Where are you currently based?
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
How did you first start playing music?
I come from an incredibly musical family and in a way, music was a part of my life right from the beginning. I still have vivid memories of my mom singing in 5-part harmony with her brothers and sisters and father around campfires when I was very young and my parents singing to and with me even long before then. Music was a big part of my life until I started royal conservatory piano lessons, which honestly turned me away from it for a while, haha.
After a bit of time away from the rigidness of the lessons, I started to fall in love with playing songs by ear again and making things up on guitar and piano. This led to me eventually write my first songs. I loved the process and the outlet so much that I never stopped and haven’t looked back since.
What’s been happening recently and how has your Covid experience been?
If Covid had to hit, it happened at the perfect time for me. I absolutely love performing live and miss it like crazy, but because of how often I was playing for people before Covid, I never took the time to finish a recording project. In the forced solitude and open time that the pandemic gave me, I finally finished my first EP. My days consist now of everything that’s involved with sharing the music I made and it’s an incredible feeling that I didn’t know I was missing.
Your debut EP ‘Only Pieces of The Truth’ will be released on March 12, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
The songs on this EP were written over the past 6 years of my life as a performing artist. They explore a desire to deepen my relationships with the people in my life and with myself. Sonically, I was influenced by all of the music that has inspired me most throughout my life as a musician. I think listeners will be able to hear everything from my love of roots, electronic, orchestral and experimental music. I think all of those influences thrown into a mixing pot with who I am as a live performer, and tossed around within the boundaries of my simple home studio set up created the unique and eclectic sound of this EP.
How did you go about writing Only Pieces of The Truth?
Only Pieces of the Truth was lyrically inspired by a couple in my life who really love each other but are fighting through a distance that came with a build-up of little unresolved tensions over a significant period of time. While I can say what it is about with confidence now, this inspiration happened subconsciously, as almost all of the melodies and lyrics in this song came from an improvisation. I find that my favourite lyrics and melodies that I write come when I am able to get my brain out of the way and flow in an improvisation.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who with?
I recorded and played all of the instruments myself in my home studio in Toronto, as well as a bit in Alberta while I was visiting family using my portable studio set up. The EP was then mixed by my friend Jason Dufour and mastered by Joao Carvalho.
How did you approach the recording process?
Each song on this EP came with a different approach. For example, Docks (the opening track), came together as a collage of improvised ideas. Nothing was pre-envisioned; it was all just done by playing with interesting delays and sounds, massaging them together and then improvising over the result. In contrast, I Don’t Want to Let You Go and Freedom (both of which I had been performing for quite a while before I brought them into the studio), were put together very intentionally with a clear vision in mind before laying down the first tracks. Only Pieces of the Truth was probably the most difficult. I must have produced more than 10 distinctly different versions of that song before I found one that felt right.
What programs/instruments did you use?
I primarily use Logic as my DAW and use software from UAD, Fabfilter and Soundtoys daily. In terms of instruments on this EP, I played a variety of guitars, percussion instruments and keys as well as many different software instruments ranging from pianos to synths that I created myself.
What does the EP mean to you?
This one means a lot to me! It’s the first body of work that I created fully on my own. I am planning to explore collaboration with many different writers and producers in the future, but it will always be special to be able to look back and know that I started with something that was just me. With all of its flaws and imperfections, it’s a snapshot of who I am at this time in my life. I really hope that this music helps people find peace and vulnerability in themselves as they listen to it and that the songs become theirs now as much as they are mine.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Right now, I can’t seem to turn off Leif Vollebekk’s music! His vibe is just perfectly complimenting the way I’ve been feeling lately. Other than that, I always love to hear songs from Matt Corby, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver, Labrinth, Jacob Collier and Novo Amor, just to name a few.
What do you like to do away from music?
I love playing basketball! It’s been tough now that it’s winter and the gyms are closed for the pandemic. I’m itching to get back out when it all clears up. Other than that and music, my favourite thing to do is to be in beautiful places with people I love. Give me a campfire by a mountain lake, a guitar and my friends and family and I will die a happy man.
What’s planned for 2021?
I am actually just putting the finishing touches on another EP that I am planning to release soon after my first! After that, I hope the pandemic clears up so that I can sing with and for people again. I have so much pent-up performance energy. Feels like I could tour for a couple years straight now and not take it for granted. I hope that’s in the cards for this year or next!
Favourite food and place to hangout?
My favourite food right now is sushi and I love hanging out in this secluded spot by the water in Toronto where my friends and I go to have driftwood fires in the summer. I don’t want to say exactly where it is because for now, we seem to be some of the only people that know about it but if you ever come this way, we’d love to take you there!
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