BY DAVID DeROCCO

Since 1908, the Gideon’s evangelical Christian association has been placing bibles in motel rooms with the hope of leading weary travellers down the road to salvation. Now, it’s doubtful that an affable hell raiser like Tomi Swick picked up one of those bibles as he travelled along his  road to near ruin these past 10 years; but luckily for his fans, Swick has finally found redemption by checking into THE YUKON MOTEL.

Officially set for release on October 14^th, Swick’s third CD The Yukon Motel is not merely 14 new tracks of original music from this Juno-Award winning Hamilton singer/songwriter. No, this album represents more than that; it’s the sum total of a decade of sweat, hardship, frustration and eventual re-birth for a musician who is just now emerging from his Faustian-like fall from grace.   

If you don’t know the story, Tomi Swick was just another Hamiltonian with a guitar and a songbook of silky, soulful Steel-town melodies when he released his 2006 debut album, Stalled Out in the Doorway. Within a year of that release, however, Swick was challenging superstar Nelly Furtado for the “Pop Album of The Year” Juno, eventually settling for a win in the cursed “Best New Artist” category instead. Industry insiders no less than the not-yet-disgraced Jian Ghomeshi heralded Swick as “a raw and real talent” possessing “ridiculous ability and Jeff Buckley-esque vocals.”  It all seemed too good to last, and it was. At that moment, with his star rising, his album charting, his tour booked, his concerts selling and his label Warner Music standing proudly in his corner, the unthinkable happened.

“I lost my voice the day after I won that Juno,” says Swick, whose career literally “stalled out” soon after the hype around his aptly-named debut faded. “I didn’t know if I would be able to ever sing again.”

Fighting strep throat and pneumonia, Swick underwent surgery to have polyps and a cyst removed from his vocal cords, effectively stripping him of his ability to sing. Without access to his primary instrument, Swick pulled the plug on all performances – for the next three years.  His career momentum slowed as a result, he parted ways with his label and Swick suddenly found himself cast into the musical wilderness. While there were occasional bright spots – a trip to Ireland, a second album and recording the John Lennon tribute “December Sky” with the slain-Beatle’s son Julian – it marked the beginning of a tumultuous 10-year rock’n’rollercoaster ride, a period he sums up in a very concise one-word description.

“Interesting,” laughed Swick as he recounted the extent of his unexpected career struggles. “It’s been a wild ride, lots of ups, lots of downs. Life waits for nobody. Things happen and you deal with them. I won’t say I always made great decisions, but I make better decisions now. Some people may have to learn the hard way and I might be one of those people. But you learn and move on.”

One of the smart decisions Swick eventually made upon getting his voice back and returning to the stage was to listen to the supportive words of Dave King, a well-respected Hamilton-area drummer/producer and owner of the rustic Barn Window Studio in Caistor Centre. Catching Swick’s performance one night at another one of his endless gigs, King suggested that the guitarist bring his songs up to The Barn for a really good listen.  It was just the inspired critique Swick needed to take the first step to being reborn as an artist.

“He came up to me and said ‘what the fuck are you doing,’ and I said I’m just working. He invited me up to the Barn just to hear the songs and jam. He said these were really great songs, and it just kind of gave me the confidence to start putting this thing together. From there I started working out the new songs and I basically lived out there off and on while we worked on the new album.”

Swick was further inspired by former Spoons’ frontman and Slaight Music executive Derrick Ross who, upon hearing the new songs, offered to sign him to the label. With new found industry support and King’s guiding hand, Swick set out to record the songs that would eventually become his new album. And while he’s glad to be looking forward to this next phase of his career, he’s fully appreciative of the hard lessons he’s had to learn to get to this point.  

“It’s weird. When I was young I never thought I’d be a musician. I just played guitar and sang, I didn’t see myself as this lead guy. When all those things happened, the success and failures, the ups and downs, the happiness and frustration, it was all a crazy whirlwind of business and life. Sometimes I didn’t differentiate between the two. I respected the career but I didn’t reflect on the craft, or didn’t realize how it all worked until I was sitting there going, what happened? It feels different now. It’s not the same as before. I’m much more hands on then I was before. It’s not people telling me what my career’s going to be, here’s what we think we should do. They’re facilitating the machinery, but I’m in the driver’s seat. I co-produced this record. I never got to do that before.”

Thankfully, Swick the artist has not only returned with great enthusiasm but also with a great album. The Yukon Motel is both a showcase of Swick’s renowned  songwriting abilities and an introduction to an edgier, surgery and whiskey-altered vocal rasp that was mostly absent from his acclaimed debut. As a result, Swick feels that songs like “Travelin’ Man,” “Liberty,” “Sunshine Sweet Liquor” and the autobiographical “Bad Things” are a more genuine reflection of who he truly is and wants to be as an artist.    

“Since surgery my voice was bound to be different. But even before surgery, when I sang, when I belted, I had a raspy voice. When I was doing those records with Warner Brothers, because of the genre I was in, only the prettiest takes were used, know what I mean? The cleaner stuff was used. Out of five takes, if four of them had a bit of a rasp, they’d take the fifth one with less grit. It’s funny. My voice was raspy back then, but it’s far more raspy now. And I actually feel like I’ve settled in as a singer, like I’m a better singer than I ever was. I don’t have the same range, but my voice suits me better than it ever has.”

The final stage of Swick’s redemption will take place on October 20^th at This Ain’t Hollywood during the official release party for his new CD. For $20 fans get a hard copy of the disc and a chance to see Swick step into the light to finally purge the demons that haunted him this past decade. For someone far removed from his glory days of radio airplay, Swick’s confident the stage will be the best forum to win fans back to his music.

“We’ve been getting great great feedback on the live gigs. This band has been cooking for a while. The songs and material is a little more grassroots this record. I feel like we’re going to sell it by playing live. It used to be a song would sell the show. Now I truly believe my show will sell this record.”