Tennyson King is one of the freshest voices in folk music today. Born in Hong King and raised in Canada, the self-proclaimed “indie folk rock nomad” is currently on tour promoting his debut album, Good Company; he takes to the stage at Station on Jasper on Friday, Feb. 25. Tennyson chatted with Info Edmonton about his sources of inspiration, weathering the pandemic, and exciting new projects on the horizon.
How does it feel to be back into touring?
Oh man, it feels so good. I mean, I feel like I have so much energy and music that I just need to release and share on stage with everyone that’s gonna be at the show in these coming months. It’s been almost two years of not really having concerts, so I’m just really excited to get out there and share music with people and connect with people.
Your new album, your first-ever full-length album, is called ‘Good Company’. What inspired the name?
The name is pretty much just my thought and desire to always want to be good company to my friends or people that I meet travelling, and for people in my life and my community to be good company to me. Also, most importantly, as an introspective person I want to be good company to myself, so that when I’m alone, I’m happy.
What was the most rewarding part of creating this album?
I think that the most rewarding part was just getting out all these ideas I had. The songs that are on this record, I’ve been writing for the past four or five years, so the ideas have come within that time. And they were just merely little voice memos on my phone for the longest time, and then being able to sit down and listen to the voice memos, and then transplant myself back to that feeling and time, when I made the voice memos—it was just great. And then to actually feel and hear everything as a song and come to life, it’s just been great.
Travel is important to you; being able to visit all these different places and meet all these different people is a huge part of your music. With this pandemic and the travel restrictions that have come with it, how has that changed your outlook or your artistic process?
The great thing about writing and still being in this record was that through working on the songs I’ve been able to mentally transplant myself back to those places and those feelings, and it’s been a really great escape for me. For me, it’s just been exploring more, to keep the inspiration of travelling and outdoors and adventure; I’ve just been trying to explore within my realm as much as possible. I’ve been in BC since last winter, and I’ve just been exploring the mountains, and getting out in nature as much as possible, and finding the beauty more locally, to keep inspired with writing about nature and travel.
A goal of yours this past year, to adapt to the new environment, has been to really push your digital streaming. How has that gone and how do you see that expanding or changing going forward?
When COVID happened, I realized that, because I can’t tour, I need to focus on connecting with my fans and new fans digitally. A lot of that was finding ways to be creative and having fun making digital content, making little videos, and over the past year I’ve been spending more time doing that, finding ways that I can make creative content from home to share with people to connect and share more parts of my life. I think I’m definitely going to continue it; it was a great learning and growing experience doing that, and now I feel like I’ve learned more skills and understand how social media works. As I tour and move forward in the years, I’m just going to keep sharing more behind-the-scenes of life on the road, and still doing more. The social media aspect is just an added component now in my music career.
What songs are you most excited to perform live from your new album?
It’s hard to pick. There’s a bunch, but one of my favourite songs that I really enjoy playing is called Share This Moment; it’s the first track off the new record. It’s just got this really good vibe that I feel sets the tone for the rest of the album and the overall message of the album, and when I play it, for me personally it transplants me into that place when I wrote the song, which is was while I was travelling, exploring, and meeting tons of new, wonderful people. I’m excited to put that energy back out there to the audience, and hopefully they’ll feel that as the world is opening up, [which will] reignite that passion and love for people to explore.
Why do you feel that music, and the arts in general, is so important?
For me, personally, arts and music are important because it’s become therapy for myself. I started doing this singer-songwriter thing, writing my music and my lyrics, because I was in a place where I was lost, personally, and going through past turmoil and experiences, and just needed something to help find myself, and that’s exactly what music has done for me over the past years. It’s been my therapy to keep me calm and happy and be the best version of me that I can, for myself and for my community and the people around me. And I think people feel that too, especially when you write music that is for that purpose for yourself. Your listeners will really feel that, reflect upon themselves and how arts can do that for them. I think that’s a beautiful thing, to really connect with people that way.
Do you have any other plans for the rest of the year? Any new music on the horizon or any big new projects that you can tell us about?
The goal for 2022 is really to get back on the road and tour. I’m hopefully going to go back to Australia to do another tour, go back to Hong Kong and China, all my usual spots, so those are—fingers crossed—the goal. On the creative side, I’m going to start my next record very soon; in the next few months, I’ll start writing that. And that’s going to be a cool fusion of traditional Chinese music and the indie folk music that I currently write, so that’s a big project that I’ve been planning for a while, and I’m finally going to dig into it this year.
What do you like most about performing in Edmonton?
Edmonton has a great community of not only artists but people who come to shows. I’ve played a couple of different festivals with different bands, a couple of great, intimate shows at different venues. I’ve always found the people who come to shows so engaging and so lovely and supportive that it’s always a place I’m eager to go back to. I always love wandering around Whyte Avenue to check out bars and some great food. I love Edmonton, and it’s been almost two years, so I’m excited to go back.
