Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Salt thrown over shoulder. Virgins sacrificed. Black cats and ladders avoided.
But. Here we are.
It’s Thursday, March 19, the day before the release of Calgary singer-songwriter JJ Shiplett’s new seven-song EP, Fingers Crossed.
He was, understandably, expecting big things from the beautifully lacquered and buffed collection of raspy roots, gentle-rock, calloused-hand-written diary-entries-come-to-life. Having already paved the way with his 2017 CCMA Award-nominated album Something To Believe In, tours with his one-time, same-souled former benefactor Johnny Reid, the new album was expected to bump him further, take him to that next country- or rock-crossover place.
That was then.
And then the world stopped.
It hadn’t fully yet, was just grinding to a halt, when we were actually able to sit safe distance from one another and share a pint at Inner City Brewing to talk about the record — one that has, like many since, had to find an audience more organically, with most of the usual avenues for getting it out there (touring, promotional visits, interviews, outreach, etc.) having met a COVID-19-sized roadblock.
“I’ve spent so much time trying to get this done, putting everything I had into it,” Shiplett said at the time. “And now I’m stuck with the normal machine that rotates through and keeps everything pushing along — that I kind of have a foot in sometimes — is not moving at all and doesn’t want to move.
“But at the same time, a lot of people are out there looking for music right now and they’re at home listening.”
He pauses. “But now the market’s flooded with people doing live things (online) and doing this and that, and somehow I have to try to put my hand above it and get everybody’s attention through social media.”
Since then, like many, he has performed online shows and released videos of himself performing the new and old material, which he dubbed the Living Room Lock Down sessions.
And despite myriad challenges, the artist isn’t complaining and is trying to keep a positive attitude despite the inherent issues that come with being an indie artist going it alone who’s had most avenues closed to him due to no fault of his own.
Yes, he is, once again, an indie artist, having parted ways with his former, well-placed management team, helmed by Scot-Canadian Reid, who fell in love with Shiplett’s voice and took him under his wing for a stretch of time.
Shiplett is quick to clarify that the parting of ways was mutual, explaining that when it came to his career the two camps weren’t on the same page and “graciously they let me go.”
“I’m grateful to Johnny for what he taught me,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy process going through it all, and it wasn’t always the funnest time, but I got to tour across Canada in a bus, and play sold-out shows 50 times with him.
“It was what I needed. It was what I needed to continue doing what I do.”
What he needed this time, with Fingers Crossed, was to reclaim his career, begin taking it in the direction he envisioned when he started off as a singer-songwriter a decade-and-a-half ago — an artist who was more Tom and Bruce than latter-day Rod the Bod.
“For so long, I’ve tried to imagine myself as this big country crooner or a big entertainer,” he said, referring to the direction Reid tried to steer him in and he, admittedly, thought was one he wanted to follow. “I think I realized that I’m better suited as just being the singer-songwriter that I want to be.
“Because there are enough people out there that can do that thing, that want to do it — that’s what they look forward to. And I don’t look forward to that stuff, I look forward to writing songs and creating them, but I don’t think I’m believable as, ‘Hey, everybody, check out this song. Old lady, you want to dance with me, too?’ That’s just not me.
“So I feel pretty fortunate. It took me a long time to get to that point, it took me a long time to figure out how to make that work.”
That meant calling off his fruitless and, well, soulless search for a hit single, which had him heading to Nashville frequently for co-songwriting sessions that left him feeling empty and further away from who he was as a musician and, more importantly, as a man.
“I totally lost what it meant to try to write something from the heart, because I was just so focussed on a three-hour session with two other dudes, trying to figure out how to write a hit song, as opposed to, ‘Fuck that. How do you write a good song?’ Because that needs to be the goal.”
One that he achieved with the honest, heartfelt and painlessly, oft-painfully human tunes that make up Fingers — it’s inspired in its intimacy, canny in its craftsmanship and truly affecting in its subtly wonderful and quietly confident delivery.
From the gorgeous opener and first single Waiting on the Rain to the Petty-inspired album highlight All Comes Back to You — written quickly with Dustin Bentall at Bentall’s home in BC after the pair took some ADHD pills to see if it would focus them artistically (“All it did was just focus us on drinking booze and having a good time,” Shiplett laughed) — it’s a collection of songs that cares so much about their intent and sincerity while seemingly caring less about how it’s received.
It is by him, for him. But with us as the beholden and appreciative beneficiaries.
Shiplett demoed the tracks over the past year in his home studio, with the intent to make music that mattered and meant something to him, material with an “emotional intensity”
He then took it to local joy factory OCL Studios, where he spent two weeks with producer-engineer Josh Rob Gwilliam, the artist performing much of the music, co-producing it, making it what he wanted, needed, to make at this time in his life and career.
“I basically did it exactly the way I wanted to do it,” he said, noting that it was an important process for him and his career, in order to “figure out who I wanted to be as an artist. Not the guy who’s striving for fame, but, ‘Who do you want to be as an artist?’
“It was a journey I really needed to go on to figure it out.”
He continued, pointing to what he sees as the loveable warts or “mistakes” that exist on the record.
“So be it. Here’s a moment where I was searching to figure out who I was as an artist or a human being, and this is going to capture that moment.
“Next week I can figure it out again, or next year I can figure out on the next record, rework it, figure it out, and try to make sense of it again.
“And hopefully be better … be a better artist, be a better human.”
JJ Shiplett’s EP Fingers Crossed is available now for streaming or to order online. (Note: Apologies to JJ for the delay in the writing and posting of this interview. He deserved better. Please support what he’s doing, it’s worth your time and attention.)
