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How did this festival come together? But it wasn’t at all, because reggae is so diverse—they had ska, they had dancehall, they had dub, they had roots-rock reggae, they had hip hop, they had rock, they had Arabic reggae… It was just a huge mix of stuff. It didn’t get monotonous at all. …So I was like, “woah! If they can make this festival here, we can have a reggae festival in Newfoundland.” Before going I wrote on my blog I was going to this festival, and some people replied to it thinking it was a reggae festival here in Newfoundland. And they were all excited about it. (laugh) So then I basically had to follow through and make this festival happen. So you just started calling people up…? Right now there seems to be a lot of reggae in town, so to make a whole festival without having to bring in anyone from away was great. But I do hope to in the future. Jim, I read somewhere you’ve been on the go with reggae here ever since 1985…? Yeah, ‘85 sticks out in my mind because I was at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, then, and that’s when Brigadier Jerry—“Jamaica Jamaica” came out. Reggae was kind of in a transitional phase, a post-Bob mortem phase. If you go back and buy the records from around that time and you can hear something happen. So there I was in Halifax, living on campus at St. Mary’s. But ever since childhood music from the Caribbean wasn’t a strange thing to me. When I was a kid in the late 60s, early 70s, these old, toothless skippers would be singing these songs—and as it turns out, some of them were calypso, but some of them were actually mento (a kind of proto-reggae that predates calypso). So these guys, when I was a kid, would be singing all of these clever little songs with these interesting melodic lilts. These songs were traveling back and forth between Jamaica and Newfoundland. I guess they were trading rum for fish, and various other things. So I actually experienced the connection between the Caribbean and Newfoundland—without knowing I would grow up and reggae music would become such an important part of me and my music. NC: The festival is called the Grand Banks Reggae Festival as sort of an homage to that connection. But really, I don’t think that connection has much to do with why all these people are playing reggae. People are playing reggae everywhere… Jim, what was the reaction when you started playing reggae here in the 80s? All you’d have to do is have the slightest little stir across town and—poof! Everyone would go there. The live music scene revived itself…There was a mania. Just as disco was going out and it was more prog rock, all these people were wondering where they were going to dance. I think there will never be a time when human beings don’t need music to dance to. Music and dance go hand in hand. When we came along, post disco, with something so easy to dance to, and with little bits of rebellion in there, all these various people dug what we were doing. NC: Coming back to the festival—we’ve got a rare, all ages reggae show on the schedule. With no Peace-A-Chord now, how are young people going to see all these bands? All the all ages shows are punk or metal or mainstream these days. JF: Reggae is absolutely the best music to dance to in the world. Seriously, there is something that has been kept from these kids: they don’t have access to the music, and it rocks. Whenever people get out and hear this stuff, it grabs them. NC: It’s bait. (laugh) Where do you think Reggae is headed locally? JF: Isn’t it funny how it’s all coming together at this time? If you look at it, Pressure Drop folds up, I carry on, and there were some reggae elements in what I’ve been doing over the past while, but here I am now putting the final touches on this truly reggae album, and here Neil rings my doorbell and says “hey, I’m doing this thing.” When? Right when I’m putting together this reggae album and other local reggae albums are coming out. Whatever it is in the air… I think it’s good timing Neil. I think if you did this last year the timing wouldn’t have been right. I think it’s now. |
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| Radio France (RFO St. Pierre) - Autumn, 2001
Jim talks about an up-coming concert in St. Pierre, as well as the recording project with his group Musaik. (Francais)
CBC (Radio One) - May 10, 2001 Bob Marley's life and music has left an indelible impression on many people
including Jim Fidler.
For more information regarding Bob Marley, visit the official Bob Marley
website at:
CBC (Radio One) - March 27, 2001 Jim talks with Sheila Rogers, host of This Morning following the release of Friendly Fire. |
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CBC Roots Report - December 6, 2000 While in Toronto for the second run of Mervish Production's Needfire at The Royal Alex Theatre Jim spoke to CBC's Cate Friesen about the upcoming album, Friendly Fire and his music in general.
Fidler Starts A New Journey By Mark Vaughan-Jackson The Telegram (Sunday, November 12, 2000) - Friendly Fire
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Jim Fidler - On the Road to Terra Nova - The Downhomer |
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...The Telegram Sunday, November 12, 2000...
Jim Fidler's new album, Friendly Fire - his first solo CD in five Fidler Starts A New Journey By Mark Vaughan-JacksonJim Fidler's recording studio should earn frequent-flyer points. The St. John's musician launches his latest CD, Friendly Fire, at O'Reilly's Pub in St. John's Thursday. And, like its predecessor, Gypsy, Friendly Fire is a globe-spanning musical journey. The 13-track recording features five different languages, performers from Canada, St-Pierrre and Morocco, and musical textures drawn from several international styles. For Fidler, the music wasn't deliberately planned that way - it just happened. "I don't know what the percentage of method and madness is, really. I really do think of myself as a painter with sound and each album is like an exhibition," he said. "So they might not be paintings of the same thing, but they do go together in such a way at the very least - because that's where I am in my life at that time. All of the songs are all people and places and experiences and observations and so on from real life, in real time." Fidler said he's not the sort of person who can sit down and say, "I'm going to write like this." "Some people deliberately make songs for Top 40, other people deliberately make songs to be played in the pub. It's a bigger, a wider, kind of target for me, I think," he said. "It comes from all directions and all I basically do is communicate it." Fidler released Gypsy five years ago and it continues to make progress in the international market. Friendly Fire was recorded primarily in September and October this year though Fidler started working on it about three years ago. As for his continued, interest in blending Newfoundland's traditional sounds with styles from around the world, Fidler said it comes from his perception of the province's place in the world and how it is influenced from all directions. As such, Friendly Fire represents Fidler's continued exploration of world music. The songs feature blends of everything from scat to chinning, Moroccan chants to Gaelic words, reggae beats to fiddle and bagpipe refrains. It is also a recording accessible on several levels, from the sheer enjoyment of the music, to some of the themes explored in the lyrics. The album also features one track - Song of the Gypsy - that appeared on the last album. "Song of the Gypsy I wrote, like, three days before I sent off Gypsy, the album, to be mastered. I had no time to sing it 10,000 times and get really comfortable with it in terms of the arrangement and everything," he said. "That's not to slag what was on Gypsy, but here it's grown up. I'm five years older and so is it." Fidler will launch the new CDE with special guests: The Masterless Men, Arthur O'Brien, Fred Jorgensen, Colin Carrigan and Robert Kelly. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, and include a copy of the new CD. |
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...The Record September, 2000... Christina Aguilera's Canadian Connection By Karen BlissToronto: Bob Jamieson, former BMG Music Canada president and current head of Chrstina Aguilera's RCA record label, isn't the only Canadian Connection to the 18-year-old pop star. The Genie In a Bottle hit-maker has a first cousin in Newfoundland, Celtic/world beat musician, Jim Fidler. "He's also a recording artist and has had some success, I think," says Aguilera, who was in Toronto on a promotional trip behind her self-titled #1 album. "My mother's maiden name was Fidler. Jim is my uncle's first son, my mother's brother, from his first marriage. He is his first son from his first wife. He got re-married, obviously. With his first wife, they went out there and lived. Even though my uncle stayed in the States, he was taken with his mother, back to Newfoundland. I guess that is where she's from." Staten Island-born Aguilera, who has never been to Newfoundland, has a copy of one of Fidler's solo albums. "He is amazing. I'm so intrigued. He's so creative," she gushes. "I've never even met him. Well, actually, yeah, I did, when I was really, really little, but it's not something I can really remember. I was only about seven at the time. But he's completely blind and he sings and he plays like a thousand different instruments. It's crazy. It's really amazing. He's an amazing person." |
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...The Telegram, Fall 1999...
Singer notes local connection By Karen BlissAmerican teen pop star Christina Aguilera, the voice behind the hit single Genie in a Bottle, has a Newfoundland connection who's building a successful musical career of his own -- St. John's-based musician Jim Fidler. "He's also a recording artist and has had some success I think," the 18-year-old Aguilera said during a recent promotional visit to Toronto in support of her No. 1 album. "My mother's maiden name was Fidler. Jim is my uncle's first son," she added. Born at Staten Island, N.Y. to a military father and violinist/pianist mother, Aguilera has lived in Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and even Japan, but now lives in Pittsburgh. Heard albumsWhile Aguilera has never been to Newfoundland, she has heard a copy of one of Fidler's solo albums. "He is amazing. "I'm so intrigued. He's so creative," she gushes. "I've never even met him. Well, actually, yeah, I did, when I was really, really little, but it's not something I can really remember: I was only about seven at the time. "But, yeah, he's completely blind and he sings and he plays like a thousand different instruments. It's crazy. It's really amazing. He's an amazing person." For his part, Fidler remembers his young cousin very well. "I always found her to be an amazing person," he said. "There was this little girl and I just took to her," Fidler said of meeting the young Aguilera. "The thing I'd say about Christina is she's got a really good head on her shoulders." "Every since she was a little tiny girl she's been singing out the window at people when they go by and stuff like that." A year after Aguilera met Fidler, she appeared on the syndicated television show Star Search. At 10, she sang the Star Spangled Banner for Pittsburgh's NFL Steelers and NHL Penguins. Joined Mickey Mouse ClubTwo years later, she joined the Orlando, Fla.-based New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside other destined pop stars Britney Spears and J.C. and Justin from 'N Sync. At 14, Aguilera left the Mouseketeers and traveled to Japan with her family, where she recorded a duet with Japanese pop singer Kelzo Nakanishi. The same year, she performed two songs in front of 10,000 people in Romania on a bill with Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross. Back to AmericaReturning to America in 1998, Aguilera recorded a karaoke version of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Run To You and then landed a gig singing the lead vocal on Reflections, the single from the animated Walt Disney movie Mulan. The song rose to No. 15 on the adult-contemporary chart in the U.S. that summer, and gave the young teen the opportunity to perform it on CBS This Morning and the Donnie and Marie Show. By 1999, Aguilera's hard work paid off with a recording contract with RCA. For the next six months, she worked with various chart-busting producers. Spearheaded by the first single, Genie In A Bottle, the success of Aguilera's self-titled album was meteoric, debuting at No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada. An Instant star, she has been making television and in-store/mall appearances, but will head out on full-fledged tour; with a band and dancers, in November, opening for urban pop group TLC. |
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...The Downhomer... Jim Fidler - On the Road to Terra NovaIf you haven’t heard Gypsy yet, you should. It is an album not only written, arranged and produced by Jim Fidler, but also a masterpiece of sound on which he plays twelve instruments and sings lead and backing vocals. Playing this album once would tell you that it combines fun with feeling, texture with colour, and melody impeccably with rhythm. Gypsy being Fidler’s first solo album, has been given Album of the Year and Independent Album of the Year awards and nominated in the Roots/Traditional category at the East Coast Music Awards, not to mention rave reviews all around. In fact, Gypsy is available throughout all of Europe on the Iona Record label, making Fidler the first Newfoundland individual to sign such an international deal. We will hopefully get to hear Fidler’s next solo album, Terra Nova, sometime in the spring. This most exciting creation was just one of many topics covered in a recent discussion with Fidler. Understand the gypsy behind the extraordinary one-man band in this exclusive interview. What brought you into the world of music? Fidler: Music is something that’s been there all along. Some hockey players would say that they can’t remember a time when they couldn’t skate. It's the same for me and music. As well, it’s been in my family as far back as anyone can trace. I didn’t meet my father and that side of the family until I was 22 years old, only to discover an entirely musical family. My two brothers, Jeff and Steve, are both heavily into music. My aunt Shelley toured Europe with the Youth Orchestra of America. Her daughter, my first cousin, Christina Aguilera, is being referred to as the next Whitney Houston/Barbara Streisand and, as we speak, has the number one song in the world, Genie in A Bottle. How has being blind influenced your career? Fidler: I could say that it has had no influence at all based on the fact that I didn’t lose my sight until I was nine years old and was well into music by then. But in all fairness, I would have to say that in the years since, I have been forced to approach music without the visual distractions I would otherwise have to face. For example, when I’m listening to a song I’m not looking at a video. I am more focused on what I hear and that concentration allows me to pick out more detail. Certainly, this has greatly influenced how I interpret and layer sound in the recording process especially. Tell us about your influences. Fidler: Gypsy was more an exercise in purging myself of the structures and confines that I had developed up until that point in my music. I focused on the music that’s in my bones and certain influences manifesting themselves in the layers beneath the surface. It’s always difficult to know where to draw the line between nature and nurture. People beating different drums in different parts of the world have coincidentally discovered similar rhythms entirely independent of each other. That being said, many of the tunes and songs we identify dearly as “Newfoundland” are actually refurbished melodies brought here by our forefathers. I believe I ended up with a blend of the two. I guess it would be up to other people to decide where to draw the line. In doing Gypsy, what was your greatest challenge and your biggest reward? Fidler: I think the main challenge was getting it all together so that it would be coherent to other people, Gypsy was my first solo album and as such was a summary of me at the time. Any entire person is made up of many facets. You might think of somebody as just being a fisherman but he is actually many things to many people such as a father, a brother, a husband, a friend, etc. It was a straight matter of presenting myself wholly and honestly at the time. I think this actually led to the greatest reward. After going through the process of baring my soul it was very gratifying to get the feedback “Thank you for being you.” Maybe it isn’t always easy to be so honest but in this case it was certainly worth it. How do you see Newfoundland in comparison with the rest of the world? Fidler: I remember as a young boy spending nights with my radio under my pillow listening to stations coming in from the states like WWVA in West Virginia and WNEW in New York. To me it all seemed so far away, mysterious, and exciting. To this day I am an avid short-wave listener. I have been hearing human interest stories and news broadcasts not just from my local radio station but from voice of America, Radio Moscow, BBC World Service, and so on giving me a slightly different scope. I tend to think of Newfoundland in more of a global perspective. Newfoundland is a place with a diverse people and culture unlike any other place on this earth. This can be said of many other places as well. I think what it all boils down to reminds me of a Dougie MacLean song “You can’t own the land, the land owns you.” It seems that no matter where we go we still feel the pull from home. How will Gypsy, being an album of self-expression, lead into Terra Nova? Fidler: When I was growing up we always thought of gypsies of being people that lived in caravans and travelled around singing music, dancing, telling fortunes and selling jewelery – people of no fixed abode or racial background. I later learned that there is an actual group of people, the “Romany” who came from the north of India and migrated westward. Musically, I am a gypsy having grown up with calypso, Newfoundland, country and rock and roll music and having played everything from raggae to bluegrass. As a person, I’m also a wanderer having lived in a lot of different places. The one thing I know I am for certain is (I’m) a Newfoundlander, but the minute I try to put my finger on what that means it always comes down to one thing; roving to the west looking for a better life. Right now, there are more Newfoundlanders abroad than there are in Newfoundland. We, as Newfoundlanders are very much like the “Romany,” coming here from some point eastward and continuing westward looking for a better life. So “gypsy” was the one word that summed up me, my music and my people. “Terra Nova” in Latin means new world. It’s that notion of where we’ve come from, where I am and how many of my people have gone on in search of a “new world...Terra Nova.” What I wanted to do on this album was talk about Newfoundland herself as well as the inherent human trait of looking beyond the horizon. The idea of “Terra Nova” is that new world full of new opportunities that attracts us all like moths to a flame. Why do you insist on staying in Newfoundland rather than moving on to a big music capital as do a lot of musicians? Fidler: No matter where I go I always feel like I’m just in another place but when I’m here I feel like I’m home. I’m taking three months of my life to be in Toronto this year for the second running of Needfire, the show I was in last year. As soon as that three months is up I’m coming home. I feel blessed because due to the nature what I do, I can base myself here, go elsewhere to do a tour or a show or some recording, then just come back home again. Some people’s line of work doesn’t afford them this luxury. They have to go to where the work is and that’s all they can do. The reason why I live here is because this is home and there’s nowhere else that I’d want to live. Talk about your vision and how it is applied to you music. Fidler: Strictly as a citizen of the world, I guess my vision would be the same as anyone else’s It would be that everybody could contribute to society as much as they could and every child could be fed, safe, and warm. But my vision as a Newfoundlander is to see Newfoundland recognized by other peoples. We have a lot in common with many other places in the world, due to our forefathers, our island culture, and our history as a British Colony. I would really like other peoples to realize that Newfoundland exists and that we share so much in common. I would like to contribute toward that vision through my music. I think Newfoundland is as fascinating as any place on the face of this earth in terms of history and culture. In terms of natural resources, Newfoundland is truly rich. I believe our strongest natural resource is our people. If and when the day ever comes when our young and strong, skilled and talented among us won’t have to go away to realize their dreams, perhaps then our people can be as rich as this land we call home. We can only hope. |
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Interviews with/about Jim Fidler |
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| CBC Interview May 10, 2001 Bob Marley's life and music has left an indelible impression on many people including Jim Fidler. Jim chats with Jeff Gilhooley, co-host of CBC's "On The Go" on the 20th anniversary of Bob Marley's death. This MP3 file is rather large; do be patient. click to listen For more information regarding Bob Marley, visit the official Bob Marley website at: www.bobmarley.com Jim was interviewed on CBC Radio's This Morning with Sheila Rogers on Tuesday, March 27th. We will be putting up a transcript of the interview as soon as it becomes available. |
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Roots Report By Cate Friesen Fidler Starts A New Journey By Mark Vaughan-Jackson
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Jim Fidler - On the Road to Terra Nova
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...Cate Friesen's Roots Report, December 6, 2000... Cate Friesen's Roots Report on Jim FidlerNewfoundlander Jim Fidler is one of those rare musicians who can handle almost any kind of music from anywhere in the world. Cate finds out that he's able to pull it off because he never forgets where he's coming from. |
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...The Telegram Sunday, November 12, 2000...
Jim Fidler's new album, Friendly Fire - his first solo CD in five Fidler Starts A New Journey By Mark Vaughan-JacksonJim Fidler's recording studio should earn frequent-flyer points. The St. John's musician launches his latest CD, Friendly Fire, at O'Reilly's Pub in St. John's Thursday. And, like its predecessor, Gypsy, Friendly Fire is a globe-spanning musical journey. The 13-track recording features five different languages, performers from Canada, St-Pierrre and Morocco, and musical textures drawn from several international styles. For Fidler, the music wasn't deliberately planned that way - it just happened. "I don't know what the percentage of method and madness is, really. I really do think of myself as a painter with sound and each album is like an exhibition," he said. "So they might not be paintings of the same thing, but they do go together in such a way at the very least - because that's where I am in my life at that time. All of the songs are all people and places and experiences and observations and so on from real life, in real time." Fidler said he's not the sort of person who can sit down and say, "I'm going to write like this." "Some people deliberately make songs for Top 40, other people deliberately make songs to be played in the pub. It's a bigger, a wider, kind of target for me, I think," he said. "It comes from all directions and all I basically do is communicate it." Fidler released Gypsy five years ago and it continues to make progress in the international market. Friendly Fire was recorded primarily in September and October this year though Fidler started working on it about three years ago. As for his continued, interest in blending Newfoundland's traditional sounds with styles from around the world, Fidler said it comes from his perception of the province's place in the world and how it is influenced from all directions. As such, Friendly Fire represents Fidler's continued exploration of world music. The songs feature blends of everything from scat to chinning, Moroccan chants to Gaelic words, reggae beats to fiddle and bagpipe refrains. It is also a recording accessible on several levels, from the sheer enjoyment of the music, to some of the themes explored in the lyrics. The album also features one track - Song of the Gypsy - that appeared on the last album. "Song of the Gypsy I wrote, like, three days before I sent off Gypsy, the album, to be mastered. I had no time to sing it 10,000 times and get really comfortable with it in terms of the arrangement and everything," he said. "That's not to slag what was on Gypsy, but here it's grown up. I'm five years older and so is it." Fidler will launch the new CDE with special guests: The Masterless Men, Arthur O'Brien, Fred Jorgensen, Colin Carrigan and Robert Kelly. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, and include a copy of the new CD. |
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...The Record September, 2000... Christina Aguilera's Canadian Connection By Karen BlissToronto: Bob Jamieson, former BMG Music Canada president and current head of Chrstina Aguilera's RCA record label, isn't the only Canadian Connection to the 18-year-old pop star. The Genie In a Bottle hit-maker has a first cousin in Newfoundland, Celtic/world beat musician, Jim Fidler. "He's also a recording artist and has had some success, I think," says Aguilera, who was in Toronto on a promotional trip behind her self-titled #1 album. "My mother's maiden name was Fidler. Jim is my uncle's first son, my mother's brother, from his first marriage. He is his first son from his first wife. He got re-married, obviously. With his first wife, they went out there and lived. Even though my uncle stayed in the States, he was taken with his mother, back to Newfoundland. I guess that is where she's from." Staten Island-born Aguilera, who has never been to Newfoundland, has a copy of one of Fidler's solo albums. "He is amazing. I'm so intrigued. He's so creative," she gushes. "I've never even met him. Well, actually, yeah, I did, when I was really, really little, but it's not something I can really remember. I was only about seven at the time. But he's completely blind and he sings and he plays like a thousand different instruments. It's crazy. It's really amazing. He's an amazing person." |
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...The Telegram, Fall 1999...
Singer notes local connection By Karen BlissAmerican teen pop star Christina Aguilera, the voice behind the hit single Genie in a Bottle, has a Newfoundland connection who's building a successful musical career of his own -- St. John's-based musician Jim Fidler. "He's also a recording artist and has had some success I think," the 18-year-old Aguilera said during a recent promotional visit to Toronto in support of her No. 1 album. "My mother's maiden name was Fidler. Jim is my uncle's first son," she added. Born at Staten Island, N.Y. to a military father and violinist/pianist mother, Aguilera has lived in Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and even Japan, but now lives in Pittsburgh. Heard albumsWhile Aguilera has never been to Newfoundland, she has heard a copy of one of Fidler's solo albums. "He is amazing. "I'm so intrigued. He's so creative," she gushes. "I've never even met him. Well, actually, yeah, I did, when I was really, really little, but it's not something I can really remember: I was only about seven at the time. "But, yeah, he's completely blind and he sings and he plays like a thousand different instruments. It's crazy. It's really amazing. He's an amazing person." For his part, Fidler remembers his young cousin very well. "I always found her to be an amazing person," he said. "There was this little girl and I just took to her," Fidler said of meeting the young Aguilera. "The thing I'd say about Christina is she's got a really good head on her shoulders." "Every since she was a little tiny girl she's been singing out the window at people when they go by and stuff like that." A year after Aguilera met Fidler, she appeared on the syndicated television show Star Search. At 10, she sang the Star Spangled Banner for Pittsburgh's NFL Steelers and NHL Penguins. Joined Mickey Mouse ClubTwo years later, she joined the Orlando, Fla.-based New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside other destined pop stars Britney Spears and J.C. and Justin from 'N Sync. At 14, Aguilera left the Mouseketeers and traveled to Japan with her family, where she recorded a duet with Japanese pop singer Kelzo Nakanishi. The same year, she performed two songs in front of 10,000 people in Romania on a bill with Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross. Back to AmericaReturning to America in 1998, Aguilera recorded a karaoke version of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Run To You and then landed a gig singing the lead vocal on Reflections, the single from the animated Walt Disney movie Mulan. The song rose to No. 15 on the adult-contemporary chart in the U.S. that summer, and gave the young teen the opportunity to perform it on CBS This Morning and the Donnie and Marie Show. By 1999, Aguilera's hard work paid off with a recording contract with RCA. For the next six months, she worked with various chart-busting producers. Spearheaded by the first single, Genie In A Bottle, the success of Aguilera's self-titled album was meteoric, debuting at No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada. An Instant star, she has been making television and in-store/mall appearances, but will head out on full-fledged tour; with a band and dancers, in November, opening for urban pop group TLC. |
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...The Downhomer... Jim Fidler - On the Road to Terra NovaIf you haven’t heard Gypsy yet, you should. It is an album not only written, arranged and produced by Jim Fidler, but also a masterpiece of sound on which he plays twelve instruments and sings lead and backing vocals. Playing this album once would tell you that it combines fun with feeling, texture with colour, and melody impeccably with rhythm. Gypsy being Fidler’s first solo album, has been given Album of the Year and Independent Album of the Year awards and nominated in the Roots/Traditional category at the East Coast Music Awards, not to mention rave reviews all around. In fact, Gypsy is available throughout all of Europe on the Iona Record label, making Fidler the first Newfoundland individual to sign such an international deal. We will hopefully get to hear Fidler’s next solo album, Terra Nova, sometime in the spring. This most exciting creation was just one of many topics covered in a recent discussion with Fidler. Understand the gypsy behind the extraordinary one-man band in this exclusive interview. What brought you into the world of music? Fidler: Music is something that’s been there all along. Some hockey players would say that they can’t remember a time when they couldn’t skate. Its’ the same for me and music. As well, it’s been in my family as far back as anyone can trace. I didn’t meet my father and that side of the family until I was 22 years old, only to discover an entirely musical family. My two brothers, Jeff and Steve, are both heavily into music. My aunt Shelley toured Europe with the Youth Orchestra of America. Her daughter, my first cousin, Christina Aguilera, is being referred to as the next Whitney Houston/Barbara Streisand and, as we speak, has the number one song in the world, Genie in A Bottle. How has being blind influenced your career? Fidler: I could say that it has had no influence at all based on the fact that I didn’t lose my sight until I was nine years old and was well into music by then. But in all fairness, I would have to say that in the years since, I have been forced to approach music without the visual distractions I would otherwise have to face. For example, when I’m listening to a song I’m not looking at a video. I am more focused on what I hear and that concentration allows me to pick out more detail. Certainly, this has greatly influenced how I interpret and layer sound in the recording process especially. Tell us about your influences. Fidler: Gypsy was more an exercise in purging myself of the structures and confines that I had developed up until that point in my music. I focused on the music that’s in my bones and certain influences manifesting themselves in the layers beneath the surface. It’s always difficult to know where to draw the line between nature and nurture. People beating different drums in different parts of the world have coincidentally discovered similar rhythms entirely independent of each other. That being said, many of the tunes and songs we identify dearly as “Newfoundland” are actually refurbished melodies brought here by our forefathers. I believe I ended up with a blend of the two. I guess it would be up to other people to decide where to draw the line. In doing Gypsy, what was your greatest challenge and your biggest reward? Fidler: I think the main challenge was getting it all together so that it would be coherent to other people, Gypsy was my first solo album and as such as a summary of me at the time. Any entire person is made up of many facets. You might think of somebody as just being a fisherman but he is actually many things to many people such as a father, a brother, a husband, a friend, etc. It was a straight matter of presenting myself wholly and honestly at the time. I think this actually led to the greatest reward. After going through the process of baring my soul it was very gratifying to get the feedback “Thank you for being you.” Maybe it isn’t always easy to be so honest but in this case it was certainly worth it. How do you see Newfoundland in comparison with the rest of the world? Fidler: I remember as a young boy spending nights with my radio under my pillow listening to stations coming in from the states like WWVA in West Virginia and WNEW in New York. To me it all seemed so far away, mysterious, and exciting. To this day I am an avid short-wave listener. I have been hearing human interest stories and news broadcasts not just from my local radio station but from voice of America, Radio Moscow, BBC World Service, and so on giving me a slightly different scope. I tend to think of Newfoundland in more of a global perspective. Newfoundland is a place with a diverse people and culture unlike any other place on this earth. This can be said of many other places as well. I think what it all boils down to reminds me of a Dougie MacLean song “You can’t own the land, the land owns you.” It seems that no matter where we go we still feel the pull from home. How will Gypsy, being an album of self-expression, lead into Terra Nova? Fidler: When I was growing up we always thought of gypsies as being people that lived in caravans and travelled around singing music, dancing, telling fortunes and selling jewellery – people of no fixed abode or racial background. I later learned that there is an actual group of people, the “Romany” who came from the north of India and migrated westward. Musically, I am a gypsy having grown up with calypso, Newfoundland, country and rock and roll music and having played everything from reggae to bluegrass. As a person, I’m also a wanderer having lived in a lot of different places. The one thing I know I am for certain is (I’m) a Newfoundlander, but the minute I try to put my finger on what that means it always comes down to one thing; roving to the west looking for a better life. Right now, there are more Newfoundlanders abroad than there are in Newfoundland. We, as Newfoundlanders are very much like the “Romany,” coming here from some point eastward and continuing westward looking for a better life. So “gypsy” was the one word that summed up me, my music and my people. “Terra Nova” in Latin means new world. It’s that notion of where we’ve come from, where I am and how many of my people have gone on in search of a “new world...Terra Nova.” What I wanted to do on this album was talk about Newfoundland herself as well as the inherent human trait of looking beyond the horizon. The idea of “Terra Nova” is that new world full of new opportunities that attracts us all like moths to a flame. Why do you insist on staying in Newfoundland rather than moving on to a big music capital as do a lot of musicians? Fidler: No matter where I go I always feel like I’m just in another place but when I’m here I feel like I’m home. I’m taking three months of my life to be in Toronto this year for the second running of Needfire, the show I was in last year. As soon as that three months is up I’m coming home. I feel blessed because due to the nature of what I do, I can base myself here, go elsewhere to do a tour or a show or some recording, then just come back home again. Some people’s line of work doesn’t afford them this luxury. They have to go to where the work is and that’s all they can do. The reason why I live here is because this is home and there’s nowhere else that I’d want to live. Talk about your vision and how it is applied to your music. Fidler: Strictly as a citizen of the world, I guess my vision would be the same as anyone else’s It would be that everybody could contribute to society as much as they could and every child could be fed, safe, and warm. But my vision as a Newfoundlander is to see Newfoundland recognized by other peoples. We have a lot in common with many other places in the world, due to our forefathers, our island culture, and our history as a British Colony. I would really like other peoples to realize that Newfoundland exists and that we share so much in common. I would like to contribute toward that vision through my music. I think Newfoundland is as fascinating as any place on the face of this earth in terms of history and culture. In terms of natural resources, Newfoundland is truly rich. I believe our strongest natural resource is our people. If and when the day ever comes when our young and strong, skilled and talented among us won’t have to go away to realize their dreams, perhaps then our people can be as rich as this land we call home. We can only hope. Note: The above mentioned title Terra Nova was the working title for the album eventually to be called Friendly Fire. |
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