Jan. 13, 2010 - Issue #743: Broken Embraces

Ethan Collister: Isolated inspiration

There's nothing really metaphorical in Ethan Collister's song about being a fire lookout on his latest release Wishing Well. His lyrics are a literal rendering of the job he's had for a handful of summers in Northern Alberta, from deer who eat the food he's trying to grow to finding fine company talking to himself.

The song, however, is a great metaphor for the way he makes music—simply and without a lot of hidden meaning. Wishing Well was written up on an isolated hilltop, and rehearsals with other musicians happened just the day before recording, giving the album the impromptu feel of a fireside jam. It is fun and in the now.

"I actually only met Todd [Bifford], my drummer, the day before we went into the studio. We played for three hours together, and the next thing you know, we were trying to go to tape," Collister says. "So it all came together very quickly, and I think in terms of putting together parts, everybody tried to give the song what it needed. There was just a lot of intuition involved in the process.

"If you have players that can rise to that challenge and not know the songs very well and be able to just do it, it's pretty excellent," he adds. "I was pretty thrilled. I feel pretty fortunate to have worked with the players that I worked with."

And it isn't just his music that is approached this way—while the melody is an important vehicle, the story is the thing. It is what connects us to one another. Just as he's the "lookout on the lookout," he's the storyteller of the storytelling.

"I got more and more interested in artists that tell stories—folk music, that's what it's rooted in. For me a lyric that tells a story, that's what engages me in music," he says. "I've always been most interested in the writing and the songwriting, and I've tried my best to try and create something like that in my music as well."

The stories we tell ourselves and others are always changing, however. It's impossible to listen to Collister's third album and not hear how fruitful his time as a lookout has been, but cutting himself off from the world for summers is not without its downside.

"It's something on my mind more and more these days even, because the type of music I'm pursuing right now, the dream would be to play more festivals. So it's tricky when you remove yourself from the world at the time of year when all of that is happening," he admits. "I'm not really sure what to say about that, except that I'm thinking about it and I don't know. That job, realistically, may not be forever for me, if I keep going with the music.V

Thu, Jan 21 (8 pm)
Ethan Collister
with Ariane Mahrÿke Lemire
Brixx Bar & Grill, $10 – $12

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