“I’ve always known that it is a rite of passage as a musician to have all of your gear stolen. At some point it’s bound to happen; the more you do it, the more opportunity you have… And then getting it back is just such a massive relief, because that doesn’t really happen.”
A week before the release of his new EP, to be supported by a month of shows beginning in Winnipeg and ending in Kitchener Ontario, Noah Derksen’s van was broken into, the thieves making off with his laptop, his suitcase, a set of harmonicas and his Stonebridge guitar.
Noah spoke to me from the road after a house show in Steinbach, Manitoba to tell me about how he narrowly avoided a disaster that could have ended the tour before it began. He is travelling east into Ontario in support of America, Dreaming (Part One), an EP launched on March 1st which is in reality the first three tracks from his latest full-length album, to be released in three parts throughout 2019.
America, Dreaming adds an overt Americana sheen to his self-described “contemplative folk” but Noah, an American citizen raised in Winnipeg, doesn’t romanticise America. In the last few years, living for a time in Oregon and touring more frequently in the States, he has come to a more nuanced perspective of the country. Only after he began recording the new album did he identify this as the unifying theme of his latest batch of songs – and that’s what led him to the title.
“The American dream is perhaps just a disillusioned idea of how the world functions. America, Dreaming is a play on the American dream and how perhaps that is, and always has been, just a dream.”
Noah’s goal is to unveil a piece of the puzzle with each release: three EPs with three songs each, together making up the full album. This release strategy is a compromise between the traditional album format and the more casual way that most people consumer music today. By releasing three songs at a time, Noah doesn’t demand too much of a commitment from the listener but is still able to deliver a complete, unified album at the end of the day.
But taking America, Dreaming (Part One) to twenty different cities in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, including a performance at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on Friday March 22nd, would be difficult without a guitar. When Noah realized he had left his van unlocked and found the door wide open and his gear missing, his first reaction was shock.
“It’s kind of just panic at that point. I’m thinking of the story of how I got the guitar, how much I’ve gone through with the guitar, how I’ve got it set up perfectly for me, and more practically how I’m going on tour in a week.”
As the gravity of the situation set in, he began to realize what he would need to do to pull this tour off. Not only would he have to replace his guitar, but months worth of planning and logistics were also stolen with his laptop – budgets, schedules, marketing materials, not to mention the digital audio files of the new EP. Finally, he realized there was only one solution: he had to get his stuff back.
He jumped in his van and began patrolling the icy streets of Winnipeg’s West End. Living in the neighbourhood gave him a sense of where he might find clues about criminal activity, and this led him to a man and a woman pushing a garbage cart toward a four-storey inner city apartment building. “Hey, I just had a ton of stuff stolen from my van, my guitar, my laptop, my backpack, do you have any idea where it might be?”
“Ah it’s a tough neighbourhood, a lot of criminal activity goes on here.” They played coy, evading his question, but Noah wasn’t going to be turned away that easily. He followed them into the building – and was transported into a different reality. The place was in rough shape, the halls were filled with people running in and out, shouting at each other, tenants arguing with security. He realized he was seeing a way of life that was totally outside of his experience.
Noah began canvassing the building for information until he met a man who said “If you bring a thousand dollars cash and me meet here at four a.m., I’ll have your stuff.” Noah was not enthusiastic about this plan, and asked the man why he was so confident. “Because I know who took it.”
“Oh? Who took it?” The man pointed up the stairs and identified a woman as Simone. She was wearing the backpack containing the stolen laptop and a woman with her was carrying a suitcase which still had a baggage tag with the name Noah Derksen printed on it. It was at this point that he had to slow down; he knew he couldn’t let Simone pass him down the stairs, but he also knew there was nothing to be gained from being confrontational and aggressive. Instead of getting angry, Noah took an empathic approach.
“Although they did steal my stuff and that’s wrong and inconvenient and does a disservice to me, I have to recognize that their reality is very different from mine. They have a different support structure and they’re just doing what they have to do to get by.”
Careful to toe the line between being non-violent while also making it clear that he wasn’t going to let Simone walk right through him, he refused to move from the staircase until she threw the backpack to the ground. With the help several others in the building, he was able to retrace Simone’s steps and find the people who had bought his guitar and, with a combination of persistence and understanding, convince them to give it back as well.
Still short a harmonica set, the next morning Noah scoured the neighbourhood pawnshops. He didn’t find the harmonicas, but he did find video footage of someone trying to sell the set – and recognized him as Richie, one of the helpful tenants from the night before. Returning to the building, he tracked down Richie who was happy to return the harmonicas and also had a pair of shoes Noah hadn’t realized were missing as well as a stack of out of date business cards which were getting passed around the building.
“As I’m walking out the door a group of people come in the apartment building with a new load of groceries. Somebody offered me a store-bought cookie and as I accept it, he looks at me and says ‘Oh you’re the musician, you’re the guy from the card with the ponytail and looking off to the side; very handsome!’ And then I left. So I’m famous in this one apartment building in Winnipeg.”
Noah Derksen plays a Stonebridge D33SR and a Stonebridge DS40CM. You can find him performing around Ontario this March (see full show details at www.noahderksen.com):
