Melodic Machinations -Lyrically Speaking : Dom Louis

For Canadian Indie Folk musician Dom Louis growing up in Southern Ontario played a part in his love for the genre. “This genre always spoke to my soul, I always felt some connection to Bob Dylan, Neil Young. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door will still stop me in my tracks to this day. “I suppose a lot of that music came from Ontario, the midwest hillbilly sound - Duluth Minnesota is actually closer than I realized.” Dom explains.

With a very early passion for music, in grade five Dom didn’t make the school soccer team so he started to take his guitar to school to play at lunch time. He says “Not many kids could play an instrument yet so it was still quite a novelty, even some of the Gr.6 guys thought it was pretty cool that I could play a Red-Hot Chili Peppers song. So, I started writing my own songs immediately and I would perform them anywhere from Arts Centres to the annual County Fair.”

Leaving high school early to pursue his passion for music Dom started playing on street corners and in bars making his way from Toronto to Nashville. On the way he recorded music with new musicians he met along the way. Of these times Dom says “Mostly they were playing empty rooms or failed attempts at recording sessions for years and years and years. I think that has informed my gratitude towards anybody taking an interest in the songs I write, and certainly built up my tolerance of my relationship with myself through it all. At the end of the day that’s the person I struggle with whether there are 10 people or 1000 in the audience.”

Over the years Dom has had a number of influences on the music he creates including Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Coldplay and Bon Iver. He admits that in his earlier days “I was always stealing tricks along the way. If I learned to put the 4 chord over top of the 5 chord from a Carole King song, I would implement that into whatever I was working on.” With the realisation at eighteen that he felt his voice didn’t suit Pop/RnB Dom began to experiment with voices he felt were more like his own including the vocals of the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Initially playing the guitar from around 2002 because guitar bands were still the most predominant his love for Coldplay encouraged him to also play the piano. Dom explains “We had a piano in the house so naturally I learned some of those songs. The two instruments kind of complimented my learning and being self-taught I could slowly transfer the chords from one to the other.”

Dom has always written songs and the process has always been a mystifying one to him. He admits “I’ve never pinpointed how to go about doing it, writing a song, and I’ve really struggled with being too conscious of it, either from a business or artistic standpoint.” Dom believes that the songwriting process doesn’t necessarily have to be observed but instead is one he comes at personally with love and honesty. He humbly says about his song writing “I don’t feel I’m any good at it to be honest but what I lack in skill I think I make up for in passion and excitement.” In order to stay creative and inspired Dom has to create a balance between “needing to keep picking up the guitar and putting the pen to paper.” He also believes that he needs “to be physically active and do things entirely not cerebral, just for my health and sanity if nothing else.”

Dom has been extremely involved in creating his own aesthetic as a musician. “Well, I suppose initially its happenstance, the aesthetic, just doing what you feel, the age old cliche of “be yourself”. Being an independent musician Dom has been involved in every aspect of his music including “editing my own music videos and making posters and producing my own recordings.” Dom believes that the lyric of his songs are also very much a part of his aesthetic. Although he says at times it can be intimidating and daunting, he feels ultimately “it’s a balance between being an artist and taking seriously your relationship with people who are going to give you and your music a chance.”

Dom engages with his fans firstly through his music. His music is how he most naturally is able to connect with his outer and inner worlds. For Dom music is less stressful than other aspects of life. He also works on connection with his audience by trying to “message every person who listens to my music and even if from a distance or through a song, I think we are in some capacity involved in each other's lives, and I think that is of far greater importance than the pragmatic implications of a “music career”.

Despite having originally hated live performances because Dom felt “they are never perfect and never what you envision, and I used to live in that place, infinite perfectionism and escapism” he realised that this attitude was not conducive to his music. He has now developed a healthier attitude towards live performances and says “I love them now for precisely that - they are just human and they happen quickly before you have time to process and make a judgement and I enjoy the communal ceremony aspect with everybody.”

Currently Dom is working on his second full length project, which has the working title “Life In The Making.” He is trying to be open and not only share the process but really enjoy it. He says of the project “There are songs from a decade ago I need to put down and address, much like versions of myself I need to give a hug and then put to rest. It might be chaotic or messy but it’s unfolding, much like the way life unfolds before we’re ready for it.”

In the future Dom hopes to keep building the live performances and create a set that has the capacity to be what he describes as “larger than life and exciting”, while continuing to incorporate the raw materials of indie folk that had its beginnings on county fair stages.

To those new to his music Dom says of his music “I would say that it is honest, that if there ever was a song I didn’t believe in I didn’t finish it, and that maybe if I’ve done my part then there just might be a thing or two they can relate to and find some refuge in listening. Thank you so much for tuning in.”