Jim Moffatt
Location: Canada
Genre: Country/Folk - Folk
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Jim Moffatt
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Upstage interveiws JIM MOFFATT – Singer/sonwriter from Victoria, BC
Written By: Wanda - Mar• 18•11
Q When and where were you born?
A My papers say I was born in Chatham Ontario on June 22, 1954 but I only have some administrators pencil on this. I am adopted and have never seen anything to support this except my birth certificate.
Q Where did you grow up?
A My First 1and 1/2 years I was in the “system”. The bastard child of a young women from the Prairies. All I know about my father is that he was tall and thin maybe native.
I was adopted by Sherard and Mary Moffatt and raised at the Lighthouse Cove at the mouth of the Thames River on Lake StClair. We lived their happily (very happily) at a place we all called “the Cottage” until Mary (my mom) died when I was at the age of 7. After that things went to hell from then until I was nine. My dad remarried at that time and things got dramatically worse. I ran away from home when I was 13. It wasn’t as hard as it sounds as my parents lived on a farm during the winter and at the cottage in the summer and I lived where ever they weren’t. I was thrown out on my 16th birthday, lived on the streets for about a year and was then taken in by social services who paid my rent till I finished High school. I did finish and went to university too
Q Favourite foods/recipe?
A I am a meat eater. I love steak. I love apples. I have not eaten at a McDonalds in 25years or longer. I hate processed unnatural foods. I am good at omelettes. But I do have a sweet tooth for chocolate.
Q Favourite place and why?
A Across the river from the Cottage there is a march called “Bradley’s March” by us locals. One summer when I was about 10 or 11 and things at home were very bad I camped in the march for a few days. The weather was perfect and I got time away from the madness to think and just be. It was a little island with hard dry ground and a couple of small but shady trees that I could pull my little skiff up by set up my tent under and not be seen from the lake. It was perfect. Warm sunny and quiet. It is where I found my voice.
Q What started you in the music business?
A In grade one a friend named Billy sang to the school. Every one loved him for it and I knew I could do that too and do it well. I ran home to my mom and told her I wanted to be a singer and she told me I already was and everybody knew it because I sang all the time.
Q What ignited the spark to play?
A After my mom died my dad didn’t seem to want me much. He re-married a women that didn’t want me at all. I got a beat up guitar from zellers and would sit in the basement playing it while they fought and drank upstairs. It was my safe place and time and slowly became my refuge. Then in high school I played a talent show and came second but the school asked me to represent them in the City talent show rather than the accordion band that won. That was my first and second gig. That Summer I went to the first home county folk festival in London Ontario. I met Valdy. We jammed. Me with my CBS masterworks and he with his Disco sucks T shirt. He told me I should keep on playing and I have.
Q Favourite songs that inspired you as well as bands or persons that play?
A House of the rising sun was the first song I learned to play and sing. Man I smoked it too. Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond were my first hero’s, Valdy and Michael Lewis my next and then John Prine, and Stan Rogers and many many more. I was never really into bands so much as I was into stories and songs with emotion.
Q What would you say is your uniqueness?
A My style is unique only in that it is my own. In one song I could go from a soft whisper to a loud scream. I do what I need to get across the emotion, a musical picture that I am trying to express. If you listen to my songs and close your eyes for a moment I can transform you to anything from ancient times to the future in space, from loves great tenderness to the soulless breaking of a heart. Maybe even yours.
Q How are you different from others in your profession?
A I am musically melodic and tell stories, my stories and sometimes others too. What makes me different is the emotional connection I make with an audience.
Q How do you define success?
A That’s easy. Applause. Or rather to pause between the end of a powerful song and then the start of applause. It doesn’t happen every song or even every night but when it does I know I did my job. I made a deep connection. My friends, my audience got it.
Q What has been the most satisfying moments in your profession?
A Well besides the Applause thing there was the time a guy stopped me told me he knew me from my music and told me he proposed to his wife during one of my concerts at a folk club. The other is winning a couple of talent contests. One is Alberta that had many good players and performers in it. Jan Arden was one of them. The other contest in Victoria was at a pub and I won with a ballad. That made me very proud. I didn’t write the song Stan Rogers did. But every person in the contest played a upbeat bar song and I took a chance. These are some of my memories that are satisfying but there are many others. An English teacher (Mr Smith) once told me I couldn’t’ sing or play and kicked me out of a show. The very next year I tried to enter a show again and got the lead part in another school. At the City show his entries finished far behind and he was there. J
Q Who is your general audience?
A A year ago I would have had a hard time answering that but now with internet reports etc I can tell you that my audience is from 25 to 65, about 55 to 45 % female to male and there is a hump in the curve at the 35 – 45 age mark. That’s what the stats say.
What I know is this….
My general audience is mature, intelligent, likes to laugh and party but also wants it consider their moves before they make ‘em. They love to clap, sing and be entertained. They come in all shapes, and ages and sex and I love them all.
Q Is there anything you would do to change the way you present yourself?
A When I got hurt I was very immobile for a couple of years. I put on a lot of weight and I would like to lose it. That’s one thing.
Musically, I want to tour, put together a real great band and play bigger! That is a challenge though. Of all the folk I have been lucky enough to play and travel with I wish I could find another Don Cameron. He was my musical brother in a group called the Bow River Lumber Company. He moved away and I lost track of him..
Q What do you do to maintain your lifestyle, besides playing?
A I used to have my own business “Jims Drawers” I am a Jointer by trade. I can’t do that anymore as a result of injuries so now I do what I have to. Like any artist in Canada I do what I can to keep hearth and home together.
Q Who is Jim? – most important
A Jim is love. I know that sounds trite and yet I can’t think of another was to say it. I am very competitive, I love to argue. In my athletic days I was ranked 2nd in Canada for armature wrestling. But I have learned that we are in this world together. One people, one tribe. I believe that business and government use fear to keep us apart and they think it’s to their advantage to do so.
I don’t believe in fear.
I believe in love, listening and we are all family.
Q Where does Jim see himself with his profession?
A I will be playing and writing now till I die. Period. With the internet I can give concerts without leaving my house so if I get too old to move it won’t matter. You will still find me singing and playing and writing songs about loving, songs telling stories, songs to make you smile, clap and think.
Q How long have you been playing?
A I was stealing the neighbour’s guitar to play it as one of my early memories. After the Olympic Trials in 1976 I wrestled and went to university for another 2 years but when I learned that we were boycotting the next games I chose to get my knee fixed. I never really recovered and started playing music more and more from then on
Written By: Wanda - Mar• 18•11
Q When and where were you born?
A My papers say I was born in Chatham Ontario on June 22, 1954 but I only have some administrators pencil on this. I am adopted and have never seen anything to support this except my birth certificate.
Q Where did you grow up?
A My First 1and 1/2 years I was in the “system”. The bastard child of a young women from the Prairies. All I know about my father is that he was tall and thin maybe native.
I was adopted by Sherard and Mary Moffatt and raised at the Lighthouse Cove at the mouth of the Thames River on Lake StClair. We lived their happily (very happily) at a place we all called “the Cottage” until Mary (my mom) died when I was at the age of 7. After that things went to hell from then until I was nine. My dad remarried at that time and things got dramatically worse. I ran away from home when I was 13. It wasn’t as hard as it sounds as my parents lived on a farm during the winter and at the cottage in the summer and I lived where ever they weren’t. I was thrown out on my 16th birthday, lived on the streets for about a year and was then taken in by social services who paid my rent till I finished High school. I did finish and went to university too
Q Favourite foods/recipe?
A I am a meat eater. I love steak. I love apples. I have not eaten at a McDonalds in 25years or longer. I hate processed unnatural foods. I am good at omelettes. But I do have a sweet tooth for chocolate.
Q Favourite place and why?
A Across the river from the Cottage there is a march called “Bradley’s March” by us locals. One summer when I was about 10 or 11 and things at home were very bad I camped in the march for a few days. The weather was perfect and I got time away from the madness to think and just be. It was a little island with hard dry ground and a couple of small but shady trees that I could pull my little skiff up by set up my tent under and not be seen from the lake. It was perfect. Warm sunny and quiet. It is where I found my voice.
Q What started you in the music business?
A In grade one a friend named Billy sang to the school. Every one loved him for it and I knew I could do that too and do it well. I ran home to my mom and told her I wanted to be a singer and she told me I already was and everybody knew it because I sang all the time.
Q What ignited the spark to play?
A After my mom died my dad didn’t seem to want me much. He re-married a women that didn’t want me at all. I got a beat up guitar from zellers and would sit in the basement playing it while they fought and drank upstairs. It was my safe place and time and slowly became my refuge. Then in high school I played a talent show and came second but the school asked me to represent them in the City talent show rather than the accordion band that won. That was my first and second gig. That Summer I went to the first home county folk festival in London Ontario. I met Valdy. We jammed. Me with my CBS masterworks and he with his Disco sucks T shirt. He told me I should keep on playing and I have.
Q Favourite songs that inspired you as well as bands or persons that play?
A House of the rising sun was the first song I learned to play and sing. Man I smoked it too. Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond were my first hero’s, Valdy and Michael Lewis my next and then John Prine, and Stan Rogers and many many more. I was never really into bands so much as I was into stories and songs with emotion.
Q What would you say is your uniqueness?
A My style is unique only in that it is my own. In one song I could go from a soft whisper to a loud scream. I do what I need to get across the emotion, a musical picture that I am trying to express. If you listen to my songs and close your eyes for a moment I can transform you to anything from ancient times to the future in space, from loves great tenderness to the soulless breaking of a heart. Maybe even yours.
Q How are you different from others in your profession?
A I am musically melodic and tell stories, my stories and sometimes others too. What makes me different is the emotional connection I make with an audience.
Q How do you define success?
A That’s easy. Applause. Or rather to pause between the end of a powerful song and then the start of applause. It doesn’t happen every song or even every night but when it does I know I did my job. I made a deep connection. My friends, my audience got it.
Q What has been the most satisfying moments in your profession?
A Well besides the Applause thing there was the time a guy stopped me told me he knew me from my music and told me he proposed to his wife during one of my concerts at a folk club. The other is winning a couple of talent contests. One is Alberta that had many good players and performers in it. Jan Arden was one of them. The other contest in Victoria was at a pub and I won with a ballad. That made me very proud. I didn’t write the song Stan Rogers did. But every person in the contest played a upbeat bar song and I took a chance. These are some of my memories that are satisfying but there are many others. An English teacher (Mr Smith) once told me I couldn’t’ sing or play and kicked me out of a show. The very next year I tried to enter a show again and got the lead part in another school. At the City show his entries finished far behind and he was there. J
Q Who is your general audience?
A A year ago I would have had a hard time answering that but now with internet reports etc I can tell you that my audience is from 25 to 65, about 55 to 45 % female to male and there is a hump in the curve at the 35 – 45 age mark. That’s what the stats say.
What I know is this….
My general audience is mature, intelligent, likes to laugh and party but also wants it consider their moves before they make ‘em. They love to clap, sing and be entertained. They come in all shapes, and ages and sex and I love them all.
Q Is there anything you would do to change the way you present yourself?
A When I got hurt I was very immobile for a couple of years. I put on a lot of weight and I would like to lose it. That’s one thing.
Musically, I want to tour, put together a real great band and play bigger! That is a challenge though. Of all the folk I have been lucky enough to play and travel with I wish I could find another Don Cameron. He was my musical brother in a group called the Bow River Lumber Company. He moved away and I lost track of him..
Q What do you do to maintain your lifestyle, besides playing?
A I used to have my own business “Jims Drawers” I am a Jointer by trade. I can’t do that anymore as a result of injuries so now I do what I have to. Like any artist in Canada I do what I can to keep hearth and home together.
Q Who is Jim? – most important
A Jim is love. I know that sounds trite and yet I can’t think of another was to say it. I am very competitive, I love to argue. In my athletic days I was ranked 2nd in Canada for armature wrestling. But I have learned that we are in this world together. One people, one tribe. I believe that business and government use fear to keep us apart and they think it’s to their advantage to do so.
I don’t believe in fear.
I believe in love, listening and we are all family.
Q Where does Jim see himself with his profession?
A I will be playing and writing now till I die. Period. With the internet I can give concerts without leaving my house so if I get too old to move it won’t matter. You will still find me singing and playing and writing songs about loving, songs telling stories, songs to make you smile, clap and think.
Q How long have you been playing?
A I was stealing the neighbour’s guitar to play it as one of my early memories. After the Olympic Trials in 1976 I wrestled and went to university for another 2 years but when I learned that we were boycotting the next games I chose to get my knee fixed. I never really recovered and started playing music more and more from then on
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Since August 20, 2011
Since August 20, 2011
Since August 20, 2011
