A Rossland musician has released his latest album and is heading out on tour.
The Tools We Possess is Brett Wildeman’s second full-length album and was written on a cycling trip he took across the Pacific Northwest in 2015. Some of the album was recorded in Vancouver, but most of it was recorded at Wildeman’s home in Rossland over the past eight months.
“I recorded most of it this winter and now it’s out, which is great,” he says.
The album includes the single, “Kate’s Song,” which was nominated for the Kootenay Music Awards’ Song of the Year 2016 and also earned Wildeman a nomination for Best Breakthrough Artist.
“It’s been remixed since the Kootenay Music Awards and then it got mastered by Alex Right in Montreal,” says Wildeman. “So everything sounds way bigger and better than it did in my basement.”
One of the songs was more of a last minute edition to the album.
“‘The Light,’ the song was like conceived and recorded in 48 hours,” explains Wildeman. “I guess that was in April I finished that. So it’s been a long process and it’s nice to be finely done [with] it.”
Wildeman describes The Tools We Possess as having an eclectic, folky sound.
“There’s an assortment of live instruments — so like guitar, ukulele, harmonica, banjo, bass — and then there’s a lot of synthesized instruments,” he explains.
Wildeman’s friend Chelsea Sleep, who he’s known since he was a kid, plays violin on the album.
“I visited her in Canmore in November and encouraged her to record there, so the violin is recorded in Canmore,” he says.
Wildeman will kick off his tour for the new album on Saturday, Sept. 16 in Kaslo, touring across the East Kootenay, into Alberta, and then back to the Kootenays to wrap up the tour at the Alpine Grind in Rossland on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Doors are at 6 p.m. and the Grind will serve pizza. The music starts at 7:15 p.m. with Trail musician and Selkirk music student Kiana Tingley opening the tour.
Tickets are $12 in advance at the Alpine Grind and online at brownpapertickets.ca, or $15 at the door.
Wildeman would like to thank the Columbia Basin Trust for providing funding for the tour. The funding will also allow him to pay Tingley to play.
The Tools We Possess is available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp or at the show.