Black Diamond singer/songwriter Jake Vance was ready to hang up his guitar for good until he received the affirmation he needed to keep plugging along.
The 20-year-old folk-alternative singer/songwriter was nominated for the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Award for Young Performer of the Year last month. The honour came mere weeks after he decided he was done with the life of a struggling musician.
“Playing music made me hate playing music,” he said. “There’s only so many times you can play at a bar full of two people who don’t want to listen to you that you decide this sucks.”
Despite releasing a five-song EP Eden last spring, Vance continued to struggle with securing enough gigs to make a living as a musician.
“It’s really hard to keep at it – getting gigs and trying to make a living off of it,” he said. “I wasn’t getting enough gigs. I was disheartened by all of it.”
Vance had been gaining recognition as an up-and-coming folk musician. Last January he was awarded a three-month stay in Toronto through the Artist Entrepreneurship Program and played in the TD Green Room at the Juno Awards in Calgary.
“They mentor you and show you how to succeed in a music career,” said Vance. “The main thing I learned is that you can’t rely on anyone else in the industry, you’ve got to carve your own path. I always had the idea that I would be discovered. It’s just smartened me up.”
The Black Diamond native also learned that he must view his music career as a business, which isn’t easy.
“There is so much music out there nowadays that it’s hard to get through the bubble,” he said.
He was a top regional finalist in the 2016 CBC Searchlight competition last summer and was selected as one of Canada’s top seven new artists in the Emerging Artist Mentorship Program, which resulted in him performing his single The Poets and his song Among Mountains about living in the Foothills at Canada’s Walk of Fame Festival in Toronto last month.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “They flew us out and put us up in the Hilton in downtown Toronto. We played the festival and we got to hang around in the festival tent.”
Despite the opportunities and recognition, Vance began feeling disheartened as a musician.
“It’s weird being a musician,” he said. “You either think you’re the best songwriter in the world or you think you’re the worst and will never get anywhere. When I decided to quit music, I’d been thinking I wasn’t very good for a long time.”
Vance said the last show he performed with his band was in May before he decided it made more financial sense to perform solo.
With his recent nomination for the Canadian Folk Music Award, Vance is now working to get a band together, striving to get more gigs and writing more songs.
“I’m just going to keep chugging along and try to write a full album,” he said. “Everyone here in Black Diamond wants me to be famous so they can have something to talk about. Everyone just wants me to do the best I can.”
With the Canadian Folk Music Awards ceremony coming up in early December, Vance is getting nervous.
“There’s a strong chance that I could lose,” he said. “It’s not that important but it’s always nice to have some praise.”
The Black Diamond native released his first album White Elephant at the age of 17, which charted on several Canadian college stations, reaching as high as #4 in Alberta and Ontario, but said he’s come a long way since then.
Unhappy with what he considers an unpolished product, Vance spent six months putting together Eden.
After writing the songs, Vance had Calgarian musician Jan Arden’s songwriter Russell Broom help him doctor the songs.
“He came in and said, ‘Here’s how I can make them better,’” he said. “I’m really happy with it and really proud of it.”
He adds that he’s developed as a musician since White Elephant.
“Everything musically has improved for me,” he said. “I’m a better singer, a better guitar player and a better piano player.”
