You can call him Afie

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This article was published 23/10/2014 (4325 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After years of lending his talents to the likes of Feist, Howie Beck, Jason Collett and more — and quietly writing his own music on the side — Toronto guitar-slinger Afie Jurvanen decided he was no longer content to be a hired gun. So, in 2009 he released his debut album, the Juno- and Polaris Music Prize-nominated Pink Strat, under the pseudonym Bahamas.

A sobriquet can offer a musician a great deal of freedom. It can refer to a solo project or a full band. It allows room for reinvention. It affords some mystery. And it can create a clear separation between artist and art.

 

There was intention behind the title of Bahamas’ third album, this year’s Bahamas Is Afie, which comes as the followup to 2012’s Juno-nominated Barchords. Jurvanen, 33, no longer wanted to maintain that separation.

“I think the title was a reaction to where I started, which is not wanting to acknowledge my name at all, thinking it was too complicated for a North American audience to understand,” he explains over the phone from a tour stop in Seattle.

Jurvanen grew up in Barrie, Ont., but he’s of Finnish descent; his mom was Miss Finland in 1973.

“Afie Jurvanen seemed like too much at the time. It was just easier to be Bahamas, and obviously it conjures up all this nice imagery for people. I think now I’m a lot more comfortable with where I’m at three albums later; it’s become my career and livelihood. I also really like that it’s a strange statement to hear. Bahamas Is Afie is a pretty weird thing to hear, and the punk rock side of me likes to mess with people a little,” he says.

While the title playfully acknowledges both his identity and the art project, it’s also a nod to the fact that this is the most Afie Bahamas album yet. Save for some contributions from former Weakerthan Jason Tait, Felicity Williams and Don Kerr, Jurvanen played nearly everything on Bahamas Is Afie, having gone into the studio with a clear blueprint of what he wanted from the songs.

“I hadn’t done that before, but as I was writing the songs, I had all these ideas for arrangements. I was able to play a lot of the parts myself. That was a new experience for me. Normally I’d just play with a band. It’s really fast. There’s no deliberation. You’re not conferring with anyone. It’s a very selfish way of recording, but it was really fun,” he says.

Songs shape-shift as they are committed to record, a process that Jurvanen actually takes pleasure in.

“Listening to playback in the studio is kind of like looking into a funhouse mirror. You want to see a reflection of yourself, but often you end up seeing some bent-out-of-shape or freakishly long version or something. A lot of times, you’re spending energy bending that back into a recognizable form, sonically speaking.”

Indeed, Bahamas Is Afie bears some distinctly Bahamas characteristics — the breezy, spacious instrumentation; Jurvanen’s languid, soulful vocals; the emphasis on melody — but it’s bigger and bolder than its predecessors. The songwriter also took more risks with this one.

“I think that I wanted to make something new. I wanted to try a different process. Ultimately the album we ended up with was pretty different, too. It feels like a realized vision to me. All the qualities I hoped for are there. At the risk of sounding way too pleased with myself, I’m very happy with it,” he says.

Confidence is another hallmark of the record. His performances are assured and his arrangements thoughtful without being overwrought. Jurvanen credits that with his years spent contributing to other people’s musical visions.

“I’ve been writing songs since high school, but then I got caught up for almost 10 years — thankfully playing with lots of my friends, playing in their bands and getting to be a part of lots of recordings and ultimately all kinds of amazing musical experiences I never would have planned on,” he says. “I feel like you bump around from place to place until you find what it is you’re doing, and that experience can be rough for people, but all the music and people I’ve bumped into have been of the highest quality. I feel very lucky.”

He’s thankful the songs he writes these days aren’t left to languish in notebooks, but as Bahamas’ profile continues to rise, Jurvanen remains pragmatic.

“It’s great that people suddenly care about what I’m doing. I mean, 10 years ago I was doing the same thing and nobody cared — and 10 years from now I could be back in that same position, but I’ll still be writing songs.”

That said, the momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing for him any time soon. His Winnipeg show at the Burton Cummings Theatre is sold out.

“We’ve never had any hit singles, so in a way, we’re kinda lucky — the people that are coming to the shows are coming for the full experience,” he says. “They might have their favourite songs and everything, but they’re really open to going wherever we want to take them. As a performer, that’s kind of a wonderful position to be in.”

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca