When Manitoba-by-way-of-New Brunswick singer-songwriter Jim Killpatrick, better known by his stage name of Shotgun Jimmie, is asked what his musical influences are these days, he pauses a moment, then says emphatically, “Karaoke is my biggest inspiration right now.”
To anyone familiar with Jimmie’s easy-going character and down-to-earth songwriting, the answer is not all that surprising.
Praised by the likes of Joel Plaskett, who calls Shotgun Jimmie one of his favourite songwriters, and John K. Samson, who he played lead guitar for on an album and tour, Shotgun Jimmie has been a staple of the Canadian indie-pop scene since he started making music back in the mid-2000s. He records with the likes of Frederick Squire and Julie Doiron, releases records with You’ve Changed Records, and tours with a rotating ensemble of musicians and bands.
Despite being plugged in with some of Canada’s most prominent indie musicians, Shotgun Jimmie recorded his last album, 2013’s Everything, Everything, alone in a small cabin in the woods. One January he headed out armed with a 4-track recorder, a briefcase of half-finished songs, and a stack of firewood. Three months later he emerged with a record that wears its lo-fi heart on its sleeve.
“Every songwriter’s impulse is to remove themselves from the world,” he says. “A cabin in the woods is a cliche for making lo-fi indie records: getting out of the city, out in the woods, free of distractions and all that. But it’s a cliche for a reason. I was able to be really focused on writing and taking the time to see ideas through.”
He spent each day recording songs that were already written; in the evenings he would write new material. Despite the lo-fi aesthetic of the album, he was meticulous about getting each song right.
“I’d do tons of takes for each track,” he says. This simultaneous writing and recording gives the album a cohesiveness that is sometimes lacking from recorded-in-the-garage type albums.
His previous album, Transistor Sister, was long-listed for the Polaris Music prize and was his first studio recording. With Everything, Everything, friends urged him not to do another lo-fi record. “They said, ‘Once you’ve gone hi-fi, you can’t really go back.’”
But in true indie tradition, Shotgun Jimmie was more interested in producing an authentic record of his feelings.
“I knew it might be not the best career move to go lo-fi, but for aesthetic reasons I wanted to,” he says. “I just thought it worked with the songs, and I’ve always found comfort in the lo-fi sound. I wasn’t consciously trying to make a lo-fi record, I was just trying to make something that I liked the way it sounded.”
Displaying a characteristic modesty, Jimmie delights in not taking his own achievements too seriously. He admits that he doesn’t feel “precious” about his own songs at all these days.
“I had a breakthrough years ago where I realized that you don’t need anything to make songs,” he says. “You can make them up out of thin air.”
This isn’t to say that he doesn’t work hard at his craft. But he approaches everything he does with a lighthearted experimentalism. “I’m willing to try anything as a starting point,” he explains, “like stirring up the pot a little bit. The moment I really shine is when I react to what’s already happened in the songwriting or in the studio. I like it because it kind of removes you from the authorship. You’re giving a chance for the cosmos to have an effect on the process, like a writing credit.”
Asked if he still sees himself making music in 20 years, Jimmie gives an enthusiastic yes.
“Oh yeah, there’s no turning back now,” he says. “I’m too deep in. I’ve dedicated quite a bit of thought and energy to making this whole thing sustainable. I’m sure I can do it for the rest of my life.”
Shotgun Jimmie
9:30 pm June 13
$10, The Copper Owl
copperowl.ca