From playing ukulele and saxophone to becoming a singer-songwriter, Ian Sherwood’s musical career has evolved along with his dreams.
Sherwood will be coming to the Humboldt and District Gallery for a live performance Nov. 2.
The multi-instrumentalist folk/pop musician from Dartmouth, NS, said he’s always been into music ever since he was a child.
“I was a really unsuccessful ukulele student and from there I went on and joined school choirs and sang in musicals and stuff like that,” he said. “I always played saxophone in the school band. I was a real band nerd.”
For Sherwood, performing with the saxophone was a natural fit.
“I went to university and was doing economics, with a plan to go into architecture, of all things, but I put myself through university playing music and I decided this was making me money right now, I’ll give this a shot and it just kind of stuck.”
The transition from a musician playing strictly saxophone in Toronto to a singer-songwriter was an abrupt one, Sherwood said. It was during a time where his life was changing: a relationship was ending, he was in a dead-end job and he was thinking about moving home to Nova Scotia.
“Everything happened all at once and I found myself thinking, ‘you know what? I’m in a position where I can do anything I want. There’s nothing really holding me back.’ In that moment, I had a real sense of clarity, that I could do anything.”
Since there was no reasons holding him back, Sherwood said, he could be honest with himself in terms of what he wanted to do.
“I didn’t know if it was going to last. I didn’t know if I would always be a singer-songwriter,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was going to be singing for a couple of months and figure out it wasn’t what I wanted to do, but, no, it stuck and I loved doing it.”
As for the mix of folk and pop he plays, Sherwood said that just evolved naturally.
“I didn’t go out to be a folk/pop guy. I just started writing songs,” he said. “Thinking of genre is really a retrospective thing. You kind of just start making music and then people start asking you what kind of music you make.”
Sherwood said audiences can expect a high-energy performance, where he plays multiple instruments, uses a looper and shares stories about being on the road with the audience.
“I like to laugh with the audience, so hopefully we’ll have a couple of laughs, couple of good tunes, have a good night,” he said.
The musician said he works to bring out the joy of live music, of making it something that stands out for people to ensure they don’t regret not staying at home.
“There really is no replacement for going out and sitting in a live audience and listening to live music, so when people do that, when they make the choice to do that, I want to make sure to give them a really great show.”
Sherwood will perform at the Humboldt and District Gallery for a live performance Nov. 2 at 7:30 pm.
