EMILY HSUEH
PONTIAC Feb. 17, 2021
The small riverside community of Norway Bay played a significant role in one artist’s newest album.
Will Cardinal is a cottager in the area who has been visiting the town every summer since he was a child.
He released his very first album, Creator, to Bandcamp in October. It was recorded completely in the Pontiac, which was a big inspiration for his work.
“A lot of it actually came from being in the Ottawa Valley in the summer as a whitewater rafting guide and spending summers in the valley contrasted to living in the city in Toronto,” Cardinal said. “Both my parents are teachers so every summer we’d jet up to the valley. Getting connected to the land in that area was huge for me. I did most of my growing up there; that was home-base in my heart. That was my favourite place to spend time and learn in my youth.”
The album is composed of six tracks featuring Cardinal’s vocals and calming guitar accompaniment.
While he has been writing his own tunes for the last eight years, this was his first venture into recording and mixing music.
Due to the pandemic, Cardinal found himself in his Pontiac happy place when the time came to record. The majority of the songs were recorded in a small bunk house by the cottage he spent his childhood at, while one was recorded in Quyon at the old St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church, which was turned into a recording studio in 2018.
“[There are] a lot of references to Norway Bay and to the river and the municipal church building in Norway Bay … Whitewater raft guiding on the Ottawa River was a huge inspiration for me. Living at Wilderness Tours and within that community was huge,” he explained. “That’s probably the main reference you can attach: the power of the river and the white church in Norway Bay.”
The cover art he chose for his debut album also holds significance to the singer. An Indigenous painting by Simone McLeod called Sharing Stories of Ojiig pays homage to his Métis roots.
Cardinal explained that the painting captured the feeling he wanted for his songs and the feeling he looks for in music in general.
With the positive feedback he has received for Creator, Cardinal is looking to the future for more ambitious musical endeavours. Currently, he is working on a new album which he hopes to release later this year.
“Right now I’m just about finished writing something. The first album was mostly just me with my vocals and my guitar, kinda doing it as one take.
But I have another record that’s very close to being written now that I’m hoping to get more musicians on it and give it a more full sound,” he said. “I’m very excited to record that and sometime within the next six months it should be coming out.”
