It’s difficult to believe a short time before COVID kicked-in, East Coast singer-songwriter David Myles considered quitting his music career.
“I had two young kids. I was away on tours a lot and I got sick on the road. The demands of the career were crushing me. I was trying to please everyone, and it wasn’t working,” said Myles.
Once the pandemic blew into town, he was forced to isolate, collaborating with other musicians online to create That Tall Distance, a funky mix of jazz beats. The instrumental album was inspired by jazz artists Herbie Hancock and Donald Byrd’s classics from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Instead of just being a bunch of musicians having a blast creating music, That Tall Distance won the 2022 Juno Award for instrumental album of the year.
“During the pandemic, I discovered I just wanted to make music with friends more than anything. And then making a record and winning a Juno — that shows you a person has to go back to the studs and have fun. It affirmed, ‘Hey, I can do this.'”
Galvanized by the drop in pandemic restrictions, the Fredericton-based recording artist is hyped about David Myles Trio on Tour Across Canada, an 11-stop cost-to-coast concert tour. Accompanied by Kyle Cunjack and Alan Jeffries, the trio is set to perform a concert at the Arden Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
On Friday, Sept. 23, Myles released It’s Only a Little Loneliness, his 15th studio album. The introspective CD’s success was greater than expected and he believes a large part of this accomplishment stems from his sincerity to listeners.
“The release was great. It reached No. 1 on iTunes on the singer-songwriter charts and No. 12 overall. It’s been a great first week across Canada. When you do something so personal and in private, you don’t know how people will react, but my instinct served me well. Being isolated gave me another metric to know myself better. I’ve been lucky. I’m a music nerd, and sharing music is infinitely satisfying.”
Through the album, the award-winning artist searches for new paths, new sonic expressions, and new spirituality. He’s a man who asks many questions, but the answers elude him as they elude the rest of us.
“It’s the kind of thing you say to yourself when you’re feeling a bit down — It’s only a little bit of loneliness,” Myles said of the album title. “But then at the same time you know it’s a big thing ... It’s overwhelming ... And you realize, ‘I need people. I need a community. I need my friends. I need my family.’”
If I Lost You, featuring Breagh Isabel, examines what it means when relationships based on love end. In Mystery, he addresses that indescribable magnetic feeling when opposites attract. And in country star Kitty Well’s 1955 classic, Making Believe, Myles and Rose Cousins sing a heartbreaking rendition about never getting over a lover.
All songs on the album are co-produced between Myles and Joshua Van Tassel, a long-time music partner who the singer describes as an “amazing collaborator. He is less involved in the writing and more involved in the producing and getting more out of me.”
All songs were produced with Van Tassel, except Walk With Me, a spiritual song tweaked by Christopher “Old Man” Luedecke, a Nova Scotia Juno Award-winning recording artist.
“It was the subject matter. I wanted it to be a song talking about big things and I wanted all people to relate to it. I wrote it and rewrote it until it felt right,” said Myles.
The Maritime singer describes the upcoming Arden concert as intimate, flexible, and certainly not super produced.
“We have good music, great harmonies, and we like to banter.”
The concert on Oct. 19 starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Arden Theatre, 5 St. Anne St. Tickets start at $35. Call 780-459-1542 or online at tickets.stalbert.ca
