Nathan Wiley grew up on Steve Earle but can’t stop listening to Paul McCartney’s Ram album

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 12, 2005

By Steve Newton

At the 2005 East Coast Music Awards, Prince Edward Island pop-rocker Nathan Wiley’s sophomore CD, High Low, took the prize for alternative recording of the year. The funny thing is, the music on High Low is about as far from alternative as you could get. It’s extremely catchy and radio-friendly; it’s commercial in a good way–like the Beatles were.

“I don’t really get the alternative thing either,” Wiley comments, calling from his home in Summerside, P.E.I., “but I’ll take any awards they wanna give me.”

If there’s any justice, the 28-year-old singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist will be seeing plenty more accolades in the future. Billboard magazine previously chose Wiley’s debut CD, Bottom Dollar, as among the top 10 Canadian discs of 2002.

“High Low is a pretty different record than that,” he points out. “There’s some instruments that aren’t on the first one, and it’s a little more uptempo. It sounds a bit more like a band, I think.”

Although the rhythmic contributions of bassist Mike Farrington Jr. and drummer Dale DesRoches helped give High Low that ensemble feel, Wiley made his presence felt in a big way. As well as all the vocals, he contributed electric and acoustic guitar, lap steel, piano, organ, and banjo. Not to mention glockenspiel.

“I always found that one [instrument] led to another,” he says of his DIY approach. “Once I knew how to play guitar, I wanted to know how to play a bass line, and then after that I’d want to learn drums.”

As well as writing, arranging, and coproducing the material, Wiley is credited with codesigning the CD artwork and layout. His interest in graphic design goes way back.

“That’s kinda what I did before I got into music,” he says, “I still do it on the side. I usually have a pretty good idea of what I’d like to see, package-wise.”

In recent years, Wiley has performed with other Canuck standouts such as Sarah Harmer, Gord Downie, Danny Michel, and Kathleen Edwards, but the main highlight of his concert career was sharing a bill with Steve Earle at the Strawberry Music Festival in Yosemite, California.

“My dad was a big fan of him and Tom Waits,” he says. “I kinda grew up a lot on Steve Earle, so meeting him was a biggie.”

Wiley-who recently discovered, and can’t stop listening to, Paul McCartney’s 1971 Ram album-has been heralded by Elle magazine as “the next Tom Waits meets Leonard Cohen”, but his pure-pop approach and insightful lyrics make him more of a cross between Matthew Sweet and Paul Kelly.

Interested locals can decide for themselves when he’s joined by guitarist Dale Murray at Richard’s on Richards on Friday (May 13), opening an early show by his bike-riding buddy, Vancouver-based up-and-comer Jeremy Fisher.

“I went out to see him when he came through town here a coupla years ago, touring on his bike,” Wiley says. “We’ve been friends ever since, but we’ve never actually played together, so it’s gonna be fun.”