When Zach Kleisinger performed in Nanaimo earlier this summer he was on his own. This time around, the Vancouver-based singer-songwriter will be bringing his band to the Island for the first time.
On Sept. 19, Kleisinger performs at the Vault. It’s one of the final dates on Kleisinger’s eight-show August-September B.C. tour. He said the last dates of a tour are usually more relaxed, especially on longer tours.
“It takes some time to really get into your own set,” he said. “After 15 shows of playing the same thing, you really just are one with the songs. So I think at the end of the tour it’s very free, you’re very sure of yourself, it feels like the stresses have kind of washed away.”
This past summer Kleisinger released a pair of singles, You Should Hold Me and Lower Your Book. He said he’s planning on recording an album next year, but until then the singles “are just going to exist on their own.”
“I have a bunch of other songs, too, but I just felt like recording these songs and getting them out there before I got too bored of them, I guess,” he said.
Kleisinger wrote You Should Hold Me after meeting his girlfriend.
“I went back to my place and sat at the piano and then that song came out,” he said. “I guess it’s just about being ready to go into something if the other person wants to.”
Kleisinger said Lower Your Book is a contemplation on the “coincidence” of being alive.
“Maybe [you’re] thinking at times you didn’t necessarily want to have been a part of that coincidence, but you’re here and so you kind of have to make the most of it,” he said.
Next month Kleisinger embarks on a Western Canada tour that takes him to his home province of Saskatchewan and back before heading off on his first European tour in November.
“Right now I’m at the part where I am needing to get my visa for England, so that’s kind of what I’m concentrating on…” he said. “It can be daunting if you look at everything at once. There are just lots of little steps to take, that’s all.”
WHAT’S ON … Zach Kleisinger performs at the Vault, 499 Wallace St., on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 9 p.m. $10 cover.
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