Ian Farish

Touring Musician, Ian Farish got his start soaking up the college music scene in Southern Ontario while studying music at Queen’s University and McGill. He has spent a lifetime laying the groundwork for his recently released CD, Soul Songs. A busy multi-instrumentalist and band member in the Victoria music scene, Farish has written a hypnotic, deeply personal song cycle of wise, well-crafted originals. He’s an evocative vocalist, and Soul Songs is an understated beauty.


Soul Songs is a full length CD produced by Joby Baker (The Weakerthans, Cowboy Junkies). Recently released, “This album has been a long time coming, and it speaks of the challenges of balancing being a dad, being a husband, being an artist, working one job and sometimes more than one, and on the side honouring my dreams as an artist, building my castles one brick at a time,” Farish explains.“I taught full time while I was writing and recording the album. Sometimes I’d work 7 a.m. until noon and then go to the studio and put in 10 or 12 hours and then sleep for a few and go to teach again and then go back to the studio, and that would go on for days…. It takes amazing patience.”

A craftsman of songs, Farish takes things up a notch in his live show with tendencies as an electrified multi-instrumentalist. Joining Ian on his 2nd tour including shows in BC, Alberta and Ontario will be Jeff Mitchelmore - drums, and Bonnie Davison - vocals and keyboard. “Mitchelmore adds an energy of rebellion to the band, not to mention a very subtle hip-factor (laughs) and Davison’s vocal harmonies take the songs to another level,” says Farish: “When Bonnie started singing with us, I wanted to take the album back to the studio. She adds so much. We still might.” For the Calgary and Edmonton shows, the band is joined by multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Bell, whose friendship stretches back to Farish’s college years at Queen’s, as well as 19 year old virtuoso bassist Brin Porter. (At age 15 Porter earned a $36,000 scholarship to attend the famed Berklee School of Music, only to turn it down to pursue his own path.) In Ontario, the band is joined by Nick La Riviere, bassist and jazz-trombone genius also from Victoria. The group will be on tour from Mid February until March across Canada.