Canadian Musician - November/December 2018 | Page 37

music and an amateur historian, I can track
the development of lyricism and wordplay
and technical sophistication and mastery
of styles, but unless you’re doing that at a
super, super expert level, it’s almost not in-
teresting anymore. It’s like, what can you do
with words that people haven’t heard?”
That was the malady, and ultimately, a
concept album was the cure. Weaving be-
tween the real world and his manufactured
one, it’s hard to tell where one ends and the
other begins – and that was kind of the point.
“In my own mind, after [2013’s] Flying
Colours, it felt like the end of something cre-
ative to me, and I think that was that there
were three or four [rap] albums that tell my
story, and I’m feeling more inspired now by
these other projects that, like, with Your Boy
Tony Braxton, I was trying to capture this
very specific thing and present it in a specif-
ic package, and I think this is a similar work.
It’s still me, but not what I was trying to do
with those other rap albums.”
Despite being a very personal and intro-
spective project, it’s also a communal one.
Shad is no stranger to collaboration, with
a diverse slew of guests gracing his past
albums and he himself lending his voice to
other people’s, from k-os and Grand Analog
to Lights and Said the Whale to Tanya Tagaq
and A Tribe Called Red.
A Short Story About a War features doz-
ens of musicians, producers, and engineers,
including fellow Polaris shortlisters like
Lido Pimienta, Kaytranada, and 2oolman
of A Tribe Called Red. Then there are fellow
MCs Ian Kamau and Eternia and the soulful
vocals of Steven Mulcare. The closing track
even features indie rock outfit Yukon Blonde.
That’s all in addition to more frequent asso-
ciates like DJ T.Lo, Ric Notes, and Ian Koiter.
“The process for me was the same as it
usually is in that regard,” Shad says. “I have
my guys that I always work with, and then
I try to bring in new people that I think are
great and want to work with.”
Some of the new guests are people he’s
known for awhile, like Tribe’s 2oolman, though
others, like Lido Pimienta – who 2oolman
actually brought into the fold for their track
“Magic” – were more recent acquaintances.
The Yukon Blonde track, “All I Need,” was
particularly unique. “It was funny how that
one came together, because their producer
sent me a song they were working on for their
album that they couldn’t quite crack, and sent
it to me without their knowledge,” he explains.
The idea was to have Shad add a verse
as an experiment and send it back, though

“How can I say what I think and share who I am in a way
that won’t just get reduced to, I don’t know, an ideology?
How can I still be heard like a human being, and not just
one side of a debate?”
he and T.Lo ended up chopping it up, sam-
pling it, and making a song of their own.
At its core, A Short Story About a War is an
album that’s quintessentially Shad, and yet
it still feels like something new, something
fresh from an artist whose résumé has
grown significantly in the years since Flying
Colours saw daylight in 2013.
Of course, his first formal release in five
years gets immediately followed by his first
tour and promo cycle in the same time-
frame, and the question of where this work
will take him reemerges.
“I guess we’ll see,” says the artist rather
nonchalantly. “I haven’t toured the States in
a long time – it’s been a few years – and it’s
easy to lose touch with the vibe and energy
and what the people are into. That’s always
hard to gauge.” Even in his homeland, similar
questions surround him, but he doesn’t
seem overly concerned.
The “big break” may never come, at least
not the way it has for some Canadian artists
since, but then again, Shad is a different
type of artist – a multi-faceted creator that
seemingly thrives on new challenges and
an ongoing artistic evolution.
Still, A Short Story About a War deserves
whatever recognition it will get and more,
because while Shad is indeed a talented
and award-winning interviewer and broad-
caster, even a more-than-capable R&B sing-
er, his latest album proves that as a rapper
and songwriter, he’s still unparalleled.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of
Canadian Musician.
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