Declan O’Donovan, the Yukon native garnering attention for his skill at tickling the ivories and being able to spin a well-crafted yarn along the way, is hitting Good Earth Coffee House, and you have a good chance of laying witness to some of the songsmiths new material he’s been tinkering with if you catch him.
O’Donovan spent most of the spring on tour, but managed to find the time to take part in a two month residency stint at Toronto’s Cameron House, where he wrote, made new friends and told hundreds of late-night crowds about the vivid characters he’s able to bring to life through music and song.
“It was the first one I did actually,” O’Donovan said. “I’d never done something like that before and the intent was to spend some time in Toronto. A lot of what happens in the Canadian music scene happens in Toronto, so I sort of wanted to get my feet wet hanging out in that area of the world and a residency seemed like a good idea. You get some notice around the city both in an industry sense as well as people who love music, and met some great players who recommended me and started working with some new people.”
He found the residency was great for trying out new material, trying out a new band and really getting some work hours in, specifically in building a fan-base in a city.
“I did eight shows, two months of a weekly gig and by the end of it a lot of people who would come on a weekly basis in the beginning started to come back near the end and it’s a different kind of way of building a crowd,” O’Donovan said. “At a festival you just show up and you get to do your thing and everything’s promoted and you know what’s going on beforehand.”
He’s been making waves in the music community for his gift at bringing characters to life with his music.
“There’s guys that come out and they do a show and half their show might be coming out and telling stories in between songs and genuinely doing a storytelling kind of a set, whereas myself, I write storytelling into the songs but not so much in between the songs,” O’Donovan said. “I like to let the songs do the work for me and at least explain things or leave things open to interpretation.
“It gives myself the opportunity to write stuff that’s not autobiographical, I’d rather create things right down to the character that’s involved and the story that’s going on as opposed to doing songwriting that is specific to my own experiences. Your own experience informs the music inevitably, but I find it’s a lot more fun to put a character in because you have a lot more freedom – you can do what you want with the person you made up.”
O’Donovan says circumstance; an experience or a story concept he has in mind is his usual launching pad with writing. “Then I create the character to fit it or create a character and see what the character does with the circumstance, and the process changes all the time – every time,” O’Donovan said. “I show up everyday and try to work everyday and sit down in front of a piece of paper at the piano. These days, more than not, I don’t even use a piano; I try to write on a guitar. (Guitar’s) always been part of it, lately more, but I always get back to the piano, but I find when I sit down at the piano because I’m much more capable on a piano than a guitar, if I sit down at the piano I start to be a piano player and being clever with a piano as opposed to writing. When I sit down with a guitar all I’ve got is just the chords, I play some chords and focus on what the song is and writing the lyrics for it; it simplifies it, I have less options which makes it more focused.”
Over the last year O’Donovan says he’s had great opportunities to play with some fantastic people that are spread out across the country.
“People based out west, in B.C. back home in the Yukon and most recently some guys in Toronto, every way it’s a fantastic business model,” O’Donovan said. “If I had a band based in Toronto and one in Vancouver and maybe one in Halifax as far as touring Canada, which is a beast of a country to tour, that’s a good way to do it and it keeps things fresh for the tour.”
O’Donovan’s been in journeymen mode this last year, with media having trouble keeping track of him.
“They definitely get it wrong on a regular basis, but fair enough, I don’t think there’s a right answer, maybe I’ll just leave it that way and create some mystery as to where the hell I am,” O’Donovan joked. “I like to be on the road and I like to travel and those are two things I want to do with my life – play music and travel.
“A lot of these dates, including Canmore I’m going to be doing solo … which I haven’t done when I’ve toured, it’s a whole different night and a whole different set, playing on my own the songs get a different interpretation and I’m excited to try some new material. Some of the tunes I’m going to be doing on the tour is new material I’m gonna play around with.”
Declan O’Donovan plays Good Earth July 21.
