Raised in Claremont, Ontario, Drew Chester has been establishing his place in the Canadian music scene since 2009. Upon winning the 1st place in the City of Pickering's "Pickering Starz 2009" singing competition, Drew's musical career was set into motion. His first major project was the indie group "Patrons" (formerly Patrons of Science). With Patrons he released two EPs ("The Fringe," 2010 and "Ghost," 2015) and with this group he was fortunate to open for many well respected Canadian acts (including April Wine, Repartee, The Box Tiger, Safe as Houses and many more). October 18th 2018, Drew released his first solo record, "Waiting" which tells the story of a working musician trying to make his dreams a reality! With musical influences drawing from The Beatles, Mac DeMarco, The Beach Boys, and countless more.
The release of Drew’s latest single “One More Time” has a specific aesthetic it created for me. I imagined a sunny California day, and a nice breezy freeway drive. All that due to the home-like and comfortable vibrations I felt after listening to the song. But in actuality, after I watched the visuals, I noticed how delicate and vulnerable the song is. It’s just abundantly genuine and was able to ease us into the music with a protected aura of warmth! If anything, Drew showcased the versatility that’s in music and the ability to evoke different settings and emotions. Regardless if his intentions were to fabricate a more settle environment for us while listening, we were prone to do it ourselves unintentionally and that’s the skill of it all. “One More Time” naturally creates that open door for you to imagine however interpretation you want to imagine from the subdued vocals and charming melody!
Check out "One More Time" by Drew Chester on Spotify, and catch this artist's exclusive interview below to learn more about who Drew Chester really is!
Hi Drew! Mind introducing yourself to our readers?
I’m a singer songwriter based out of Toronto Ontario. Since 2009 I’ve been performing with a number of groups around Ontario, but as of last year I decided to embark on my first solo project.
Can you tell us a little bit about the project of “patrons”? How much has that experience impacted you?
Patrons was the first project where I was really happy with the music we were making. We were fortunate to work with some really cool people in the industry, and we got to perform with some awesome bands. Unfortunately due to a number of reasons Patrons disbanded, but I certainly learned a lot throughout the process.
Were there any fears you had straying away from a band to endure a solo career?
Definitely. I had been performing in bands since I was 13, so I was very used to the collaborative process of working with other musicians and the security of being on stage with friends. What really caused the move towards my solo endeavour was the disbanding of Patrons. We had spent almost 2 years working to release a 10 track record but once it was finally compete, we were all starting to go in different directions which eventually put that project on indefinite hold. With this not panning out as I had hoped, I decided I wanted my next project to be one where I called more of the shots. Though this was out of my comfort zone, I welcomed the challenge and I’m really happy with how it all came together.
How do you channel your outside influences into your songwriting?
A couple of ways. With songs I really like, I sometimes study the structure and chord progressions. From here I try following a similar pattern but with variations to chords and melody. More often though, I try to approach songs from a completely blank slate. I’m a big fan of vintage keyboards and I find that I often draw inspiration from the instruments themselves. When recording Waiting, I was particularly drawn to my Farfisa Compact and it was used on every track.
“One More Time” was a complex interpretation for me however it had such a simple vibe and melody, how would you describe the song to us?
One More Time was written during a time of transition for me. The idea came during a writing session for Patrons. I first floated the idea with the band, but the content was too personal and didn’t really fit the vibe we were going for at the time. The song’s lyrics reflect my mindset at that time. We had released our first EP, we were starting to gig pretty frequently, and I was feeling optimistic about how things were going. The other side of the song reflects my personal life. A girl I was really into was dating a good friend of mine and this was very much on my mind. In some ways the song was me trying to tell her how I felt, but I didn’t want to confront my friend and jeopardize our friendship, so I purposely made the lyrics somewhat cryptic. When I started the preproduction for Waiting, I came across a rough demo of the idea and thought the song would fit well with the vision I had for the EP. The lyrics also echoed the theme I had on the new songs which ultimately was the deciding factor for One More Time making it onto the record.
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