A Conversation With Matthew Joel Vanderkwaak
The studio process, Canadian Americana (Canadiana), fatherhood and more....
In a first for Today I Heard, we have an interview/collaboration post with fellow substacker and Halifax-based, singer-songwriter
. I’ve always been curious about the Canadian music scene. The scraps that make it over the border into America tend to be very attuned to the American sensibilities and while enjoyable in there own right, don't give the clearest picture of what is really happening north of the 49th (sometimes 45th) parallel and east of the 141st meridian.I did briefly try to dig a little into the Canadian country scene a couple of years ago with a dedicated piece reviewing a variety of Canadian country music, but again that was still biased by the filtration for the American scene.
That’s why I was so excited when Matthew connected with me. Aside from his music, he is deeply passionate and knowledgeable about the Canadian music scene. I greatly enjoyed our conversation and learned a lot.
You will see a song referenced a few times in this piece. It can be found at the link below.
Joe: In the lead up to this blogpost, we talked about some of the inspiration for your recent music. Among others, you specifically called out William Prince and his excellent Gospel First Nation record, and Willie Nelson’ Stardust. What about these records and artists resonate so deeply with you?
Matthew: Ah, yes! The two great Willies!
William Prince is really important to us here at home. He’s one of the truly great songwriters in Canada right now, but a big part of our connection with him is the fact that he’s indigenous and belongs to the same first-nations band as my wife, Amy. They also both grew up with preachers for fathers. The opening title track on Gospel First Nation captures that experience in a deep way.
My first real experience with Willie Nelson was in my early 20s. I was pretty ambivalent about country music at the time. Growing up in a farming community that was slowly turning into a commuter town, this was 90% teenage angst and a desire to set myself apart from my peers. This all changed when I happened upon a community record sale during one of my visits home. It ended up being a treasure trove of 60s and 70s country music.
At that sale, I picked up Willie Nelson’s Stardust, a George and Tammy record, a Merle Haggard, and Dolly Parton’s Jolene. These albums, and Startdust most of all, were my real education in country music. All I had experienced to this point was a country-music culture that was highly defensive and antagonistic, but these albums were a picture into the origin story. It made my town make more sense to me. I don’t have mixed feelings about country music now.
J: Let’s talk about your recent song “It’s So Easy To Love You.” It’s a vintage inspired song about fatherhood. The Willie Nelson influence is easy to hear. It has a lovely soundscape. I am fascinated by the decisions artists make in the production. The subtlest change can have such an impact on the sound.
I have a question about the vocals. When doing an intimate almost talk-singing style, it’s easy to lose a sense of dynamics. I noticed that the prominent harmonies really add that dynamic range. Was that an intentional choice because of the singing style or were their different artistic reasons to focus heavily on harmony?
M: I think a big part of this song’s feel comes from the fact that we didn’t record it to click. The whole song is built around as natural a performance of the song as we could capture. The song is about my two-year-old son, Robert, and over the months it took for the song to come together, I played it for him a lot in person.
I had gotten so used to playing the song in person like that, so when we went into the studio to record the song, it felt wrong to be wearing headphones trying to follow a metronome. In the end, we ditched the headphones entirely, and I just played the song as if I was in my own living room.
Rachel’s vocals ended up adding so much! I asked her to sing because I knew her rich voice would bring some maternal depth to the song. It’s relatively rare to have a song that’s just about the Father’s experience, and I love the way Rachel’s vocals invoke the presence of a mother’s love too.
J: A common critique of the Canadian country music scene is that they are so consumed with trying to get that crossover success that they water down the Canadian-ness of their music. See High Valley or Brett Kissel singing about southern skies as if they are regular Nashville based acts. Does Canada have a distinct sound in the Americana world? Do you aim to have your music feel geographically grounded?
M: I’m really passionate about what I like to call the New Canadiana. There’s an enormous amount of amazing music coming out of Canada all the time. Of course, by the metrics of a streaming platform like Spotify, none of these artists actually matter. I think that’s a really unfortunate consequence of the stream economy. Canada is small. There are probably fewer people in all of Canada than in the state of California. We need a better way to test and explore the music of this place instead of making broken comparisons to American acts.
In my newsletter, I try to do interviews with Canadian folk and country artists who I think are capturing the heart of what it means to write songs in this place.
Music is always going to lose some of its spirit when it tries to appeal to impersonal, international markets. True country music is music that belongs to a place. It needs to have a sense of locality, and it comes from a true love for a place.
True country music is music that belongs to a place.
So, if the “southern skies” are the ones in Southern Saskatchewan (which, believe me, are something to experience), then bring it on. But if it’s about trying to repeat the formulas that reflect another experience, then it’s not going to last.
J: My favorite Canadian artist that I feel really should be a bigger deal is Ken Yates. Aside from yourself, who would you recommend in the Canadian independent folk/Americana/country scene that you think readers should check out?
M: Believe it or not, Ken Yates recorded his new album in the same studio I recorded “It’s So Easy to Love You” right here in Nova Scotia!
The studio belongs to Daniel Ledwell who is married to one of our Nova Scotian super stars, Jenn Grant.
I’d also love to point people to Joel Plasket. The classic Plasket album rec is his triple disk masterpiece, Three (2009), but last year he put out a new album that is my favourite from him so far. The album’s called One Real Reveal (2024), and he recorded it all on a 4-track tape machine in his studio over in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Joel is a star in his own right, but he’s the rare kind that never left his hometown. He’s been pouring into the music scene here for decades. He really embodies what I was saying about the importance of locality in music. Amy and I went to one of the final shows of his last tour. Halfway through she whispered, “this is the best show I’ve ever been to.” It was that kind of night.
J: Luke Combs’ recent Fathers and Sons record digs deeply into the complexity of the father son relationship. I find it quite enjoyable when artists focus on something other than the standard love songs and stretch to cover more of the human experience. That’s why I enjoyed It’s So Easy To Love You and it's focus on the gentle and tender side of fatherhood. Going forward, as you build up your discography, what stories or topics do you wish for your music to tell?
M: I’ve been turning to mythology and cosmic imagery in songs a lot lately. In our moment, we’ve lost touch with the cosmic kinds of storytelling and poetry that used to provide people with a sense of belonging in the universe. I think people are starving for something like that. There’s this great now to return to some of those discarded stories and see what’s true.
J- Bonus question. Thank you for this collab, it was very fun. Do you have anything coming out soon that you want to share with the readers?
M- Stay tuned for a new song coming out in October. It’s called “Where Love Goes”. It was also recorded at Daniel Ledwell’s studio and draws a lot on William Prince’s sound.
I’ve also been trying an experiment here on Substack, sharing a new song every month to subscribers of the newsletters. To make things more interesting, I’m recording all the songs to my 4-track tape recorder. So far, the songs only live on the newsletter. I haven’t talked about them anywhere else. It’s been a fun way to bring some added dignity to the mailer. Here’s one of my favourites in the series so far:
Matthew’s substack can be found here.
I highly encourage the readership to check it out.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please leave a comment or email to today I heard blog at gmail dot com
-Joe
Thanks for having me on the show, Joe. It was a real pleasure!