Hometown: Toronto, Ontario | Label: Wax Records
With the amount of music available at our fingertips, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of uniformity where everything sounds the same and there is no meaning behind the lyrics being sung. However, once in a while it is possible to uncover gems that make the search for moving and truthful music worthwhile. Toronto native, Jesse Labelle is one of those rare gems, telling stories of life and love, and the little things that have come together to make a huge impact on his journey. Jesse released his first solo album, “Perfect Accident,” only a few months ago, though his presence in the music industry has lasted much longer and has helped launch and feed the careers of numerous other artists along the way.
Rarely seen without a smile on his face, Jesse has the ability to inspire people through his music and artistry, a career that he has fine-tuned with many unexpected experiences that have helped him get to where he is today. More humble and grateful than most artists, the sincerity in Jesse’s voice and the intimacy of his lyrics comes through in each track, and when combined with the seemingly effortless instrumentals of his supporting band, the result lies in a beautiful collection of songs that has allowed for a more personal connection between Jesse and his fans.
asapmusicblog.ca was fortunate enough to see Jesse perform live, a treat in many ways, not only because of his remarkable vocals during the set or his ability to showcase his talent as a musician, but also because of the joy he exudes when on stage, doing the craft that he loves and sharing his passion with an audience he is clearly appreciative of.
We also had the opportunity to sit down with Jesse Labelle during his extended stay in Vancouver, just before the kick-off to the 2010 MuchMusic SodaPop tour, to talk to him about touring and his backing band, the six degrees of separation within the Canadian music scene, his newly found role as a hero, and more!
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→ asapmusicblog.ca: So you just finished the Faber Drive tour, on your Twitter you said it was your first “official” tour?
Jesse Labelle: It was the first tour that I’ve done across the country. I’ve toured with Emily [Osment] back in January, but it was just a five-day tour. It did have a Vancouver date, and then all Ontario dates, but we didn’t cross any of the Prairies or anything, so this was the first real ‘on-the-road for a month and a half, playing all across the country’ tour.
A: So describe that experience travelling with all those bands, and how it was on the road.
JL: It was amazing, I mean I could go on for a long time about it. But it was really the bands, it was the people who made the tour – the bands and the fans. Touring across Canada, seeing all of Canada is really, really cool, but it was a lot of the connections that I made along the way and the people that I met that really made the tour special. Connecting with people, namely the fans and the audiences every night – that was really, really cool because you get to see all these different people from different backgrounds and ages come out to these venues on a nightly basis and they’re coming together to see you, or in my case they were more there to see Faber Drive, but it was really nice to have some people come up and say ‘Hey, I’ve never seen you play before and I really, really enjoyed your music’ and I think that’s what a tour is really all about – connecting with new fans.
A: So you ended that tour here in Vancouver, and you’re starting the next tour, the Sodapop tour headlined by Emily Osment, who you’ve toured with before. What are you looking forward to most about that tour?
JL: That tour, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with her and her band, and The New Cities [who] were part of the Faber Drive tour for the Ontario dates, and we had to leave them – we got along with them so well. They were only on for about three or four days, and the whole band has missed those guys. Emily, I’m looking forward to getting back and playing with her, she’s a blast. She’s just the coolest 18-year-old that I know. So I’m looking forward to that, I’m also looking forward to the theatres that we’re playing because apparently they’re really large on this tour. A lot bigger than some of the ones we played with Faber Drive. The Faber Drive tour was mostly 500-1000 people per venue, and I think this is like usually 2000 people in each venue on a nightly basis. So I’m looking forward to the difference, the grandeur of the theatres.
A: Do you think the vibe is going to change because your last tour was all males, and this one you’ve got a female headliner?
JL: Totally, it’s going to be a completely different tour. I realized that the other day that the tour we just came off of was the party tour, it was the rock ‘n’ roll tour where we had fans rushing up to the front of the stage, and putting their hands up in the air and screaming. This one is more of people sitting down, and it’s a little bit more of a professional – it’s funny, because it’s a younger audience, and I feel like it’s a more mature mentality on this tour. So it’s going to be interesting, I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s all about.
A: Kind of on a related note, we read on your Facebook page about something that happened on the last night of the tour— you saved a fan. What happened there?
JL: Yeah, at the Vancouver show. I started playing a song and you know, people are always screaming, so you never know if they’re screaming good things or if they’re screaming bad things. There were a couple girls in the front who were crying, who were teary. And it’s funny because it’s hard to figure out why they’re crying you know? In this case what ended up happening was, I started playing this song, and these girls were all screaming and had their hands up, and they were pointing to this one girl. Now, I wear in-ear monitors when I’m on stage, so I can’t hear anything other than my guitar and my voice. I can occasionally hear what some people are screaming in the crowd but couldn’t hear anything other than what I was doing and I’m looking down and this girl was crying, but she didn’t look too upset. Point of the story is, they were screaming and I couldn’t figure out why, so I looked down and one girl held up a cell-phone that said: ‘This girl can’t breathe’ on a text message. So immediately I just stopped the song, I put the guitar down. I was in the middle of performing and I just stopped clear, and I went down and found out she was crying, and they were screaming because she was being pushed really hard into the front of the stage. What happened was that there was no barricade in-between the stage and the crowd, and everyone was wedged up against the stage, and apparently this one girl was being pushed so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath back. So, luckily she was alright. We got her up onto the stage, security pulled her up. I think that they took her to the hospital, and she was fine, she didn’t have any broken ribs or anything. It was really just I think a combination of the heat and the pushing, and you know, a lot of people in a very enclosed space. But I didn’t really mind that it cut the song off, because I would much rather somebody be okay than me continue a song. It was nice— a lot of people have reacted to that and commented on it, there’s already a video on Youtube of it. My band was sitting in the hotel last night, they were like, ‘Hey, check it out, look, this is the girl you saved, it’s up on Youtube.’ I’m more than happy to help, even if it means stopping a song in the middle of a show. But it was an experience for sure, I’ve never had anything happen like that to me before.
A: So you’re a singer and a musician, and you’ve got songwriting under your belt. There’s this level of honesty and sincerity that comes out in your music. How important is that to you when you’re sitting down and writing?
JL: Thank you. Very, very, very important. I won’t write a song or finish a song, or keep on working on a song if I feel like there’s nothing really solid or true in there. There were songs for the album that I was working on with different writers and different producers that I didn’t finish, just because I’d get into the song after a day of writing and I’d think: ‘This is a made-up story. I have no personal connection to this song at all.’ I’d just rather take a great song that’s got lyrics that I’ve written and that I’ve felt, than a really good song with lyrics that are made up. I’d rather wait for those moments of honesty, because I believe – like you said, that it does come through, and people are smarter than you give them credit for and they can see through something that’s contrived.
A: I was reading your album liner notes and in the “Thank You’s,” you gave a shout-out to Ryan and Dan Kowarsky – better known as RyanDan. What’s the connection there?
JL: I’ve been friends with them for a long time actually. We both grew up in the same area of Toronto. They’re a little older than I am, but when they were in B4-4, I was writing for some pop bands at the time and we had met each other. We had done some writing, none of it which made B4-4, but I was also friends with [their] producer. Long story short, we connected many years later, they knew that I was writing and they’ve always been really big fans of my songs, which is very flattering. We got together for their new album, the one that they’re just about to release.
A: ‘Silence Speaks’?
JL: Yeah, and I wrote [about] three or four songs on that one there. They’re just great guys, they’re fantastic singers. I wanted to give a shout-out to anybody that I’ve worked with that’s made a difference along the way. And they’ve taught me a lot about the music industry because they’ve seen a lot of sides of it, so we’ve had our talks where we sit down, and they’ve guided me, and I’ve helped them with their songwriting. They’re just friends, friends and musicians that I felt deserved a shout-out in the liner notes.
A: One of the interesting things that we read about you was that you got your start from a Speakers Corner performance, which got the attention of girls across Canada, but in particular Fefe Dobson, who got you in her band after. Did you know at the time how big that performance was going to be?
JL: No, it was totally one of those – you’re down on Queen Street, on a Saturday afternoon, and you’re just like, hey, let’s go to Speaker’s Corner! We literally just walked in, and I had my guitar in the trunk of my car and I just grabbed it and went in. It was kind of, not a joke, but more or less an impromptu performance where like, ‘hey, let’s do this.’ I didn’t even think I knew for three months after that it ever even aired on TV, because apparently you go in, and they use clips one month, and they save some. They ended up putting it on TV maybe a month or two later, and when they re-aired it and it ended up winning the clip of the week, or clip of the month, or whatever it was. When it won the clip of the month, they decided to put my email address on the bottom of it, and I got all these emails coming in, one of which who was Fefe, and that kind of progressed and unfolded into its own little relationship of songwriting and music and connections that did in a large way lead into what I’m doing now.
A: What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment so far professionally?
JL: Greatest accomplishment professionally… personally to me, it’s what you get from people who come out to the shows. When we get to meet them afterwards, the accomplishment is more them telling me that they’re connected with something that you’ve spent so long writing, or so long doing. For someone to come up to me and tell me that my music has inspired them to do something musically, or even personally, that right there is probably the greatest compliment I can be given, and it feels like the greatest achievement that I can really make.
A: So looking at six degrees of separation, we’ve already mentioned Fefe Dobson and RyanDan, as also Jay Levine, who produces, and Dave Thomson, who’s done a lot more recently, especially after Wave – he’s done a lot of songwriting for Sony since then. How does it feel being Canadian, trying to make it big in the music industry, and being associated with all these great people?
JL: It feels good, it makes me feel like all those years that I spent working on what I’m doing now, the people that I’ve met along the way and the connections that I’ve made – it makes me feel like they’re all justified. There are all these people who are working on their own careers, and I’m working on mine, and we’re all kind of in our own little worlds, but when we all come together, we make some really great music together. To know that I’ve linked myself up to all these people along the way, even when at times when I felt like it didn’t mean anything or it was just a meeting here, or a meeting there, it feels like I’m doing the right thing, you know it feels like I’m on the right path. Especially with somebody like Dave, because Dave and I have written together for so many years, and I mean he produced the whole entire album, and he’s just such a good friend and such a talented producer. He’s one of those guys, I want him to produce all my albums, I have no doubt in my mind that when I have an idea, he can bring it to life, he can make it sound the way that I want it to sound. Same thing with Jay Levine, Jay Levine was the first person that I ever wrote music with, he taught me everything I know about songwriting. So to know all these people, again, it just makes me feel like I’m doing the right thing.
A: I was reading that your grandmother was a jazz singer, how much did that influence the way you chose to get into music?
JL: To be honest, it didn’t influence me at all…I think it had more an imprint. She may have influenced me as a child, but the fact that she was a singer, that never had anything to do with the choice that I had to get into music, I think it was more something that was programmed inside of me really. I think I realized it right after I recorded the album, I was sitting back and I was listening to the final mixes, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is kind of strange and really cool and interesting that my grandma stopped at the point that I’m starting at now.’ She made a record, she never really toured it – she decided to start a family instead. So I feel in a lot of ways I’m continuing maybe what it was that she wanted and that she never really got to experience. She got herself to a certain level, but then again things were totally different in the 40’s. There were no music videos, there was no radio broadcast, it was more or less live performances and touring bandstands here and there. I just feel like whatever I have in me musically, stems from her because there isn’t anybody else in my family that has a single musical bone inside of them – they’re all students or doctors, I’m kind of the odd one out, but I know that it comes from her.
A: We were wondering, just if you wanted to tell us about your backing band who are on tour with you and like how you met them maybe.
JL: Cool, totally. The band that I have now, I feel like I could have never had a different band, you know? Just the way that we work on the road, our camaraderie, it’s just perfectly balanced, the guys that I have.
I’ve known most of them for quite a while. Dan [Sadowski], who’s the guitar player – Dan and I tried to start a band years ago, maybe three or four years ago, before I had written a lot of the songs on this album. We got together, and we came up with a name and an idea, and we came up with this whole thing. I ended up deciding to go travelling instead, which led to a lot of the songs that I wrote for this album. But when I went out travelling, of course, I didn’t expect him to sit and wait around – I went for four or five months, so he started his own band. We kind of went our own ways, but we always had that mutual desire to start something together. Dan also, it’s funny, we shared a cottage together when we were like four and five years old, and we didn’t figure that out until a little while ago. So essentially, we’ve kind of grown up together, and taken a whole bunch of years off where we didn’t know each other, but I always thought things like that are meant to be, when you know somebody and so many years later you reconnect with them.
Kyle [Hohmann] and I used to work together. I used to work for Apple back in Toronto, and [he] worked with me at the store. Kyle joined the band kind of the same [way] that Mike did, who’s the drummer. I was playing in a cover band at the time, and my whole entire band called in sick on me for a gig. Being a struggling musician at the time, I was like ‘I need the money for it.’ So that morning, the band called in sick, I had a show that night, and I needed to fill all these spots, so Kyle was working with me on the floor and Kyle’s actually a guitar player, not a bass player – but it’s pretty easy to switch between the two. So I said to him, he’s like, ‘Dude, you look stressed, what’s up?’ I’m like ‘I need a band for tonight, this gig that we have,’ and he was like, ‘Well, I could play bass, we could do it just as a three-piece. If you want to play guitar, I’ll play bass.’
Then all I needed was a drummer, and I went around to the back of the store, and I was asking people in the back stock room, I was like, ‘Does anyone know drums or a drummer, does anyone play drums?’ And one guy chirped up and he was like, ‘Hey I know this guy that used to play with your good friend Paul,’ who was a friend of mine who’d been in bands, and it turned out to be one of my best friend’s ex-band’s drummer, who was Mike [Stealth]. I called up Mike, and I was like, ‘Hey, I have this crazy proposition, we have a gig tonight, like a 3 hour set, all these cover songs, can you play?’ And he said, ‘Sure I think I can.’
So I kind of formed that band that morning, and as a result I thought like ‘Wow, if these guys are willing to do that for me, I think they are the right guys to have back me up there.’ They were just so resourceful and they pulled themselves together so quickly, and I thought any guys that are willing to do that, I’d like to have a future with as a band. So we kind of all formed, as the four of us, and we went to two or three rehearsals and had everything down.
A: That’s so cool. 2010’s been a huge year for you. Your album came out and you’ve been touring, and you’re going to be touring again. What’s planned for the rest of the year?
JL: I would like to tour. I’d like to continue touring. I do know that as soon as the SodaPop tour is done, I’m going to go down to Nashville and hang out with Dave [Thomson] and we’re going to do a little bit of writing and recording, because since this album’s been written and recorded, it’s been about a year now. And I’ve done a ton of writing, I have a lot of ideas, and I’m even playing some new songs at the shows now, and I want to get them recorded or just get some semblance of them down. If I keep on touring, you never know, it might be time to release a second album, and I’m going to need something right, so I’m going to head down to Nashville, do a little bit of writing and recording with him. Then I hope that I can come back and continue to tour, I would love to spend the rest of the year touring. As I’ve seen in the last month, it’s the best way to really connect with fans, new and old alike, and sort of get the name out there, and the music out there. So I hope, fingers crossed, that I can continue to tour until the year is pretty much finished.
A: So our blog primarily focuses on Canadian artists, like yourself. Who are some Canadian artists that have inspired you?
JL: Well Leonard Cohen is a huge, huge inspiration, especially as a singer-songwriter. Joni Mitchell is a very large one. Recently though, I like a lot of what Feist did, that’s a couple years old. Friends of mine are in the Midway State, and I think that they are so incredibly talented, they actually played on the album.
A: I saw that [in your album liners], they’re one of my favourite bands – The Midway State. When I saw that, I [thought] ‘That’s really cool.’
JL: Yeah, Mike [Wise] and Mike [Kirsh] actually did all the pre-production for this album with me. I called them up, and at the time I didn’t have a band at all, it was just me and the songs. I called them up and I said, ‘Hey guys, can we hang out in your basement for a couple days and just track through this?’ They were so into it, they were so helpful and very influential on a lot of the sounds that come through. I mean, not only did they play on some of the songs, but even some of the songs they didn’t play on, their imprint is there because they were the ones who sat there and tracked it out. When we went to the studio with Dave, [the influence] was based on something they had contributed to the album.
A: Who are some artists you’d want to collaborate with, if you could?
JL: There’s this band called Crowded House, I’m a huge fan of, massive, massive fan – I’d love to collaborate with them. I’m also a big fan of Richard Marx, kind of this strange old throwback to the 80’s, but he’s a great songwriter. I would love to do a song with him. Keith Urban is another one, I would love to do some sort of, writing, or have him play guitar on a couple of songs or something like that, that’s a bit of a long shot, but you’ve got to dream big.
A: So every Thursday we do a playlist on our website, and we were wondering if you could contribute five to ten songs you’re currently listening to right now?
JL: Sure, I would say “Before the Worst”, by The Script. “Better be Home Soon”, by Crowded House, that’s just one of my favourite songs. The Old 97’s, a song called “Question” – I would do that one. I want to think really, really hard about this… ”You” by Collective Soul, they’re one of my very favourite bands, and that’s a song off their new album that I listen to, and I just think it’s the greatest. Let me see what else… “Come Back Down,” by Lifehouse, that’s the opening track of I think, their two albums ago, and I remember buying that album and listening to that song and thinking ‘Wow, I would love to make an album that sounds just like that exact song. I would love to write a song that sounds just like that one.’ How about, “Now and Forever,” by Richard Marx. So if you put those songs on a playlist. it’ll probably sound somewhat like something on my record does, but it’s because all those songs in one way have very much inspired me, or they’ve connected with me the way I hope these songs connect with other people.
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A huge thank you to Jesse Labelle, Beth at Indoor Recess, and Wax Records!
