Fishing for success

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This article was published 22/06/2023 (1174 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kids are always told they can be whatever they want to be. Mitchell Makoons got his wish with far fewer options.

“In my family you can be three things: a musician, a mechanic or a disappointment,” says the roots-rock singer, laughing at his own one-liner. “My brother is the mechanic.”

He’s happy with his choice as the summer of 2023 begins. Makoons, 24, has become a symbol of how busy life can be for an up-and-coming performing artist as the entertainment industry shifts into overdrive to make up for three years of shutdowns, viral uncertainties and the slow return of cautious crowds.

He was able to book 36 shows for June and July, leaving him barely enough time to rest between gigs, whether they are small songwriters’ circles or appearances at music festivals.

“It’s crazy, five gigs this week. I’m always getting ready for the next gig,” he said Wednesday, the morning after performing at Assiniboine Park’s celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day, and two days before heading to the West End Cultural Centre for opening night of the Ellice Street Festival on Friday.

“I wanted to play as many Manitoba and Saskatchewan festivals as possible. I thought I’d get maybe three or four but I got 10, which is way more than I thought.”

The Métis singer-songwriter, whose family moved from the small Lake Manitoba community of Alonsa to Brandon so their children could go to school, moved to Winnipeg last summer after earning two music degrees at Brandon University.

“It was kind of a goal of mine because the Ellice Street Festival was happening right when I moved,” says the new Wolseley resident. “I thought it was a pipe dream: ‘Hopefully by next year I could play a Winnipeg festival and I’d love to play this one.’ When I got an email asking if I was interested, it felt like all the stuff I was doing to break into the music scene was worth it.”

His festival invites include two of the province’s largest: Dauphin’s Countryfest, where he plays June 30 and the VIP after-party on July 2, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival, where he’ll be among the wandering minstrels at the folk-fest campground from July 6 to 9.

His festival run winds up July 28 as part of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, playing the Cube at Old Market Square.

“It all has been snowballing since the first festival happened, and I was stoked about that one,” he says. “They keep coming in and I hope they do forever.”

It’s what Makoons has hoped for since he was seven, when he learned the guitar to play along with his fiddle-playing grandfather, Elden Campbell.

He continued with the guitar and performed with many bands while at Brandon University, and released four EPs on Bandcamp under his given name, Mitchell Mozdzen.

In 2021 he changed his stage surname to Makoons, which means “little bear” or “bear cub” in Anishinaabemowin, to honour his Ojibwe heritage. He’s released some singles, including Still My Father’s Son, which helped earn him a Manitoba Country Music Award nomination in 2022, but he says he has an album of his own songs ready for a quieter time to record.

Makoons recently took a five-week guitar-building course from city luthier Jeremy Hamm, even though he owns more guitars than can fit in his room in Winnipeg. The rest are back at his family’s place.

He uses the final product, a large acoustic with turquoise accents that is loud enough to not be drowned out by a fiddle player.

Makoons feared it was a clunker when he strummed it the first time.

“It sounded so bad and I was really disappointed, but he told me to keep playing it, because the wood doesn’t know it’s a guitar yet,” he says. Now, without the use of an amplifier, it is loud enough to echo down the street he lives.

Makoons’s hectic schedule has also included teaching stints at Indigenous schools in Saskatchewan and northern Quebec. But he still finds time in his day for his other passion, fishing.

He recently had a perch tattooed on the inside of his left arm. The video for Still My Father’s Son was recorded at an ice-fishing hut, with Makoons sitting on a pail in which the fish usually are stored, and ends with him packing his fishing and musical gear in his car.

He often thinks about potential song ideas when the fish aren’t biting, but he took the fishing musician lifestyle to an extreme when he was touring in Alberta one winter.

“We needed a hotel in Red Deer because we didn’t have any friends around,” he recalls. “In a touring grant, you can apply to get your accommodations paid for. If I’m going to book a hotel, I might as well book a fun one.

“So we then slept on the ice in Gull Lake. There was a fish TV, and we got to watch some fish with our baits. We got to watch some fish without catching any, but that’s all right. It was cool to be out there.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall