SUNDRE — Having been born and raised in a small community such as Sundre offered a local musician life perspective and experiences that influenced and forged his message of staying focused on what matters along the path to happiness and self-fulfillment.
“I think growing up in a small town just really gave me kind of a connection to the outdoors, and a lot of my music is about kind of being on an open road or travelling,” said Tate Irving. “It’s really just made me kind of who I am today.”
Irving, who graduated from Sundre High School in 2014 and considers the community home, recently resettled back in town after moving away for a number of years, including some time spent in Calgary as well as overseas.
“When the whole COVID thing hit, I just kind of got sick of living in the city,” the 26-year-old told the Albertan on June 6 during a phone interview.
When he moved back to Sundre for a couple of months to stay with his sister during the height of pandemic-related restrictions, Irving said he re-discovered his love for small town life on the Rocky Mountains’ doorstep and ultimately decided to come home.
“It’s kind of quaint but it's got a lot of character,” he said about Sundre.
Lifelong love of music
His passion for music began to blossom early in life, when before he even learned to strum a chord, Irving had started at the age of only 5 years old learning to read music from piano sheets.
“Ever since I was like, super, super young, I've always like just loved guitar,” he said. “That was like, my go-to. I was always wanting to play guitar.”
But before buying him a guitar, Irving’s parents wanted him to start from square one with the basics, for which he to this day remains grateful.
“When I was five, my parents were kind of like, ‘All right. Well, you can play guitar, but you’re going to have to play five years of piano first,’” he said, expressing appreciation for having parents who nurtured his musical inclination.
“I feel like the piano is just like a base for (learning) all instruments,” he said, adding the introduction to learning notes and melodies was an important first step toward playing the guitar.
Music provides “good release”
Writing and playing music helps him not only to process what he experiences in life, but also express what’s on his mind. Oftentimes, Irving said he writes songs as he goes through a difficult time such as a breakup.
“You just take it out on music. It’s a good release,” he said. “I used to play music in this little cabin out back at my sister’s place, and I’d just get lost in it. You kind of get in the groove and it’s almost like blissful in a way.”
Growing up, Irving said he listened to pretty much everything.
“Lately, I’ve just been kind of all over the place with my music tastes,” he said. “I started listening to country for a little while there a while back.”
But he added some exposure to newer punk rock brought him back into that mindset.
“I just kind of re-fell back in love with it and it just reminded me of growing up,” he said, adding his first-ever band in Grade 6 called Muppet Nectar was a Sum 41 cover group.
Then, at the age of 18 after his graduation during a sojourn in Indonesia where he found himself following a trip with a few friends visiting New Zealand, Australia and Thailand, Irving met by chance a hostel owner who hired him to perform his first-ever gig featuring original music.
“Over the next three years, I just split my time between Indonesia and Canada pretty much evenly,” he said, adding he worked as a bartender.
“Then, with a friend of mine, I started playing shows at the bar I was working at,” he said, adding word about their shows quickly got around the island.
“We pretty much had a full house every Tuesday night when we played,” he said.
Upon returning to Canada, Irving met another key connection on his musical career path – audio engineer Ryan Frampton – which eventually lead to a publishing deal with Bedroom Records
Life beyond social media
The new single, She Said, which is available on all music platforms, is described as telling an up-tempo tale of hardship and personal growth that brims with charm showcasing Irving’s fondness for storytelling.
Originally written when he was 20, the song was initially framed as a series of life lessons imparted by Irving’s mother, such as the importance of good values.
Since then, She Said was revised numerous times and evolved into a more upbeat melody from the slower acoustic piece it started out as.
Irving told the Albertan when asked whether there is any underlying message behind his music that “every song is different” and he endeavours to use metaphors in an effort to convey a message that “people can actually really relate to and feel.”
As far as She Said goes, Irving said he tapped into his memories from the formative period in his life that paved the path to finding himself.
He hopes others who haven't yet also discover themselves to become “the person that you're meant to be, and being happy with that."
A snippet included in the press release from the lyrics featured in She Said illustrates a desire to make the most of life and cherish every moment.
“Well, you could start a revolution by the end of the day;
Or build a white picket fence at the end of your lane;
Post pictures on the internet for people you hate;
Or work a 9-5 for a minimum wage;
and maybe it’s just me and it just seems;
That this might be the next worse thing;
So, you do you and I’ll do me.”
While the underlying theme is not necessarily anti-consumerist, Irving said he gets the impression many people for example get swept away obsessing over living vicariously through social media and getting “likes” for the pictures and posts they share.
“A lot of people kind of get caught up in comparing that to happiness,” he said. “(But) in the grand scheme of things, that stuff in the long run – as long as you're happy – doesn't really have too much gumption.”
While his latest release is a solo effort, Irving has also informally been jamming with some friends on a yet-named band. And above and beyond the recent release of She Said, Irving added another new song called Glow had also just come out and is now available on most streaming platforms.
Looking to the months ahead, Irving said he hopes to schedule some shows in the Sundre and Didsbury areas, but added no dates have yet been set in stone.
