By Tiffany Jarva
“I’m excited to be playing a show in my hometown. A lot of my new album is about Thunder Bay and the memories I made there,” shares Coleman Hell, Juno-nominated artist for Breakthrough Artist of the Year and winner for Favourite New Artist at last year’s CASBY awards. “It will be a surreal experience to perform these songs in the place that inspired them.”
Hell’s much-anticipated debut LP, Summerland, was released in October and includes the single “Fireproof,” the popular follow-up to his mega hit “2 Heads.” When setting out to find inspiration for the new album, Hell returned to his Northwestern Ontario roots. “I wanted to re-embrace that life, those great summers I remembered, and also get in touch with some of the music that influenced me at that time.”
Hell stresses the importance of spending extended time at a cabin fishing and collaborating around bonfires. “For me this cabin and going back there to reconnect for this album was kind of my Summerland,” says Hell who explains that Summerland is also a place that Wiccans believe they go to when they die. “They believe in reincarnation, so it’s like this place between lives.”
With his tour just around the corner, Hell is busy getting things ready as well as prepping his next single that he’ll be taking on tour with him in the US early next year.
Coleman Hell’s Canadian tour kicks off in Vancouver on November 10. He will be playing at The Outpost in Thunder Bay on November 19.
