Tim Chaisson is bringing his Celtic-infused, country-pop to Australia to support the release of his latest album, 'Lost In Light'.
Tim comes from a musical family on Prince Edward Island, and has regularly played with his brothers and cousins. “On this tour it's my cousin Koady Chaisson. On stage I'll play guitar and fiddle and he does the bass and banjo and the two of us sing. I've done every other tour here by myself and I do enjoy playing by myself on stage and it's fun to tour by yourself, but its not the same as when you have someone on stage with you that you really connect with musically and otherwise. It's been awesome having him here.”
Often travelling between Canada and Australia, Tim has worked out how to combat the dreaded jet-lag. “There's been a couple of times when I've been totally knocked out. The key is to stay up all day even if you're about to pass out. This time has been pretty good, it has probably been the best I've done so far.”
The familiar feel of Australia keeps Tim coming back for more. “For me, being on opposite sides of the world it's quite similar in a lot of ways. I feel like the people are kind of similar. We're both very proud to be from our country and it's just a big land mass without a crazy amount of people. I have a lot of friends down here now and a lot of Canadian friends who have moved here – the connection is undeniable.”
Tim recruited expert assistance for the making of his new album, 'Lost In Light'. “Band Of Horses have been one of my favourite bands for a long time and the bassist Bill [Reynolds] produced the record. It was pretty cool working with him. He's a great musician. He played bass on the record too. I just contacted him and said 'would you be interested?' but I never thought it would work out considering how busy he is with Band Of Horses, and generally his profile. But he was really into it. He said he liked my songwriting on my last record and after the first chat we decided it had to work out.”
The album was written partly on the hoof and reflects the stories of travel and the personalities encountered on the road. A talented multi- instrumentalist, Tim plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle as well as singing. “I've been on the road pretty much since my last record came out so it's been a couple of years of flat out travelling between Australia, Canada and the US.
"I've just kind of been writing the entire time, on the road off the road. I set up a little studio at home in Canada last winter and just demoed all the songs as best as I could, playing all the instruments. When we went into the studio it was a breeze, we had some really great players, and Bill was awesome to work with.
"The album doesn't necessarily follow a lyrical theme but when you're travelling all over the place you meet different people and you hear different stories and it's just kind of compiling the best of them. I wrote a lot of these songs with really good friends of mine so the record was a lot of fun to make.”
The Chaisson musical dynasty is a mainstay of the Prince Edward Island music scene, and most family members pick up instruments before they can even walk. “My father and my uncle, all my cousins, my grandfather and great grandfather are all fiddle players and instrumentalists. By the time that our generation came along it was no different, we were all playing for square dances and things like that from a really early age. It was just kind of a normal thing to be a musician around our neck of the woods.
“I was maybe 15 the first time I toured, I was a bass player in a band [Kindle]. I toured with them for about three years. I was in high school at the time, so I wasn't at home at all during the summer and I missed quite a lot of school which was fine by me at the time! That was all family members, my two brothers and my cousins. They were a band who had been together for a few years when I joined and already had their following. It was more in the style of Celtic music so it was a lot of pubs and a lot of festivals and stuff like that."
Never one to rest on his laurels (or return unnecessarily early to a Canadian winter) Tim is diving straight into an Australian tour with side project The East Pointers, after his own solo tour. “We started like seven or eight months ago, just for fun. We'd get together and drink beer and play Celtic music 'til all hours of the night, then decided to play a couple of shows. It's been going so well that we booked an Australian tour. Right after this one we are touring the rest of Australia starting at the Woodford Folk Festival.”
Written by Nicholas Atkins
Tim Chaisson Tour Dates
Wed 26 Nov - The Brass Monkey (Sydney)Thu 27 Nov - Brighton Up Bar (Sydney)
Sat 29 Nov - Gorgeous Festival (McLaren Vale)
Sun 30 Nov - Queenscliff Music Festival
Thu 4 Dec - Thornbury Theatre (Melbourne)
Fri 5 Dec - Lizotte’s (Central Coast)
Sat 6 Dec - Lizotte’s (Central Coast)
Wed 10 Dec - GoodGod Small Club (Sydney)
Fri-Sat 12-13 Dec - Festival Of The Sun (Port Macquarie)
Thu 18 Dec - Café Le Monde (Sunshine Coast)
Fri 19 Dec - New Globe Theatre (Brisbane)
