THUNDER BAY – Thirty-two-year-old Brett Kissel would have two pieces of advice for his 12-year-old self, about to set off on a two-decade rise to the top of the Canadian country music charts.
Kissel, who on Friday will headline the second night of the Country on the Bay music festival at Fort William Historical Park, said he’d tell his younger version to save a lot more money and not fritter it away on guitars and treating all his buddies to meals.
He’d also remind himself to ensure he enjoys the ride.
“In this business, it’s not about how much money you make, it’s about how much money you keep. When I was in my 20s and was paid $1,000 to do a gig, I made sure I spent it,” Kissel said on Thursday, a day before he planned to fly to Thunder Bay on his friend’s private jet.
“I spent every last dollar on the next guitar, the next piece of gear, a nice dinner with friends, tickets to go watch the Oilers, maybe a flight to go down to Tennessee to watch Bonnaroo. And then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to go and do another gig and make another $1,000.”
An older and wiser Kissel, who grew up on an Alberta cattle ranch, is less worried about money and more concerned about having fun doing what he does best – creating and playing music.
Being out on the road is a big part of that, he said.
COVID-19 took that away for nearly two years and now Kissel is making up for lost time.
“If you’ve got a crowd, whether it’s a big crowd, a small crowd, an intimate night at a theatre or a big night at a festival, when you’ve got a crowd that’s engaged and singing those songs back to you, it’s indescribable,” Kissel said.
“For me, I really believe that I took a lot of these moments for granted, coming up through the ranks, just thinking this is who I am and this is what I’m going to get to do for the rest of my life. But then you go through what we all went through and then you realize, you have to enjoy these moments to the fullest extent because you never know if you’re going to get back up on stage again.”
Kissel, whose outside interests include a new vodka company, Deuce Vodka, and his podcast, Canada’s Country Radio, is fresh off a country album of the year JUNO Award win for What is Life, said the record was his attempt to dig deep into the age-old title question.
The answers surprised him, adding he was hoping to inspire his listeners and move the needle.
“It’s a giant question. What is life? I sat down and I wrote songs and I thought about it and meditated and I really tried to figure out what is the answer to that question,” he said. “What is life? And my wife was the one who brought up something very unique. ‘You know what? Maybe all of the songs that you’ve written or that you’ve recorded for this project could be answers to that question.’
“However, another funny thing is the closer I felt I would get to finding an answer on this quest, I realized how far away I really am and maybe it’s all about the journey.”
A recent collaborator with with iconic R&B group 98° on new single Ain’t The Same, Kissel has four No. 1 singles on the Canadian Country music charts, eight gold singles and two gold albums. He’ll take the Country at the Bay stage on Friday night at 10:30 p.m.