Craig Cardiff isn’t ready to let go of his most recent album – last year’s Floods & Fires – quite yet.
“It’s been about recording a year for me, and I love that process because I think it’s important to be making stuff, and yet I also enjoyed slowing down and spending more time in the studio side of things,” he said in an interview with the Outlook.
“And so I feel like I have enough songs for my next album, but part of my pause is that I spent nearly two years working on Floods & Fires, so I don’t want to be talking about something new quite yet. I feel there’s a lot of people who haven’t connected with it, and that’s part of what the tour is, just wanting to share the music.”
Cardiff’s current tour, which involves four shows in Alberta, includes a stop in Canmore at Communitea Cafe, Thursday (Nov. 29).
“I feel like the songs definitely evolve, in terms of confidence and presenting them,” he said. “One thing I’ve learned is I can think a song is ready for studio or recording, but until I’ve played it, I really can’t answer that question honestly and know that people are responding to it, and know that the words and melody sit and feel right.
“I remember R.E.M. being interviewed, and Michael Stipe talking about how he would get bored with lyrics and want to expand and change them. For the listener, they want to connect with the recording, and for the artists, it’s nice to step out of it and play with the format.”
Based in Waterloo, Ont., Cardiff has released 10 studio albums and a number of other live albums since 1996. Near-constant touring has propelled him through the years, as the experience of performing on a stage with a live audience is his inspiration.
“A big part of what I do at my shows is improv, in terms of crowd sing-along or the book of truth project – that’s been woven into everything – in terms of crowd readings and collecting these different pieces from the audience members,” he said. “The songs are constantly being re-examined and re-presented in different ways.
“I’ve been at shows that are terribly boring, where it’s treated like a karaoke experience. Why I love to see live music, and love to perform, is there’s something that happens when a bunch of people are in a room together singing.”
This “magic” isn’t limited to churches, he said.
“Whatever magic happens when people are opened up a bit and just being with each other is a pretty special thing, and that requires the person performing to invite that from the audience, rather than simply pushing noise to them,” said Cardiff. “I feel like the audience is the most important part of the night, and to me live recordings have an energy that studio albums don’t seem to have, and it’s that sort of people playing to an audience that is special, that can’t be replicated.”
Last in Canmore about this time last year, Cardiff loves returning to play here as often as he can.
“Canmore feels like a different place than other places,” he stressed. “It’s not international, but it has that element to it of many people from many places, and it’s a pretty awesome feeling.
“Other places don’t have the draw – every place has its own special thing – but it’s just been my experience, I’ve never met so many people who are not from a place than in Canmore.”
While Communitea is a small venue, the size of the crowd doesn’t matter, he said.
“I feel like I love playing for people, so if it’s 10 people or 100 people or 1,000 people, all of those are great, I just love playing and don’t want it to turn into a strategic thing, where I wait three years to build up demand,” he said. “I want to go and play and connect and make it accessible, for myself to have the experience, but also to have people come listen.”
This has been a busy year, he explained.
“Making sure there’s enough work and enough shows, that busy-ness breeds creativity, I find,” he said. “If it’s a slow time I find myself not writing as much, so it’s been neat to reach out and find other projects. I worked on a soundtrack, and collaborating and writing with other artists, it’s been really great.”
Among those other works was a soundtrack which has inspired Cardiff to rethink his own approaches to music.
“I did a lot of collaboration with Ben Leggett, the producer for Floods & Fires – I loved not having to work on my own album – it freed me up to look at other types of musical formats,” he said. “We worked on an Edith Piaf-inspired musical theme, and in a million years I never would have imagined putting that on one of my own recordings.
“It takes you out of your headspace and lets you try on other songs or formats. And it’s been interesting with that, looking to the next project – whenever that will be – and wondering if there’s different ways to approach it.”
Cardiff can be found online at www.craigcardiff.com
