Rock Eden: The St. John's scene doesn't get to see you as often these days, but you recently came in to perform at The Bellevista and seemed to be everywhere at once, including performing a Facebook live house show and filming a music video. Tell us a bit about your trip and this new music video.
Adam Baxter: My trip to St. John’s was insanely productive. I opened for Earle and Coffin’s CD release at The Bellavista where I got the chance to perform to a large audience full of people who haven’t seen me play before. The following day I shot a video with Conrad Layden and Johnny Rawkhard. The video was for my newest song “Cold, Poor, Hungry, Happy”, a song that describes a couple living in Newfoundland during these hard economic times paired with the scary global happenings often conveyed through the media. The couple, regardless of the sadness' happening, are incredibly happy; so happy, in fact, that they ignore the fact that they are poor. Why? Because they have each other and they absolutely love living in Newfoundland.
Later that evening, I had a private house show I signed on to do because the couple who owns the house had planned to come to my CD release show last July; however, their daughter got sick last minute and they had to miss the show to take their daughter to the hospital. So, I offered to give a private house show for their family and friends at no cost to them as they have been loyal fans of mine for years. The house show was magical. The daughter, who is now two and a half years old, had never experienced a live performance before. She was in her glee dancing and singing along. After each song, she would say “play it again”. It was special. I got up the next morning at 7 A.M. and drove back to Central where I had to play trumpet at a funeral. Best weekend ever.
RE: Since signing with Citadel House and releasing your new album, you seem like a new brand new Baxter. How has your approach changed?
AB: My approach has changed for many reasons. I think the main reason is that everyone is taking charge of the typical approach. I don’t really consider myself a normal artist, so I figured I would try a few new things. I'm going to go into detail on two of these things.
Weekly online performances: I live in Campbellton (population of approximately 350 people) and it is quite removed from the rest of the province. I love it there, but I had to devise a way to reach and expand my audience without leaving the place I love to live every single weekend. I decided to take playing live online very seriously. I promote it as a show and make sure the performances are consistent each week. I also do an album giveaway contest for each user who shares the live stream. Needless to say, the online performances have been a complete success for me.
Releasing new material: I've learned that artists who have a high turnover rate of material often get noticed, so I felt I had to devise a way of having a prolific rate of releases. We have decided to digitally release one track a month until an album’s worth of singles have been released, then we release a physical copy of this collection of tunes. This way, I am always putting out new music to the public.
Adam Baxter: My trip to St. John’s was insanely productive. I opened for Earle and Coffin’s CD release at The Bellavista where I got the chance to perform to a large audience full of people who haven’t seen me play before. The following day I shot a video with Conrad Layden and Johnny Rawkhard. The video was for my newest song “Cold, Poor, Hungry, Happy”, a song that describes a couple living in Newfoundland during these hard economic times paired with the scary global happenings often conveyed through the media. The couple, regardless of the sadness' happening, are incredibly happy; so happy, in fact, that they ignore the fact that they are poor. Why? Because they have each other and they absolutely love living in Newfoundland.
Later that evening, I had a private house show I signed on to do because the couple who owns the house had planned to come to my CD release show last July; however, their daughter got sick last minute and they had to miss the show to take their daughter to the hospital. So, I offered to give a private house show for their family and friends at no cost to them as they have been loyal fans of mine for years. The house show was magical. The daughter, who is now two and a half years old, had never experienced a live performance before. She was in her glee dancing and singing along. After each song, she would say “play it again”. It was special. I got up the next morning at 7 A.M. and drove back to Central where I had to play trumpet at a funeral. Best weekend ever.
RE: Since signing with Citadel House and releasing your new album, you seem like a new brand new Baxter. How has your approach changed?
AB: My approach has changed for many reasons. I think the main reason is that everyone is taking charge of the typical approach. I don’t really consider myself a normal artist, so I figured I would try a few new things. I'm going to go into detail on two of these things.
Weekly online performances: I live in Campbellton (population of approximately 350 people) and it is quite removed from the rest of the province. I love it there, but I had to devise a way to reach and expand my audience without leaving the place I love to live every single weekend. I decided to take playing live online very seriously. I promote it as a show and make sure the performances are consistent each week. I also do an album giveaway contest for each user who shares the live stream. Needless to say, the online performances have been a complete success for me.
Releasing new material: I've learned that artists who have a high turnover rate of material often get noticed, so I felt I had to devise a way of having a prolific rate of releases. We have decided to digitally release one track a month until an album’s worth of singles have been released, then we release a physical copy of this collection of tunes. This way, I am always putting out new music to the public.
