He's been seen on Jay Leno and at the Much Music Awards. He's been heard on six gold and platinum records. He's played with radio favourites like The Watchmen and Thornley. But underneath it all, Ken Tizzard considers himself a Newfoundlander first and foremost. Tizzard left Newfoundland at 19 and spent the next decade and a half deep in the Canadian music scene, travelling the globe, writing and making music with some of the very best out there.
It all spelled great success, but then Tizzard decided he need a change and shed his radio band persona for an acoustic guitar and a solo career. So why'd he mess with a good thing? "If it's not broke don't fix it: yeah, that makes sense. But, the music industry is pretty broken right now. The whole model that I worked with for almost 15 years ... is pretty much all gone these days. "Plus," Tizzard adds, "There's only so much drinking and doping you can do before you get tired of it."
Guess that whole rock-star lifestyle ain't all it's cracked up to be after all. "I wanted to get back to something a little more from the heart," he explains. "And also, being away 10 months of the year wasn't very good for raising kids. I didn't want to be one of those guys who came home at 45 or 50 and had a couple of teenage kids that he didn't know. With two young daughters and a wife at home, one can see Tizzard's logic. Unfortunately, being a stay-at-home dad is essentially impossible for a successful musician, so Tizzard got creative. He found a rather novel solution that allowed him to both tour in support of his music, and stay close to his family - he took them all on the road with him. Tizzard's wife is a school teacher, so for the last three years, the couple has packed up their girls on the last day of school and hit the road in an RV. "This summer past we did about 10,000 miles," says Tizzard. "About 20 shows in Canada, and then we went down to the States through Los Angeles, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, and all those places." It was this "family vacation" that inspired him to write his second solo effort, "Lost in Awe."
Tizzard's says the new record is a stripped-down acoustic one, featuring just guitar, harmonica and voice, and adds that its sound gets compared Bruce Cockburn, Bob Dylan and the like. The title comes from his experiences while travelling - the sense of insignificance one can only feel in the shadow of a mountain or underneath an enormous starry sky. "I got lost in the awesome grandeur of those mountains," he says. Writing the album also, "Opened up a lot of memories of growing up in Newfoundland," Tizzard says. References to his time in the local arts scene, his mother's death from cancer and his friends' anguish over moving away to find work can all be found on "Lost in Awe."
How perfect then, that he's bringing his show to back home this fall. Ken Tizzard & the Variety Show Players can be heard Thursday and Friday, Oct. 2 and 3 at the Ship Pub, off Duckworth Street.
Melanie Schade - Area Magazine (Nov 3, 2008)
On his tour through Canada and the U.S. last summer, singer / songwriter Ken Tizzard was in awe of the many places he visited and he now invites us to take part in his experience by sharing some of these moments on his current 14-song-album ‘Lost in Awe.’ Ken Tizzard is a renowned Canadian musician who was The Watchemen’s bass player for 12 years and Thornley’s for three years. After being a major label musician and touring the world for 15 years, Ken Tizzard decided to become a solo artist.
The first solo record Ken Tizzard released was ‘Quiet Storey House’ in 2006, “which was primarily six string bass and voice,” Ken says on the phone from his home East of Toronto. “I’ve been a bass player for a long time, I felt, I needed to get a bass record out of my system. And it seemed to be the right time to do it, transition time, in life and in music.” This transition affected every aspect of his life. “I’ve been touring for more than a decade with bands. I’ve seen a lot of airports, hotels and restaurants. But when I started touring on my own and with my family, I started seeing stuff that I’ve never seen before.” Ken says. “It was not all about being in a band; it was about living a life and playing music.”
With his new record, Ken Tizzard underwent another transition. “This record here, there is no bass at all. It’s just guitar, harmonica, voice, and organ on a few tracks. So that’s totally different.” In producing his new record, Ken Tizzard worked with John Whynot, who also produced his first record. The album was recorded in Toronto, in Blue Rodeo’s studio The Woodshed. Its interior was redone “with wood from an old barn that was torn down in Northern Ontario,” Ken says. The songs on ‘Lost in Awe’ have a folk sound and transmit a very intimate and honest feeling. For Ken Tizzard, the recording “captures exactly what I was looking for. It sounds like a guy sitting in a corner playing guitar.”
It seems there is no other sound more appropriate than this, considering how Ken Tizzard wrote this record: “I was looking at the photos, I started remembering bits and pieces of songs that I was writing in certain places,” Ken says. “And then it occurred to me how I’ve really written this entire record on the trip.” The album’s title entails an even broader meaning: “These things that take over your world and put you on a new direction and you just get lost in the awe,” Ken says. “And it can be something as simple as visiting a mountain range, struck by the beauty of nature. Or falling in love with someone, finding a new job, having children, totally alters the course of your life.”
Ken Tizzard has a photo contest on his web site with the same title ‘Lost in Awe.’ He invites people to send photos of situations where they were lost in awe. “The only criteria that I had were photos that kind of took you down that path where you got lost in awe. I’ve gotten pictures with people’s parents and children and beautiful scenery, all kinds of interesting things that people felt had an impact on their life or just a beautiful moment.”
During his tour, Ken Tizzard took some photos to show the listener his point of view in an original fashion. “The actual album cover is a picture of my feet. It is a neat way to show my perspective without putting my face in it.” The album includes a twelve-page booklet which contains a lot of photographs taken on his trip.
Ken Tizzard
How I spent my summer vacation - EDEN MUNRO / eden@vueweekly.com
Some musicians are road dogs for life, thriving on the constant movement and showing a steadfast refusal to put down any permanent roots along the way. For most, however, there comes a time when family climbs the ladder of importance, as marriage and kids come along, making long tours a difficult time of weeks and months away from home and family. For some, the change in lifestyle means giving up playing and moving on to the sort of day job that most musicians started their careers trying to avoid.
For Ken Tizzard, after years on the road as bass player for the Watchmen and Thornley, a changing perspective on what’s important didn’t mean giving up on music; it simply meant finding a new way of doing things. And fortunately for Tizzard his head was in a different space for making music—one that happened to coincide with a new approach to touring.
So, Tizzard stepped to the sidelines of the rock world he’d made a home in and made himself a trippy folk album called A Quiet Story House ... An Introduction, using his bass as the main instrument. Then he hit the road in the summer of 2007 for a tour across Canada, riding in an RV alongside his wife and two daughters, turning the whole experience into an extended summer vacation. This summer, Tizzard and his family are doing the whole thing over again.
“It’s an awesome way to tour,” Tizzard admits over a cell phone as his wife steers the RV towards Sault Ste Marie. “If you have your wife and kids [along] it’s pretty good. A big reason why I got out of the corporate music stuff was to be able to spend more time with my kids, so this works out very well.”
As nice as it is to spend the summers on the road with his family, though, Tizzard concedes that he doesn’t always get his way, noting that he still has to spend some time away from his girls—it’s just that he doesn’t do it for 10 months of the year anymore.
“I’m not out looking for solid gold and platinum records and [to] be a pop star anymore,” he says. “I just want to play music for a living. It’s easier to manage than actually trying to be in the spotlight. Being in the spotlight’s a lot of work. It’s an awful lot of work.”
Stepping out of the spotlight has meant that Tizzard has picked up a lot of the work that was done by others in the past—Jake Gold, currently of Canadian Idol fame, took care of the management when Tizzard was in the Watchmen—but he doesn’t mind at all, doing everything from booking his own shows to taking care of his own press. Ultimately, he says, it’s all about the music and the only thing that has changed is that he’s playing smaller rooms. And that works out for the best anyway, as the smaller places are more suited to the music he’s playing these days than the rock clubs and halls that he played with his previous bands. (He even gets to do those still, occasionally hooking up with the Thornley and Watchmen guys for one-off shows.)
Tizzard’s newest record, Lost in Awe, was largely written during last summer’s tour, with the bass player turning his ear to the acoustic guitar as a result of his travelling style.
“When I was writing on this record, I spent a lot of time camping doing it, sitting by the campfire by myself late at night and the acoustic guitar was sort of the tool that I was using—I had no intention of playing the acoustic guitar,” he recalls. “I wasn’t really a fan of the guitar, but as the summer progressed and I started writing more and getting a little better on the guitar, I started to fall in love with it a bit.
“And I was grappling with this age of technology and the way everybody exists in a virtual reality and the loss of actual human interaction,” he continues. “That theme kind of runs through on the record, but it was also part of the way I recorded it. I’ve had a lot of experience recording rock and doing remixes and everything, but this record here I just wanted to strip it right down to just the bare elements and just communicate the songs rather than dress them up and present them as a rock record or a folk-rock record or an alt country record or whatever.”
All of the changes in Tizzard’s life—stepping away from the full-time rock ‘n’ roll world in favour of something a little quieter on the musical front and the family vacation approach to touring being foremost among them—has been part of his re-evaluating just what he’s doing as a musician and as a person. He remembers a life that was spent focused on things like writing a record that had enough potential singles to help the album along to gold record status. There was an emphasis on reaching milestones then, but Tizzard laments that there was also an uncomfortable emptiness to that approach.
“It was always a matter of looking ahead to what the next milestone was, and then you’d hit the milestone and then it would go past you and it would be the past, but there was sort of a loss of living in the now,” he says. “I just started realizing that the now is the only thing that exists; the past is just a memory and the future is just imagination, really—you have no idea what is happening. So the only thing that really exists is now, and the journey isn’t about becoming famous or putting another record out or getting to the next show. It’s just about life and living in the moment, and that’s kind of what I’m doing even with the touring with the family and stuff. It’s just living for right now.” V
Eden Monroe - Vue Weekly (Jul 10, 2008)
Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald (Jun 17, 2008)
I really wanted to like the second solo release by Ken Tizzard, former bassist for hard rockers Thornley. His debut last year “Quiet Storey House” was an acoustic marvel, showing sensitivity, intensity and colourful songwriting. But liking “Lost in Awe” is not possible; it’s too good to just like. This is a Canadian roots masterpiece, one which should forever wipe away music fans’ memories of Tizzard as a rocker.
This gentle giant is a musician with a gift for storytelling that is unrivalled. His voice can be soft and warm like a summer rain, or rough and tumble like a much-travelled gravel road. From the opening track of the earthy “Cover Me,” a ballad of enormous intensity and honesty, Tizzard takes listeners on a memorable journey down his winding new musical path. He is a modern troubadour, a young Canadian whose sound would do Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger proud. Tizzard’s name may not yet be a household one but with “Lost in Awe,” it deserves to become one. This man is a true artist, a genuine Canadiantreasure.
With one listen of this album, music lovers will truly be lost in awe.
Paul Rellinger - MyKawartha (Jun 5, 2008)
When you’ve had enough, well, you’ve had enough. But often, from disillusion, new opportunity presents itself; a fresh outlook on a game that has grown tired but is still well worth playing in some form. Some 20 years removed from when he left the only home he ever knew for the big city lights, Ken Tizzard is playing the game and playing it well but is now playing it at his pace and by his rules.
As a member of The Watchmen and later Thornley, he’s done the big tour thing, on the road for up to 10 months of any given year. He has played the big venues and shared in the riches, both monetary and personal, that gold and platinum albums bring those involved in their recording. But, eventually, enough was enough. It was time to present his music his way on his terms. Sitting in The Spill on a quiet Monday afternoon, the 38 year old is the picture of contentment; a man most comfortable in his skin and even more comfortable with the career choices he has made. “You’ve got to enjoy what you do,” says Tizzard. “I was looking for something different. Something that was mine.” To date, his new journey has produced two CDs and a steady roster of club dates. But more than that, it has given Tizzard that most prized possession of the free-spirited -- freedom; freedom to stretch his creative legs at his pace, his wife and two daughters almost always close by side.
As a teenager in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Ken Tizzard’s initial introduction to music followed the path of countless teen musicians across the country as he hooked up with hardcore punk bands.Earlier, he got his first guitar. “I didn’t know it was a bass guitar; didn’t know for a year until a friend told me,” he chuckles. At age 18, after “playing with just about everybody I could,” Tizzard left St. John’s for Toronto, his guitar case in hand and $30 in his pocket. “That was terrifying for me,” he recalls. “That type of ethnicity I had never seen before. It was quite an experience. I was really excited and scared at the same time.” With bills to pay, Tizzard worked non-music jobs, including a stint as a telemarketer for the Toronto Star, all while playing gigs with various bands along the Queen Street strip. He landed a job with Music Express magazine, initially as a receptionist but rising to the position of photo editor -- a job that allowed him to explore his other passion of photography. Taking a break from Music Express, Tizzard toured the Soviet Union with a band named Growl. Upon his return, a fortuitous encounter came his way in 1993 in the form of Jake Gold, the manager of The Watchmen. “He wanted me to fly out to Winnipeg to meet the band with the hope that I would agree to be the band’s new bassist,” recalls Tizzard, who took him up on that invitation and took the spot vacated by Pete Loewen. What followed was a terrific 10-year ride as The Watchmen enjoyed considerable commercial success with albums such as In The Trees, Brand New Day and Silent Radar. But it was grueling for band members with more time spent on the road than not.“It was my first gig where I didn’t have to work outside of music,” notes Tizzard, his sense of wonderment over that fact still evident.
Seven albums and countless concert dates later, on Dec. 20, 2003 in Winnipeg, The Watchmen played its last show. Shortly after, Tizzard found regular work once more, this time hooking up with hard rock/post grunge band Thornley, led by Tizzard’s brother-in-law, former Big Wreck frontman Ian Thornley. In 2004, the band released its debut album, Come Again, which went gold and produced two #1 singles, So Far So Good and the title track. “Me and Ian were always hanging out. He said, ‘I’m ready to give Big Wreck a break.’ He asked me about forming a new band, I agreed and Thornley came to be.” But it was a short-lived experience. In October 2005, Tizzard and drummer Sekou Lumumba split from the band. “We had been allowed a certain amount of artistic control but that was lost,” recalls Tizzard of one of his motivations for leaving the band. “I didn’t feel I could do this anymore.” Another factor at the centre of his decision to depart was his wife and a new baby daughter. There was something else to life beyond the nameless faces before the stage; something else beyond another gig in another city on another night. “We (Thornley) had a good run but we were getting older. Priorities change. There was something else out there that I was missing and didn’t want to miss anymore.”
“Musician, father, husband, tall, teacher, traveler, student, writer, singer, bassist, friend, storyteller, believer, lover, listener, owner, sinner, aging, performer, liar, thinker, fighter, driver, optimist + more.”
The home page of Ken Tizzard’s website (www.kentizzard.com) provides the above self-analysis as an introduction. It grabs your attention quickly, much the same way Tizzard’s second solo release, Lost In Awe, does from the get-go. The follow-up to debut solo CD Quiet Story House...an introduction, the 14-track collection was inspired by real people and real events from Tizzard’s life. Its liner note photographs were shot by Tizzard as he toured out west. One photo features Tizzard in a St. John’s Regional Fire Department T-shirt -- a tribute to his firefighter father. “It’s a very personal album,” notes Tizzard. “But it’s not an autobiographical album. These are stories from my life, not stories of my life.” But with that fulfillment has come quite a learning curve.
“With the first CD, I thought it was going to be easier than it was. I had really lost sight of what it is to promote yourself. I have a new appreciation for something that I haven’t had to do since those days in Toronto. It’s a lot of work, 24-7, but the show has never been compromised. I had never done the singer/songwriter thing and it’s totally cool.” As much as his music means so much to him, family is central to Tizzard’s being. He and wife Allison Edwards -- “I owe so much to her” -- and their two daughters, Caitlyn, 8, and Cassidy, 6, are a bigger part of his life than ever before. They call Campbellford home but their RV is a close second. In 2007, they camped and explored at length while Tizzard performed and was inspired lyrically by the sights. “I’ve had a lot of friends in this business who became egomaniacs. I didn’t want to become that. “To have a family and the life I do, that’s special. It’s not something I take for granted.” Brian Finley, artistic director of Campbellford’s Westben Theatre, where Tizzard has performed a number of times, describes his friend as “very organic...alive, always changing shape. “I find him a totally inspirational person to be around, both as a friend and as a musician. I just admire the way he keeps on living.”
Last Friday night at Dobro, Ken Tizzard, joined by Dave Mowat and Ken Layton, premiered Lost In Awe before a local audience.
On June 20 at The Spill, he’ll do much the same in advance of a number of summer dates outside the area. The following night at Westben in Campbellford, he’ll join Aengus Finnan, Tom Wilson and others for the Singer Songwriter Circle.
“Music has been a journey; I love playing and I love the environment,” says Tizzard. “I want this life, always have.” Tizzard pauses. For all his success in a business where success is fleeting at best, vindication remains his to reflect upon. And that reflection takes him home to The Rock. “My mom, before she died, said she was so proud of what I do. That I stuck with it and had some success...” Tizzard’s voice trails off. St. John’s is never far from his thoughts. What lies ahead promises to be just as inspiring as his journey continues.
Paul Rellinger - MyKawartha (Jun 5, 2008)
Brian Schuette - Community Press (Jun 5, 2008)
“I played commercial rock for 15 years, but on this record it felt like it was time to just really simplify things,” Tizzard said. “As I was writing it I told someone, ‘It’ll be just like a barren field with one stick with no leaves or anything growing out of the ground. It’s just going to be really stripped down, but it’s also going to be very important to me.’ I feel that’s what I got.”Tizzard said the new CD is an intimate collection of songs that have come from influences in his life but which aren’t necessarily autobiographical. The album takes its title from life-changing experiences that take you down different paths to new places. The songs and their bare-bones production reflect his direction lately as a solo singer-songwriter and story teller. Listeners can expect to hear songs that feature for the most part just Tizzard and his guitar with occasional embellishments from his harmonica. The overall sound has drawn a number of comparisons to early folk recordings and early Bob Dylan in particular, Tizzard, said, but while he’s a fan of Dylan, he didn’t set out to emulate him on this CD. Tizzard said he had a great time making "Lost in Awe." “I’m really happy with the outcome. I think it sounds good and all the emotions I was trying to get out are there. It’s an album about living life. People who have been through some hardships and some great times, life-changing moments, will get this CD.”And to get the CD, literally, you can purchase "Lost in Awe" through his website, www.kentizzard.com, or download the songs through iTunes.In Campbellford the CD is available at Dragonfly Music, The Poppy Market, or the Westben offices.
Brian Schuette - Community Press (Jun 5, 2008)
Rolly Ethier - The Sheild (Jun 17, 2008)
One reviewer refers to Ken Tizzard as a fine songwriter, a sculptor of sound, and the possessor of a gently haunting vocal style. That appeared to be an apt description of the Newfoundland native, who has an amazing way of reinventing himself on the Canadian music scene. First it was as a rocker with the Watchmen, then as a talented bass guitarist with Thornley, moving over to resurface in the classics at Westben and now with the introduction of his latest CD creation, "Lost in Awe."
Ken Tizzard introduced his new CD locally at a highly informal get-together with partners Ken Layton on drums and harmonica wizard Dave Mowat before a small but enthusiastic gathering at Campbellford's The Stinking Rose. The venue is pretty small but has a down-home atmosphere that seemed perfect for an up-close study of Tizzard and his very able colleagues in musical partnership. Basically, good songwriters are good storytellers and Tizzard definitely qualifies in that category. "It wasn't exactly autobiographical but I drew from last year's tour through the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and Montana, my growing up times in Newfoundland and all 15 years of my career in music contributed to the CD," Tizzard said in pre-release party interview. "I tapped in on some of my experiences and sang about them," said Ken matter-of-factly. "The end result is Lost in Awe. I could write about the accounts honestly because I experienced them personally." Tizzard says the producers could have gone in a lot of different directions with the CD but chose to take a very stripped-down approach with the songs being delivered directly to the listener. "I believe we accomplished that objective," he said. "Recorded at the very acoustically perfect Blue Rodeo Woodshed Studio, we were able to capture a very clean sound."
Tizzard is a great admirer of Bob Dylan and adds his salute to the celebrated icon with two selections on his new release: “Ballad of Hollis Brown” and “North Country Blues,” shaping his voice to sound a lot like the rock and roll legend. Ken credits his venture into an assortment of musical genres in helping to shape his musical personality, including several experiences at the Westben Festival Arts Theatre, generally considered a monument to classical music. "Brian Finley is an absolute musical genius and the fact that he allowed me to be a collaborator was a high moment in my career. When he invited me to take part in the Messiah, I was a little puzzled, but my immediate reaction was let's do it. "The respect Brian has shown me at Westben has been first-class. The Barn itself is a beautiful place to play. I've got a few dates there again this year with a community show and then teaming up with Aengus Finnan and Tom Wilson on June 21. Those are really nice opportunities for me to be involved in."
Ken Tizzard continues to impress as a multi-talented artist and somehow you get the feeling this guy will eventually get to the top echelon on the Canadian musical scene. He looks at his two free appearances at the Stinking Rose as a chance to say thanks to a community that has embraced his music. "Besides I love playing with my two partners, Ken Layton and Dave Mowat," he confesses. Meanwhile he also continues to bare his soul. As he says in his Lost in Awe selection, Cover Me, "broke down, stripped bare, lost friends along the way somewhere, doing my best to get myself back home. Out here I can't see clear." - Rolly Ethier - The Sheild (Jun 17, 2008)
Going back to the land lent Ken Tizzard much-needed creative boost. Getting in touch with Mother Nature helped Ken Tizzard get in touch with himself. The former member of The Watchmen and Thornley spent last summer touring in a RV supporting his first solo disc, Quiet Storey House . . . an introduction. His plan, he told The Sault Star in June 2007, was to write new material by the campfire. Tizzard's approach paid off in spades. He ended up with ideas for about 50 songs. "You're kind of fed your own b......t in a way over and over again (being in the commercial music business)," he said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Campbellford, Ont. "You start to believe the hype. As a songwriter, doing what I was doing, that was getting in the way of. . . . I really wanted to write honest sort of folkie tunes. "You can't really do that when you're just trying to write pop tunes."
Tizzard's new CD, Lost in Awe, owes a lot to the mountains, glaciers and prairie horizons he encountered during his summer tour. "I just felt really insignificant," he said. "It finally hit me. All this b......t that I've been living with is really just garbage. I should just do what I want. If nobody gets it, it doesn't matter." His getting in touch with the great outdoors let him "really dig into my memory banks" and craft such tunes as The Birthday Song. The track is based on Tizzard calling his crying three-year-old daughter after a show in Salt Lake City, Utah. A homeless person kicked his feet and asked for a cigarette while he checked in on his birthday girl. "What am I doing?" Tizzard recalled thinking at the time. "It didn't seem right. Stuff like that really did amaze me. I didn't know it was really in there."Completing Lost in Awe and making arrangements for his summer tour, which includes a July 4 show at Loplops, means Tizzard has not put pen to paper in some time. He's looking forward to that changing very soon. "That's when the writing will start again," said Tizzard. "I'm really looking forward to that."
Tizzard reunited with The Watchmen, the Canadian alternative rock band from the 1990s, for a show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern Thursday night. The show follows an earlier appearance this year at a surprise birthday party for their old manager. "I'm incredibly excited to get back and do a full night with those guys," said Tizzard. "I had such a good time that night."He's interested in a cross-country tour with The Watchmen, but doubts the band known for hits such as Boneyard Tree and Say Something will return to the studio. "We're too far away right now," said Tizzard. - BRIAN KELLY - The Sault Star (Jun 27, 2008)
Kerry Doole - Tandem (May 27, 2008)
Ken Tizzard’s musical transition
Star rock bassist now a satisfied solo troubadorLeaving a commercially successful career in Canadian modern rock bands in favour of life as a solo singer/songwriter/ troubadour is a brave decision, but it’s one that Ken Tizzard is very comfortable with. As a member of the Watchmen and Thornley, Tizzard earned a reputation as one of Canada’s best bassists, forging a signature style that was both propulsive and melodic. Through those bands, he scored six gold and platinum records, and tasted some of the fruits of the rock ’n’ roll high life – appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, stadium gigs, etc.
Reflecting on that life, the Peterborough-based Tizzard now notes, “The idea of being famous is long behind me. The glitter and glitz, which draw musicians into the commercial rock world have little left for me in the way of appeal. I guess at this point in my life music has to make sense on more than one level.” Tizzard’s musical transition is showcased on his fine new solo CD, Lost In Awe. It is a sonically sparse work, a framework that suits his thoughtfully introspective songs. “It has an unfussy, simple sonic approach,” Tizzard explains. “The album is much different than anything I’ve ever taken on. The minimalist approach in the music makes sounds that would regularly be lost in rock music appear huge.”
“Musically, the transition to guitar seemed right for me now, and lyrically this CD took me into interesting places from my past. It got me thinking about a lot of things that I have just sort of left behind.” Tizzard found the perfect musical foil in the form of noted producer/engineer John Whynot (Blue Rodeo, Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams). They set up shop in Blue Rodeo’s Toronto studio, The Woodshed, and the songs poured out. “In total, it was 15 songs in just four and a half days. The Woodshed has one of the best vibes of all the studios I’ve been in. It really feels like you’re in a barn somewhere.”
Tizzard and Whynot first worked together on Quiet Storey House, Tizzard’s earlier solo record. “John mixed Quiet Storey House for me, and that was a very positive experience,” says Tizzard. “With QSH we never actually met in the same room. I recorded the album at home and sent the files to him to work on. With Lost In Awe we sat across from each other and made the record. Working with John on this album was unlike any recording experience I have been a part of. The songs were there and he would more or less guide me into the right headspace for each tune. For every song I recorded, he had some sort of wisdom that helped me to capture the performance.”
Inspiration for Lost In Awe came from travelling around Canada with his family.
“When I started with the solo thing I took my wife and kids on tour and we did the bed and breakfast thing all across eastern Canada. After this we bought an RV and started doing summer tours in provincial parks. I would do three to four shows a week while maintaining a family life and actually enjoying the touring experience once more. It was great to come home to my wife every night, wake up with my kids every morning, yet still be on tour. Last year’s time in the mountains had a great impact on the writing of this record. Perhaps it was the magnitude of everything and that feeling of the insignificance of one man that allowed me to dig deep into my past and find this material.”
Tizzard occasionally dips his toes back into the rock world, as when Thornley reunited for a recent Horseshoe gig. “I still enjoy cranking it out on the bass,” says Tizzard. “Going back with Thornley was a bit of a headtrip. It is kind of like getting back with an old girlfriend for a night to see if the chemistry is still there. Without all the business stuff in our heads we had an absolutely great time playing together. Ian is such a great musician and I love sharing the stage with him. Playing bass, old friends, all good times.”
For now, though, the solo life is treating this artist just fine. “After 15 years of rocking out, it is really appealing these days to connect with an audience in a different way. Songs and stories instead of volume and acrobatics is pretty neat." - Kerry Doole - Tandem (May 27, 2008
Posted By Bergen, Werner
"Musician - Father - Husband - Tall - Teacher - Traveler - Student - Writer - Singer - Bassist - Friend - Storyteller - Believer - Lover - Listener - Owner - Sinner - Aging - Performer - Liar - Thinker - Fighter - Driver - Optimist + more," is how Campbellford's Ken Tizzard describes himself on his website.
Ken Tizzard's story is the stuff of legends, a guitar player moving from St. John's, Nfld., to Toronto seeking fame and fortune. Tizzard leaves St. John's with only his bass, $30 and all the clothes he could stuff into a case. Working day and night jobs until he gets his big break by joining a rock band The Watchmen, looking for a bass player.Jump a few years and a province west, Tizzard hooks up with his brother-in-law and a friend, a summer tour for fun and suddenly a hot new band is formed - Thornley. They toured and opened for bands like Nickelback, Three Doors Down and Peterborough's 3 Days Grace among others.
During his time with Thornley, Tizzard began to look hard at what he was doing with his life. Being a new father, yet still living to play music, Tizzard struggled with the hustle of 10 months a year on the road.Last year he bought an RV, which takes him, his wife and two daughters camping, exploring and performing. While camping in the mountains last year, Tizzard began writing a new CD. With no electricity in the woods Ken turned to his acoustic guitar and harmonica and wrote the songs that appear on his new CD "Lost in Awe.'Tizzard's first solo record "Quiet Storey House...an introduction" is a collection of songs that highlight the six-string bass as primary accompaniment. Tizzard followed up the release of this album with two tours across Canada as a soloist, performing in venues ranging from pubs to concert halls and theatres.His collaboration with Donna Bennett and Brian Finlay at Westben Festival Theatre includes co-writing a musical, helping with arrangements and even organizing a talent night. - Werner Bergen - Peterborough Examiner (Mar 22, 2008)
Sounds Like: Tom Cochrane music meets Roger Waters vocals
Bill Alexander - Soundproof Magazine (Mar 15, 2007)
WHY / WHY NOT: The debut from the bass player of The Watchman has a Canadian sound in line with contemporary offerings from some of this country's music hall of famers, namely Tom Cochrane and Bruce Cockburn. This is the type of stuff you'd hear in a (pre-bylaw) smoky bar, with a harsh, heavy domestic beer in your hand, listening to a crooner sing his heart out for truck drivers and seasoned cougars.
Bill Adams - Pulse Niagara (Jun 28, 2007)
Ken Tizzard - Doing it His WayAfter playing music professionally in a succession of celebrated bands including The Watchmen and Thornley for over a decade, Ken Tizzard simply got sick of rock and roll. With the walls of his house thoroughly encrusted with the gold and platinum fruits of his labour, the spark was simply gone and the challenge with it.The bassist is very upfront about these things; in fact, his candour is knee-buckling when conversation turns toward his body of work and his distaste for what he calls the music industry game. “After I left Thornley, I had a few things that I wanted to do,” begins the bassist as he begins to unfold the story behind his newest project. “I’d had a belly full of rock and roll and I’d had enough; I was feeling repetition in my system and I wanted to do something new musically.
“I wanted to do something with bass,” continues Tizzard, “and I wanted to push the limits of what the bass guitar does. I started developing the idea, and one night I was talking to an industry colleague about wanting to do like a Billy Bragg-style project, but with bass instead of guitar and he said, ‘You’re fuckin’ nuts. You’re one of the top rock bassists in Canada, why do you want to commit career suicide doing this?’ My only response was that it was something that I wanted to try. I knew I wasn’t going to be playing to thousands and thousands of people every night like I did at a rock show, but I was fine with that because it was a different kind of thing. That night after that phone call, I ended up writing “If You Were Wrong, I Was Right” on the bass and that was kind of when it hit me; just me and my bass in my little studio with nothing else, and that’s when I decided that this is what I wanted to do.
After about nine months of wood shedding at his home studio and recording the results, the bassist was finally ready to unveil his new project, Quiet Storey House; a work that Tizzard is the first to admit is just for him at its core. “It feels great, and I haven’t had to play that fuckin’ music industry game,” says the bassist bluntly. “There have been moments in my career where I’ve put whatever I was writing or working on at the time through the critical analysis filter of what’s happening in pop music. You know, measuring your time to make sure you hit a chorus within the first 25 seconds and stuff like that and I can say that I never want to go back to that again. It’s too soul destroying. “Quiet Storey House is a very different type of recording,” enthuses Tizzard. “I kept the vocals very upfront and raw. I didn’t want to accentuate the mistakes, but I didn’t want to cover them up. I wanted a kind of raw, natural feel combined with a very tailored back end to the music on the record. “Some people love it, some people think it sounds too slick, others think it’s not slick enough, which is actually kind of nice; they’re getting the point even though they don’t know it,” he laughs.
Since Tizzard released the album on his own about 10 months ago, the bassist has kept busy performing shows in a variety of formats in which Tizzard never thought he’d find himself including those that have found him performing with orchestras, ensembles, trios that occasionally include Moist keyboardist Kevin Young and Mike Billard on drums, quartets and solo as well as the occasional specialty show including one where Tizzard found himself sharing the stage with a piano player, guitar player, drummer, percussionist, harmonica player, keyboard player, a bass player (Tizzard only played bass on a couple of songs), and a 14-piece choir. While the bassist does concede that running the whole show himself has presented all-new, unfamiliar obstacles, Tizzard says that he’d never trade the creative freedom that he now enjoys. “[Doing Quiet Storey House] wasn’t really an egotistical, ‘I need to be in control’-type thing,” explains Tizzard. “It was just a matter of the fact that I’d lived in a world where so many people had their hands in it for so long that I knew I wanted to do it myself. “It’s a slow process, too. I can’t tell you how hard it is. Going from where I’ve been to where I am, sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes I don’t think I can do it again. But I always do and I always end up feeling happy that I’ve done it. That gives me a great amount of relief. I never know what I’m going to get on any particular night, like at Strega, there might be three people sitting there having coffee. But I’ll still get up and I’ll still do it and they might dig it. Sometimes there are nights when there are a fair number of people there, but that’s usually when there’s something written up in the local paper because, realistically, no one knows who the fuck Ken Tizzard is. People don’t even really know who The Watchmen are anymore; we were a popular band 15 years ago.
“That’s the main reason that I put the album out under my own name; it’s who I am, this is what I do and people will know that, if they come to see Ken Tizzard, you’re going to see a guy and a bass; they’ll know what they’re coming to see. For example, if I had to do this interview with you while I was on a major label, it’d have to go through and be approved by press people, publicists, managers and agents. It seems so simple this way; I just give my phone number to someone and tell them to call within a time frame on a particular day, and all of it gets done.” -
Bill Adams - Pulse Niagara (Jun 28, 2007)
Ken Tizzard drops wine and women from road trips; keeps song
Brian Kelly - The Sault Star (Jun 25, 2007)This time, it's personal for Ken Tizzard.The former bassist of The Watchmen and Thornley is putting family first after more than a decade of extensive road travel, during which time he was rarely home. "I didn't want to come home in my mid-40s to a couple of teenage daughters who I didn't know," said Tizzard in a recent telephone interview from his Campbellford, Ont., home. "I would rather sacrifice that time now and put in the time with them (and) do music that I feel is closer to me and more personal."His debut solo disc, Quiet Storey House . . . an introduction, was released last July. Tizzard stops at Loplops for a solo show on July 2. "It's a great phase of life right now. The commercial world is so demanding," said Tizzard. "You're writing songs differently because you're writing for an audience. You're not writing for the music."During this summer tour, Tizzard is traveling in an RV with his wife and two daughters.
Concert dates are interspersed with stays at provincial parks. He plans to record new music by the camp-fire and post it to his website.His tour objectives are a far cry from earlier road trips, when parties, women, alcohol and drugs were common."I just realized I'm missing my daughters' lives," he said. "I wanted to change my life to make music work within it."While he was used to previous bands boasting three-, five- and 10-year plans, Tizzard has no similar goals mapped out."Although it worked it was confining at times," he said. "The way I want to do it now is just let's see what happens next. That way it keeps it exciting for me."Tizzard's focus now is touring solo successfully. Now that he's happy with a year's worth of touring, Tizzard wants to form a band this fall. "I really needed to prove to myself that I could do this before I get anybody else involved," he said. "I don't like letting people down."
Brian Kelly - The Sault Star (Jun 25, 2007)
Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald (May 1, 2007)
Kerry Doole - Tandem
KEN TIZZARD: Fans of platinum-selling Canadian rock bands THE WATCHMEN and THORNLEY will know Tizzard as the highly skilled player of a low-slung bass guitar in those groups. For some time now, he has been working on his own material, in a very different vein. His new release, Quiet Storey House...an introduction, shows him to be a fine songwriter and sculptor of sound, and possessor of a gently haunting vocal style. Two cover songs here, NICK DRAKE's :Fly," and TEARS FOR FEARS' "Mad World," reveal some of his influences, and his intelligent ambient style merits wider exposure. Will be interesting to see how it translates live when he performs at The El Mocambo on March 1. Check out www.kentizzard.com
Kerry Doole - Tandem (Feb 23, 2007)
Chris McCluskey - The Coast - Halifax (Jul 27, 2007)
After over a decade toiling with commercially successful rock acts The Watchmen and Thornley, Newfoundland-bred bassist Ken Tizzard is stepping outside his comfort zone. Now residing in Toronto and acting as his own agent, promoter, tour manager and publicist, he released his debut Quiet Storey House… An Introduction on July 1. "This is sort of an introduction record to what I'm doing," he says. "I did my first symphony show July first of this year with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Kitchener-Waterloo, and that was a brilliant feeling. There was a full orchestra backing me up on bass and singing. I couldn't believe the rush I got from it, it was so powerful."For his July 28 performance at The Seahorse, Tizzard will be accompanied only by electronic samples and, of course, his bass. He is using his five date, two-week Atlantic Canadian excursion to test the boundaries of his new project and hone a concise live show before piecing together a band. "It's something I've always wanted to do, to get the music and my own arrangements together," he says. "I'm thinking at this point drums, guitar and keyboardist…and erasing all the sampling for the live show.
"Tizzard is enjoying the freedom of working unaccompanied. While he describes The Watchmen as being a fantastic creative working environment, Tizzard longed for a greater voice than his brother-in-law Ian Thornley's band was designed to offer. "We had a great time, it just got to the point where we realized it wasn't working the way it was," he says. "Me and the drummer, it just kind of worked out at the same time. You know, 'The touring's kinda done, the record's kinda done,' it was the time. Are we ready to do this again?"While he concedes not everyone understands his current bass-centric direction, his experimental project is capturing the essence which characterizes the definition of genuine artistry—and he has brought his wife and kids along. "I am travelling with the family this time, and we decided just to stretch it out a little bit, have some fun and relax," he says. "I really wanted to get my head straight, because when I get back at the end of August/September I am going to be really busy putting the band together and organizing more symphony shows. The whole solo thing will become more of a special thing."
Chris McCluskey - The Coast - Halifax (Jul 27, 2007)
Gettin’ it on
Throw in Ken Tizzard’s CD when the mood is right
It is the middle of the night, 3 a.m. to be precise. I am not quite sure what I'm doing up this late; usually if I'm up this late I'm either almost through a bottle of Jack, or trying to get another slap and tickle from the girlfriend...I mostly just get the slap!As it happens, Ken Tizzard sent me his new CD in the mail today. It is called Quiet Story House...an introduction, and it was just recently released. You may not know him by name, but you are probably familiar with his work. Some may know Ken Tizzard as the lunging bass player from The Watchmen; others may remember him as the Mohawk toting bassist from rock band Thornley. If you dig a little deeper you may know him as DjObscene, Shadrak, Audio Playground High + Wide or a multitude of other monikers that Ken has worked under. One thing for sure, Tizzard ain't no slacker.
So, I have decided I may as well get started on this story, and I begin by reading the insert notes. I notice a cover of Fly, by Nick Drake, who during his short lifetime (he killed himself in 1974 at age 26), produced three of the most beautiful, haunting and complex records of all times. Unfortunately, while I can appreciate Drake's introspective musings, it's not all that much fun at 3 a.m...I mean c'mon - he killed himself! So I'm a bit trepidatious about listening to some artist who counts Drake as a major influence. I'm leaning a little more towards, say, The Slider by T.Rex. But my amazing work ethic takes over and I slap on Quiet Story House... and, sure enough, the first lyric I hear on the CD is "So, they've deemed you insignificant...again". Aaarrrrgggghhhh!!! I scramble for the nearest shot of anything to take away the pain of another whiny, philosophical singer/songwriter trying to whip his maudlin world view upon another unsuspecting listener.
But wait! Before I can drown my ears in bourbon, track two comes on. It's a song called All Because of You, and it stops me mid-swallow. As I listen, I notice that it's an excellent 3 a.m. song, the kind of song some saloon singer might have crooned back in the 1940s. No, no, it doesn't sound like a 40s tune, but it has that certain ambiance, a kind of unrequited love thing that works so well in the deep, dark night.So, I continue to listen to the CD, and I discover a couple of interesting things.
Firstly, Tizzard treats his bass guitar like a lead instrument, which adds a kind of surreal jazz effect to these obviously well-written pop songs. Secondly, this is one smooooth CD. Translation: Ken Tizzard wants you to get laid, and he wants you to listen to him while you do it. OK, he's no Bryan Ferry, but I bet Tizzard listened to his share of Ferry's roxy musings.And that's OK. There are a lot of influences on this CD, and Ken Tizzard ain't afraid to show 'em off. His solo identity has put him in some interesting headspaces. "It was not until I realized how totally alone I was that I finally began to discover my own sound," he says.Part of that journey of discovery came with working with John Whynot (Blue Rodeo, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, Bruce Cockburn, Colin Linden, Sue Foley, Kathleen Edwards, Lucinda Williams, Big Wreck, Doctor, Change of Heart, Colin James etc...) "Having John come onboard with this record was a dream come true. He took everything that I was doing and put it all in exactly the right place. Without much in the way of explanation he managed to get things sounding exactly as I had imagined," Ken explained.
Ken Tizzard is indeed entering new territory. His first solo record is a dramatic departure from anything he's done before, and in late June, he performed at the Westben Arts Festival Theatre in Campbellford, Ontario. He played selections from Quiet Storey House...an introduction with a full orchestra."I have to admit I was pretty worried. Standing with my back the orchestra and the grand piano behind me and the conductor behind the piano left me with only the audience to face. Having no conductor left me totally out on a limb with no percussive element to follow. Coming from the pop/rock world this is incredibly intense. I found that with total concentration I could hear the strings breath a pulse, but this was the sort of concentration that I am not accustomed to." He continues "Admitting that it was tense and scary, I also have to state the obvious - it was pretty damn amazing. The dynamic range of the orchestra is unbelievable. From the "hear yourself breathing" intro to the full volume of the second chorus I was just floored at the control with which such a large group of musicians can have simultaneously. There were moments where I could feel the music push and others where I felt in total control - usually just for a moment or two. All in all it was fantastic."
Tizzard is from Newfoundland and is looking forward to his East Coast Summer Tour, which will bring him to St. James Gate in Moncton on July 25; Sessions Café in St.John on August 10; and, The Taproom in Fredericton on August 12.Quiet Story House...sure isn't a cd you'd take to a beach party. And personally, it's not 3 o'clock in the morning music either, although it worked for a while for me when I listened to it then. But the next time I'm sharing dinner and a bottle of wine with my girl, I will probably slip Quiet Story House... in with Avalon, Let's Get It On, MCMXC a.d, Chet Baker Sings, and Otis - Blue.Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.Paul Wiggins has had a long career in the music industry as A&R man, Arranger and Producer. He can be reached at lazyfolksinger@rogers.com
Paul Wiggins - Here Magazine (Jul 20, 2006)
Dave Clark - Scene - London (Feb 15, 2007)
Before he embarked on his solo career, Ken Tizzard played bass for the Watchmen and Thornley. Personally speaking “Quiet Storey House” got off to a rather shakey start but it slowly won me over with its fine selection of originals and two inspired covers: Nick Drake’s “Fly” and Tears For Fears’ “Mad World.” Other standout tracks include “Thirteen” and the Leonard Cohenish “If You Were Wrong.” With nary a trace of his post-grunge roots showing, Tizzard fits in nicely with the current batch of singer-songwriters. Dave Clark B+
Dave Clark - Scene - London (Feb 15, 2007)
Aaron Tucker - The Genealogy of Taste (Feb 9, 2007)
I’ve been living out of my email lately. It’s just how it works when the only communication you have with editors and things is there. Ken Tizzard sent me a personal and well directed email, asking, since he was releasing his first solo album (after previous work with the Watchmen and Thornley), if I would be interested in doing an interview or an article or a review. He left his home phone number at the bottom. When the CD arrived in the mail there was a handwritten note and a signature in blue ink. These small scraps of human communication were not lost on me. I wanted to like this album.
But, sadly, this kind of earnest and personal care didn’t translate to the actual album. Most of the tracks, littered with potential hooks and intriguing lyrics, are weighed down largely by overproduction. The opening track, “If You Were Wrong,” slams every trick in it can, most noticeably echo vocals and whispery synth (not to mention an alarmingly choppy bridge), which ultimately take away from the strong base built by the bullet-quick drum line. Similarly, “Sorry” is overcrowded: the multiple vocal tracks and the rushed riff bunch lead to a chorus predictably rooted in overdone ‘90’s rock and cliché.
That’s not to say there aren’t decent tracks here: “All Because Of You” is anchored by a plunky piano and desperately smoothing vocals; “take a chance” too is infectious in its chorus and quick pace. To Tizzard’s credit, he does include another “naked” version of “If You Were Wrong” that is acoustic and bare, but by this point in the album the listener has been bombarded with too many vocal echoes and production-flourishes. The engaging tracks are put against songs like “thirteen,” a transparent commentary on the war in Iraq that suffers again, from too much going on: the refrain of “bombs over Baghdad” is tired; the vocal filters and layers again distract the listener away from any message within the track.
The struggling dichotomy of this album can be found in its covers: the strongest track here is “Fly,” a Nick Drake song, that Tizzard squeezes wonderfully with a thick voice and sparse instrumentals. But this song is overshadowed by an ill advised cover of “Mad World”; it’s not that the track is that bad, just that there have been many other covers of the song that do a lot more with the original (the Gary Jules’ version comes to mind). Where “Fly” comes across as a man picking through his favorite records and singing a homage, “Mad World” is a easily reproduced track forced upon the record.
The album surfaces then as an uneven, patchy work. Where the record is the best is in its instances of the personal where a musical honesty and emotional rawness peak, only too occasionally, through. In an attempt to modernize the sound from his origins of 90s rock bands, he falls back on the crutch of the studio. In the end the gloss of production and retread musical themes and structures on Quiet Storey House would be better if they were scrubbed away by the uneven scrawl of a ballpoint pen.
Aaron Tucker - The Genealogy of Taste (Feb 9, 2007)
Jeff Davidson - Earvolution (Jun 29, 2006)
I first met Ken Tizzard back in 1999 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlantic City, New Jersey when a band I was promoting had the good fortune to open for The Watchmen. The Watchmen were a terrific band out of Canada signed to a big label, but never got much marketing help here in the U.S. The band eventually disbanded and Tizzard joined Ian Thornley's band for their debut record.On tour with Thornley, Ken was cool enough to hook me up with my first real "backstage" interview back in June 2004 when he invited me to talk on the band's tour bus at the Rolling Rock Town Fair in Philadelphia where they played with Sevendust, Finch, Finger Eleven and Three Days Grace.These days, Ken is entering new territory again. He's released his first solo record and it is a dramatic departure from anything he's done before. He'll hit even newer territory this weekend at the Westben Arts Festival Theatre in Campbellford, Ontario when he'll perform selections from "Quiet Storey House...an introduction" with a full orchestra. He'll be performing alongside other internationally renowned artists like Nancy Hermiston, Donna Bennett, Michael Burgess, Viginia Hatfield, Kim Dafoe and Brian Finley.-Jeff Davidson - Earvolution (Jun 29, 2006)