Folk rock musician William “WiL” Mimnaugh goes there and back again, having played a show in Canmore Dec. 9 with another planned for this Friday (Dec. 28).
The Dec. 9 show, at the Iron Goat, was a fundraiser to raise money for a waterproof prosthetic leg for Wendy Everett, a Canmore resident.
“It went really well, it was a good turnout, and it turned into a totally good rock show,” said WiL, speaking about the fundraiser. “We had a great PA and front of house guy, so we ended up putting on a real concert. It makes such a big difference versus being the bar band in a moment like that.”
In total, the event at the Iron Goat raised $5,800 between auction items and donations.
“People were engaged and I think they raised enough for her to get the leg,” he said. “It was a good feeling for us, for the people watching the show and subsequently for the gal who needed the money.
“We donated a guitar that I played for seven years. I finally had to retire it, and thought I could either put it up on a wall in a studio or put it to some good use. That guitar raised, to our surprise, $1,300.”
Everyone walked away from the show with a smile, he said.
“We were on tour in and around the area, so it was a no-brainer for us to support this,” said WiL. “It just came down to being asked, and it seemed like a pretty good idea.”
Tomorrow’s show is at the Drake Inn, as part of WiL’s regular tour.
“Since we’re heading out there to spend time with our families, we thought it was a good idea to throw on a good show there – it helps with the gas money,” said WiL with a laugh. “We always have a good time there – I’ve played there for several years, it’s pretty weird – and I think I’ll keep playing there no matter what happens with our career.”
While WiL has gotten to the point where he plays more theatre shows, coming back to the Drake feels like home, he stressed.
It’s a good place to stop and feel like you’re home,” he said. “It’s a bar gig and we’re doing less and less of those now, but it’s a bar gig I don’t mind doing whatsoever. It can be really fun and a time to try new tunes.”
Since the release of his fourth album, 2011’s Heart of Mine, WiL has toured vigorously, releasing a string of singles which will form the next album.
That said, he’s also been working on a full-length studio album, which will quickly follow.
“We just released a run of demos that we’ve been selling strictly on the road, and all those are eventually going to be on a record I’ll have out in the next four or five months,” he explained. “So that record will be No. 5, and then the one we’re working on now will be No. 6, the official album.”
This will mean WiL will have released six albums since 2007. He has also been heavily involved in making commercial music, with a recent emphasis on Travel Alberta campaigns.
“I’ve been composing commercials for over 10 years – we’ve been really lucky in the last year that Travel Alberta liked the very first one that I did,” he said. “I was in the middle of writing this record, so I sent a couple of tunes out to them on a whim of ideas I had.
“ ‘No matter what ideas you have or what you want to do with them, I’m still keeping them for a record,’ and it spread from there. They enjoyed more than not what I sent in, so it was wild, neat little ride.”
WiL’s most recent “Remember to Breathe” campaign video can be found on YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=PUFDcnE6Gjk
“It’s easy to be writing for a record and have them wanting to use it as well, versus sitting down trying to focus putting music up against specifically a commercial,” he said. “This was two birds with one stone, ‘If you like these, great, either way I’m putting them on my record.’
“And then when they realized how much of a live performer I am and that’s what I do for a living, they wanted me to play these songs at conferences across Canada. That’s what we did and it was a really cool experience.”
As he’s writing for Travel Alberta from the perspective of the songs being an artistic venture for an album, and not as a commercial product, they have much more meaning and honesty.
“It comes from a very honest place, and when you write for a record, you don’t really think about it for selling a lot of records,” said WiL. “You’re writing a song because that’s what you do. It can fail miserably or do really well; either way, you have to do it from a really honest and pure place.
“I figured that out a while ago – ever since we stopped trying so hard to make everything work, things started to work a lot better. It’s like when you’re boarding or skiing, if you focus too much and worry about every little nuance, you’re going to case it. You have to just go with your natural instinct and not think about it and flow and enjoy all the turns. That’s where I’m at.”
And with Travel Alberta allowing WiL to be creative, and own the music for future use, he’s excited to keep working with them.
“(Travel Alberta) has been amazing, they’ve been such a huge supporter of our music. It’s been awesome, they’re like ‘You own these songs, play them at shows, put them on records, do whatever you want.’ They were just really happy with what I built and composed.”
For more information on WiL, visit his website at ibreakstrings.com
