Jeff Beadle

The abundance of talent Toronto has amazes me. One thing we lack though is the support for all these incredible musicians. Many times talent from our neck of the woods have to leave the city, even the country, to pursue their dreams and passions. Why is that? Why do we allow our amazingly talented Torontonians share their talent and skills elsewhere? I’m still trying to figure out the answer to that question.

In comes Jeff Beadle a folk singer-songwriter from Toronto. All his music needs is an acoustic guitar, Beadle’s modern day Neil Young, Bob Dylan inspired vocals with a little bit of harmonica for that extra touch of classic folk. His music is summed up by just a man with his guitar pouring out his soul to an audience. Beadle has ventured off to Europe to pursue his dream of becoming a singer-songwriter because Toronto has been a tough market to break into. Now he’s on tour in Europe, where he plays sold out shows in smaller venues and has received great responses from the European audience.

After playing twenty-five shows (around Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland) in twenty-three nights, Beadle and I talked about his music, his growing success in Europe and what’s next for the up-and-coming folk singer-songwriter.

Tell me a little about how you got into music and how learning to play guitar has been a crucial element to your songwriting.

I’ve been playing in all sorts of bands for years as a lead singer. Eventually, I wanted to start playing guitar in the bands too. I also started picking up the guitar just to write. I like to write music so guitar has been the best avenue for me to write on. So I started playing guitar and all of my bands broke up and I decided, well some friends pushed me, to record some of my songs acoustically and that’s how I became a singer-songwriter.

How would you say your European audience differs from the Canadian audience?

I don’t want everyone to hate me there [laughs]. I’m having a hard enough time in Canada. Basically there is a really big difference in my opinion. I don’t think it’s all of the fans in Canada but I’m a singer-songwriter so I’m playing a lot of smaller clubs and bars, I find that the crowd in Canada can be quite chatty. It’s more of an event when you go out and people are seeing old friends. You don’t get the response you get in Europe. People come here [Europe] for a concert and that’s what they want to see. It’s a show and they appreciate the music and the art here in a completely different kind of way. It’s a concert, it’s a show, it’s not chatty or about catching up with friends. People just listen…

They just zone out to the music right?

Exactly. And I’m a singer-songwriter so it’s important; it’s not a party, it’s storytelling. So it’s really nice for me and it works really well for me here.

When you go to Europe you play sold out shows, yet in Toronto the audience isn’t nearly as big. Why do you think that is?

Obviously I’m still growing here in Europe, it’s not like I’m playing for thousands of people, but we’re playing perfect sized venues for me in the moment and it’s still growing. I think on this tour, out of about 24 or 25 shows, I’ve only played one slow night and everything else has been absolutely packed. So it’s great. I think Toronto, and Canada in general, is a tough market. It’s super competitive, not that it’s not here, but in Toronto there’s so many talented people. I just find there’s so many things to do in one night especially in Toronto and you can kind of get lost in the mix. That’s just Toronto. I’ve played in the West Coast and I find that it’s a little bit easier there to get something going but yeah I find Toronto and beyond east coast tougher.

Like you said, I feel like there’s so much talent here but we just don’t support them enough.

I agree and I don’t know if that’s a product of there just being too much or people just don’t care about the arts as much. I don’t even want to go as far as saying that because I know people that do, but yeah when I came over here [Europe] I was in shock. That’s basically all I can say. From the first show on, my first tour in August, I just couldn’t believe that people were listening to me.

Where Did We Get Lost (new album) released this month. What was the process of creating this album?

Okay so I released my first record [The Huntings End] through a label here called Butterfly Collectors and they kind of picked me up through bandcamp and the Internet. They were like “What are you doing?” and I’m like “Nothing” [laughs]. So we talked and they brought me over here to tour. So they released The Huntings End in August here and it did pretty well but we wanted a little bit more for when I came back from this tour that started around January 20th. So we were originally going to record an EP. Maybe just 4 songs or so but what happened was, I had a lot of ideas and I was trying to finish off the ideas and I wanted to have the best songs that I could have for this EP to bring on. So I wrote more than four songs; I wrote 7 or 8, when I sent it to the guys [Butterfly Collectors] here they were like well all of these songs are really growing on us maybe we can just release another full record. And I did, I put a lot of hard work into them because I wanted to impress them and I wanted to show that I could write and work on a deadline. So then we went into the studio and recorded in a studio, which didn’t work out and eventually we had to record the record twice. Since the studio didn’t work out we did it organically. I put my baby to sleep every night and recorded in my house and I would send it to the guys for feedback and did it that way. The album came out to be something like 31 minutes long so we had to write one more song. So it came out like okay if you give us one more song we can make it a full-length record. So then I wrote one more song for them and that was the process of how Where Did We Get Lost was made.

Jeff_Beadle_WhereDidWeGetLost_Cover_Image_by_SpringerParker
Where Did We Get Lost Cover Image by Springer Parker
What inspired it?

I never write in a really happy way. A lot of my music is very melancholy and deals with the pain that a lot of people feel, you know, and in difficult situations. I don’t write happy music well for some reason just doesn’t come out well for me. And on this record I was kind of feeling a little bit lost because I’m 32 years old, me and my wife just had a baby, we just bought a house right outside of Toronto and I had to quit my job cleaning pools in Toronto before I left on this tour to follow my dream basically. So I find a lot of the record, Where Did We Get Lost, is about being lost but in ways being okay with it. But at the same time it deals with a lot of the insecurities that come with the job that I do now. Music is such an uncertain thing, and it definitely isn’t your everyday kind of life but I think it’s okay and it’s what I love doing. I have a family that supports me fully.

How do you juggle everything with your family and playing these long tours?

Well my wife and daughter are on tour with me. And we had a lot of shorter drives on this tour so it was manageable. But before you go you’re like, this is going to be a fucking nightmare. But it actually turned out to be much nicer than I could’ve ever of imagined and I don’t have to miss my daughter and my wife and I’m living healthier, not staying out and drinking [says jokingly while looking at his wife].

What’s always iPod ready?

The Band and Ray Lamontagne. I’m a big Ryan Adams fan, not Bryan but Ryan [laughs], Van Morrison, a lot of Van Morrison. Yeah, so much stuff and we’re always looking for new stuff. I really like Timber Timbre. My friends’ band Sun K they’re about to release a record and I’ve already heard it and nobody else has and it’s outstanding. I always like the classics too like Neil Young.

What would be your theme song?

The Log Drivers Waltz [laughs]? Everybody calls me a lumberjack over here.

What’s next? When are you in town for a show?

I’m playing in Toronto at the Silver Dollar on March. 19th at 10:45pm. Then I’m going to do a lot more touring and some writing and I intend to try to give this a real go and make it my career I hope - Novella

JEFF BEADLE

Jeff Beadle, a Canadian folk singer-songwriter, was born into a music adoring family that encouraged his love for song writing. He started writing at 12 years old to immediate local recognition. He and a few school friends started playing local fairs, arcades and house parties – all with original song-writing. When in High School, he created multiple bands and attended all possible music classes while continuing to play live shows whenever he could.

Jeff now works alone every day, battling Toronto traffic all the while writing what has become The Huntings End. Over the last four years he has been cleaning and servicing the swimming pools of the elite in the downtown core. The daily solitude provoked the fears, tragedies and heartbreaks of his past. These strong reminiscences weighed heavy on his lonely days, begging for a release.

Jeff would arrange these feeling into rough songs on his cell phone, using voice memos and notes. Covered in grease and with chlorine stained clothes, he’d rush home to unpack the ideas, hashing out the fundamentals into melodies and complete lyrics. There is always rushed excitement to his creation, as is heard in the heartfelt tracks on The Huntings End.

His house is the local hub for all his friends. He makes late night dinners for everyone (Chef Jeff) that eventually turn into a wine infused testing ground for young songs. Based on this close to home feedback, Jeff would then fine tune his tracks at many local venues in Toronto. He plays constantly, at home, a-capella in the car, live shows at bars and backyards all for the love of playing and to fine tune his songs.

After running his songs through the local gauntlet of live venues, Jeff partnered up with his close friend Frank Gairdner to plan a raw and pure recording session. They chose Frank’s parent’s place, a quiet and remote farm house with 20 ft wood beam ceilings located on the rolling country hills of Southern Ontario. The evocative lyrics and catchy melodies reverberated wonderfully.

Jeff has a lot of experience that he draws from. The bands that he has headed cover many genres, have toured Canada multiple times as well as through China. He developed a love for the road while touring every nook and cranny of Canada. The unique towns and people that he met all had their own appreciation and love for music, and all of them had their own stories for having it.

For Jeff, this is one of the most important parts of writing music. Along with telling his own story, he needs to tell others’ as well. His intense empathy for people’s situations and losses motivate a lot of his music. The road was his library, gathering stories and experiences and translating them to music. - Butterfly Collectors