Toronto, ON, Canada
SEPTEMBER 2024 — Verdant proudly announces the release of an exclusive interview with the distinguished Canadian singer-songwriter Jacob Brodovsky. Known for his deeply personal lyrics and folk musical style, Brodovsky shares insights into his artistic journey, influences, and the creative process behind his work.
Photo credit: Julio Assis
About
Jacob Brodovsky is a singer-songwriter, summer camp director, and College radio host from Winnipeg, MB, Treaty One.
Highlights from the Interview
Jacob Brodovsky has been in the world of music from a very young age. Starting with a guitar in hand at six and penning songs by twelve, Brodovsky's passion for performance has consistently shaped his artistic journey. Throughout this journey, Brodovksy discusses his struggle with imposter syndrome. He reveals that the pressures of a full-time music career did not align well with what he needed: “I quickly realized that my nervous system and mental health weren't compatible with a full-time artist's career.”
His recent accolade as the Canadian Folk Music Award's Songwriter of the Year marks a significant milestone. Brodovsky's awarded album, "I Love You and I'm Sorry," captures five years of songwriting and two years of recording and mixing—a testament to his dedication. In his advice to aspiring artists, Brodovsky emphasizes the importance of reaching out to those they wish to collaborate with. “It's crazy how often people respond,” says Brodovsky.
Verdant is an international literary magazine based in Toronto, Canada, dedicated to showcasing diverse voices and creative expressions since May 2023.
For more information and to read the full interview with Jacob Brodovsky, please visit Verdant at verdantjournal.ca.
Before we start, do you mind telling us about yourself?
I'm Jacob Brodovsky, I'm a singer-songwriter. I also run a summer camp. That's where I am right now. I’m a dad. Yeah.
Okay, so get into more of the specific questions about your career as an artist. Would you mind sharing a bit of your journey as an artist? What initially drew you to this field? And how did you develop your unique style?
Sure, I mean I've always been pretty into music and like performing since I was old enough to talk. I started playing guitar when I was six. I started writing songs when I was 12. I just sort of always had a band, I always had like an outlet to perform. I started off doing a lot of things like musical theater and stuff when I was a kid. And then once I got to high school I realized that playing in a band was a lot cooler and more fun than musical theater at the time. So I started doing that. I started my first band when I was 12, and played in that band until I was 18. And then moved to Toronto for school. And that's sort of when I really started taking songwriting seriously. I had a guitar teacher at the end of high school named Joey Landreth. He plays in a band called The Bros. Landreth. He's like what, one of the best guitar players alive? And he sort of said to me, I'll never forget this, “You're not really that interested in getting good at guitar, you just want to make good songs.” And sort of that sort of clicked for me that I should focus more on, on lyrics then on being a good guitar player. And so yeah, that's sort of where it is.
Oh wow okay. That’s cool. What are some of the key influences and inspirations behind your work?
I'm heavily influenced by Winnipeg songwriters. So like Greg McPherson, John Sampson, from the Weakerthans. And then Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, he's not from Winnipeg. And more recently, I listened to a ton of songs from Charlotte Kornfield and Courtney Marie Andrews. And then I think the biggest piece is our community here in Winnipeg. We've got this incredible arts community and musician community, and we run this song club every week in the winter where we all have to write a new song every week and show it to each other. And that's been a really amazing way to motivate myself to write and also share with other people. And then I think in terms of experiences, like, I mean, I write about my experiences, basically, sometimes I embellish a little bit, sometimes, just to use it as a jumping off point. But generally, I try to write from my own perspective and my own experience and try not to put words into anyone else's mouth other than my own.
Wow, thank you. I think that transitions really well into our next question, which is how do you typically approach a new project?
I sort of go through periods of collection and periods of production. So sometimes when I don't write songs for a long time, I try to listen to lots of music when I walk my dog and jot down the ideas. And then sometimes I'll just be exploding out songs. I think lately, since I had a kid about a year and a half ago, I had to be a lot more intentional about when I work because I only have a 90 minute nap to get something out. Yeah, I think every project is different. Like I'm almost finished writing a new record right now. And so that's just myself and sort of the same process that I've always done, but I'm also working on a duel record with a friend of mine. And so we write together and that's its own kind of thing, which is also really fun and sort of different and scary. But yeah, I think it's always different. When I'm writing, I really focus on writing and then when I'm recording, I tend to really focus on recording and not really write much.
Thank you so much for sharing, that sounds really cool. And I guess just as a follow up question, what was it like composing your most recent album, I Love You and I'm Sorry.
It was great. It was different from previous records. I played in a band from 2016 to 2020, and it broke up. A lot of the songs were meant to be the songs for that band, and then the band kind of fell apart. Some songs were about the band falling apart or about other aspects of my life falling apart. But I got to work on it with some of my heroes like Jason Tate, who plays drums on the record. We live in the same neighborhood, so I asked him if he wanted to jam, and that sort of came from that. My previous recordings have always been a band in a room, recording the songs all together. And then this project was very different. We were very intentional, we really took our time with it, we started with just drums and acoustic guitar and built things on top of it. I got to involve a lot more friends and a lot more different musicians. We needed to be a lot more intentional about how we arranged the songs, which was interesting, but also kind of quite taxing and took a lot longer than it needed to.
That's cool. That's cool. I'm sorry to hear about your band. What are some of the biggest challenges you faced as an artist? And how do you overcome them?
I think for me, it's imposter syndrome. For the most part, I am lucky to be surrounded by incredibly talented and hardworking and driven people. Music has always mattered a lot to me and it's something I want to devote as much time and energy to as I can. There were a couple of years where I focused on music full-time and tried to make that my living. I quickly realized that my nervous system and mental health was not compatible with a true artist's career where you’re constantly chasing and constantly having to hustle. So I think for me, it's been really nice to have a little bit of stability. And having a “dayjob” helps me be able to do both. But I think part of that also, I feel like I'm always not legit because I'm not devoting all of my time to it. And so, yeah, I try not to compare myself to other people and try not to get too hard on myself.
That's fair. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. The next question is, many of our readers are aspiring artists themselves. What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
I would say I'm pretty early in my career, but I think sending emails to anyone that inspires you. It took me way too long to figure out that you should just email people all the time. If any, anyone that inspires you, anyone that you would love to work with, anyone that you think like, “Oh, they would never respond,” just send them an email or send them a DM. It's crazy how often people have come back and actually gotten back to me. I think that's the one thing. And then the other thing is just to get really good at having other people critique your work and being okay with it. I think it's really important to get feedback on your stuff and show it to other people. It took me a while to realize that you have to really be intentional when you're showing people your work. “This is a work in progress, and I want feedback on it. I want you to tell me what works and what doesn't.” vs “This is finished, I've already spent $1,000 to record the song and it's not changing. And so I just want you to hear it. I don't really necessarily want your opinion.”
I just want to first congratulate you on winning the Canadian folk music award for Songwriter of the Year. How did you feel to receive such a prestigious recognition for your work?
It felt awesome, it felt super shocking. Like all awards, you have to submit yourself so I submitted myself, but I didn't expect to get nominated at all. I certainly didn't expect to win. They kept bugging me to send them an acceptance speech video and I kept putting it off because I was like, “Guys, this is a waste of everyone's time. Like I'm not gonna win.” And then I won, which was super crazy. I put a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of time and energy into that record. And it's just always nice to be recognized. It's super cool.
Yeah. So do you mind telling us a bit further about the record that led you to win that award? And what inspired you to write that?
I worked on I Love You and I’m Sorry for five years. I did a residency at the Banff Centre in 2018, and I started to take myself seriously as a songwriter. I had peers and mentors who were reading my stuff and not rolling their eyes at it. It felt weird to me. But yeah, it was five years of writing and two years of recording and mixing. It was cool to be able to involve so many people that I love on the record. I don't think I'll ever be able to make an album like that again. I don't think I'm going to try. I don't think I'll ever have that long to devote to recording an album or writing an album. And I can still stand to listen to it most days, which is not the case for my other stuff.
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