Blake Berglund makes a return visit to 5th Avenue Cup & Saucer in Yorkton Monday, Nov. 8.For the country singer now based in B.C., playing Yorkton is really returning to his home turf.
"I was raised just outside of Kennedy, SK (150km straight 小蓝视频 of Yorkton) on the edge of the Moose Mountain Provincial Park," explained Berglund. "My family has a ranch in which we mainly raise Quarter Horses and farm grain."
Berglund said looking back 小蓝视频 involved with a profession where words are important, like 小蓝视频 a singer/songwriter, almost seemed inevitable.
"Dad owed Berglund Livestock in Arcola, SK and Mom has been a speech pathologist in the area since the 70s so between an auctioneer and a linguist it was inevitable that words/lyrics/vocal rhythm were going to play a major role in my career choice - we have old home videos of us as children, and it's always my brother and two younger sisters getting into trouble or keeping themselves amused in traditional child fashion and I was always by myself in the corner writing poems. I insisted in grade school that words like 'can' rhymed with words like 'hands' or 'ask' with 'Last' - it didn't matter how it was spelled but how it sounded in rhythm"I remember when I finally got to Junior High we were taught about 'poetic license' -- freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices, especially in behaviour or speech -- that was a big day."
At the same time Berglund said music really didn't come from his parents.
"Neither my mother or father played musical instruments but are both music lovers," he said. "I've always boiled it down to 小蓝视频 a youngster and mom playing Meatloaf and Dad playing George Strait. I felt such a need to recreate sound and used piano lessons as my outlet. Piano branched to guitar, Meatloaf branched to Led Zeppelin, and George Strait branched to Willie Nelson."
Berglund said his roots make him enjoy gigs like a small coffeehouse in Yorkton.
"Being from a small town I've always had a soft spot for smaller cities, especially when it comes to performing," he said. "I think too often places like Yorkton, Swift Current, Moose Jaw, Brandon, etc get overlooked as viable performing areas - from Regina you're supposed to play Winnipeg next, but there's a strong sense of support you get from centres that have a thriving little scene and it's very important to me to play those centers.
"In the beginning stages of a career I think the main goal is to generate a fan base over a large area as quickly as possible, and it's too bad, but a lot of people raised in smaller centers tend to move away. Why not use this to your advantage; play a show to 30 people in a smaller town and let them take it with them when they leave as opposed to playing to 30 in Vancouver and them all staying in Vancouver."
While Berglund is basically a country musician, he does see music as a broader spectrum based on his diverse influences and the goals he has a songwriter.
"This is my favourite and most hated question asked," he offered. "My musical influences are extremely complex. I really believe in harmony of the creative mind. If you are creating something that doesn't feel right at the time or expressing a thought that you aren't really into at the moment that kind of throws things for a loop.
"So, what's a writer to do when one day he listens to Sabbath, then next Arcade Fire and Matt Mays, and then the third Hank III and John Prine.
"For the safety's sake of the question I'll always boil it down to Willie Nelson and country undertones. It feels the best. I appreciate artists who are doing their thing. There's obviously an art in one who writes their own material but you can't forget the art in interpretation of another's material; Frank Sinatra didn't write his own stuff, but who's more credible than Frank?"
So Berglund said he ultimately tries to stay true to himself while trying to carve out a living with his music.
"I'm really doing my best to appreciate the 'machine' of the industry, pump out songs, get someone to record it, put bacon on the table, repeat," he said. "But it's difficult. Everyone does music for different reasons and my largest fault is not seeing all those justified, so I'm working at that as an artist."
For Berglund working solely on music is now his career.
"I've been playing professionally for about five years without a day job and advancing with income from music," he said. "It was kind of that sink or swim mentality.
"I spend thousands of dollars a year on everything from CDs to iTune downloads to live performances, all of other artists; so let's try to get others to do that with my product."
Berglund said the pressures of making a living off his music is actually a motivation.
"I find the times I rise are when things are threatened a little, nothing serious just stuff like a song has to be written for an artist by Friday, or rents due in four days; that vision of 'sinking' is a strong motivation for me," he said. "Artists like Codie Prevost, Zachery Lucky, and Don Amero have built such a rep for 'working the trenches' and that's the difference between 小蓝视频 a flash in the pan or having longevity. Every artist's career will be jeopardized at one point or another and if they didn't lay it all out on the line in the beginning stages and it wasn't handed to them on a silver platter then they don't really see what they're losing. It was given easy and it will be taken easy.
"Let radio play your catchy song, cross your fingers, and hope they do it again for the next one, or make them play your catchy song because they lose fans and look bad if they don't. This sort of ties into the last question, but the three mentioned are enormous musical influences of mine, genres aside, because of their lifestyles and the way they are running their businesses. It's virtually impossible for them to have their careers 'taken away'."
Interestingly, when asked to talk about highlights, Berglund didn't look to his music, but rather to his family.
"Sure, a lot of highlights in the career are success based, good opening slots, charting a single, finishing an album, but the big ones are the ones that only matter to me that no one else can really share in," he said. "My mom did an interview a little while ago for a paper and she described me as having a passion for people before a passion for music. I would never have thought that or said that in an interview but when I read it, it hit me square in the chest.
In the same interview my Dad said I was a good help around the farm - those two statements from my Mom and Dad meant more to me than any review I've ever got on any album. That was a big highlight."
Of course it's easy to see Berglund has a sentimental side when he talks about the battered guitar he strums during his performances.
"My guitar is awesome," he said. "It's cheap and destroyed. I play a 2000 model Godin Seagull Artist Series Acoustic that I received as a high school grad gift from my mom and dad. Elixr Strings. Autographed by Valdy and 'luv u bro' carved into by my brother.
"The hole just below the pic guard is from playing it 'too much', and the crack in the top is from allowing it to get dried out.
"The headstock was broken clean off of it the day before I went into studio to record my first album but salvaged by a luthier friend seeing the emergency situation.
"The scratches on the face of the body are strumming it with a broken beer bottle at my cousins wedding, the leather strap around the nut was blessed by Pope John Paul II and the feather that hangs from it was given to me by an elder in the aboriginal community. "I've slept with it and kept it out later at night, more than any girlfriend I've ever had."
As a songwriter, Berglund said it is a craft which must be worked at.
"I write every day," he said. "Some days I really don't feel like it and others will end up blending three days together. Song writing is my expression; an art and a craft like building cupboards. Anyone can learn to do it and you can always work on the craft side - structuring, editing, arranging - so days when I feel a natural focus should be on something else I still sit down for an hour and work on making already written songs better or writing out phrasing patterns. Other days the art comes into play, and I write and write and write."
And sometimes it just all comes together.
"On the new album, 'Dragging Angels', 'Harvest Stars', and 'Hang' were written in a five hour time slot hauling grain while harvesting at the farm. Bang, Bang, Bang. That rarely happens - but it was an amazing night," said Berglund.
And the most recent album is one Berglund said he is proud of because it reflects what he tries to do on stage live.
"'I'm very happy with the finished product," he said. "It captures a very creative and intense year of my life. The songs blend into each other, and it's laid out flow-wise, like a dual sided vinyl used to be, tracks 1-6 start upbeat and move to a set-up for side B. 7-11 hit hard and rip right through to the ending.
"Lots of the songs were written to flow together. We were playing them live long before they were recorded so to keep the set rolling along certain songs would be arranged to match previous songs keys, instrumental segues that overlap time signatures were written, and lyrics reappear throughout songs, all of these appear on the recording.
"The pauses that we take live are the pauses on the album. After 'Hang' I switch guitars and re-tune live. Guess what? On the recording there's an extra long break between 'Hang' and 'Poet'. It's more than just one song after the next."
As an artist Berglund does admit he has difficulty picking a single favourite song from the album.
"My favourite cuts on the album change," he said. "I feel some lyrics are especially strong and some melodies outshine others. 'A mother's only as happy as her saddest child' is my favourite line on the entire recording and it appears in the third verse in 'Hang', and there's no denying the melodic strength of 'Going to the Beach'.
"'Raised on the Whiskey' is the first release to radio. It's been out for the past couple months (GX94 has it). So I've been really pushing the abilities of that track."
And "there's something really special about 'Tears & Tears Ago'. That song lays down the groundwork for the next album. I'm a diehard fan of the peddle steel and that track is drenched in it. It really pushes the envelope of a traditional country sound, lots of steel and fiddle, but sections with obscure timing and vocal screams. I love the lazy female harmonies in it also."
