Marcel Desilets

Marcel Desilets is a well know, well respected and well liked Manitoba performer who balances a growing a musical career and holding down a full time job. We get an opportunity to encourage other performers who are growing their careers as well and may learn from Marcel's journey. He is very busy between performing and working on a new CD but was kind enough to take some time to tell us a little about his music and his life.

1) You have been associated with the Winnipeg music scene for many years and now perform not only as a solo performer but with a variety of other groups as well. Can you tell us a little about your background and the journey that led you to be performing professionally today?

 I started playing guitar when I was 15 years old, and immediately started writing my own songs, that just seemed to happen naturally. In my early days I did most of my playing and learning with a close friend from across the street. Times change and people move in different directions, so as I moved through life I found myself mostly playing on my own. My early influences really developed in me the love of how intricate guitar work can help to create a presence, if you will, in solo performances, so over the years I have concentrated on developing my finger-style approach to the acoustic guitar. Other musical collaborations occurred over the years but mostly in the way of jam sessions and basement get togethers. I really didn’t get out much to perform publicly until into my forties, when the desire and need to pursue this long time passion took strong hold.

 It’s not easy sometimes pursuing a music “career” when holding down a full time job, but these days I average a couple dozen or more performances annually, from local Winnipeg venues like the Park Theatre, West End Cultural Centre, and some of the smaller coffee houses, to festivals in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario…not to mention a couple visits to The William Glesby Centre. I’ve made some wonderful friendships as a result of being involved in the music community, so as well as performing solo, I am often fortunate and honoured to have some of Winnipeg’s finest musicians accompanying me at many of my performances.

 My love of playing a variety of instruments which includes the Dobro, lap steel, and banjo, has led to me being asked to perform as accompanist for other artists as well, both local and those passing through on tour from Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon.

 2)   Your style of music and writing seems to lean toward more gentle often introspective music, yet I have seen you “whack out” a piece of bluegrass music with total ease and joy. What is it that draws you to different music?

I think it’s the result of just enjoying listening to so many different styles of music, I can’t help but think that has influenced me in some way. As far as the type of music I play, whether mellow or a little more “whacked out”, it really just depends on the inspiration that led to the song in the first place and how the song develops. I don’t really know when that inspiration is going to hit me. I try to draw from what’s around me, and close to me. A lot of my writing revolves around everyday things. I love the natural sound of acoustic instruments, and write most of my songs to the guitar, although some have come about while noodling away on the banjo.

 Playing as an accompanist for other songwriters brings me into different styles of music too, which is a healthy thing (not to mention a lot of fun!) and helps me grow as a writer and musician.

 3) You have a number of CD’s to your credit. Can you tell us a bit about them and what is on the horizon for you?

 I have 3 CD’s to my credit now, “Turtle Highway” which was released in 2004, “What You See…” in 2007, and “To Be Here” in 2008. All have received positive reviews from press and fans alike, with “To Be Here” receiving a Four Star rating from the Winnipeg Free Press.

 “Turtle Highway” is a collection of songs that were both new at the time, and some that had been written many years previously, all of which I had a strong desire to record as a part of that album. “Turtle Highway” is the name of one of the songs on the album and I thought an appropriate title for my first record, being that it was something that took a long time to finally come about.

 A lot of my shows at the time were done solo, without accompaniment, so I thought it a good idea to make a recording in that format, that’s how “What You See…” came about. It’s a collection of ten songs performed solo with just voice and guitar. There is no song titled What You See by the way, it’s just what you see is what you get!

 I do tend to think of my recording projects in terms of “albums”, picking songs that flow well together either in form and rhythm or in content, of which “To Be Here” is a perfect example. This is a collection of songs that all pretty much have the theme of the importance of the moment, of realizing that everything that has come about has brought me to where I am right now, and that it is good. “I guess I’m supposed to be here, right here”.

 My next album “There’s a Story To Tell” (#4) will be released November 6, 2010, at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg. I’m planning on releasing a fifth album at the same time, an album of original instrumental tunes in which all the instruments are played by yours truly. That’s the plan anyway…we’ll see how it goes.