Canadian indie musician Noah Derksen is returning to Fernie for a Saturday night performance at Infinitea. The artist stopped in Fernie last year as part of his western Canadian tour.
According to Derksen, this is the biggest tour he has even embarked on, starting on Vancouver Island on Sept. 8 and ending on the east coast of Canada in November.
“I have done a little bit here and there, a few weekend excursions in B.C. and throughout the States and then this one is a big endeavour. This one is all the way across the country for the next couple of months,” he told The Free Press.
While his musical style is still an acoustic sound, he has added in some other instruments and is playing with other musicians. His cousin, Rebecca Dyke, is touring with him for the first month, including his Fernie performance. Dyke accompanies Derksen on cello and piano, as well as vocals.
“I’ve had a little band in Vancouver that I have played with for the past year and a half or so, but mostly I have toured as a solo artist, so this is something I guess that is a little bit new for me, essentially to this scale of travelling with the other person and being with them constantly,” he said. “But from a musical stand point, it is just fantastic. It just really adds to the set – it just adds a lot of depth to the music.”
The tour is in support of his new album titled In Search of the Way. The album will be officially released on Oct. 19, during his show in his hometown of Winnipeg. Derksen says his new album is a natural progression from his last album, The Man that I am.
“The first album that I released was called The Man that I am, so that album was kind of all the songs related to my experiences moving from my hometown of Winnipeg out to the west coast at the age of 18,” he said. “Those songs in that album were displaying a learning phase for me or really coming into my own to figuring out who I am, what I find important and that sort of thing. This new album and all the songs with it are essentially the next step and the natural progression in that sequence. So now having somewhat figured out and become comfortable with who I am, next it is figuring out what is going to happen, what I’m going to put my time into and where to go from here.”
Derksen says the new album features more instruments but is still very humble in its arrangements and focuses on the guitar and his songwriting abilities.
Over the tour, Derksen is looking forward to challenging himself musically and seeing Canada along the way.
“I’m a person that really appreciates challenging myself. I love motion, I love movement and I love the feeling and the notion of progressing and feeling uncomfortable. For this entire tour, this is new territory for me, although I have toured a little bit in the last year, I haven’t toured this extensively. I haven’t gone all the way across the country,” he said. “It’s a beautiful country. I’m very excited to continue seeing these little towns across the way and musically continue to challenge myself and to see what opportunities lay ahead.”
