Canadian rocker BIF NAKED has announced two acoustic shows and three speaking engagements for breast cancer awareness for October and November. Her schedule is as follows.

October

1 - Victoria, BC - Breath(e) Now (speaking)
19 - Calgary, AB - Wings of Hope (speaking)
21 - Thunder Bay, ON - My Personal Journey With Breast Cancer (speaking)

November

16 - North Bay, ON - The Capitol Centre (acoustic show)
19 - Airdrie, AB - Bert Church Theatre (acoustic show)

Check out BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai's May 2009 interview with Bif about her battle with breast cancer here.

As previously reported, Bif recently spoke with Francois Marchand at The Vancouver Sun. An excerpt from the article is available below:

For Bif Naked, this has been the summer of introspection.

Sitting on a couch in longtime guitarist and producer Doug Fury’s studio in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, her adorable little dog Nick by her side, Naked is opening up, revealing the details of the album, talking about revisiting some of her most famous material in its original, fragile state: Songs of hope, heartbreak and loss.

For the past little while, the studio has been her home. She obviously feels at ease among the bric-a-brac of recording gear, old tour posters and vintage furniture. So does Nick, who takes a nap on the old carpet adorning the floor while Naked and Fury talk about the acoustic project.

The album, yet untitled, will feature classic Naked tracks such as fan favourites Spaceman and Lucky, as well as new songs she penned recently.

“A lot of the songs really lend themselves to [the acoustic treatment] anyway,” she said. “Most of the songs were written with acoustic guitar and vocals. So it’s basically revisiting the original concept. ”

Naked spoke of her recent battle with breast cancer (she was diagnosed in 2008) and her incessant volunteering and advocating for cancer patients, but she also said the album was a cathartic response to her recent breakup with her husband of almost four years on the eve of her 40th birthday.

“I find [turning 40] very freeing,” she said. “It’s probably different for men, but for women when you start getting less self-conscious and really comfortable with yourself, it usually correlates with being f---ing 40. It takes us that long to get it together. I think I finally have the ability to be really honest and embrace living the artist life saying, ‘This is really who I am.’ Never mind cancer — I never really had a chance to experience my own cancer, partly because I thought I was outrunning it. I was really busy during cancer treatments: I was in a bunch of clinical trials and I volunteered full-time and we were also doing a record and touring.

“In hindsight, I think I was outrunning my marriage,” she added. “We were just married prior to my being diagnosed and we didn’t really know each other that well. So we entered into a marriage under the circumstance of getting to know each other based on getting to know each other’s coping skills. It probably distracted us from the reality that loomed, quite honestly: It was the captain of the high school football team with the little Ally Sheedy goth girl. It was really very Breakfast Club.”

Click here for the complete story.

Video footage from the interview, and a snippet of Bif's new acoustic version of her hit song 'Spaceman', is available below: