Craig Cardiff is a Canadian folk singer who travels the world hoping to open the hearts of his audience and inspire them, even if they didn’t plan on it. He was nominated for a Juno Award and was also nominated at the Canadian Folk Music Festive. Cardiff is coming to The Happy Nun in Forget on Sat, Sept. 15.
Originally from Ontario, Cardiff grew up with an interest in music. “I started playing just like anybody else does, because they’re not good at sport, it’s a scientific fact.” As a 14 year old, his first real exposure to live performances came from a teacher at his school who would schedule shows at coffee houses. One song stuck in his mind for good.
“Sinead O’Connor’s Black Boys on Motorcycles. I didn’t understand a thing she was saying, or what she was talking about, but I understood everything by the way she sang it,” said Cardiff. It was performed by an older student. “I didn’t know anything about the U.K. or race relations. I thought wow, in three and half minutes, someone could take me across an ocean.”
Cardiff has some thoughts on modern society. “In terms of art and music that challenges (people), a lot of it has been rubbed out. I think that’s a huge negative. You see people shutting down if you get too political. I think it’s not how people want to spend their leisure time, with any “think” component in it. It’s like you go to a movie, and you know you’ll get a certain amount of pleasure, the popcorn will be warm, and taste buttery.”
Cardiff thinks people have become a bit predictable in their ideas of what is enjoyable, and it’s at a loss to their own selves."I think the trick is to weave it (challenges) into your music or art so that it touches people and helps people, even if it’s not what they came for.”
Cardiff has also appeared on Ted X, a university version of Tedtalks, a few times. He had been invited by some of the organizers. “They broke from format and incorporated artists. I would have felt really uncomfortable speaking without my guitar. I talked about failure. All the failures I’ve had that have done the most teaching in my life. You’re not supposed to talk about those failures, but that’s the truth in them.”
“The number of people I meet that talk about wanting to be a writer or musician, as soon as they sneak it out into the conversation, they also explain why they aren’t really one. I only play on weekends, that type of thing. Embrace what you’re doing, it’s still just as valid,” said Cardiff. “And don’t get stuck in the idea of comparison, no good art comes from comparison or what we think we were supposed to do.”
Cardiff has been handing out books at his shows to the audience for the last four years asking them to write down anything that’s true. He then waits until he’s performed a few more times before he reads them, and he has started to incorporate things people write into his music. He will be touring across the U.S. and in Europe this coming winter.
One of his favorite trips so far was to Hong Kong. “It was amazing and crazy, I understand every Gibson science fiction novel now with a new perspective. We were filming one of my videos in the market there. One stall had every LED light you could imagine, beside it was every mechanical bird in a cage that you would have never thought you would need, and beside that was a vendor selling rags, clean, washed, vintage material rags, then onto food. It didn’t make any sense to us in this orderly urban mall way, but it was beautiful and perfect.”
