Just Us Folk

Australian singer-songwriter Kim Churchill has a special affection for Canada and Canadians. About 15 years ago at the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, he kept running into and making friendships with Canadians.

As a result, Kim was able to put together a tour of Canada.

“I was 19 years old, and I just wanted to travel,” he said.

And travel is what Kim has done since then. While at home in Australia, he has a van he lives in that gets him to gigs or the nearest surfing spot.

“It was always a hard decision between music and surfing,” he said.

He also has a van in Canada and one in Europe for whenever he tours overseas.

His love of travelling resulted in four EPs recorded in different locations around the world that had special meaning to him: Devon England, Berlin Germany, the Blue Mountains of Australia and Vancouver Island. The Canadian EP from 2019 is entitled Forgetting.

“Canada is such a huge part of my life spiritually,” Kim said. “So it was important to record in Vancouver.”

As a matter of fact, Kim has recorded extensively in Canada. His second studio album, 2012’s Detail of Distance, was recorded in Vancouver with producer Tod Simko. His fourth album, 2014’s Silence/Win, was recorded primarily in Ucuelet B.C. There are also two live albums, Montreal Attic Recordings from 2011 and Montreal Attic Recordings: Vol.2, released in 2013.

Kim’s love of playing guitar started at a very young age when his mother began taking guitar lessons and would then teach Kim what she had just learned. A few years later, wanting an electric guitar, his dad agreed to get him one if Kim continued with his classical guitar lessons.

“I spent six years learning the solo to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and then realized I like acoustic guitar more anyway,” he said.

As a teenager Kim started busking around his hometown at farmer’s markets since gigs were hard to find. It was around this time that he began writing songs. Eventually, at the age of 17, he recorded his first album.

“I’ve tried to delete it from history but hey, I was writing songs!” he said.

Trying to analyze your development as a songwriter can be a difficult thing to do. But what Kim has always strived for is to be honest with himself and about what he’s feeling. Going through that process means Kim’s songs have a closer connection to him, and hopefully a closer connection to his fans.

“If I’ve improved at all, it’s about getting to a deeper and more poignant place inside myself that I can share with the world.”

Kim’s strong connection to Canada could be because he sees a similarity to Australia through a shared sense of humour and sensibilities.

“We both have a good understanding of distance and space and a good relationship to it,” he said.

“Canada is one of the only places in the world where if you get out into the sticks enough, you wave at every car that drives past. The only place that I have that is Australia.”

Kim will be returning to Canada this summer for the Fête du Lac des Nations in Sherbrooke, QC in July and the Canmore Folk Music Festival in Alberta this August.

For more on Kim Churchill, go to https://www.kimchurchill.com.