Jesse Labelle

Lili-Anh sits down with Jesse Labelle–

Jesse Labelle’s solo album Perfect Accident recently came out but he is far from being new to the music industry. Having been submerged in it as a singer, a guitarist and a writer for quite a while, this young artist has experienced a lot. He is now putting all he’s learned to the test by officially pushing his solo career into the limelight with the release of his album that’s been 10 years in the making.

Having just finished a cross-Canadian tour alongside Faber Drive, he has barely any time to rest before hopping onto MuchMusic’s SodaPop tour. When he was in Montreal in May, we discussed his past, what he’s been up to during the last ten years and more.

CONFRONT: Let’s start by going back to the past a little bit. You were in a band called I.D. and I was actually a pretty big fan of that, I have to admit, when I was 11!

JESSE: Really? No way!

CONFRONT: Yeah! So how was that experience for you?

JESSE: Well actually, I wasn’t really on the album. I was just hired as the songwriter and I joined them when the album was already finished being recorded. I had written most of the songs for that band. Right out of high school, I was into songwriting and I got hired to write for them and one of the members left during the recording process so they asked me to join. So actually, I sang on one song on the album and it was weird because they ended up put me in the center of all the pictures but truth was, I was kind of like an outsider in that band.

CONFRONT: Well you were behind all the songs.

JESSE: I was behind all the songwriting, yes. But they kind of put me up front and center and everyone thought it was my band and the truth was I didn’t really even sing in the band. I played a lot of guitars on the album. I played almost all the guitars. If you listen to it, there are a whole lot of songs with guitar solos in them and I was always the one saying: “You got to put guitar solos, you got to put guitar in this music! It’s too dance-y!” So I tried to put a stamp on that and about six months in, I didn’t want to dance, I wanted to play guitar, I wanted to, you know, make it more of a live aspect but they didn’t like and I was kind of the one who caused the demise of the band.

CONFRONT: Oh, really?

JESSE: Yeah, just because I was pushing for a more live atmosphere. You know, I was kind of pushed into joining the band and then I was sort of making my own in-roads once I was in there. I wanted to make my own recordings but the guys in the band didn’t like that. We broke up very quickly. Beyond that, I was hired to play guitar for Fefe Dobson band. I was her guitar player for a while and her producer took me aside said “you know what? I think you’d be better off doing your own thing.” That’s how I wound up doing what I’m doing now. It’s a long road in-between that but that was kind of to catch you up.

CONFRONT: Definitely! So now you’re back out there. Why did you decide to have a comeback of sorts?

JESSE: Well it’s not really a comeback; I’ve been doing this for ten years, I’ve been putting out records and I’ve been releasing stuff online. I’ve been doing this, I’ve been in the music scene, I’ve been touring down in the States. This is just the first official release that’s kind of been pushed back out into the spotlight so to speak.

CONFRONT: Oh ok! What pushed you into this industry?

JESSE: Well I’ve been singing since I was a kid; since I was, like, 4 years old. Played guitar since I was about 9. I started playing piano when I was about 7 so music has always been an important part of my life. As far as being pushed into the industry, it was just the love of doing it in high school that kind of led me to songwriting and, like I told you before, the whole story kind of forms around the fact that I wanted to write out of high school and not go to university and study medicine or law or…

CONFRONT: The typical programs…

JESSE: Yeah, exactly!

CONFRONT: And could you describe your music a little?

JESSE: Yeah! My music is all singer-songwriter. It’s very acoustic-based, where it starts. It all starts on acoustic guitar. They’re all stories. You know, every song is a true story and I would say it’s acoustic-pop-rock with a bit of folk in it as well.

CONFRONT: That’s a pretty interesting sound. And what are some of your inspirations?

JESSE: My biggest inspirations probably go further back than most of the fans would even know. I mean, it’s Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor. A huge influence is The Beatles obviously are mass influences. Some more recent ones would be Matchbox 20 and Eclectic Soul; in high school, those bands were kind of my Bible in music.

CONFRONT: That’s cool! Now, let’s talk about your album. It came out recently.

JESSE: Yeah! Yeah, about a week ago!

CONFRONT: How has that been?

JESSE: it’s been great! It’s really cool walk into stores and see your record. I’m really proud of the album though. It’s the exact picture that I wanted to paint of myself as an artist.

CONFRONT: Did you go buy your album?

JESSE: Yeah I did! Two copies!

*laughter*

CONFRONT: And what’s your favorite song off your record?

JESSE: It’s a tough question! I get asked that a lot and I like all of them for different reasons, you know? And if I had to choose one off this record, I’d probably choose Australia. It’s the most personal and the most recent in terms of what was written for that album. You know, I wrote that one right before we started going into recording. A lot of the songs on the album span back 7-8 years.

CONFRONT: Wow, that is far back.

JESSE: Yeah. That one is the most recent that was written. It’s just really…it’s the most honest. It’s got the most musical diversity; you know, it’s a piano song. I don’t get to play piano on a lot of songs but I was able to do it on that. It’s kind of…it’s the most grown-up version of me that you’ll hear on that record. Both for the fact that I started going back to the piano right before we started recording this record and the fact that it’s the most recent one that I wrote. I think it’s the closest to what you’ll hear in upcoming records.

CONFRONT: That’s cool! Do you get to play the piano live?

JESSE: Not on this tour. I would love to. It’s just, we have so much gear and such a little van. Even bringing a keyboard, it’s large you know? And we’re kind of traveling with as little as humanly possible right now, so I’m just sticking to the guitar for this tour.

CONFRONT: Maybe next time!

JESSE: Yeah!

CONFRONT: And how has the tour been so far? You’ve been on tour for a few weeks.

JESSE: Yeah and we’re going to be on tour for another month and a half still; touring until July with SodaPOP following this one.

CONFRONT: Oh yeah, that’s true!

JESSE: The New Cities are on that one as well.

CONFRONT: Yeah! But there is no Montreal date!

JESSE: There is, I’m almost sure that they’ve added a Montreal date. I can only keep on top of one tour at a time. I know about this tour. Beyond that, I’m kind of waiting for the details to all come in.

CONFRONT: And is this your first time playing Montreal?

JESSE: Yes! This is my very first time.

CONFRONT: Are you excited?

JESSE: Yeah! Looks like a great venue; lots of fans are outside! It’s kind of…it’s a great place to get to play for your very first time you know! Most places, like in Toronto, I’ve played in a lot smaller venues, coffee shops and you kind of build your way up. I feel kind of privileged to come to Montreal and get to play such a great venue the very first time.

CONFRONT: It’s great! Now, I heard you went busking in Europe for a while, tell me about that!

JESSE: Yes! It was great! I mean, I went for about 5 months. I traveled around the Middle East, Europe, I went to Africa, I was in Dubai, I was in Israel, Kenya…in Europe, I was all over, I was in Germany and France, Italy, Greece, Spain… Part of what I did was I brought a guitar with me and I would just go on the streets and kind of busk on the street corners. Not so much for the money, just to kind of play for people. And people really took to it, you know? I didn’t do it for the money but I wounded up making enough that it paid for my hotels. Hotels and meals were paid for.

CONFRONT: Oh wow! That is something!

JESSE: People would throw in large amounts of Euros into this little guitar case that I had!

CONFRONT: That’s great! Probably a little ego-boosting as well?

JESSE: Yeah! It was great! You know, you had people taking you out for drinks and people are kind of hanging out afterwards. You made friends, made money and it kind of added to the experience of traveling.

CONFRONT: Yeah, and you got to practice non-stop too!

JESSE: Yeah, that’s definitely true!

*laughter*

CONFRONT: Where do you see yourself in a few years?

JESSE: Doing the exact same thing that I’m doing now, you know? I want to record another record fairly soon. Regardless whether it comes out the next year or it takes two years to come out, I’m always creative, I’m always creating, I always want to make sure that if I’m coming up with music, that it’s being recorded and getting out there. I’m doing a lot of writing for another artist, there’s another act on the SodaPOP tour whose album I wrote. She’s coming out with us on the SodaP OP tour; her name is Alyssa Reid. I want to be writing and doing what I’m doing for other people and for myself and just continuing to do what it is I love to do.

CONFRONT: It’s great for you that you’re doing what you love to do. What are your plans for the rest of 2010?

JESSE: Well I’m on tour for the rest of the summer pretty much. Probably do another tour shortly after that. I’m looking at the potential of doing a solo tour after the SodaPOP tour. And that’ll be an acoustic tour. It’ll be likely smaller venues and really just intimate settings. It’s not going to be a full-band show, it’ll just be guitar-based, acoustically. Doing that and I’d like to start recording towards the end of the year. I’d like to get back into the studio and start getting some ideas down because before you know it, you need a second record and I don’t want to be rushed. You know, I got to take time for this first record…took me 10 years to make. So I’d like to make sure that the second record is not just forced out there and that it’s done on my own time as opposed to someone telling to go ahead and throw a second record together.

CONFRONT: That usually ends up being not so great…

JESSE: Yeah, that’s why a lot of bands have such great first records and their second records are not so great, you know? They spend their entire life writing the first one and by the time they need to do a second one, they’re thrown into a studio and forced to make it.

CONFRONT: Yeah. For my last question, I’m going to ask you to draw something that you think represents you.

JESSE: It’s supposed to represent…it’s kind of like my idea of what heaven would be like. You’ve got a beach, a guitar, the sunset and the ocean. It’s a combination of all of those things together and this would be the view, you know? Have the guitar lying down on the beach, watching the sunset over the ocean. That is what I’d like to retire to…retire in any aspect of the word. That’s pretty much my idea of what heaven is; right, right there. That’s my view, that’s what I picture myself seeing when the white light comes. That’s kind of where I will be taken to. *laughter*

CONFRONT: So that’s probably where you imagine yourself in maybe a 30-40 years?

JESSE: Hopefully a little more than that! But you know what? I want to be able to walk out of my house one day and just see that; my backyard view. It’s kind of like a goal of sorts.

CONFRONT: I totally understand. I’d love to walk out my yard and have the beach there!

*laughter*

CONFRONT: Thank you for your time! I’m sure the show will be great! It’s a sold-out crowd tonight!

JESSE: Yeah! I heard! Thank you!

Jesse was the first of a great lineup that night and he, along with his band, did a nice job warming up the audience. You could even see his slowly rising success when fans sang along during Perfect Accident, the first single off the album of the same name.

To learn more about Jesse Labelle and to check out his music, you can go to his myspace:

http://myspace.com/jesselabelle

If you watch MuchMusic, you can also catch his newest video clip for Easier, his latest single released a few weeks ago.

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