After honing his craft for years, songwriter’s stories are ready to be told

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This article was published 03/12/2015 (3589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It seems odd that someone with so much experience should be releasing a debut album, but for Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter William Prince, the timing is perfect.

The 29-year-old with the rich baritone has been performing around town as an opening act or at coffee shops since he was a teenager. After years of fans asking post-show if he had an album they could buy, he is thrilled he can finally say yes.

“It’s been really exciting — I feel great about putting something out,” he says of his album of storytelling folk songs, Earthly Days. “I have something that I’m really proud to stamp and date. This is where I start, this is a launch point… it’s cool, because we’ll have a point of reference for evolution.”

Prince has a warmth about him, both in his music and in his presence. It’s clear in his conviction of speech and in the depth of his lyrics that being a musician is not just an occupation for him; it’s an emotional experience tied to many aspects of his past, present and future.

The path to music was a relatively direct one for Prince — his father, Ed Prince, was a pastor and musician, and at age nine, inspired by his dad, William picked up a guitar and learned some songs. It wasn’t long before he was playing in church with his father, performing with him at funerals and wakes in their community, Peguis First Nation, and travelling to other spots in the Interlake region, singing and selling his dad’s CDs.

“That eventually left me with this desire to do the exact same thing,” says Prince, who started writing his own poems and songs at age 15. “He was the biggest driving force behind all this.”

Prince began performing in small venues while he was at the University of Manitoba, studying microbiology with the intention of going into medicine, but, after he finished school, he decided music was his career of choice.

“Being a doctor or being a musician, those aren’t 50/50 careers — you gotta give your all if you want them to be successful — so I finished school and I got more focused on being a singer,” he says.

Prince’s father died in August, before he was able to show him the finished album. But some words from his producer, local singer-songwriter Scott Nolan, helped put things into perspective.

“He said, ‘I think he might be in a better position now to help you than he was when he was sick and dying,’ ” says Prince. “(Scott’s) not a big spiritual person like that, but he knows I am, and he has such a respect for that.”

Family is one of Prince’s biggest inspirations and priorities. He holds nothing back when discussing his love for those closest to him, including his mother, sister, nieces, girlfriend and her son.

Everything he does is for them — to “spoil” them, as he puts it, to offer them a comfortable life and to step in in his father’s absence to give them as much emotional and financial support as he can.

“My dad instilled so much love in me, told me he loved me 20 times a day for this day when he couldn’t anymore. I see my girlfriend’s son, and I see my nieces and I see this whole generation of people coming up that I’d love to help and I just want to contribute and pitch in,” he says. “This (record) has totally changed who I am as a person — like, this is the real deal now, we’re not messing around… This thing is my ticket to all of those things that I wanted to do.”

To put it lightly, there’s a lot riding on the success of Earthly Days, which is one more reason Prince is glad he didn’t create it any earlier in his career than he did.

“I had to hone this craft, I had to make sure my voice was good enough, I had to make sure my songs weren’t cheesy, I had to sculpt them and figure out what good songs were, and moods and tempos and word structure. I was getting my vocabulary up. I was doing everything so that if something truly great happens, more than the average return, I’m ready,” he says. “What if tomorrow I got to tour with Kris Kristofferson? I don’t want show up and barely know how to play or have anything to talk about. You gotta be prepared.

“It was a long preparation process to the point that now I feel what I have to say is important enough for people to hear it.”

Erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel