After travelling across Canada, Landon Coleman has settled down in Ottawa and recorded the sounds of his journey on his new album, Single Life.
“The idea behind the record was to disrupt some of the listeners’ or some of culture’s bad idea of romance, and secondly to close the chapter of my life of never settling down or having any roots,” he said.
Coleman performed songs off Single Life with Leif Vollebekk in Wakefield, Que. at the Black Sheep Inn Nov. 11.
While Coleman just released his first full-length album, he said he grew up in music. His dad played in a band in the ‘70s and Coleman and his siblings all took piano lessons before he started up his own indie-rock band.
Coleman’s personal and cross-Canada journeys play into Single Life a lot, he said. After studying philosophy for a year in Ottawa, Coleman said he moved to British Columbia to reflect on life.
There wasn’t a big music scene in Golden, B.C., the small town where he was living, so he said he drew inspiration from the “rugged landscape, mixed with a bit of loneliness.”
Coleman then ventured out East first to study in Nova Scotia and then to focus on songwriting in the Maritimes, he said.
“That was hugely important for me just because I didn’t really know what I was doing with writing songs. Then you play all these songs that are so good and people never get bored of them. It’s super inspiring and so much better than me talking about my feelings,” he said.
With the experiences of living coast-to-coast under his belt, Coleman ultimately decided to settle in Ottawa.
“It’s not because Ottawa is the best,” he joked. Coleman said one of the main reasons he returned was because of the time he spent studying at Augustine College in Ottawa.
“I really love being around the atmosphere of the college, it’s serious and exciting,” he said. “People are seriously engaged with culture and politics, and it’s really interesting.”
His time in Ottawa directly inspired three songs from his new album. He used to live in Vanier and would walk to Sandy Hill every day, he said.
“It was the most time I’d ever spent alone. It was a lot of thinking, a lot of whistling. I was going to school before it was light and coming home when it was very dark.”
He said he expressed this on the instrumental track “A bit of rest just off Rideau,” and on “Give My Hips to the Girls” and “Rideau Street.”
Coleman said he has no desire to move to a different city and start all over again. He said he plans on working on a Hank Snow cover album and touring. The furthest his current journey will take him is Halifax.
“The only reason I have to go out West is to see my nieces and nephews,” he said.
