jeremie albino

How’s your weekend been at the Edmonton Folk Festival? You just played a workshop; how did it go?

“I played a workshop with Jillain Taylor and Paper Kites, and it was awesome. Sometimes workshops can go sideways, but today worked great.

I’ve done some workshops where people get nervous or everyone is kind of shy, but with them, it was just fun because people were connecting.”

Tell me about your musical journey and how you started as a musician?

I started playing guitar when I was 15, and then I didn’t really consider myself a musician for a long time. Before music I was working on a farm, so I was a farmhand, and then one time I just played an open mic, and the people seemed to dig it and one thing led to another and I got a couple gigs and another thing led to another thing and I somehow got a record deal, made an album and I just haven’t really stopped doing that since.”

Your song writing is incredible and your hooks are infectious. Can you tell me about that writing process?

“With the latest Album I put out, a lot of songs were written, like — my first album were just a bunch of songs that I had been collecting through the years, and then the second one was about the experience I had playing live, with the band, playing with people and for people.  It grew to become something that I really loved. And I just wanted to write songs that I could play live and people can sing along to and that’s where a lot of that came from. Like, what can make the live show even more fun? And something that people can commit to. I feel my new record has a bit more of that.”

Who are your musical inspirations?

“I grew up listening to a lot of old Blues and Folk and Country, so that’s where a lot of my roots come from. I started playing acoustic guitar and kind of tried to do a lot of one-man band stuff, and started to be able to play a lot of my songs on my own and once I started making records, I put a band together and a lot of those songs grew from solo songs into band songs. I also grew up listening to a lot of Motown and Country and Folk as well — anywhere from John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan to Neil Young and James Taylor, it’s kind of all over the place.”

Can you describe recording your latest album, and the live off the Floor process?

“We recorded one song at a time, starting with drums, bass, guitar — I play guitar as well, and sing. We just play them the way we kind of arranged it from pre-production. Like, some people just go into the studio and just have an idea and they just do it one at a time. But I just went in with my band and played them the way we played them live, and that’s kind of how it goes.”

What’s your favourite song that you’ve written?

“Oh I don’t know, I mean off this new record it’s probably “Tears You Hide”, which is the title track, just because it’s near and dear to me and it’s just fun to play. When you’re performing, it just feels good.”

At what point, specific moment that you felt that you wanted to be a musician, the ‘I can do this’ feeling?

“I played a lot of open mics in my town and people ended up really digging it and the venue ended up hiring me for a couple of gigs. It was a long journey; it wasn’t just one thing that the moment of ‘I can do this.’ I always knew that I loved making music, so after the time of playing the open mics, I was working seasonal work, I’d work spring, summer, fall, then have the winters off. One winter I went to Toronto and ended up just trying to play every mic I could.”

You’ve released a short film style for your music video. Could you describe the idea behind that process?

“Most of the time when you put out a record, you think what you’re going to do for a music video and I’ve done a couple music videos that have gone really well, but I think I realized that one of the stronger parts of my music and my shows is just the live performance of it all.

We could’ve just figured out a music video, like a narrative and just kind of gone with it, but it was just complicated and you don’t know what those could turn out like, and it kind of takes away from the live aspect. And we just went with, this is what it is, this is the song, this is the music, we’ll play it live for you, you know? Instead of making a music video where I’m just walking down the street and singing a song.

So anyway, we ended up being like, ‘what could we do?’ We just tried to get as many live videos as we could and I worked with my long-time music collaborator, Mark, and ended up just thinking of an idea where we just play all the songs but try to find a way to connect them all.

We ended up renting a Legion hall in Toronto and it was good because it was affordable and it had a really good vibe. It was two floors; the upstairs was a hall and the downstairs was a pool club. Honestly, we were trying to make it so I would walk all the way through the whole space and doing it in one take, but we ended up breaking it through a couple takes. But yeah, that’s where it came from, just wanting to showcase the live show as much as possible.”

What is your favourite show you’ve ever played?

“There’s a lot of them, I’m lucky to say that, but a few years back I was touring through Montana and we played a show in Missoula, Montana and we played a place there called the Wilma and it was just a magical night where the venue was beautiful, but it was an old theatre that was so beautiful and the crowd was just so amazing, so that was really special.

I was lucky enough that last summer I played a show at Massey Hall in Toronto, I was opening for Orville Peck, I had two shows there and it was such a treat, because the audience was so amazing and kind and it’s just the mecca for Canadian musicians. I wanted to play that venue for years and it was just a special time.”

You’re going to go on a US tour, how are you feeling about it?

“I’m feeling good, this is kind of my first headlining run through the states, I’ve done a couple headlining tours, in Canada, but yeah, I’m excited. You always get a bit nervous, you hope people come out and a a lot of these towns I haven’t actually been to, so we’re just going to try it out and it’ll be a grind, but I’m excited to connect with fans that I haven’t really played shows to yet. It should be good, summertime is always fun for the festivals, but it’s nice to just be on the road. I love touring, it’s super meditative and you’re like ‘this is all you have to do right now’, and you just go to the next venue and play shows. We’re going to some towns I’m excited to go to because I also know there’s going to be some good food.”

Last question, do you have any other hobbies other than music?

“I just got into running, I’ve been doing a lot of that actually and I’ve really been loving it. I never thought that I’d call myself a runner, I’d always see people running and be like ‘what are you guys doing?’ You guys are crazy..  and now I’m that crazy person running. And I also like playing basketball.”