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Victoria singer-songwriter Aidan Knight returns with personal album

Aidan Knight was in a different place — in more ways than one — when he began recording his self-titled fourth album in 2016.
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Aiden Knight’s self-titled fourth album arrived Friday amid a worldwide pandemic. OLIVER BROOKS

Aidan Knight was in a different place — in more ways than one — when he began recording his self-titled fourth album in 2016.

By the time it was put to bed earlier this year, the 33 year-old had moved from Berlin back to Victoria, where he was born; quit drinking; and left his longtime apartment in the Jubilee neighbourhood for a small house in Saanich. Knight and his wife, Julia, also welcomed the birth of their first child, Arthur, in January.

The ground continues to move under the singer-songwriter’s feet. Aidan Knight arrived Friday amid a worldwide pandemic, scuttling any and all promotional plans he’d envisioned. Though he has been playing professionally for more than half his life, Knight has since resigned himself to the newly-altered landscape, no matter how strange it felt at first. “I had a totally different idea of what things were going to be like this summer,” Knight said during an interview with the Times Colonist.

“Festivals were lined up, and other tour dates. I was really trying to space things out so that I was only gone for maybe a week-and-a-half at a time, so I could be back.”

He would have been busy through the fall, a benefit of his growing international reputation. His new music — musically mature, yet adventurous in spots — warrants wide recognition, but it may not fully receive its due as a result of the touring ban. That’s all spilt milk to Knight, who is enjoying the extended amounts of time at home with his wife and son. “I feel sad about not being able to be out there touring, and playing these songs live for people, but at the same time it has actually worked out really well in my personal life.”

Knight’s personal life played a key role on his new record. Much of the material was recorded at home in Victoria by Knight, who produced and co-engineered the album while playing upwards of eight instruments, including bass, piano and guitar. The liner notes cite several recording studios, over a four-year stretch, but his former two-bedroom apartment near the Royal Jubilee Hospital, where he lived with his then-girlfriend/now-wife for nearly a decade, was most instrumental, according to Knight.

“I set up some gear in our living room, and talked to my neighbours upstairs, to find out when they were going to be out of the house,” Knight said of the process. “I’d hit record and just play, and if I found something I liked, I turned that into the foundation of a lot of these songs.”

He explored several ways of working, but his attempts at recording on a vintage tape machine proved fruitless when the machine started malfunctioning. He has worked in a range of studios over the years, including large ones in Los Angeles, so Knight felt he had a pretty idea of all the different ways he could make the record. As such, nothing was off the table: string parts were recorded in Montreal, while his vocal, guitar and piano parts were tracked live at home, in one take. He would later add drums to the songs. For the more musically complex rhythm parts, Knight brought in drummer Graham Jones of Yukon Blonde for sessions at The Hive studio in Central Saanich.

“I’m an okay drummer, but if I need to get outside of my limitations, I call in a friend,” he said with a laugh. “Recording yourself, you have the ability to completely manipulate everything. You can align things, and you can tune things, and you can spend a lot of time doing that. But that is not the way that I have ever really worked before.”

Lyrically, Aidan Knight mixes heartfelt moments (such as the ode to love and family, Julia in the Garden) with several bold ones. The album’s stand-out is Rolodex, a Beatles-esque rumination on a dissolving marriage. The fictional story is clearly written from the standpoint of a character, but Knight is definitely hinting at something deeper, asking in a forlorn tone, “Am I terrified of being alone? Did you ever love me? Will you ever forgive me?”

It’s one of many examples on Aidan Knight of songwriting serving as therapy. “I think it’s very helpful for me to not be afraid to think about the worst case scenario, about what is the darkest thought I have right now, instead of being like, ‘Oh, it’s not real. It’s not possible,’ ” Knight said.

“I have lots of family and friends who’ve gone through a lot of relationship problems that have ended in lots of different scenarios, so I’m fully aware of what can happen between people who just assume that things are all good. I feel lucky to have a partnership with someone who understands me on a very on a very deep level.”

His relationship with his wife shaped many of the songs which were written during his home-studio sessions. She would go to work while Knight would be at home, writing and recording. After she returned, Knight would usually have song ideas to show her — examples of how his day went while she was away. Working in a solitary environment didn’t produce exclusively positive results, from a lyrical standpoint, but the process was a meaningful one, Knight said.

“I think being able to express not only your good thoughts but also your fear and shame and concern, being able to share how you are truly feeling with someone, and not feel like you have to hide things from your significant other, is really great. I can play her a song like Rolodex, which is me processing what’s happened to other people in my life, and thinking about all of the truly good things that are happening in my life. And me being appreciative of those things.”

mdevlin@timescolonist.com