Bahamas
A “ Best-Kept Secret ” No More
By Andrew King
the days between arranging my interview with Afie Jurvanen and actual-
In
ly dialing his number for a longer-than-intended conversation , I was driving with a friend in his truck to pick up a piece of furniture . “ I ’ ve been on a big Michael Franti binge lately ,” he said while queuing up the artist ’ s 2010 effort , The Sound of Sunshine , on his phone . “ If you ’ re into Franti , you should definitely check out Bahamas ,” I blurted out .
I had the band on my brain , obviously , having spun the brand-new , fifth studio LP Sad Hunk several times in the past 24 hours in advance of my interview with Jurvanen , the man behind the moniker , so the recommendation itself wasn ’ t surprising . What was is the sheer number of times I realized I ’ ve made that same suggestion over the years , sometimes based on musical tastes and others seemingly out of nowhere , and even more surprising was how his reaction matched that of so many others – some variation of : “ I know Bahamas ; who doesn ’ t know Bahamas ?”
Evidently , that ’ s a good question .
Musicians know Bahamas . In recent years , Jurvanen and company have been tapped to support acts like The Lumineers , Robert Plant , Wilco , and Jack Johnson ( whose imprint Brushfire Records has released all five Bahamas albums outside of Canada ). Beyond that , Jurvanen himself has contributed to or collaborated on projects with everyone from Feist to Robbie Robertson to Fred Penner .
Industry tastemakers , movers , and shakers definitely know Bahamas , too . A perennial contender for the Polaris Music Prize , Jurvanen also has a handful of Juno wins and a Grammy nod among countless other awards and accolades .
And apparently , music fans the world over consider Bahamas a household name . While Jurvanen is obviously more at home posting parenting updates on Instagram than posing earnestly for press photos , that hasn ’ t prevented some grassroots fanfare from sprouting up all over the place , earning him nearly 500 million total streams on Spotify alone , and still going strong with over 2.5 million regular monthly listens leading up to the release of his latest collection . That contrast between Bahamas ’ perceived and actual profile couldn ’ t be better embodied than it is on Sad Hunk . Musically , the collection perfectly captures Jurvanen ’ s nowsignature sonic aesthetic – alternative pop , rock , R & B , soul , blues , and more , all seamlessly and masterfully mashed together . But beneath those universally-appealing melodies are sometimes-trivial musings largely based on the highs and lows and ebbs and flows of first-world domestic life . ( Look no further than song titles like “ Up with the Jones ” and “ Not Cool Anymore ” for an idea .)
I posit that the focus on family life may stem from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic , but Jurvanen tells me these songs were mostly written in the final few months of 2019 .
“ I ’ d been touring a lot over the previous 10 years – a lot of time away , a lot of shows … I lot of great shows , but I ’ d made a decision to actually come off the road for a while ,” he explains .
He and his family had just moved from Toronto to Halifax the year before , and he was finally looking forward to an unprecedented stretch of downtime around their new homestead .
42 CANADIAN MUSICIAN