Bumping into... Dan Fortin

Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)

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How are you? Where are you?

I'm doing pretty well, all things considered. I'm in Hamilton: my partner Zazu and I moved out here in May. (If you want to make an already strange and confusing time even more strange and confusing, I recommend moving to a new city in the middle of it.)

What have you been up to since March or so?

Reading, watching a lot of baseball, trying to practise, confronting my anxiety. I've also been teaching (in person and online), and I work for a publicity company, so I've been lucky to have some work during the shut down. Music-wise, I've mostly been working on this solo record I just put out in November called 'The Latest Tech.' It's funny - a lot of people assume this record is COVID related, since it's a solo thing, but I actually started writing the music a couple of years ago.

Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?

I've been watching a lot of livestreams. At the very beginning of the pandemic, Thom Gill, Christopher Willes and I started regularly getting together on Zoom to watch the Experimental Sound Studio quarantine concerts, which we really got into. It's a great way to get a glimpse of what's happening in other music scenes. But the livestreaming thing is definitely not a replacement for actual live shows (not that anyone has suggested it would be.) I'm with you - I feel I can't focus on the music in the same way. The online alternatives to playing together - live streamed concerts, isolated home recording - are cool, but like everyone else, I really miss playing in front of and being part of an audience.

Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?

One book that stands out is Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed, a collection of interviews with a writer named Paul Cronin. A very entertaining and insightful read. It got me watching and re-watching a ton of Herzog's work - including a bunch of early stuff I hadn't heard of - which I love. I've been hooked on the sketch show I Think You Should Leave since it came out, so I've been watching everything that Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson are in (Detroiters, Veep.) That's been a nice diversion.

How are you feeling about 2021?

Cautiously optimistic, I think. I'm definitely worried about making a living - it's going to take a long time for the music world to recover from this, obviously. And I'm especially concerned about music venues pulling through. But the vaccine news is good. And there's some exciting stuff on the horizon: Bernice has a new record out in March, and I just got my PlayStation 2 working again!

Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?

I'd keep asking you what you're listening to!