself as more of a musician/playwright/dramaturg for the theatre. There is a link between dramatic structure and songwriting structure. At least that’s the case for our songwriting.
And for me, I suppose I first approach everything with an actor’s sensibility. It’s hard to shake years of that training. These days it almost feels more like a filmic sensibility than theatrical. When I’m onstage, am I grounded in the story of the song? Am I pushing too hard? Can I deliver something with more nuance?
Singing is quite helpful for voice work. It’s cross-training for the cords, deeply creatively satisfying and less vocally taxing than much of the character work I do for video games.
Sesayarts: One of your most recognizable roles is as the voice of Princess Zelda in the global phenomenon, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. What has this character come to mean to you?
Patricia: Well, in a sense this character means ‘more of the world.’ Because playing her for six years has been one of the most potent examples of a ‘fantastical alternate reality’ (referring back to a theme of our album) that I’ve experienced in my career to date. This role has filled my life with world travel, publicness, tall highs and wide lows. Creating an indie album, which took about six years as well, has helped me reflect on this journey.
Sesayarts: If you met in real life, would you be friends?
Patricia: Would I be Zelda’s friend? I’m not sure. While she’s easy to relate to, she is also a royal princess. Would she have time to be MY friend?
How would you befriend Greta Thunberg or some such figure? My focus would be supporting her as she risked her life to save us all.
Sesayarts: Tell us something about you that we will not find on your resumé. Anything that might surprise us?
Patricia: I have a background in deer-hunting. Not as much these days, but I am developing a screenplay set in Upper Michigan that touches upon this experience. Made possible by gracious funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. The rugged Lake Superior shores of Upper Michigan are my main source of creative inspiration — for writing, music, all of it.
Stream More of the World on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesayarts Magazine, 2023
