Artist of the Day | CLOSE KICKS
ARTIST OF THE DAY
04.05.2022
CLOSE KICKS
LOCATION
I live and have a small working studio in a town called Lindsay, ON, Canada
GENRE
Alternative Folk, Indie Pop
CURRENT MEMBERS
Darryl James
With the current pandemic, the state of the music and touring industry has dramatically changed. Where were you when everything was brought to a halt?
Strangely enough, I had flown to Saskatoon the day before the Juno’s started in March 2020. I always try to play in the Juno Cup hockey game against retired NHL’ers which is always at the start of the Juno week. It’s such an amazing game to play in, and can’t be missed if you haven’t heard of it! When getting off of the plane, there were rumblings of the Juno’s getting canceled, but I just didn’t believe it. I woke up the next morning and it’s like the world stopped! The corona virus was spreading too quickly and everything was getting shut down and canceled. I had to pack my things up, and head to the airport. I waited for hours to find another flight home and ever since then, have been working in my little home studio building songs. As of today, I’ve released 4 singles and an EP with no thoughts of slowing down!
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
The pandemic has given me a lot of time to focus on being what the industry calls a one hundred percenter. That is someone that can write, record, produce and mix a song. Essentially, build a song from start to finish. Without the lockdowns, I don’t think I would have had the time to think as much about that skill set. I’ve taken a bunch of online courses and done so much of the practical work during that time. If the pandemic didn’t happen, I would have always been touring and finding it hard to finalize this kind of work. So, in many ways, I was very lucky because before the pandemic, I had already built up an inventory of songs I’d co-written with different songwriters around the world. I would pitch the tunes to the band or to my publisher. If they didn’t make sense for either of them, I started performing and producing them further on my own. That’s when the excitement really sets in. You start to show them to your friends, and family and get some great feedback and then it slowly becomes a reality that you’re going to start releasing music into the world!
What have you been doing to fill/make the most of your new-found free time at home? How are you supporting your mental health through all of this?
As I just noted, I’ve spent a lot of time working on new music, but I also found that I became much more involved in my community to help support my mental health. I regularly give blood (I'm now at my 15th donation), but I also helped organize a two night drive in concert with local artists to help save our historic Academy theatre in the fall of 2020. We raised over 40k for the theatre, and it was absolutely magical. In addition to that, I was a local participant that raised over 3k for our local food source in a stinky fish eating challenge (thankfully I won and didn’t have to eat the fish) And lastly, but not least, I have also been collaborating with two local artists where we did a video release party for my single, Small Town, Big Dreams, and thankfully raised over 2k for a youth development music program. The three of us are now building a local home concert series to feature and develop local artists in our area that could one day potentially play the historic Academy theatre!
How are dealing with the Covid fifth wave? Have things locked down again in your region? Have you had to cancel gigs, tours, etc.? Are things reopening & restrictions are lifting in your region? Have you booked any new gigs, tours, etc.? What are your plans for 2022?
In the Strumbellas, we haven’t tried to book any shows because many of us have children and the risks felt too high. The band is now booking some shows for the summer of 2022, and we are all very excited. During each opening plan that followed a lockdown, I have been dipping my toes into performing a lot at local venues. This has been so out of my comfort zone! I now have a lot more respect for lead singers out there. It’s so different from just being a side player and in a strange way, this pandemic has helped me reach new heights creatively as a lead. And, I also volunteer on the programming committee for the Academy theatre as there is light at the end of the tunnel for live venues to open consistently again. As you can tell, I do love my local theatre, and try to support it in a variety of ways. Our goal on the programming committee is to book exciting Canadian bands, along with some amazing local talent to continue to foster the arts here in our community.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
“Coming Up” is a song about perseverance. It’s a song about picking yourself up even when everything around you feels like it’s collapsing. This song was written back in 2018 and it was a time in my life when I was feeling like I was being dragged down. I had flown to Los Angeles to do some writing and this was one of my first sessions. Cary, Cazz and I met at a beautiful home studio in Laurel Canyon and the three of us hit it off right away. As we got to know each other, it became clear that we were all having some difficult situations to overcome either personally and professionally. With that sort of connection, the ideas started flowing quickly and we put the finishing touches on the song in just a couple hours. Then, over the course of the last few years, we all produced and performed the song remotely. I started by building out some of the drums and percussion along with bass. With such a HUGE chorus, I recruited a group of talented singers from my hometown of Lindsay, Ontario (including my wife, Robyn) to support it. I rented a local church for a few hours where I recorded the group vocals along with stomps and claps to bring a real collective feel to the choruses. Then, Cazz and Cary took the reins by adding the remaining instrumentation and vocals. Once completed, we felt like it needed something else in the bridge. Cary’s wife, Jessica Weiss (who co-composed the new Cinderella) did the string arrangements. That was the icing on the cake! And last, but not least, Cazz took on mixing the song and gave it that warm and fuzzy, yet powerful feeling! “Coming Up” was a song built through our common struggles, and was completed by us all coming together to do something great!
If you would like to be our next ARTIST OF THE DAY please fill out this FORM & send a high resolution photo to:
JEN@CONCERTWORKS.CA