New music
New album is influenced by many other great performers
Dave Gunning took a more relaxed approach to working on his latest album, Up Against the Sky, and received a little help from others along the way.
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. — The photos that grace Dave Gunning’s latest album, Up Against the Sky, came about in a very Nova Scotia kind of way.
Pictou County-born country music star George Canyon was visiting home last summer. Gunning had made an impromptu stop at Frenchy’s to pick up a random assortment of clothes and when the longtime friends crossed paths, they decided to head to Gunning’s home for a photo shoot, with Canyon behind the lens.
Gunning said he’s taken a pretty relaxed approach to working on this album. In fact, he started it with only the intention of doing demos. In a way, it took a lot of the pressure off and he experimented a fair bit with the mikes.
“It actually took away the ability to mess with it too much,” he said.
After playing some of the demos for friends, they convinced him to continue and make a full album.
The title, Up Against the Sky, comes from a line in one of his songs called Horse for Sale, which he felt applied to all of the songs in some way.
“All the songs were about either something to do with nature or up against the elements or impending doom or there’s something that’s beyond control,” he said. “It just seemed to be a phrase that caught my eye.”
The album includes several co-written songs. Gunning said he enjoys co-writing because it makes the process “a little less lonely.”
He said sometimes he’ll start a song and then bring it to a friend he thought of while writing and get their help finishing it. Other times they start from scratch together with simply an idea.
“Co-writing, it’s a bit more fun,” he said. “You’ve got the interaction.”
One song that’s of particular meaning to Gunning is Wish
I was Wrong, which drew its inspiration from the grassroots movement against pollution caused by Northern Pulp and the company’s plans to put an effluent treatment discharge pipe into the Northumberland Strait. Gunning and his brother have been active members of the effort.
Gunning said he personally became concerned about issues surrounding the mill during a folk festival years ago. A woman came up to him during the event and told him about the herbicides that Northern Pulp was using to kill unwanted hardwood trees in softwood growth forests.
“It creates a monoculture forest,” he explained.
From there he became concerned about air emissions and then, most recently, the plans for a new effluent treatment facility.
Gunning admits he had a bit of fear entering the debate, particularly as an artist in a small community.
“I was scared that it was going to be the end of my career,” he said adding at one point he had to get RCMP involved because of weird messages he was receiving.
In the end though, he said it doesn’t appear to have hurt him professionally.
“We’ve made more friends than enemies,” he said.