Aaron and the Sea of Stories

A great surprise
Local singer-songwriter finds his voice on debt CD

There’s obsessed, and then there’s obsessed. When it comes to the guitar, local singer-songwriter Michael Peters falls into the latter category.

Peters owns more than 10 of them. On the back of his new CD, there’s a picture of him holding his guitar case, and it’s handcuffed to his wrist. Friends say he’s literally slept with his guitar. So why did it take the 33-year-old half his life to put out his first CD?

“It just took,” he said, pausing to take a sip from his tea at an Osborne Village restaurant. “It took that long for me to become comfortable as a singer.”

Peters took a moment to think about what he’d just said. He wasn’t happy with the statement.

“I really don’t like self-deprecation,” he explained. “It reflects poorly on the record I just put out.”

The eight-song CD he’s referring to came out in November. Peters released it independently, and said it was an experiment with a very specific sound—an “ambient, acoustic-guitar-and-pedal-steel vibe.” The production is sparse, focusing on his voice and guitar playing. The acoustic guitar tones are clean and warm, and the pedal steel playing of Ron Halldorson (Lenny Breau Trio) and Bill Western gives the songs texture.

“In some places, you can hear me being uncomfortable about being a singer,” said Peters, who makes his living teaching guitar lessons and playing music for cancer patients at St. Boniface Hospital and Health Sciences Centre. Some days he thinks the CD’s great, “and some days I don’t want to hear it at all, which I think everyone is like with something that they make.”

Peters began playing the piano when he was 12. Inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo in the Michael Jackson song “Beat It,” he picked up the guitar four years later and became “obsessed.”

He formed various bands and songwriting partnerships with friends. He’d play guitar, and someone else would write and sing the lyrics. Nothing ever came of those projects, however, because his friends lacked the same commitment he had. Self-identifying as a guitarist, he found himself singing out of necessity.

“It was just a kind of prejudice,” he said when asked why he had never sung before. “I just had this very rock solid prejudice against being a singer.”

Then one day, he listened to himself on tape and said, “Shit, I sound great.” Peters the singer was born.

Kim McMechan has been friends with Peters for 10 years. She said his development as a singer has affected more than just his music.

“I think for him, learning to sing strongly and beautifully was a process of him learning about himself,” said McMechan, a B.C.-based singer-songwriter who used to live in Winnipeg. She contributed vocals to four songs on the CD.

“In learning to trust his voice, he’s become more skillful, and everything is better as a result.”

A lot of us have deep-seated beliefs that hold us back unnecessarily. Peters said that if he’s learned anything about himself, it’s how substantial these can be—and what a great surprise it is when we find out they are nonsense.

Now that he’s grown into his role as a singer, he’s looking forward to supporting the CD with a tour in the summer. He also can’t wait to release more music.

“I’ve got a lot of backlogged material that I want to get out,” he said. “In five years, I’d like to have another five records out.”

He’s already begun recording more acoustic solo material, which he said could be released as soon as May. He’s collaborating with local singer-songwriter Vanessa Kuzina on a recording of traditional, old-time mountain songs, and he said he has “a full-blown rock record” ready to be recorded as well.

“Music is completely a meaning-of-life issue for me,” he said. “It’s certainly not a hobby.”

See Michael Peters at Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club on Jan. 31 with Vanessa Kuzina and Allison de Groot. Visit www.myspace.com/michaelpetersisadaydreamer.

From the January 24, 2008 issue of The Uniter.