By Veronica Petrola
Imagine you’re just about to lose someone. Most people can identify with that unholy, empty-stomach feeling sadness and longing; that moment when we realize that the end of something is coming, and there’s nothing we can do to change the fact. Now, imagine someone comes along and says, “Calm down, this is only the end,” as if the end wasn’t the scariest and most dreaded situation of all.
For Edmonton singer-songwriter Tanner Gordon, there’s nothing to freak out about. His newest album, “Calm Down This is Only the End,” revolves around the concept of making peace with the endings he’s had to encounter in life. Its first song, “Calm down,” is a realization of the many things that are wrong in the world, and how it all will eventually come to an end.
“At the beginning, “Calm Down” became a song about a guy I saw when I was driving back from West Ed. [He was] holding a brown sign that said, “I’m sorry but can you spare a dime?” It was a kid, 19 or 20 years old, begging for money on the side of the road, and I saw this is what the world is coming to,” he explains. “Everything’s in shit, the economy, the weather, we’ve got oil in our oceans, it’s the end of the world. Yet I’m very calm about it.”
All the songs deal with the same kind of emotions: “Losing You,” is about an ending relationship, and “Lynn,” about the end of a creative period for Tanner. However, the release of this album marks a beginning.
Tanner and his band will hit the stage tomorrow (Friday, May 7th) at NAIT’s Shaw Theatre to celebrate the release. And for Tanner, the stage is the best place to show his true self.
“It becomes a whole other world when I’m on stage. The off-stage Tanner is a little bit more subtle, a little more wrapped up in my own head, but as soon as I hit the stage it’s raw energy, true emotion,” he says. “The stage gives me opportunity to speak my mind in a different way… it gives you the ability to be completely free and honest with your audience, and they’ll either accept it or they’ll walk away from it. I find it a very pure way to express myself.”
Even though Tanner is an intense and generous performer, he’s aware of the hardest challenge that artists face: making people care. Fact is, young artists need to get over the feeling of vulnerability and show what they have to offer.
“Nobody cares about you. You have to show them why they’re going to. You very much have to do it out of love. It doesn’t bother me if people like it or if they don’t. If they get it, that’s awesome. If they don’t, that okay too. Nobody owes you anything at all.”
For more information visit www.tannergordon.com. Proceeds for ticket sales will be donated to the Canadian hard of hearing association (Chha).
