Joel Henderson has become known for his talents in folk music.
The former Estevan resident, who now resides in Regina, has released an EP and two full-length albums, the most recent of which was Bravery back in 2016.
But he also loves writing music, and that love has been rewarded by the judges of a national competition.
Henderson, who performs under the name Poor Nameless Boy, is a finalist for a Canadian Songwriting Competition Award in the electronic category for the song Damage. The finalists were announced on March 28.
He collaborated with two Danish musicians, Vinze and David West, as well as Gianluigi Fazio of Italy, to write Damage. It was performed by Vinze, and features Poor Nameless Boy.
The song was recorded while Henderson was on a European music tour in the spring of 2017.
“When they originally sent me the track that the DJ had written, I wrote some stuff for it, and then I went back and I studied the song format a bit more,” said Henderson. “I realized I needed to write something a bit different, and so I went back and I rewrote it, similar to what it is now, and then we arranged it, added a few things and added a bridge … while we were in studio.”
Not only was it the first time he had collaborated with Vinze, West and Fazio, he didn’t know any of them before. The session was arranged through his publisher, which has connections to the European music scene.
“It was so easy to work with them. It was really, really fun,” said Henderson. “It’s funny because I haven’t done a lot of co-writes, but I’ve done enough to know that it takes a little bit to get comfortable with people if you’ve never done it before.”
Music and song-writing are the lives of the people he worked with, and they love to write with other musicians.
Henderson flew into Cologne, Germany, the day before the recording session, and then he travelled to the studio in Copenhagen, Denmark, the following day. It only took about four hours to finish writing the song and to record it in Denmark.
Damage is a song about looking back on a failed relationship, Henderson said.
“It’s one of those fast love kind of stories, where you meet someone and then everything’s overwhelming, and you are really just infatuated with the person,” said Henderson.
“It’s looking back on the situation and thinking if we would have known the effects that we would have on each other during that time, would we have done that again? Would we have gone in that quickly again?”
It’s a fun summer-style song with an upbeat rhythm, he said.
Henderson is looking forward to seeing the musicians he worked with again the next time he is in Europe.
He was surprised that he was a finalist for the award, and to be nominated in the electronic category. But it’s a great feeling to be one of the finalists.
“I like writing in other genres,” said Henderson. “I like writing with other people and trying new things and seeing what comes out. I’ve always had good feedback, positive feedback, from a song, so that’s all I can do.”
Henderson said his recording label submitted the song for the award, and it’s usually the label that looks after nominations for honours such as this. Even though the song was recorded out of the country, and most of the people who worked on the song are European, Henderson was still eligible for the Canadian award.
He would like to write more electronic music moving forward. His co-writing opportunities in Regina have been in country, roots and Americana genres. Henderson said electronic music is bigger in Europe.
“I would love to keep writing it, but it’s the opportunity. You never know who you’re going to meet and collaborate with,” he said.
But don’t expect to hear an electronic song on his next album, which is in the works. Henderson said his next album is going to be a little bit different, but he is going to stick with that folk music he has become known for, with a focus on the song-writing.
A release date for that next album hasn’t been announced, but he said the recording is almost finished.
