When singer/songwriter Jesse Roper calls me to start our interview to chat about his new benefit album and tour, something seems off right away: he’s completely out of breath.
“Hi, it’s Jesse Roper here, and I’m on a little hike,” he says, panting, making it difficult to make out his words.
Roper, who is from Metchosin, is squeezing in phone interviews between shows on an acoustic tour. He’s also squeezing in hikes.
“Well, I’m just in Alberta right now,” he says. “I’m actually, um, hiking up a… What am I hiking up? The Citadel? It’s just on the edge of Nordegg and I’ve never been to Nordegg before, so I’m enjoying this a lot. I’m trying to get up to the top before the sun goes down.”
Roper’s current tour is giving all proceeds from his new album, Food for a Day Acoustic Sessions, to support Our Place, a homeless shelter in Victoria (proceeds from the sale of the album go to Our Place as well).
“Well, you walk around downtown Victoria and [homelessness] is obviously a problem,” he says. “And you can’t ignore it because it’s everywhere. I thought with the album it would be a nice way to give back to the community a little bit.”
Roper grew up fortunate enough: he played hockey, went to school, and never missed a meal. But realization struck when he moved out on his own.
“I never really thought about where that was coming from until I left home,” he says. “And I’m definitely not rich now, that’s for sure. It was just the first thing that came to my mind when this whole idea of putting a charity [album] together started. So I think now that I’ve got that going, I’d like to head more in that direction, but do it more towards the education side of things.”
Roper’s current tour, which finds him playing a lot of house shows, is a shift from his normal festival schedule, but he’s enjoying every minute of it.
“I’ve never done a house concert tour before, and I didn’t know exactly what that entailed,” he says. “So I’ve been showing up at people’s houses and they’ll have a big steak dinner made and everybody’s interested in what you’re doing, and everybody’s talking. It’s such a treat. I play at lots of big festivals, and that’s very exciting, but this is such a refreshing tour, because I’m just by myself.”
Drawing inspiration for music from daily life, Roper stays on top of current events and sings about the things that matter to him the most.
“It can be all kinds of things,” he says. “I mean, heartbreak is always a good one; love is also on the other side of the coin, too. In the news, you see all these stories of Syria and things like that. I also read a lot of novels about wartimes; that grabs my attention. I find myself writing about that a little bit, and the shootings down in the states.”
Roper, still breathing hard at this point in the interview, shifts subjects when he realizes a more immediate concern in his life
“Um, I think I’ve taken the wrong trail down this mountain path,” he says. “Aw, shit… I don’t know if I’m going the right way or not.”
Let’s hope he made it out of there before the sun went down.