Bahamas

February 12, 2012, 10:15 pm

Toronto-based folkie Bahamas (aka Afie Jurvanen)  spent the last few years playing piano and guitar with Feist. Now a solo act emerges.


BAHAMAS

The new LP arrives February 7 on Universal/Republic in Canada and on Brushfire Records in the U.S. Barchords  is said to cover anything from understated blues affairs ("Lost in the Light") to pop ("Caught Me Thinkin").

A Bahamas live show is likely to be a solo affair, though lately, a host of Toronto time keepers have been sitting behind the drum kit to accompany the Finnish-Canadian through a set of his so called "love songs."

Just as Luke Doucet found a very different brand of music after performing guitar-slinging duties for Sarah McLachlan, so Afie Jurvanen plays tunes that don’t sound much like his most frequent tour boss, singer-songwriter Feist. In fact, the 28-year-old sideman even goes by a different moniker when doing his own thing: Bahamas. It’s not clear how that nickname arrived—except as it connects with his sporadic enjoyment of garish stage clothes—just as he’s not quite sure how he nabbed his own first name.

“Nobody seems to know where that name came from,” he answers into his cellphone, his words competing with the rumbling sounds of the highway. He’s in a crowded car headed east, to dates in Quebec and, when they turn around, out here. Afie isn’t Finnish, although that’s the background of his mother, who raised him in Barrie, Ontario, before he broke away and moved back to Toronto, where he was born. There he discovered a talent for accompaniment on self-taught guitar.

More HERE.