Interview: Bahamas

Peanut Butter. Insulin. Afie Jurvanen.

These Canadian inventions have improved the lives of people across the world, most recently Jurvanen’s guitar-centric, vocally smooth style of indie rock, which he creates under the name Bahamas.

Prior to opening for opening for Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats at Rabbit Rabbit on Wednesday, Sept. 29, Jurvanen spoke with Asheville Stages about departing Nova Scotia for the first time in two years, making quality online content with remote collaborators, and the allure of small-town life.

Edwin Arnaudin: As artists get back into the flow of touring, I've been kicking off these interviews by asking how they've fared during the pandemic in general.

Afie Jurvanen: In general, very well, thank you. I live in a part of the world that is pretty isolated. And so I think my experience of the last year and a half is probably pretty different than people who live in a big city or something. But actually, the main thing for me is just I've gotten to spend so much time with my family and normally I would be traveling all the time — just constantly in and out. And so probably, like some other people, I've gone through some growing pains and learned some new skills, and I think ultimately my marriage is stronger and my whole family life feels much more stable. Now, I'm looking forward to traveling and performing again, but I really just tried to make the most of it.

EA: It’s been great to hear those kind of stories from artists. I recently spoke with Jay Farrar from Son Volt, who's playing here tomorrow, and he said that you miss a lot of anniversaries and birthdays on the road, so it was nice for him to get to experience those for the first time in a while.

AJ: Yeah! [Laughs] Exactly.

EA: You'll be in Asheville in just over a week. Will these be your first shows outside of Nova Scotia since before the pandemic?

AJ: Yeah. I mean, I haven't traveled. I haven't played outside of Nova Scotia in two years. I mean, I put out an album and did a lot of stuff online and tried to put out quality virtual things online. But I think everyone agrees: there's no real substitute for a live show. So, as a performer, in a way it's a nice position to be in because I think people are so keyed to go out — they just miss it! So, beyond feeding into that, it'll be very nice to be out.

EA: And even though we have the vaccine now and a lot of venues are being responsible with elevated safety measures, what does it feel like re-entering the world or touring, especially with the delta variant surging? 

AJ: Well, geez! I mean, I don't want to get into hot water with any one side or the other, but I do think it's time to try. I mean, we've got to try, right? Anyone who wants a vaccine has had plenty of opportunity to get it, and there's some people that don't. But I think we'll have to try. How will we know if any of these things are working if we don't try?

So, I think that's the main thing I'm just trying to take care of myself. I hope that everyone else has taken after themselves, and together, when you add it all up, the math did work out pretty good there if that we all do that. 

Unfortunately, most people would agree, it's just gotten so political, too, that it almost becomes a difficult thing to discuss. And in some ways it all comes back to so much of this stuff is, "You're going to do what makes sense for you and your family. And I'm going to do what make sense for me." And some people are still very afraid, and they should be able to stay home. I'm not making them feel bad for staying at home. And that's how it should be. And other people want to go out and they should go do it. So, yeah, not that I want to reveal my politics in this interview, but I do think it's good that we're at least trying to turn back on and giving everyone an opportunity, those people that do want to go out, it's nice to be able to give them an opportunity to do that.

EA: I think you gave a very good humanist answer there, so I don't think you'll be accused of being too far to the left or right with that one.

AJ: [Laughs] Yeah.

EA: So, it's been almost three and a half years since you played The Grey Eagle and sold it out within what felt like five minutes. Have you spent enough time in Asheville to have a feel for it?

AJ: Not enough. I feel like you have to go back to a place...if you're a musician, it sounds like it's all glamorous. "Oh, I'm playing in Paris. Oh, I'm planning in London. I'm playing in Asheville." But you have to go back to these places six, seven, eight, nine times before you actually experience some, in many cases. The schedule is so tight, because you're in a different place every day, that most of my time is spent traveling.

So, if I have a great cup of coffee or a nice meal, that kind of ends up forming my opinion of a place. I don't want to say I'm easy to please, but, I mean, yeah, that's what I'm looking for, these sort of positive, pleasing, simple experiences, and I know Asheville has that in spades. I've only ever met nice people there. But again, I don't think I've ever spent much time there. I come in, I play, and I leave the same day. I'm not sure why, but maybe you can talk to the guys I work with and just build in a day off. I'm sure I'd have a great time.

But you tell me: Is it true that there's a lot of college students there?

EA: I mean, not a whole lot. We have the university here and some others nearby, and a decent amount of young people move here, but we have a good mix of Millennials and Gen X and other generations. There's a wide range.

AJ: And have you seen an influx of people moving there during the last couple of years? Are people leaving bigger cities and moving to places like Asheville?

EA: Definitely during the pandemic. People from New York or L.A. wanted to get out of the crowded cities and found that their dollar goes a lot farther here.

AJ: Yeah.

EA: It's becoming so expensive that it's hard to stay here, but people make it work. If you really want to be here, you figure it out, and that spirit of the people is part of why it's a great place to live.

AJ: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, I like the small towns, too. Where we live is, as I said, it's pretty remote. It's pretty small. But, same thing. We've had people moving here from New York and London, England, and all over the place. And yeah, it is a big adjustment for both the people that live here, as well as the newcomers.

But I think ultimately, it's people who are moving here with enthusiasm and they want to contribute and open up businesses and send their kids to school here and work here and pay taxes here. And for a place like where I live, that's had a declining population for, you know, more than three decades, it's kinda nice to have that.

So, I'm a big fan of small towns. I hope that more people recognize how great the quality of life can be in those smaller cities and smaller towns. I think most people around the world now are realizing just how difficult it is in the bigger cities. I mean, no matter how great it is to be surrounded by all the art and the music and all that stuff, and it is meaningful and it is important. There's a million different ways to live your life, and I think there's just as interesting art and music happening where I live, even if it's not necessarily visible at a national or international scale. There's so much to dig into if you really put roots down somewhere.

EA: That’s definitely true here. There's all these truly small towns around us in the mountains that have amazing folk traditions and crafts that have been practiced for hundreds of years.

AJ: Everything, right? I mean, you take barbecue pretty serious there, too. And I think most people say it's different than barbecue in other places, even within the state. So, it's the thing with music and and pretty much everything.

EA: For sure! Well, you're heading back out for these shows, and with most of them you're the headliner, but for these first few, Asheville included, you're opening for Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. How do you approach shows as an opener versus being a headliner?

AJ: I love it. [Laughs] It's always kind of my preference. I love being the underdog and people not really having expectations and then being able to deliver something where they're just kind of like, "Wow! I was going to see someone else, and I really loved that. I'm so glad I came early and saw them play."

I've done a lot of it over the last more than a decade. I still enjoy it. The logistics get harder once you get to the level where you can actually do your own shows, because sometimes it doesn't make sense to go and open for someone else. But whenever I get a chance to, I try and say “yes,” because it's nice to be part of someone else's world. So much of my daily life is like "What do I want to do?" It's very ego…you know, it's very dangerous in terms of starting to get high on your own supply and thinking you're the shit, so it's nice to get caught in someone else's wheel for a day or for a tour and see how they do things, and also just to get to see other music. The truth is I don't get to see a lot of shows, so it's cool just to get a chance to see other people play.

EA: How far back do you and Nathaniel Rateliff go?

AJ: We don't go back far at all! I'm looking forward to meeting him. I'm not sure how this tour came together, but as I said, I'm grateful to be included on it. They're obviously a really cool band and anybody that I've talked to about them only has positive things to say. But I look forward to seeing him and meeting him and maybe even getting to hang out a little bit in the parking lot.

EA: I hope so! Well, you mentioned your latest album, Sad Hunk, being released during the pandemic. When was it recorded?

AJ: I recorded in December of 2019, so a couple of months before we locked down, And, in fact, I was planning on releasing it in the fall and we ended up just staying with that schedule. We saw some other artists were delaying the release of their records, thinking that we would be open again and touring again. And I just sort of followed my instinct and said, "Why don't we just put it out? We don't know when this thing's going to change. We don't know what it's going to look like when it does open up." 

So, I just kind of leaned in to the online thing and we did a whole series of live sort of concerts with different musicians all over the world, and that turned out really well. And I don't think I would have done any of that stuff if I didn't put out the record and just sort of decide to figure out a way to promote the record from home. And again, yet another thing I'm kind of grateful for, because I learned some new skills there and got to meet some great musicians. Although it's not the same as working in the studio together, it was just amazing to go do that stuff and put up something that I think is quality and people can enjoy, hopefully for years to come.

EA: Yeah, I was glad you did that. I'm a big Dawes fan and was especially happy to see that collaboration.

AJ: Yeah! Aw, they're such cool guys. I look forward to meeting them, too, and we're talking about doing some more stuff together, so hopefully that comes to fruition.

EA: What was your inspiration for doing the Live To Tape series?

AJ: If I'm being completely, I saw Neil Young do an online concert pretty early on in the pandemic. And he's one of my favorite artists. When I was younger, especially, he was just a huge inspiration to me, and I've got to play Farm Aid a few times and got to meet him, and I’ve seen a lot of his shows and been up close and just been so moved by his music.

And then I watched this online, and it was terrible! In about 45 seconds, I was bored and I was opening up an Amazon tab and ordering some running shoes in the other window. And I was thinking to myself, "How can it be? This is my favorite artist. This is a great artist. Something about this technology or this medium — the emotional weight of what he's doing, just isn't translating at all."

So then I thought, "Well, what's the best way to do it?" Like, I was so deflated in a way, and it took a minute to wrap my head around how we could approach doing it. But for a brief period, I just felt like the only thing you can do is play live — it's the only way to connect with an audience.

But we approached it more like a recording as opposed to a live recording, and even though it ultimately is a live recording, we did it from a recording studio and in high fidelity. And we did it together and we tried to include some dialogue, back and forth — the band is kind of talking to each other. We made it more of a cinematic experience as opposed to just straight ahead performance. And I found that more compelling and more interesting, and I hope that audiences did, too.

 I'm glad we did it, and, like I said, it was a great experience and an opportunity to learn new skills. But man oh man, it's so much work to make 20 minutes of video! It's an unbelievable amount of work. I guess it depends on how you measure the success of something. For me, I'm not always about the streaming numbers or whatever. It's more of a, "Are people actually connecting with it? Is it making its way into their lives and finding a place in their day-to-day life?" And I think they did. So, I'm glad that we did that, but I am looking forward to meeting all those people in person and maybe playing music with Dawes live sometime.

EA: Are you planning on keeping the series going, maybe in person?

AJ: Yeah, we do have plans. We're doing a series of albums from the recordings. We did get really cool versions of these songs. We're doing a whole series of EPs and some vinyl and things like that. But, yeah, I'd imagine I'll be doing more of that as time goes on now that we're back to traveling. If I have a day off somewhere and there's a great band or great musicians there, that's how I'd like to spend a day off. That's a great thing to do while we're traveling, so I think I can confidently say yes, we will make more of them.

EA: Excellent! Well, I'll look forward to those as well. That's all the questions I have, but I wanted to close by mentioning that I told my friend in Cincinnati who introduced me to your music that I was interviewing you and asked if she had any questions. She just said to say thanks for being the soundtrack to some of her favorite moments — and part of that is she's a world traveler and always plays “Lost in the Light” when she’s deplaning in a new country, so you've been with her in those memorable times.

AJ: That’s great. Well, give her my regards and tell her thank you very much for that support. That's exactly what I'm talking about — when I hear that the music is kind of making its way into someone's life like that. At the risk of sounding lame, that is very meaningful as someone who's creating stuff. You're making these things out of thin air, and beyond any sort of commercial success or whatever, to hear that she has a relationship with that song that's totally her own — it has nothing to do with me in a way, you know? [Laughs] The song and her have this relationship and it's so meaningful and so important. I mean, I have that relationship with Willie Nelson songs and Neil Young songs, so I totally get that and I love it. I love to hear that.

IF YOU GO

Who: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats with Bahamas
When: Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m.
Where: Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave., rabbitrabbitavl.com
Tickets: Sold out

(Photos by Dave Gillespie)