This isn’t how it was
supposed to be. The plan as of a few
months ago was to meet William Prince
at a theatre in downtown Toronto ahead
of his concert. But instead of being a
few weeks into the grind of touring, the
acclaimed 34-year-old Anishinabe songwriter
is looking at me through a computer
screen from his home in Winnipeg.
“Okay, we got a little stalled in the
doorway because it took a pandemic
to stop me from touring and to halt my
launch into the stratosphere of stardom!”
he laughs, tongue firmly planted in
cheek on the whole “stratosphere of stardom”
part. “It’ll be okay because I am truly
thankful that I have a roof over my head
and I’m not super stressed right now.”
On the other hand, though, “This
was supposed to be their big ‘let’s show
the world William Prince’ moment and it
was going so well,’” lamented the artist’s
co-manager, Helen Britton of Six Shooter
Inc., to Canadian Musician back in late-
April. The “their” she was referring to is
Prince’s U.S. label, Glassnote Records,
which signed the country-folk artist
in 2018 and oversaw the international
release of his highly-anticipated second
album, Reliever, earlier this year in partnership
with Six Shooter Records in Canada.
“It was an interesting thing because
just as everything shut down, I was
about to embark on what would’ve been,
maybe, my longest stretch – about
seven weeks – going to Europe and
through many different places in the
States and then down to [New Orleans]
Jazz Fest and then some Ontario dates.
It was going to be the longest time I’ve
spent away from my son, consecutively.
I think I was so fixated on the loneliness
and stuff that I didn’t really embrace
that I got to do this crazy tour that was
coming up,” he says as we start our
conversation. But even during this obligatory
introductory chitchat about life in
self-isolation, his response is a mixture
of melancholy and optimism that is not
too dissimilar to many of his songs.
“I’m actually embracing the good
side of it, which is all the time I get to
spend with [three-year-old son] Wyatt and
just being here, being a dad, and really
focusing on writing songs. It’s really good
for me right now. They’re just kind of
pouring out of me in a sense. I’m trying to
write outside the scope of just, you know,
quarantine, so there’s not a quarantine
EP coming or anything,” he adds with
a baritone chuckle. “I’m also getting a
little more technical. Been doing some
curbside pickup to build a little studio in
my basement and now it’s come together
as this great little creative room. I scratch
my head and say, ‘Why did it take so
many years?’ I guess it just didn’t seem
worth it because I was always touring
and then in and out of the studio.”
Waiting, though, is not unusual
in the life and music career of William
Prince.
Before he’d won a Juno Award, was
interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine,
or had a famed American record executive
proclaiming his admiration, Prince
released his single “The Carny.” In his
younger days, he’d thrown some songs
up on YouTube (and then taken them
down), but this was the beginning of his
“career” in music. When it came out in
2015, garnering wide praise and a lot
of national airplay on CBC Radio 2, the
song signalled the fully-formed arrival
one of Canada’s top new songwriters.
With the stripped-back acoustic
guitar and subtle piano dominated by
Prince’s calming baritone at the front
of the mix, it forces you to listen to his
words, and in just three minutes, 22 seconds,
and seven succinct verses, “The
Carny” does what the great story-telling
songs do: it projects a short film in your
mind’s eye that is packed with melancholy,
humour, and inspiration. In this,
it’s a story taken from Prince’s own life
about a friend, Jord, from Peguis First
Nation who joined the carnival to see the
world – or at least small-town Central
Canada:
An out of work Indian
A few hundred a week
ain’t that bad my
friend
Don’t think he ever
picked up a wrench
In his whole
damn life.
William
Prince
34 CANADIAN MUSICIAN