Out of this Spark

by Meghan Sheffield

Taylor Kirk, the troubadour behind the indie folk name Timber Timbre, finds his inspiration in places.

While living in a timber-frame cabin on a farm near Bobcaygeon in 2006, Kirk wrote a number of songs stirred by the setting around him, creating the material for his first album, Cedar Shakes. When a job opportunity in Toronto came up, Kirk quickly recorded the album in the last few days he was living in the cabin.

The album is a collection of sparse, echoey ballads. One song is about characters who are good swimmers, others are pessimistic hymns to the old days. The final effect is a comfortable combination of sounds, somehow reminiscent of both old Woody Guthrie recordings and Jeff Buckley’s Grace.

This year, Kirk released his second album, Medicinals. The album was recorded last December in an empty apartment he was moving out of in downtown Toronto. Again, he recorded it in just a few days.

“I was in the midst of moving out of this place, and I had the songs semi-ready, and I had a big empty space … for a month,” Kirk said.

“I went in and laid the bed tracks for Medicinals there and continued to work on them for three or four months afterwards.”

Unlike the first album, Medicinals isn’t so much a representation of the space it was made in, but a reaction to it.

“Definitely, Cedar Shakes came from driving around in fields, but I don’t think Medicinals reflects the city at all actually,” he said.

“If anything, I think Medicinals is a more fetishization of the rural landscape because ultimately, that’s where I want to be.”

For Kirk, longing for rural landscapes is something that comes naturally. He was born and raised on a farm north of Oshawa, and moved to Toronto as an adult to play music. He played in a number of bands as a drummer and guitarist for a few years before starting his first solo musical endeavour, called Pine Music.

Though he may not find the wilds of Bobcaygeon on Queen Street in Toronto, Kirk has discovered a community of fellow musicmakers that, in some ways, resembles the support found in a small town. Kirk released Medicinals on Shuffling Feet Records, which was started by Peterborough’s Jonas Bonnetta, known for his own musical project, Evening Hymns. Medicinals was mastered by Gavin Gardiner of the Toronto band The Wooden Sky.

“The community here is really strong. It’s definitely something that I’m just starting to discover and become a part of,” Kirk said.

“It’s really an enthusiasm, a mutual enthusiasm, for what’s going on in our own backyard. Everyone’s just really eager to help each other out.”

Though Kirk may be just starting to understand the breadth of the Ontario indie music community, he said he thinks the phenomenon isn’t something unique to this area.

“I wonder if it’s something that’s more universal. It seems to be something that’s going on on a pretty wide scale,” he said.

“Indie labels are the centre of the community. I met some people from Italy who were doing handmade CDs and stuff, and I’m sure it’s happening all over the world.”

Original URL : http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplayGenContent.aspx?e=4505