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By Dale Boyd
Osoyoos Times
Creating music is an ongoing cycle for legendary Canadian blues-roots guitarist, singer and songwriter Bill Durst.
After years in the music industry, opening for acts like Rush, Loverboy, Aerosmith and Bad Company, Durst finds himself continually compelled by the cycle of making music.
“You feel compelled to do as much creativity as you can and then somebody has got to record the song, usually that’s me, and somebody has to find the money for it, then gosh, you might as well take it on the road and play it for people,” Durst said.
It is the same loop the Stratford, Ont. native has been on since he was plucking melodies on guitar at the age of five.
“Then you’ve played the new tunes long enough and you need to make some new ones. There’s an artistic positive cycle of incentives there,” Durst said.
Playing in different groups, Durst entered the international stage with his classic rock band Thundermug.
“We didn’t really see ourselves as rock musicians, we liked to have hits and stuff like that, but there is a cycle every musician goes through where you kind of lose your innocence to the music business,” Durst said. “You might say these days because of the increased awareness of it, you lose your innocence to capitalism.”
Durst noted that poking holes in capitalism has become more mainstream since the ‘60s and ‘70s.
“Back then if you said that people would think you were nuts. Now everybody knows what that means,” Durst said. “It means it’s kind of a shitty system that wrecks art. You lose your innocence, especially if you were a bit successful off the bat.”
Managing to carve out a career in that landscape, Durst noticed if he wasn’t writing and recording, he wasn’t happy.
“Then you kind of go through another stage when you go ‘let’s just do art that we really like,’” Durst said. “Oddly enough, in my career anyway, the album I made under those circumstances actually had three hit songs on it.”
Durst is on a bit of a break when it comes to releasing albums, though he has some new tracks in the works.
Finding that authenticity in his creative process has led to an eye-opening experience later in his career.
“Then you learn if you are just being yourself, not this big corporate thing, then you find out that people really like you. It is really mind boggling,” Durst said.
With over a decade of rock and blues experience under his belt, Durst is riding a new wave while discovering new fans of his work.
“I often joke that most guys would either retire or lean on their laurels from the past, but I’m lucky enough to have this fresh new thing. People are discovering me in my older years as myself,” Durst said.
Currently working on a couple of tunes, Durst noted that normally the work would culminate in an album, but shifting landscapes in the industry might have some other release strategy in store.
“I’m not sure these days what I’m going to do,” Durst said.
Bill Durst and his band come to the Oliver Elks Hall, 477 Bank Ave., on Saturday Oct. 26. Tickets are $25 available at the Oliver Elks Canteen and Mills Office Productivity in Osoyoos. For group tickets contact Earl at [email protected] for groups of four or more to get tickets for $20 each.
