What to know
- Justin Nozuka closes his current tour at Toronto’s Opera House on Nov. 6, with doors at 7 p.m. and the show at 8 p.m.
- Toronto singer-songwriter Meagan De Lima will open the hometown show after Nozuka invited local artists to submit performances for tour support slots.
- Nozuka’s solo show incorporates cassette-tape textures, looping and multiple “chapters” rather than a straightforward acoustic set.
- Fans helped shape the setlist through an online “dream set list” tool, with “After Tonight” ranking No. 1.
- His debut album, Holly, was released in Canada in 2007, meaning its 20th anniversary arrives next year.
Acoustic soul singer Justin Nozuka has just got home to Toronto after a month-long tour, primarily of the US, that wraps up today (Nov. 6) at the Opera House.
The singer-songwriter, who released three EPs last year, and whose most requested songs are from his 2007 debut, Holly, has steered his career on his own terms for close to two decades. On this tour, he is performing solo, but has created something more elaborate than just a simple acoustic guitar-and-vocals set. He also has been inviting submissions for opening acts at each stop, with Meaghan De Lima taking the slot today. Doors are at 7 p.m. and show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are available here.
Nozuka talked to Karen Bliss about the show and a special anniversary coming up.
How are you approaching these solo shows?
It’s definitely a production experience. It’s not super stripped. I play instrumentation and textures out of the cassette tape. I’ll put cassette tapes in throughout the set and there’s three different chapters, and then there’s also a looping chapter, where I do a looping station and build from there. It is just me on stage but it’s a full show. It’s not, “Hey, let me tell you stories about my songs and sit on the stool and play just acoustic and vocal.” It’s a little bit more fleshed out.
Is there a track on the cassette?
Yeah. There’s musical textures. I’ll put the guitar down for some songs and just play tracks off of the cassette.
Does anyone yell, “What the hell is that?”
No, but I know that there’s a lot of new generation kids who are just like, “What is that thing?”
I see that you have been holding some kind of, not contest but soliciting to have people open for you.
Yeah, that’s right. I did an open call for local artists. So, all the people opening the shows have been local talent and that’s been really special, seeing people get up and do their thing from the cities that we’ve been traveling in.
Did you pick well?
I think so. There were quite a few, “Wow, this is really good special talent.” So, I think I picked pretty well.
On your website there’s a “build your dream set list.” Is that legit? Your fans can pick and you pay attention?
Yes, absolutely. I built this platform and people go on and make their dream set list out of my catalog and then they’ll get their version. They get like spat out an artwork that they can have for themselves of their dream set list. But then what happens is all the songs that they choose get accumulated into this motherboard of what the top picks are. And when I was making this set, I was paying much attention to it in terms of what songs people wanted. Everything in the top 10 I believe is on there. But that’s something I can see. They can’t see what’s in the leaderboard.
Is it only for this tour?
Yes. For this tour. But it’s something that I built with a friend of mine and I think we’re definitely carrying it over to all the different tours. The cool thing about it, as well, is you can see city-specific what songs that city particularly wants to hear.
What are the ones that are always on? Is it the ones I would suspect, “After Tonight”?
“After Tonight” is number one, of course. Duh. And then, what was surprising was my new single, “On Your Time,” was number two, which I was happy to see. And then most of the usual suspects. “Golden Train” was up there. People wanted to hear “Break Me,” “No One But You,” “Save Him.”
Who’s opening for you on Friday?
We have Meaghan De Lima.
Did she come from submitting online?
Yes. People basically performed their favourite songs. They just did a performance, and they just tagged me and told me what city they wanted to open the show in. So she sent one. She’s got a big following in the city, so everyone was tagging her. “She’s got to do it.”
And she sounds amazing.
Did you get a lot? That’s a time-consuming commitment when you’ve got other stuff to do on tour.
Definitely, in some cases, it was like a week out from the show, “Oh, we need to choose an opener.” My agent would be hitting me up like, “Yo, we need an opener.” And with being on the road, it took a little bit of time, but, no, it wasn’t crazy. I can see the tags and I just go through. Toronto, because it’s the hometown show, we had a lot of submissions which was hard. But so many great artists. That’s the thing that you realize is the amount of great artists in the world is pretty up there.
So, next year do you know what it is?
Yeah, I do. Don’t say anything though [laughs].
You do?
I do. I know what it is. We’re talking about the same thing. Are we?
Are you going to do anything special?
Oh, absolutely. But I’m not letting the cat out the bag yet.
Are we talking about the same thing?
I think we are. You’re talking about the anniversary, yeah?
Yes [of Holly]. Can you believe it, it’s been 20 years.
Can you believe it? I am shocked. On this last tour, one of the weirdest things that I experienced were people in their 20s coming up to me and saying, “I listened to you when I was 4 or when I was 8 years old.”
I remember being floored seeing you for the first time [at Holy Joe’s]. I was like, “Oh my god, he’s 17.” You blew my mind. I bought like 10 copies of Holly as Christmas presents.
It’s a crazy thing now. You’re going out there and mothers are coming with their daughters and it’s just weird. They had listened to me when they were 16 and now, they’re like 36. It’s a very strange thing. But it’s also very beautiful. For the longest time, I was shook by it in a way that scares you a little bit. But now, especially going on the road, it feels more wholesome than anything.
It’s such a great record and the fact that you said the number one song people request is “After Tonight,” that’s pretty crazy. Did you know that was a special song when you wrote it?
No idea. I had no idea that would be the one that was the center of things until we started getting phone calls from labels being like, “This song, “After Tonight,” it’s a big hit.” I guess it’s got something. It never really occurred to me. And the craziest thing about it too, I saw [producer] Bill Bell last month. We got together to listen to the session. The craziest thing is that was the first song we did [20 years ago]. We got together, Allan Reid [then SVP of A&R at Universal Music Canada; now head of CARAS] put us together. We got in the studio. That was the first song we did and the first demo and we ended up using it exactly as we recorded it. We probably finished it from front to back. It was something crazy, like an hour and 15 minutes recorded and finished production. It’s one of those things, sometimes the first thing you drop is the thing that becomes your top thing.
And we’re still around, you, me and Bill.
Still around, still kicking; we’re still breathing.
So, you’re going to be doing something special next year for Holly?
I’m going to be doing something special, that’s correct, yes.
Are you writing at all?
Yeah, I’m writing, I got some stuff that I’m working on. I was going to put out a full project, but this special thing happening next year I need to focus on it and then I’ll follow up with something after.
You’ve got some dates early next year overseas too.
I do, yes, yes. We have some European dates and we just found out that the Paris show sold out, which is cool. We’re going to maybe put a second one on, but it’s crazy, TikTok is the new discovery thing. We posted one video from Heartless on tour, which was a pretty big hit in France and TikTok just went in France. All these French people tuning in and luckily, I had the show on sale then. So I’ve been trying to milk it.
Do you like engaging with fans through the social media that did not really exist 20 years ago?
Honestly, in the beginning when TikTok first came out, everybody goes, “I’ll never be on TikTok, blah, blah, blah, blah.” But back in the day, if you were on MuchMusic or VH1 or MTV, that was your doorway to people’s hearts. And TikTok, there’s potential there for anyone to tap in to a large audience and I think it’s a real gift. Just as long as you stick to your spirit, you know? Of course, there’s danger if you get sucked into doing what everyone else is doing and stuff, but there’s a real special opportunity there.
