Calum Graham: The End of the Beginning

In Profile, Lead Story — By admin on November 6, 2011 8:29 am

 In the jungle of artists after the limelight, it’s those who don’t wane who get big. By Peter Worden Photos by Neville Palmer

Locally, he needs no introduction. Mention just his first name in these parts and automatically people know you’re referring to the 20-year-old, bright-eyed, frosted-tipped, wunderkind guitarist, Calum Graham.

Nationally, he has broken ground already, sharing studios with Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace, Chantal Kreviazuk (the Chantal Kreviazuk) and – not too shabby either – the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As he naturally branches into international territory, all that is familiar might be about ­to change.

He can play the guitar like few can on the planet. That’s not an overstatement. Of fans, now-legendary guitarist Don Ross counts himself one; a substantial endorsement considering Ross was Graham’s initial inspiration for learning to finger pick on the guitar.

“It blew my mind that one guitar could make so much sound,” said Graham.

With the admiration of such a big name artist and spades of recent accolades (such as, 2011 Song for Canada contest grand prize winner), there seems only room to grow for the newly budded artist in an understory of musical fame.

But putting it that way is too simple. Too nutshell. For one, it implies destiny. No self-respecting artist in the burgeoning part of his career wants to talk about something that negates tangible measures of hard work. It’s the teleological analogy of an acorn containing all the makings of an oak tree, though not necessarily destined to become one. For Graham, it’s a necessary denial at this stage.

“I think the terrifying parts help keep me in check,” Graham explains about the recent up-shoot in his musical career. An example: it dawned on him one day he was using the same master and mixer for recording his album that Led Zeppelin used. “It’s crazy,” he said, “just the momentum itself.”

Prior to breaking into the limelight, Graham was well tended to; nourished and supported by community, both that of High River and of fellow musicians. He can’t talk about his early guitar years without making two parental footnotes: recalling evenings as he sat at his father’s feet and listened to him strum chords, and crediting his artistic flair to his mother, who paints… with her feet.

Graham knew the guitar would take him far. “I wanted to see the world with a purpose,” he said. “It was always my incentive to play.” From his dad’s few chords, he quickly learned every song by Don Ross. (Tellingly, when Ross first heard Graham, he told the young guitarist: “That’s your ticket.”) And that ticket seems good. His time is now split between home in High River and recording studios in Los Angeles.

If you’ve heard Graham play the guitar, it’s likely you’ve only heard him play the guitar. Whereas – up to now – his guitar did enough singing for the both of them, this new studio album, with the working title, Indivisibility, will feature the artist’s lyrics and voice too. In this sense, the title takes on new meaning, implying his voice and the guitar’s are one and the same.

As he grows, Graham is still searching for that elusive idea of voice, like Zeppelin’s, he said, “you know it’s them.” And he is in good hands. He has a voice coach, Brian Farrell, and manager Neil McGonigle, who, incidentally, also managed Jann Arden. It was McGonigle who had just the right guy in mind in LA, and that guy turned out to be producer CJ Vanston whose tutelage produced Tina Turner and N’Sync.

Graham says that Vanston, acquainted with both the old, “dinosaur” way of music-making and today’s “ready, fire, aim” hyper-marketing method, wants to buck the modern convention of depriving the artist inside the celebrity. While there are plans for an iPhone app to accompany the release of Indivisible, Vanston and Graham both seek to preserve the album as a whole piece of art.

“What usually happens is artists go through a model – like the Britney Spears and Katy Perry stuff. And it works. It sells. But he’s all about the music,” said Graham about Vanston. “Let people come to us.”  

Back home in Alberta, equally passionate artists are chipping in, in one case, literally. Local luthier, Chuck Shifflett, is handcrafting Graham a guitar – a “monster,” Graham calls it – with a harp engrained into its woodwork; a truly unique bit of craftsmanship matched only by the young artist who will play it.

It’s obvious the beginning part is over. No longer bogged down by the torment artists face to get noticed or find their voice, Graham is bursting with ideas of new markets and major artists with which to grow alongside.

“I’m just going to go for it – not letting fear hold me back,”he said, reaffirming the total dedication to a living. “Years down the road I just want to be making music on a bigger scale.”

To wax philosophically one last time, an acorn’s end result might not be a tree. It could just as well be a guitar or dust or, who knows, a star. Graham gets this. It’s what drives him.

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Graham was the 2011 Song for Canada contest grand prize winner; one of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics’ top artists of Alberta; and winner of the Canadian Youth Talent Competition. The previous winner of that competition was Micheal Bublé.

Watch a Video of CALUM

About getting the shot by Neville Palmer

 

Tags: 2011 Song for Canada contest, Calum Graham, Chantal Kreviazuk, chuck shifflett, High River music, Neil McGonigle, Our Lady Peace, routes, Routes Magazine