On Thursday morning I had a quick chat with northern Alberta local, and also famous country music star, Aaron Goodvin. Take a listen!
Hey, it’s river Country, is this Aaron?
Hey, Robert.
Hi. How’s it going?
Good. How are you, bud?
I’m fantastic. Awesome. Well, thank you for joining me. Thanks for calling me. How’s your morning going so far?
No problem. Just fine. Just dandy
Awesome. Do you want to just get right into it then?
Let’s hear it
well, I guess the first question. I’m kind of curious, what have you been up to? For the past year and a bit? Was this a productive year for you? Or maybe not so much?
You know, it’s hard to look at. I haven’t, you know, I feel like life has went on a little bit. In some ways, I’ve been way busier than I would be if I was playing shows, you know? I often say it’d be nice to get back on the road so I can get a break. There’s, just been a ton of online stuff. And, you know, me being based just outside of Nashville, I’m constantly going on radio tours. And, you know, we’re promoting Lonely Drum down here in the US. So, you know, it’s like you never know, when you gotta be up and gone somewhere. So it’s been, it’s productive as it can be, I guess, you know, and things just kind of keep moving. And I’ve certainly missed Canada.
Oh, for sure. I was gonna actually ask you about that. You’re from up here in beautiful northern Alberta spirit River. Have you been home to visit lately?
No, I have not been back in Canada. Since January of 2020.
It’s been a minute then. Wow.
It’s been a while. Yeah.
Is there anything out here that maybe you’d like to see again, or like a spot that you want to visit that you haven’t been in a while?
I really want to see my family, my nieces and nephew. That’s about the gist of it. You know, I have a feeling we’ll get back to all the places that I love in Canada at some point. But, you know, at this point it is just like, you know, that, yeah, I just want to be able to see them. I’ve missed them growing up quite a bit, I feel. And so it’s that part kind of hurts a little bit. But other than that, you know, we’ve got some time scoped out here that we’re actually coming back to Canada next week. It blows my mind. So I’m super, super excited. I’m not gonna believe it until I see it, you know. But, I’m excited about it.
Yeah, for sure. It’s super excited to be back in Canada, we’re excited to have you back in Canada gonna be playing Stampede, how’s it feel to be back out there playing shows again?
It’s so great. I’ve been very lucky here in the US to still kind of be able to play shows here and there through COVID. And a lot more towards the end of COVID. And, you know, I think it’s over here in the US. There’s not a lot of hesitancy at all. It feels like a lot of the population is vaccinated. Everybody, it’s just kind of right back to normal. So that part has been nice. Obviously, I’m a lot more well known in Canada than I am here in the US. So, you know, that’s kind of the part that I missed the most, and everybody knows your songs, and you just can’t feel at home. So I definitely missed that. but yeah, I’m so excited. I came in, put my words together. I just hope that it all goes smoothly.
Yeah, I mean, we’re very excited. We’re like, kind of brand new open here in Alberta. And so this will be for a lot of people. I think the first big party that we’re going to get in a while is the stampede and be excited to see you out there.
You betcha and I’m just so happy that it’s Stampede. That was always a big thing for me. Growing up, I played Stampede. I think the first time I played I was 14, and I was doing the Nashville north rising star stage or something like that. So it’s, it’s, you know, this is, this is a really exciting time, and I’ve never played the wild horse before. So I’m super excited about that. And I just can’t wait to see everybody.
Awesome. So a little bit changing a topic, you got a new song out last month. Boy like me just dropped. It’s a wonderful track. I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about how that song maybe came into existence, maybe about your kind of creative process in general?
Yeah, over the years, all the shows that we played, you know, it became very evident that, our live shows (were) kind of going in a more, you know, energetic direction, and we really wanted to have more songs that we can slide in there that were sing alongs but still kind of had a real life kind of layer to it. I feel like I’ve hung my hat on a lot as an artist. So I just went in when COVID kind of hit, I went in and wrote a bunch of songs, you know, because at that time, it was only going to be a couple of weeks or a month that we were going to be off the road. You know, I went in and wrote a bunch of songs that I thought would be great for the live show and had real lyrics. And that one’s just kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. You know, it just kind of felt like a big old Smash. And so when we got into the studio it was pretty evident that this is going to be the single number one off a new EP. And so yeah, we’re super excited about it.
Yeah. And you kind of touched on something there that I I’ve actually I’ve always been kind of personally curious in which is, is kind of designed for like a setlist? Is that something that you’re thinking about as you’re making music? Like, how do you actually decide the setlist that you’re going to do for a show?
You know, it’s something that my bandleader and I constantly talk about, you know, we’ve pretty much almost always done, I mean, even during COVID, we’ve talked about it a few times when we weren’t playing shows. And so it’s something that’s kind of always on our mind on where to put what songs and yeah, definitely, I mean, the live show, really is kind of the reason we do everything. It’s the reason I write songs, it’s the reason you know, that. So it’s a big part of what we do. And I think to not think about what it what it would go over like live is kind of, you know, that’s kind of something that I’m always thinking about when I’m writing that, which is before I was just trying to write a great song.I wasn’t too concerned about I wasn’t playing many shows, when I first started, as a staff songwriter in Nashville, I was just concerned about writing the best song that I could write, and then you start playing all these shows, and then you’re like, oh, man, I really need to like, and then you go and watch a few other artists playing, you’re like, Oh, this is a great live song, I get why they recorded it. So it’s definitely been a new aspect for me over the past three or four years. And, you know, being so blessed to be able to play big shows up in Canada and have people you know, listening to the music, it just kind of, yeah, I think I think this next EP is really going to be evident and what, what’s gonna go over great lies. And so, it’s definitely something we consider all the time.
So people should I get out there so they can hear the music as it’s meant to be heard
Correct! exactly!
I was asking our listeners here at River Country, asking them if they had any questions for you. So Cindy’s got a question: How has being a northern Alberta boy influenced your music? And how has it influenced your career path?
I’m definitely a product of where I came from. And I feel like being from up in Canada, in the northern part of Alberta, was a huge influence on me. I mean, the music that I listened to growing up was my aunt and uncle’s and mom and dad, and everybody playing these country songs around the campfire. You know, that was my introduction to music. I think I was nine or 10, when I found out not everybody loves country music and I was heartbroken. Because that’s, that’s what I grew up on! And I think that that’s a big, big part of where I come from, it’s how I write songs. And from that perspective, you know, so I always tell people I wouldn’t ever even dream of being from anywhere else, you know, I feel like it’s, I feel like it’s served me in Nashville. All the people that live here are, most of them aren’t from Nashville, and most of them are from smaller towns, you know, and especially when I first moved here, that was a big, that was a big thing, you know, even though, like, I grew up in spirit river, and kind of that Peace country area. And, you know, there’s a lot of great little small towns in there, you know, Peace River included. We used to go to Peace River all the time. So that’s kind of exactly where I’m from, and that has served me in the music industry. And I’m glad it did, because if everybody was from a big city, I’d probably stick out, like, even more like a sore thumb. and I already do. So. You know, it’s a huge part. I mean, I, it’s a hard question to answer because it’s like, yes! It’s like, absolutely! You know, that’s exactly it! and I’m very blessed to be where I’m from. I tell everyone, but I’m so happy to not only be from northern Alberta, but to have been lucky enough to spend 20 years there in the first part of my life.
yeah, we’re lucky to have you out there representing us getting their name out there. Another listener question. Maureen asked if you had any advice for any other young Albertan boys who have a similar dream that maybe you had once upon a time?
Yeah. Oh, I’ve got a ton. I should write a book, honestly,
you should write a book! I would buy it.
I think that the biggest thing for me in my career, you can’t let the word “No” stop you. I had a lot of challenges as I was growing up and I think I started pursuing a career at, you know, like I said, 13, or 14. So, I started really early. Some of the best advice that has helped me through as my dad always told me, to basically just outlast everybody else. And I feel like that’s been a thing, you know, kind of a common theme in my life, is I just outlasted everybody, and everybody else gave up and went home, I just kept going. And so I mean, that’s my advice. And play as much as you can, write as much as you can. And just, it’s, it’s, it’s a never ending learning process. So there’s still co-writes that I go into where, you know, I’m learning, I’m still learning, and there’s still shows that I’m playing where I’m learning. And so I think it’s just like this. Just Just try to outlast everybody. That would be the title of my book is “Outlast”. I think, But, yeah, that’s the best advice I can give, you know, play as much as you can play as many shows as you can
just get the name out there eh?
absolutely
awesome. So what are maybe your plans for the remainder of the year, other than apparently writing a book? Whatcha got maybe queued up?
We were, we’re working. We’re, we’re now we’re working on this brand new record. And I believe we’re looking at a Christmas song. So we’re excited about that. And then we have just playing as many shows as again, you know, as as often as they’ll let us and we got a lot on the on the table or on a you know, on plate right now, we’re promoting Lonely Drum in the US, like I said, you know, so there’s just, it’s, it’s a never ending thing, you know. And so yeah, we just got a ton going on. But hopefully, we can play as many shows as possible and get up there as much as possible.
Yeah, hopefully, we can see you out there as much as possible.
All right, I got one last question for you. This is one that I like to kind of ask to everybody, which is in as much detail as possible. What is the correct way to assemble a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
Oh, you gotta toast. It’s got to be toasted heavily to I would say almost black. And then you need some butter on there. And then it’s peanut butter and then some jam. A lot of peanutbutter and they’re just like a touch of jam.
How many utensils are we talking about in a situation?
Oh, God, many as it takes. You’ve got to be a separate knife for everything
And you have to get all the corners. That’s what my mom always taught me. I just can’t stand when people don’t paint in the corners. You gotta paint cool.
Well, that’s interesting. I’ve never heard anybody putting butter on a peanut butter jelly sandwich, but
Oh, yeah. Amazing. I’m tellin ya. That’s probably a bad health risk or something. But that’s always how I made it.
Beautiful. Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to seeing at the stampede. You have a wonderful rest of your morning.
Thank you so much.
All right. Bye.
