Royal Wood and Jadea Kelly will be performing at the Redwood House Community Centre in Redwood Meadows on Feb. 20 as part of their tour across Canada.
Opening for Wood is singer/songwriter and performer Jadea Kelly. The show was moved from Bragg Creek Community Centre after that venue suffered Jan. 14 flooding caused by the facility’s fire-suppression system.
“I started singing when I was a kid – my mom always said I was singing before I was talking,” Kelly said with a laugh. “I just always knew from a young age this is what I wanted to be doing.”
It was while taking guitar lessons growing up that Kelly learned how to write songs. Her teacher is the father of one of the Good Lovelies, a Canadian performing-trio.
“In 2010 I released my first album, then in 2013 we released Clover, and this April we’re going to be releasing a new record called Love and Lust.”
Her inspiration for the album Clover came from being back home after touring and taking care of her garden – something she hadn’t been able to do for years.
“That was my first summer home in I can’t remember how long so I put all my time and energy into this garden – it really centered me.”
The name Clover comes from her grandfather’s farm, but there’s one more element of connection between her grandfather and the album.
“Right when I was making the record I was having this reoccurring dream that my grandpa was in this farm field holding this wolf, just hugging it. In the dream I knew I was physically seeing a wolf but, in dreams, certain characters are other things. So I knew in the dream the wolf represented my grandmother,” Kelly explained. “That’s why there’s a wolf on the cover of the album. The wolf is seen as a teacher and a pathfinder – and I guess at that time I was trying to find my own path.”
Kelly elaborated that, at the time, she found herself drifting apart from her band members due to different career paths and conflicting schedules. She described the process as painful because she loved her friends but it led to her “taking the reins” of her career and finding her own voice.
Her next album, Love and Lust, is set to drop on April 22 and is one about heartbreak. Kelly compares it to Alanis Morissette’s album Jagged Little Pill.
“I’m really proud of it, we’ve been working on it for about a year and a half. I think it’s badass.”
A busy performer, Kelly will be touring with Catherine MacLellan, another Canadian singer/songwriter, until she joins up with Wood later this month.
“I love touring, I’ve been able to see a lot of great places in the world because of it,” Kelly explained.
Kelly came to meet Wood through the music scene in Toronto.
“I’ve always been a fan of his music, some of my best friends play in his band. Royal started coming to my shows and that’s how I met him. We’re just both fans of each other.”
She explained she’s honoured to be opening for him on this tour. Kelly joked the tour will be “a big bro-fest” and she’s now considered “an honorary bro.”
“I’ve known Jadea’s music for a while and she had asked to me write with her for a little bit, which we never got around to doing because the timing didn’t work. But I’ve definitely been a fan so I’m looking forward to hearing her set,” explained Wood.
Wood’s tour features music from his latest album, The Burning Bright.
A performer of all trades, Wood is a talented musician as well as a singer/songwriter.
“Whatever I could get my hands on as a kid, I’d learn how to play,” Wood explained.
“I played everything: trumpets, bassoons, clarinets, tubas, piano, guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and more.”
Wood started teaching himself these instruments at an early age until his parents realized how gifted he was and enrolled him in lessons. Singing and songwriting were always a part of his repertoire, but he didn’t reveal his talent until gaining some confidence in his work.
“It wasn’t something I was confident in or that I believed in – I didn’t want anyone to hear (my songs) so I would play everyone else’s songs. It became something I constantly worked at and evolved at until finally it turned into something I wanted someone to hear – and that didn’t happen until I was 24.”
Although his music is described as the alternative pop genre, Wood believes his music never really fit into any one category.
“Each record and each song kind of has its own classification,” Wood elaborated. “I’ve done a lot of folk, and even things that are more jazz, classical, etc.”
An Ontario-native like Kelly, Wood released his first album in 2003. His most recent album, The Burning Bright, was written truly all over the place.
When in Los Angeles doing some writing for a film, Wood met Bill Lefler, a producer working in L.A., and Simon Wilcox, a Canadian singer/songwriter. They ended up writing a song together, Forever and Ever, that turned into an instant hit and ended up being The Burning Bright’s first single.
“It went so well and so easy and was so much fun, we decided we’d do a couple more (songs) and we ended up deciding we’d make a record together,” explained Wood.
Part of the album was also written during his stay in Ireland, a trip he took to discover his ancestral roots.
“Being surrounded by what I knew my family was apart of, and more importantly what my mother was apart of, actually made me miss home and the farm that I grew up on. A lot of those songs were about being back on the farm as much as being in touch with my Irish roots.”
He also wrote part of the album at home in Ontario. His “jumping around” method is how he prefers to create most of his albums.
“It’s how you make art, you let go and you allow things to happen and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Not every song that I write gets to be heard, and not every song I make at the studio is released. You end up culling it down to a list of things you think make the perfect record and you go from there.”
Though the album was written while Wood was going through a divorce, he wanted to make it clear to his listeners and fans that the album wasn’t one of heartbreak.
“Relationships end – that’s a normal part of life. I wasn’t sitting, moping around. I was looking forward to things I wanted to do. I actually had a lot of hope when I was writing that record,” Wood explained.
He’s excited to be returning to this area as it’s one he’s comfortable performing in.
“There’s a few rural dates we decided to put into February and I’m definitely looking forward to them. I grew up playing in small town halls in rural Ontario and I’m used to them.”
Wood also has a new album dropping April 22 called The Ghost Light. To create it, he “let go” of his inhibitions and “went back to the way he used to write records” by writing the bulk of one song each day – a process that took around two to three weeks.
“The condensed version (of the story) is it’s the name of a song I wrote in 2003 and just sort of sat on and wasn’t really sure if it would ever find it’s way out. And when I was making the latest record I had played it for my producer and he loved it. He said it had to be on the record.”
“It actually summed up everything I was feeling around that record and at the time of writing that record – it seemed the perfect title for the album in the end.”
Both Wood and Kelly’s music is available for purchase online on their websites. Tickets for the Feb. 20 event at the Redwood House are also available at www.royalwood.ca/tour
