We chatted to the awesome William Prince the other week about his latest album, growing up on a Reservation in Canada and touring plans and life! Check it out below!
How would you describe your sound?
You’d think this would get easier when everyone asks you this all the time! My sound is very… because these are such story songs, the sounds has always been there as a support. Most producers I’ve worked with have said ‘if we’re making a movie here, your voice is the star’. For a long time that’s how I made records, just position the mic closest to me and we’ll capture the room. This new sound is of great speed, flash and volume. It’s kind-of this interstellar mashup of all these things I love from good country and Americana music. This albums got these driving drums and synths and baritone guitars. It’s a mashup between Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine and Jason Isbell. That kinda sound that you can drive a truck to for eight or nine hours of a shift! Maybe the music will energise you; pick you up rather than drop you off.
It’s a blend of all my influences, but at the core of it is this storytelling style that I’ve been working at for a while. So you’ll just have to listen and make up for yourself!
The album title and even artwork kinda hint at a bit of a change too, like it was an intentional shift?
Yeah, it’s a bit of a double entendre in a way. I’m trying to leave this place of mine, my origin, Peguis First Nation, a reservation about an hour and a half North of Winnipeg, where I’m from now. So ‘Further from the Country’ is pretty much about how I’ve come a seemingly long way so far but holy smokes, the sun is still millions of miles away! From here to where all the peers that I admire are, Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell, the geography that I want to occupy with Sierra Ferrell and Margo Price and Billy Strings, it feels like a long way to get to where they are but I think we’re closer than ever. This music I think is the rocket ship that will hopefully get us a little further along. Trading the horse and buggy for a spaceship!
Are there any stories from the album you want to touch on from the album?
I have a song on there, ‘All the Same’. That song is how we’re all kinda coming from the same small town. There’s always been this big divide between not only Canadians and Americans but white folks and First Nations people. We grow up in similar situations where we’re coming from lives that are filled with Birthdays and graduations, weddings, funerals. We’re coming from homes where families are struggling with addiction, with separation and divorce. It’s in those things that we are so similar and closer than we think.
‘All The Same’ talks about when growing up in those situations, apathy can take over, there’s less of a reason to shine and be your best self. A lot of people I grew up around deal with that still. I still feel the effects of it in my family, it’s not something that just goes away when you find a little bit of success in music. I’m thriving and being successful despite being born in a situation that was kinda designed for me to fail. Put on a reserve, out of the way, a long time ago cut off from any real resources. I know there are Americans living in small towns and people in the UK from little places dealing with this thing where nothing changed, no matter how hard I try, it’s all the same. So why bother being good, let’s just give into the thing that wants to keep us apathetic. I just refuse.
I tell a few stories in that song that I’m really excited for people to hear. It lends itself to realness, this grit and hardship I’ve seen. I’ve witnessed it take people from me and take people from themselves. I just wanna sing that song as a product of determination, that despite that you can actually change some things around you.
The singles have been really great. I love ‘For the First Time’ and how it talks about moving on from pain. It don’t break me like it used to. My father makes an appearance on this record again. He passed 10 years ago and it’s been such a flash. ‘The Charmer’ tells a bit more of his story. I always prop him up as the hero dad that he was but again, in his heart he was a man dealing with the effects of going to day schools, his family situation wasn’t ideal, he lied his way onto job sites. He did his best with what he had. I just wanted to show that he was a real man at the heart of these things too. It helps me understand him in his way; why was he angry and frustrated. It’s a different way of navigating love.
How did you get into more of the country side of music? A lot of the UK still associates the genre with the South of the US!
Well, country music lives on the reserve. It’s cowboys and Indians for a reason! When you go to the baseball or hockey games on the reserve, the music that plays is Merle Haggard, it was Hank Williams, all the greatest country singers you can think of, and my dad gravitated towards Cash and Christopherson. Thankful,y that’s one of the gifts that he gave me. He loved to strum a guitar and sing these old country songs all the time. That really opened a world to me where music was a possibility. When you’re a kid you’re only really exposed to the main radio, and none of these voices really sounded like me. Then you discover Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen, and you start to realise there are working class musicians. I moved to the city, further from the country, and I started seeing non-famous people making music for the first time. From that moment, that’s when we started assembling this ship, and it’s going to take us where we want to go.
The album has only just come out but I imagine you still have a few songs in the pipeline?
Yes, thankfully! I used to think I could stockpile; let’s write 200 songs and I’m good for the next 20 albums. It doesn’t work like that. There’s no saving your best stuff. Who knows how much time I have, or how much time these people even want with me. And I love creating what’s honest and reflective of the moments I’m living now. That’s what’s fun, you can dip into that pile of lots of music ready to go, and share it when it’s appropriate.
There’s a song on this record that I started 10 years ago. Leading up to this moment to record it, finally the chorus came to me and finally it made sense. On rolls the wheel! You go to play a show and soon they get bigger and your name is still on the wall. Your son is getting older and you get married and buy your first home. These are things I never really imagined for myself when I was hopping couch to couch and basically living out of a car. Now I’ve built a following and have a great support system. That can bring a peace that can be linked to complacency or a laziness or lack of edge or hunger. It’s none of those things. I don’t believe you have to live in suffering to create beautiful art. We can live wholeheartedly, ambitiously, optimistically, for our families and leave a memory behind that shows that we enjoyed our time together. That’s so important to me.
I’m kinda left reeling even 10 years after my dad’s death. Now that I’m a man I wish I could have taken a deep dive for 10 hours. ‘Tell me the things you were going through that I couldn’t hear when I was 10’. You come to learn that he was just a younger man trying to balance a family. He didn’t have a lot of money to do it, or a talent that pays him like this. But he majorly assisted this life. He’d give you his last dollar to take care of you. That’s the kinda man he was. I patch it together through memories, and I think if he were here today I’d see the best side of him.
There’s a whole bunch of things on this record!
You’ve touched on it already, but you have a busy few months, right?
I just announced the Futher From the Country’ tour with Boy Golden opening. He produced this record, Liam Duncan. More friends that get to come along for this month-long journey. I have so many talented players on this record, it’s my band on it and the tour. I was humbled right before, too. The day before we started recording I was playing basketball with my son and slipped and separated my shoulder, so I was in a sling for the first three weeks of production! Relinquishing a bit of that control, letting my crew direct things and help me find a sound was really special. They deserve a lot of credit! If you go to my Instagram and the album announcement there’s a whole credit sheet there. They’re a huge part of what the sound is on this record, and I’m really happy to have these people in my corner making music.
I’ve been known for a sitdown folk show for years, now over the last few years it’s more Stand in the Joy, like the last record. To be seen, to be heard, to project without fear that I’m happy and I’m more determined than ever. Look how much further along we are than sleeping in that car and pawning my guitar for cigarettes. I think it’s time to triple down on the belief and just keep going, man. It’s rocket fuel, and it’s fearless into the unknown, because there’s no other option!
Any plans to come back to the UK soon?
The UK’s always on the radar! I just wrapped up a few dates over there with a band back in September! I’m sure there’s some summer/fall dates coming down the pipeline. My goal is to finally get my band over there. I’ve always been solo, so I think it’s time the UK experiences what the full thing is!