JOEL KROEKER

Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Joel Kroeker has just come off a western tour, will cut a Neil Young cover for a tribute album, and has just signed a licensing deal with Germany's ZXY Music for his third and latest album, "Closer To The Flame," which is on True North/Universal in Canada. He's also been co-writing for outside projects with Lisa Dalbello and Annette Ducharme.
"The thing that's happened with Joel is an awful lot of word of mouth," says Larry LeBlanc, Kroeker's music publisher. "He's had 17 covers in the last three years and a lot of them have come through word of mouth, working with [Jacksoul's] Haydain Neale, for example. There's a song on the DK [Ibomeka] album that they did. Joel's not a huge record seller at this point, there's no question, but he's one of these people where he's become word of mouth within the industry."
Jonas, Pavlo, Patricia O'Callaghan, Dany Bedar, and Lee Aaron have also covered Kroeker's songs, and Kroeker has enjoyed co-writes with Emm Gryner, Stephan Moccio, Liam Titcomb, Simon Wilcox, Australia's Brooke McLymont, in addition to Neale, Ducharme and Dalbello.
LeBlanc, who is also the Canadian editor for Billboard magazine (he never writes about his artists), is handling day-to-day managerial duties for Kroeker until he finds a manager.
He reports that Kroeker's collaborations with Dalbello are for a major recording artist. "Lisa contacted us," says LeBlanc. She heard and actually bought [his 2004 album] 'Melodrama' and really liked him. They've done one song and there's two more to come." He will not name the artist with whom they hope to place the songs. "Don't want to jinx it," LeBlanc explains.
Kroeker also has a co-write with Ducharme called "Let It Ride" on Quebec rocker Jonas's latest album, "Suite Life" as well as in his AllianceAtlantis VivaFilm, "Jonas: The Quest."
Meanwhile, Kroeker was asked by Toronto-based producer Mike Roth of Big Bold Sun Music to contribute a song to "Borrowed Tunes II," a new Neil Young tribute album, due end of summer, which will also feature contributions from such artists as Dallas Green, Raine Maida, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Finger Eleven. Kroeker will record "When God Made Me." "He's just off the road, but that's the first thing to do is cut that song," says LeBlanc. Funded by Sirius Canada and distributed by Universal Music Canada, all proceeds from the sale of the album go to charities selected by Young, The Bridge School and Safehaven.
Booked by Paquin Entertainment, Kroeker will also be touring this summer in Quebec with francophone singer Dany Bedar, who recorded a version of Kroeker's "Your Painted Face."
After the summer, Kroeker will travel to Europe to promote "Closer To The Flame" in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for ZYX Music. The album will likely come out in August or September, according to True North president Bernie Finkelstein, who secured the distribution deal through Markus Klinke, who used to head A&R at Quality Records in Canada many years ago and is now back in Germany.
Klinke has his own company FJ Enterprises, which has a deal with ZYX.
"Markus is very enthusiastic fan of Joel's," says Finkelstein. "I talked to him this past year at MIDEM [a music conference in France]. He told me how much he liked 'Melodrama' and I said, 'Wait 'til you hear the new album,' and before we left MIDEM, he had heard the new album and he loved that, so we struck a tentative agreement about what we would do, and then over the next few months, we got it organized and signed."
LeBlanc says dates for Germany, England and Holland are currently being set up for November.
- By Karen Bliss For JAM! Music

Joel Kroeker considers “Closer to the Flame” to be a journey that documents 100,000 miles and 15 years. The album covers the journey thematically covering themes of the human search for truth and meaning. The journey musically is equally diverse spanning easily 15 years of musical influences. Melodies with phrasing reminiscent of Paul Simon and KD Lang, haunting harmonies that strangely feels like a marriage of Beach Boys and Alice and Chains, and electronic atmosphere that brings to mind Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Joel’s gifts for anthem-like choruses is highlighted in gems like “Remember The Song”, "Guide Us Home" and “Hymn Number One”. The album is a truly diverse with a generous sprinkling of rock, pop, folk, electronic, gospel and experimental. The result is a gorgeous tapestry of influences and themes with a clear thread of hope that is vibrant and true. It seems like Joel feels the freedom to experiment more with this CD, which offers a greater showcase of his guitar skill and imaginative backdrops. This album has an undeniable energy and a spontaneous feel that brims with emotion. A wonderful album.
- NOW

It has been over three years between albums for Joel Kroeker, but accusing the B.C.-based singer/songwriter of being a slacker would be way off the mark. His 2003 debut, Melodrama, was received warmly enough to encourage Kroeker to tour relentlessly, traversing Canada at least five times, either supporting the likes of Hawksley Workman and Paul Kelly or touring solo.
He also performed as an accompanist for the likes of cabaret singer Patricia O'Callaghan and rock icon Randy Bachman, both of whom have covered his songs. Eager to expand his range as a songwriter, Joel has co-written with and had tunes recorded by an incredibly diverse range of other Canadian artists, from Pavlo to Lee Aaron, Quebec rocker Jonas and Haydain Neale (Jacksoul).
Through all this activity, Kroeker managed to find time to write a batch of new songs for his eagerly-awaited second album, Closer To The Flame. It will soon be released on True North Records, and it showcases an impressive creative evolution.
Even though he has become a prolific writer with others, he stuck to solo compositions for the new album. "This particular record is extremely personal to me," he explains. "I think I basically lived it for the past three years. It would be very hard for somebody to come in and help with such a personal thing."
"I consider the whole co-writing process a completely different one. I know my own range and limitations and as I'm writing a song can feel myself performing it. With someone else, you're trying to get into the head of another person. It's like being a detective, figuring out what stage that person is at in their life. Some people have totally wacky ways of writing and that's fascinating. You also get to watch another person think through the exact same problem. You paint yourself into a corner with a song, and I may go 'let's jump onto this side,' and the other person will go 'no, let's jump on the chandelier and swing across the room!'"
To record Closer To The Flame, Kroeker once again traveled to Toronto's Canterbury Sound studio to work with Melodrama's producer, Danny Greenspoon (Great Big Sea).

He again assembled an 'A list' of Toronto players, including guitar virtuoso Kevin Breit, drummer Al Cross (Big Sugar), Mark Rogers (The Philosopher Kings) and backing singer Kathryn Rose.
"It was like a brotherhood going in there," says Joel. "The first time, I was a little intimidated, going in with all these heavy players. I wasn't sure if they'd be pretentious or mean. This time, it felt like family. They're such brilliant guys that we could basically record everything live, so that makes it very easy."
The result is a very warm-sounding record, one that straddles a number of different genres. Kroeker is not just another guitar-strumming folkie troubadour, but a writer and singer with an excellent sense of pop-rock melody and structure. If the brilliant and rockin' opening track (and first single), "Against Myself," doesn't get commercial radio play, heads should roll!
Kroecker insists that "I can't really write for radio. If you have commercial aspirations in your mind as you are writing, that can be so paralyzing. There is no streamlined way to commercial success these days so you have to go from the heart-and aim for what pleases yourself."
Kroeker's music does seem to possess international commercial potential. He reports that Melodrama received a release in such markets as Italy and Australia, and met with a positive response.
As a songwriter, Joel is also doing his part to bridge "the two solitudes" in Canada. A virtual Berlin Wall still exists between the Anglo and French music markets here, but Kroeker has teamed with highly popular Quebec artist Dany Bedar (still largely unknown elsewhere), with very successful results. A tune they co-wrote, "Déjà vu," was recently a massive hit for Bedar in Quebec, and it appears as a bonus track on Closer To The Flame.
He recalls that the pair met when Kroeker had a gig in Quebec City on St. Jean Baptiste Day ("the worst day to sing in English there," he laughs). "We talked and Dany bought my album, but I'd never heard of him then. A couple of years later I got word that he wanted us to write together. I did some research and saw that he'd sold a quarter of a million albums there!"
Closer To The Flame comes out on True North on Feb. 13th Joel Kroeker will play a Toronto gig in March. - TANDEM Magazine By Kerry doole

Musicians are similar to professional athletes in many regards: they’re rarely at home, they have to deal with living on the road and they often find themselves under the scrutiny of the public eye. However, there’s one similarity between the two vocations that’s rarely noted: that both musicians and athletes often drop their studies to focus on developing their craft.
Joel Kroeker, however, managed to juggle both at once, professionally playing music while attending the University of Winnipeg. Later, he earned his Masters in Ethnomusicology here at the University of Alberta, which has proven invaluable to Kroeker as a singer-songwriter.
“Ethnomusicology is basically the study of music and culture,” the Winnipeg native explains. “It’s kind of like the anthropology of music. In comparison to musicology, which is usually based on western music, ethnomusicology is all over the world.
“It’s helped me to see past the normal stereotypes that we all sort of see and look more insightfully. If you don’t look deeply into something or research it, you tend to just accept the stereotypes and how music is used in each culture. And not necessarily ethnic cultures, but also singer-songwriters and musicians.”
Having lived in Edmonton during his tenure as a graduate student, Kroeker is adamant in his praise for the Alberta capital as both a place to live and a burgeoning music scene. Describing the sense of community that exists in Edmonton between musicians, Kroeker admits to missing his former place of residence and the venues that it contains.
“We were one of the last bands to play at the [old] Sidetrack Café before it closed,” Kroeker fondly reminisces. “I’ve played there so many times during the three years I lived in Edmonton—I played there constantly. Playing shows with bands like Captain Tractor and all the local bands were a lot of fun. It was just such a great venue.
“It’s like that everywhere in Canada, though,” Kroeker continues. “Part of it is related to the music business being confused about how to deal with the situation, which then affects all aspects of music. What’s sad about that is that this aspect of culture in the city will be negatively impacted. People need a place to go to experience new things that will blow their minds, and actually feel like they’re learning something and seeing something new.”
Though he now lives in Vancouver, Kroeker is back in town next week performing at the Velvet Underground as part of CKUA’s “Live From Alberta Stages” concert series, as well as to promote his latest album release, Closer to the Flame. The album is a surprising contrast when compared to his 2004 effort, Melodrama: whereas Melodrama chronicled his life as it was falling apart, Kroeker insists Closer to the Flame is a much more positive affair, where all the pieces of his life have been picked up and put back where they belong. It has spawned a major hit in Québec with “Déjà Vu,” an English/French duet with Québec star Dany Bédar. The track also appears on Bédar’s album Acoustique … en studio!
When asked what he thinks has contributed to his success in Québec, Kroeker, ever the good sport, laughs and gives an honest answer: “Absolute, total, luck.”

- The Gateway

Joel Kroeker has already ventured to several points on the globe with his music, but just watch his Air Miles card heat up now.
The former South Surreyite is set to release an album called Closer to the Flame (True North Records), a February event that will launch a series of moves including a flight to Tokyo for some concert dates and a video shoot.
"We're so focused on international right now," he says over the phone.
"Things get so exciting when it gets to that level."
For Kroeker, Closer to the Flame is reason to be excited. It's a rousing mix of eclectic rock, jazz, gospel and folk sounds - a nod to Neil Young here, a tip o' the hat to Mr. Waits there, a wee bit of Jack Johnson for good measure.
On the career path, it follows his strong 2004 effort, Melodrama, which put Kroeker on the map, musically speaking - in Canada, parts of Europe, New Zealand, even Palestine. The album generated Western Canadian Music Award nominations for Outstanding Songwriter and Pop Album of the Year.
The album involved a guest performance by BTO/Guess Who legend Randy Bachman, who, that same year, invited Kroeker to play on his Jazz Thing album (Maximum Jazz).
This week in Ontario, Kroeker shares a number of concert stages with Tal ("She's So High") Bachman, who is Randy's son.
"They're amazing human beings," notes Kroeker, who grew up in Bachman's hometown of Winnipeg.
While living in South Surrey earlier this decade, the current Vancouverite fondly remembers jamming with the elder Bachman on stage at the Washington Avenue Grill in White Rock.
"We did a tour after that, but our first time playing live together was in that tiny little room. I was totally nervous, trading solos with a guy whose music I listened to at age 15, drunk and at a party or something. That was pretty cool."
At the time, Kroeker also enjoyed worked with Lee Aaron - the former metal queen turned jazz/blues singer - on a handful of songs for her intimate Beautiful Things album, recorded on the Peninsula.
"That was a great experience," he says. "She takes things very seriously, and it was a good learning curve for both of us."
Looking ahead, Kroeker is just happy to be hitting the road in Canada with a band, starting in April. Closer to home, he has a gig booked at Vancouver's Media Club on Feb. 4.
He's also thrilled to finally have a new album out.
"For me, the theme (of Closer to the Flame) is sort of what's going on in my life, having lived through the emotional hurricane of the last album and recovering from that, which is why it took so long to write this one. As an artist, you move around so much, and I did that a lot as a kid, too. I find different ways of carrying that sense of home, that flame, with me wherever I go. It's important."
Closer to the Flame is in stores Feb. 13. For some song samples, click on www.joelkroeker.com.
published on 01/20/2007
- THE NOW by Tom Zillich

Expat Joel Kroeker still calls Winnipeg home.
Even though he’s lived in Vancouver since 2003, Winnipeg expat Joel Kroeker still calls this city home.

“People don’t connect here in the same way they do in a prairie town,” says the singer-songwriter during a phone interview. “It’s too expensive to live here and have a family, so there’s no sense of settling down like in Winnipeg or Edmonton. You don’t feel as rooted.”

Kroeker released his third album, Closer to the Flame, last month. The 13-track recording is the follow-up to his 2004 major label debut, Melodrama (True North Records).

The lyrics on Closer to the Flame, says Kroeker, are about “finding [an] inner sense of home.” Born in Winnipeg, he moved around for the first 13 years of his life due to his father’s work as a journalist. Kroeker couldn’t find home in a physical location, so he had to look within.

That inward search continued through his travels as an adult, including during the tour that followed the release of Melodrama. Writing the new album was a way of finding home, which he defines as a core of beliefs or “way of living that comes from an internal source.” He uses the image of a flame to represent this on the album’s title track.

Closer to the Flame was recorded in Toronto at The Canterbury Music Company and in Vancouver at Kroeker’s own Dancing Monk Productions studio. As with Melodrama, Danny Greenspoon (Great Big Sea, Spirit of the West) produced the album.

It features talented musicians such as guitarist Kevin Breit, known for his work with Norah Jones; Marc Rogers of R&B/soul quintet The Philosopher Kings; and Al Cross, drummer with blues-rock band Big Sugar.

The first single, “Against Myself,” is one of the CD’s most upbeat songs. However, it is Closer to the Flame’s bonus track, “Déjà Vu,” that is already a hit---in Quebec, at least. The French/English duet was written and performed with Francophone singer-songwriter Dany Bedar and first released last May on Bedar’s Acoustique... en studio! CD. In January, Quebec video service MusiMax announced the video for the song had reached number one on its chart.

The message of the song is one of unity, and it’s a message Kroeker feels strongly about. Though he and Bedar didn’t consciously set out to write an anthem that would bridge the gap between English and French speaking Canada, the song seems to be doing just that. Kroeker says there’s a huge divide between Quebec’s music industry and the music industry in the rest of Canada, which is merely a symptom of the political and cultural divide that exists in wider society.

“It’s a fear of the other,” he says, a fear that is more entrenched than ever in society because of the fear tactics used by the media and large corporations. Keeping an open mind when faced with difference and new ideas is something that is key to Kroeker’s philosophy.

“I don’t think it’s helpful to be black and white about one’s beliefs. I think it’s limiting to say ‘I am this way’ and ‘I am not this way.’ I’m trying to stay open to a diversity of beliefs in this world.

“There’s a general sense in society today of ‘I want to be comfortable,’ when really we should try to be more comfortable with diversity.”

Closer to the Flame is available in stores now, and Kroeker will be playing in Winnipeg in April. Visit www.joelkroeker.com.
- The Uniter

Sitting down and listening to Joel Kroeker was like sitting down in an easy chair; comfortable, natural, and…well, easy. With lyrics a lot like poetry, Kroeker sets his words to melodies that make their meaning that much stronger. His music is catchy enough to be accepted into mainstream music and his voice sounds like a mixture of Chris Martin of Coldplay and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.
But just saying that doesn’t really do his music justice. Kroeker, a well-traveled Canadian-born musician, writes with confidence and purpose that is not often seen in today’s mainstream music; the same mainstream lacking serious song-writers and multi-talented artists. Besides having a polished singing voice, Kroeker plays guitar, piano, sitar, and tabla.
Tracks like Against Myself, King of Hearts, and Nothing but the Stars are soulful and upbeat, while songs like The Good Stuff, Sacred Heart, and At the Drive in are softly sung and heartfelt.
Every song on the album has a message and some have a story behind them. The chorale-style Hymn Number One reflects Kroeker’s Mennonite heritage. He’s said that writing it took him back to a time when he sat in church listening to the choir and he realizes now the effect it had on him.
By far my favourite song had to be These Quiet Streets. Before I heard the song, I took a look over the lyrics. The first two lines, which are repeated again at the end of the song, captured me instantly and the entire song is a poem so strong in its imagery that I fell in love with it even before I heard the melody. “As the moonlight sheds its shadow, the angels walk these quiet streets/And everything above and below, just softly sinks beneath the trees…”
The last song on the CD is a bonus track called Déjà Vu which is a French/English duet written and performed by Kroeker and Quebec star Dany Bédar. Bédar discovered Joel when he attended his show in a local bar in Quebec City on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. The song became very popular in Quebec where fans appreciated the originality and bilingualism.
Musically, the album is impressive and has a good degree of variety amongst the songs. There isn’t just one genre that you can pin to this promising artist. His sound is a mix of pop, easy rock, and acoustic.
I would recommend this album to anyone who liked the Barenaked Ladies’ newest release Are Me and also to anyone who loves meaningful, poetic lyrics.
- The Globe

“I don’t follow the thinking that there is one path you have to stay on,” says Joel Kroeker, ’01 MA. “I like diversity.”

No kidding. Kroeker is a highly regarded pop/rock/folk musician, whose first major label album, Melodrama (True North Records, 2004), is still getting rave reviews, being called “a poised, pop-folk gem...[with] wonderful melodies and vivid images.” He’s played with big names in Canadian music including Randy Bachman, Bruce Cockburn, Colin Linden and Sarah Harmer. He’s travelled the world playing for audiences who appreciate his original songs and cover tunes and what he calls the distinctive “high, winsome sound” of Canadian music, and he will soon release a new album called Closer to the Flame.

And while he’s known for a distinctive style of guitar picking and a clear, mellow singing voice that’s a perfect vehicle for his soul-stirring lyrics, it wasn’t always obvious that this was the path he’d follow.

Sure there were the early musical influences. His family is fairly musical, and while they lived in different places in the U.S. and Canada before settling in Winnipeg, young Joel sang in choirs. “That’s something that you just do growing up Mennonite,” he explains, but notes that no one taught him how to sing, it was just something they all did. His first musical training was playing the trumpet, but his asthma cut that short. When he was in high school he picked up the guitar—“a late bloomer,” he calls himself—and started with electric guitar, then classical, then jazz style before settling eventually on acoustic.

Still, the foundation was being established. Trumpet playing, he says, “got me into listening and trying to emulate music,” and listening, says Joel, is where it’s at. “You connect on an esthetic level and the rest will come.” With a good listening ear Joel got busy learning from the masters. “My roots are in the great lyricists like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell. That’s the vinyl I used to listen to.”

He developed his hybrid guitar picking style—“I use a pick and two fingers and the other three fingers pick as well”—to provide the versatility he needs to support his songs. And the singing, he says, he just learned from doing. Listen to him now, and it’s hard to believe that he never considered himself a singer and started singing only to overcome social phobia. “Singing is the most intimate thing I could thing of. It was absolutely terrifying but I learned to sing by doing it.” He’s only recently received any vocal training, primarily to give him the stamina to sing three shows a night in smoky bars.

He also took a side trip to academia. A bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba taught him to compose classical music, and he pursued a master’s in ethnomusicology with a minor in pop music from the U of A “because I was interested in the subject, not because I was trying to prepare to play.” But the academic work certainly had an influence. Critics point to his university studies to explain the depth and range in his music, unusual in such a young artist. And with all he’s learned, Kroeker is open to new possibilities. “The folk/pop/rock came as a culmination, as the most immediate way of expressing myself. That could change in the future.”

For now, the folk/pop/rock “seems to be going well,” he says in understatement. Melodrama garnered a lot of attention for him. The album has recently been released in Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Australia, and he’ll be touring to support it.

While on the road he will continue pursuing another craft—writing. “I’ve always been into writing of all kinds,” he says. “I worked my whole life for that. It’s not easy.” He’s had stories published in various magazines, is looking for a publisher for a children’s picture book he recently finished, and is working on a young adult novel. He’s starting to compile a collection of his road stories and hopes to publish them. And now he is getting into visual art too. “I wanted to do the artwork for the new album so I spent six months doing that and was totally enraptured with it. I’m doing painting now and claymation.”

With his varied interests, this musician some critics say is on the cusp of breaking into the big time might surprise us by taking another turn somewhere down the road.

Websites: www.joelkroeker.com

www.myspace.com/joelkroeker
- CROSSROADS by Shelagh Kubish

4 Stars

Following in a line that seems to fall somewhere between the roots rock of bands like Wilco and Blue Rodeo and singer/songwriters like Ron Sexsmith and Danny Michel, Canadian musician Joel Kroeker hits the ground running with the strong and tight "Against Myself" that has ample bite and verve. After this ear candy nugget, which also brings to mind Kathleen Edwards, the artist shifts gears with the mid-tempo but equally pleasing "King of Hearts" although this one isn't quite as straightforward; it still reeks of the smart, highbrow pop à la XTC or Crowded House. With a delivery that slightly similar to Sexsmith's, Kroeker keeps the momentum going with the shuffling, groove-tinged title track that is criminally, sinfully rich in melody. At the same time, he can also show his softer, folksier side, as he does on the simpler, tender and thoughtful "The Good Stuff," that he pulls off without a trace of effort. A bit more of a stretch is the soulful, slower "Sacred Heart" that finds Kroeker sounding like a cross between Ricky Nelson and Tom Brosseau. However, this feel is a double-edged sword with the deliberate, Coldplay-like building of "Remember the Song," which takes a bit longer to warm up to. This format is revisited to a certain extent during "Nothing But the Stars" that is bombastic but fortunately not quite over-the-top. Perhaps the black sheep on the album has to be "Hymn Number One" which is aptly titled. Here the solemn approach is strong but not quite as hair-raising. Another gem is the downbeat and simplistic "At the Drive In" that demonstrates Kroeker's ability to turn a phrase in a very economical way. The same can be said for the gorgeous "These Quiet Streets." On the whole, Closer to the Flame is an extremely well-rounded and stellar effort.
- ALL MUSIC REVIEW (april 26, 07)