photos by Daniel Thomas Williams
In my last visit to the rural community of Agassiz, the annual fall fair was in full swing: a tractor pull and traveling amusement rides drew thousands, while I doubled up a toonie betting on the lawnmower races.The town is quieter when I meet with Simon Bridgefoot, the young man making music under the name of the Parish of Little Clifton, at his home, a beautiful heritage house painted yellow, trimmed with dark green and maroon.
He guides me on a Cribs-like tour of the space, ending in its basement where spare rooms filled with musical instruments hint at his prodigious production. Portia is the first full-length album to emerge from the basement.
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Great Aunt Ida
"I’m being a little more hidden than I have been in the past..."
Interview by Zachary Stockill
illustration by Sarah Reid
“We’re all sleeping next to an impostor,” Ida Nilsen sings on “Distant Cousin,” a standout track from Great Aunt Ida’s new album, Nuclearize Me. She does so with a matter-of-factness and quiet confidence that runs through much of the outing, betraying the artistic and perhaps the personal growth the singer-songwriter has experienced in the five years since her last effort, 2006’s How They Fly. On that disc, Nilsen’s voice and words occasionally sounded wide-eyed and uncertain. Nuclearize Me, in contrast, is the sound of an artist looking in the rearview mirror and admiring those twists and turns in the road fading from view with equal parts sobriety, and anticipation of the twists and turns still to come.
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