Hello again!
Good to be back
Hey people,
It’s been a really nice few months off, but I’m glad to be in touch again.
If you don’t know me yet, I’m Matthew Vanderkwaak. I’m a songwriter and I teach in a humanities program here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This newsletter has been home to monthly new music, interviews with other Canadian songwriters, and essays on the mysteries of art-making.
After taking a few months to just enjoy life with the new baby, I’m a bit surprised by how difficult it feels to get back into sharing on here. I’m starting to see that you can never usefully judge a creative project from outside its actual practice. When I’m not painting, I feel like a total imposter calling or even thinking of myself as a painter. When I pick up the brush, everything clicks into place.
This makes sense. Creative practices are what they are when they are works on the way, and in progress.
But thankfully that’s what this newsletter is meant to be all about. It’s just a series of signposts marking the path.
So how about a brief look back to get some orientation?
2025 was easily one of the richest times of my life as an artist. A lot of that has to do with this newsletter. What did we get up to?
In my favourite post to date, I wrote about how I stopped trying to quit music.
I set out to share a song a month recorded to my 4-track tape recorder, and then actually did it!
There were interviews with 6 different Canadian songwriters.
“It’s So Easy to Love You,” and “Where Love Goes” appeared in the world—my first studio recordings!
Matt from Fog Chaser and I got together to talk about how to share creative projects on places like Substack.
I got to write a love letter to my favourite local music with New Bands for Old Heads and a reflection on Foxwarren’s 2 (my favourite album of 2025) at On Repeat Records.
Wild!
This year, we’re going to launch another series of song-a-month missives (this will probably launch in the fall) and I’m going to keep doing some interviews and writing about the meaning and experience of art-making.
Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to since.
What have you been reading?
Mostly Ursula K. Le Guin! I started with the Earthsea novels.
When I finally picked these up I had been reading some much more tedious fantasy novels and only about 70% enjoying them. Le Guin’s prose, by contrast, was like a cool glass of water. I was transported to her world by the end of the first page.
Le Guin wrote the series over the course of many decades. There are two trilogies (sort of), and the second transforms and explodes the world of the first. It’s like there’s a real intellectual and spiritual transformation that takes place in the series itself.
Since finishing those, I’m into her science fiction novels. There’s so much to discover!
What have you been listening to?
William Prince’s new album, “Further From the Country.”
We got to see Prince perform in Halifax this month. When I listen to his songs all I want to do is go and write songs. I love that. There’s something about the way his lyrical lines reveal new meaning as they unfold. Look at this line from the track, “Damn”. Each phrase is full of meaning that multiplies as it’s followed by the next:
Makes you feel like New York City
walking in a dream
outside yourself.
Plus, he’s from Manitoba and belongs to Peguis First Nation (same as Amy!).
Prince and his band pulled this genius move I’ve never seen before where they both opened and closed the show with the new album’s title track. I find tours on new albums are often a bit difficult since the new material is the least familiar to the audience and ends up making less of a connection. In this case, though, when they started the title track again at the show’s conclusion, there was a roll of cheers of recognition. Apparently that’s all it takes for something to feel like home.
What have you been making?
You guys, I’ve been going head over heels into DIY electronics, synthesizer design, and circuit bending. That might feel like a bit of an odd fit for a kid who mostly writes folk music, but honestly, this is the most creatively alive I’ve felt in years. Circuit bending is all about taking electronic instruments and manipulating (bending) their existing circuits to discover new sounds and possibilities. There was one summer in my teens when I got into circuit bending and my bedroom floor looked like the photos below for 3 solid months. I’m really glad to be back.
I’ve got two ongoing projects at the moment: building tape echoes, and building a synthesizer.
I’ll do my best to keep sharing updates about these projects on here.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
But what have YOU been reading? Listening to? Making? I’d love to hear about it. You can just hit reply to this email or leave a comment below.
MOST OF ALL: Thanks for being here.
Maybe part of the reason getting going on here has felt a little difficult is because I know how precious this is! Getting to have a place where there are people like you thatI can share my creative journey with is honestly a dream come true.
Welcome back! Circuit bending 🤯
Welcome back Pal — and great newsletter to return with! Jim