Canadian singer songwriter William Prince was born in Winnipeg and at a young age relocated with his parents’ to Peguis First Nation Reserve in Manitoba. Growing up, he shared stages with his father, who was a musician and a preacher, and his love of music was further fuelled by his parent DJ business which opened his eyes up to the music of Johnny Cash, Paul Simon, Merle Haggard, alongside the gospel songs performed and recorded by his father. Despite writing songs as a young teenager, Prince did not record his first album titled EARTHLY DAYS until 2015. The following year he won the Western Canadian Music Award for Aboriginal Artist of the Year and subsequently won a Juno Award for that debut album. He released two further albums in 2020, RELIEVER and GOSPEL FIRST NATION, and his latest recording STAND IN THE JOY, produced by Dave Cobb, is a joyful and impassioned stockpile of songs. The album is also a reflection of an artist brimming with contentment and positivity which was quite evident when we recently spoke with him.
You made quite an impression at your AMA UK show in Hackney earlier this year.
Yeah, it's really nice over there. I love the UK and I love Ireland. I bet you get it all the time but Ireland is truly some of the most gorgeous countryside you could see. It’s a really nice feeling having the Ireland and UK support growing, it’s like a second home to me. Going over there has been very rewarding each time.
Outside of your native Canada and The States, did you deliberately target Europe?
You have to build your audience in other places besides Canada. It's important that we extend our reach to other places that appreciate this kind of music. I found that the people in Europe have just been so receptive. I got such a huge break when my song Breathless was the Vodafone hold music for a couple of years and that kind of brought me over there ahead of time. I think especially the Irish just have a real love for storytelling and songwriting, it’s a part of your tradition. It's also a part of First Nations culture, to tell stories and sing in this way and I think that's why we connect the way we do. I actually started building over there before I started building in the United States. It continues to grow in a really great way and that excites me for the future because it's a beautiful place and I love the culture and I love a lot of the people. When people come to shows over there, it feels very respectful and it's just like shows in Canada. That’s the beauty of it.
I understand that you were playing tambourine on stage with your father from a very young age.
My dad started teaching me guitar when I was about eight or nine years old and before that I took to the tambourine. That’s the way I could play in his country band as I didn't have enough proficiency on any other instrument at that stage. But it taught me rhythm, which was really important. His influences are always felt around me, I still love all the music he loved when he was alive. And he taught me so much about singing, about how to string a guitar and all those things. My foundation was very much built around his love of music.
I believe if your parents also had a side-line DJ business. That must have given you the opportunity to listen to a lot of music.
Yeah, they would go and play music at weddings and different receptions. I guess that was an unknown privilege to me at the time to have a house full of music where I could pick anything off the wall. They say not to judge anything by its cover, but that's all I was doing when I was a kid. It was like ‘this album cover looks interesting.’ I'm thankful for that. So, I guess music has been a part of my life since I was just a kid.
As a teenager, did you rebel against the music your parents were listening to and playing or did you embrace it?
Largely embraced it. I was a teenager when I was part of what would have been my dad’s church country band that he was leading and singing. He was a preacher when he was alive and that was my first exposure to song writing, song structure and traditional music. And then, of course, when I wasn't doing that, I would have been playing Metallica and all the hard rock stuff that teenagers would do, but he was really great about that, he wanted me to explore it all.
Were you always going to pursue a career in the arts rather than an academic direction?
I was actually very much geared towards an academic career, I wanted to be a doctor. That was my first dream because I thought of the financial stability that comes with something like that and the respect that comes with a position like that. It would also kind of take care of a lot of that stigmatism that comes around being First Nation, and Native American, and I wanted to take care of my family in the future. By the time I started to get better at my instrument, I envisioned ‘wouldn't it be great to do this all the time.’ I was really young and wanted to play in the band because I was writing songs for my dad at a young age of thirteen or fourteen years old, writing gospel songs that he could sing on his records. From there, it just became the thing I found myself doing all the time. Since I was that age, it's been years of always thinking about songs, always writing songs, and it's just the thing I do now.
There appears to be a great amount of support for the arts in Canada. Was that beneficial to you as you built your career?
Of course. When you're starting out, exposure is gold at the beginning, but it's also nice to get paid, and Canada allows for both. Both of those things happen because we have so much grant funding for the arts because we value it in our country. We recognise that art is life and I'm happy that we have that here. I've toured the States just on tickets and you’ve got to pay the sound guy at the end of the night and you might walk away with a hundred bucks, which, if you're lucky, will get you to the next show. What's really great about the Canadian system is that we have a great folk community that will present shows so that you can show up to a city and play to that city's audience, rather than having to bring your own. I owe a lot of my growth to those folk festival communities presenting shows all year round, the Calgary Folk Festival also does a winter version, and a summer and spring concert. It’s the same in every province across the country. And it allows you to go and grow an audience rather than having to bring one to your show and then you get paid on top of it. So, that's a pretty great system that they have going on.
Dave Cobb produced your new record, STAND IN THE JOY. You worked previously with him, that obviously was a rewarding relationship?
Yes, I love his musicality and his sensibility for song. He's just such an easy hand too, which is really good for me presenting the songs to him. He's always excited about new songs and he's very keen in making music in a certain way, has a very set intention and a clear vision for each artist that he works with. He will always meet you in the middle. We had done things in the past together and it felt like the right move now to go make a full-length with him. I just love the music he makes; he makes most of my favourite records these days. He understands that we're not here to make hit music all the time. We're here to make really great music that resonates with the people that are keeping that music alive, he cares about that a lot. You feel that when you're with him, he's just a very down to earth guy. We're both just country boys with a love of music. Our friendship has grown and it's conducive to good music.
Tell me about the background to the songs on the new album?
This album is about my love, a love letter to my wife-to-be. It’s about how I feel right now, in a place where I feel joy and happiness. I'm just obsessed with the concept of how much time we have left, while still enjoying life. Legacy is a word I've used a lot while talking about this record and I think this is a definitive collection of songs for me. It reintroduces me, aside from songs of grief and having to live through a lot of hardship that I’ve written before. It's not just about surviving, we're thriving, and it's truly the joy in my life that I get to do this record. I have a really great family so why not share what makes me happy and make a record that's still very serious with its intention. That is exactly what I wanted to do. I think that's what we accomplished here.
You’re about to embark on an extensive tour with The War and Treaty. Their country/soul sound is very similar to that of Yola, who you previously toured with. Is that purely coincidental or by choice?
It’s coincidental. On one of my first big tours, Yola brought me to that beautiful theatre in Dublin, The Olympia, what a place to be. She's so great and I think we are all kin when it comes to that country soul sound. The War and Treaty were kind of the natural fit because they had just finished making a record with Dave Cobb when I arrived in Savannah, Georgia, to work at his new studio on my record. I actually made friends with Michael and Tanya (The War and Treaty) in Germany, I love what they do and I'm blown away by their shows. So that was an easy ‘yes’.
Interview by Declan Culliton