Dec 06, 2021 —
Most musicians have the luxury of abandoning a song or an idea when it’s not working out. But the majority of David Archibald’s work is commissioned, so he has no choice: he has to find a way forward. So far it’s worked out pretty well as songs like “Path of the Paddle” and “Land of the Caribou” show. Archibald is a singer/songwriter based in Kingston, Ontario and when he’s not writing commissions he works at Kingston’s Hart Center, an accessible arts hub where people with disabilities can study and create.
He chooses to live and work in the North Country, outside of the bustle of Toronto or New York City and it hasn’t hampered him. He told me he's able to weather a working musician’s ups and downs because positivity is part of his makeup.
A lightly edited transcript is below. Please click the blue button above and listen to the story.
David Archibald with trusty axe. Photo: Doug McColl.
David Archibald: Generally, I tend to be an incurably optimistic kind of fellow. You know I have to fight that every now and again, but I think it shows up.
Doyle Dean: Between performing live shows, writing, composing, recording, is there something that you like the most?
ARCHIBALD: I think my favorite part is when in the creation, you get that combination of the right word and the right music. Now, as I'm sure you know, Mark Twain said that the difference between the right word and the almost right word, is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. And I think it's true. And if you get that right word, and the right lift in the melody and the right chord change underneath it's a great feeling.
DEAN: Can you point me to that moment in a song of yours?
ARCHIBALD: Well, I think it's in the new song "My Favourite Colour is You." And I was just sitting at the piano one day and thinking that I had just been for this drive and seen corn in the fall, which I thought "that is one of my favorite colors," that blonde-beige, with the sun shining on it. And so then I just started to play some chords. And I say "when it comes to the best, it's not what, it's more who, because my favorite color is you."
DEAN: What's it like when it's not working out?
ARCHIBALD: Most of my writing has been commissioned. So that often I'm given a task and a subject about which I have to write. So there's that imperative thrust upon me, so that I can't claim to be searching for inspiration. So I think the challenge in those situations is just to be able to immerse yourself sufficiently in whatever it is that you've been asked to write about. So that when it does bubble up, it bubbles up honestly.
DEAN: You said "just immerse yourself" that means this is research perhaps?
ARCHIBALD: Yeah, it's often research because often they're either like natural history related, so I'll have to write about a stinkpot turtle or something. Or an incredible tin swindle on the north shore of Lake Superior in the 1870s. So yeah, you just have to dig in and do your research.
DEAN: So is the "tin swindle" a real song?
ARCHIBALD: It is for sure. It's on the Pukaskwa CD. And it's called "It's No Tin." Because the fellow who exposed the... (switches accent) the fella who exposed the swindle was a Scotsman!
DEAN: That's great, wow.
Let's back up just a little bit in the steps here. This was commissioned for what? And by whom?
ARCHIBALD: I'd been performing at a conference for the national parks. And a woman came up to me after and said, "Well, what would it take to get you to write a series of songs about Pukaskwa National Park?" and so I said "not very much."
DEAN: Got any money?
ARCHIBALD: Yes, that's right.
David at the Lake. Photo: Barrie Martin.
DEAN: What's really fun about that is that, you know, you're this "bard of the North Country" and you have these commissions. And you know, you don't know where it's going to take you from day to day. So you know, someone might approach you say perhaps after hearing this interview on NCPR... "You know, how about a series of songs about rattlesnakes in the Adirondacks?" Or you know what I mean, like, and then all of a sudden... well, what a great joy. I mean, is that, am I correct in assessing that, that this is a wonderful thing that these, you know, seemingly arbitrary subjects come in your lap?
ARCHIBALD: Yeah and unlikely. Yes. Now I do have, if the rattlesnake people are are calling in, I do have an eastern fox snake song so that might be a good jumping off place.
DEAN: There'll be no repurposing of the different snake songs, you'll need to start from scratch.
ARCHIBALD: Oh, you're a hard man.
DEAN: You've been making music a long time. When did you start? When did you get the bug?
David with (nearly out of frame) Framus guitar, made in Bavaria. Photo: (likely) Cathy Tolton.
ARCHIBALD: Oh, probably what I would call grade eight. And you might call eighth grade. So maybe I was 13.
DEAN: Yeah. And do you remember what did it?
ARCHIBALD: Well, my older brother had a guitar. So there was a guitar kicking around the house. And then our family spent a few months in Spain when I was just going into high school and I got a little nylon string guitar and would sit up on top of the flat roof of our little place and learn you know, what were the big hits? They were "King of the Road," "House of the Rising Sun." So like most people, I think.
DEAN: Yeah, that must have been pretty special. Do you still have that guitar?
ARCHIBALD: Yes, I do. It's a total mess. It's incredibly warped. But it has a place in my heart.
DEAN: Yeah, I mean, at the time that must have been huge.
ARCHIBALD: Yeah, it was cool.
DEAN: It's been a pleasure, David to chat with you. Thanks for your time today.
ARCHIBALD: My pleasure Doyle. Thank you.
Hear more of David Archibald's music here. You can learn more about the regional artists we feature on air as part of our Underscore Project here. North Country Public Radio is listener supported, we always welcome your contribution, and thanks.
For the bard of Kingston any topic is a tune - North Country Public Radio
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