Chaisson goes national

PEI’s Tim Chaisson will be taking Canada by storm on his cross-country tour with Toronto-based Poor Young Things.

Drawing inspiration from maritime acts such as the east-coast’s The Rankin Family and Sam Rogers, Chaisson’s music is heavily influenced by his celtic musical background.

“I started playing the fiddle when I was about six-years-old,” Chaisson recalled. In high school, Chaisson began to experiment in the local band scene with his family members. “I took an interest in songwriting about that time,” he continued.

Inspired by other singer/songwriters, other influences in Chaisson’s music include Tom Petty and James Taylor. “I kind of dabbled with different genres but [it’s] mostly a folk, country, rock kind of thing,” he said.

The 26-year-old’s newest release The Other Side focuses on the songs rather than the genre. “It has a really raw, kind of natural feel to it,” Chaisson explained. “A lot of bands tend to get caught up in making the record sound perfect and this one’s not really like that.”

Acoustic-based, the record is backed by both bass and drums.  

“I’m a lot more confident about the songs and the songwriting on this record,” he said. “Its not tied down to a genre, or a scene. It’s more about the songwriting and song.”

The band is travelling from coast to coast, beginning in PEI by van. “We’re driving the whole way,” he continued. “It’s a really neat way of seeing the land and seeing people you haven’t seen in a while.”

Finishing the tour in Toronto on Dec. 9, Chaisson will fly to Australia the next day for a one-month solo tour around the country.

All four band members will command the stage at Wilf’s on Nov. 15. The quartet will perform with guitar, mandolin, fiddle, electric guitar, bass and drums.  After doing a show for Radio Laurier, WLU’s campus radio station, last year, Chaisson is looking forward to coming back to play live for Laurier.

“We’ve been doing a lot of campus tours and its really neat to play for the University campus crowd,” he explained.  “I think the cool thing about campus shows is that a lot of people are really open minded to all different kinds of music.”