One Artist at a time | JR DiGS

I had never met JR DiGS, but had heard rumblings of his existence. I was always really impressed by his annual Acoustic Christmas event that involved many local artists getting together to raise money for charity. I sat down with him to learn more about the event and his wily self.

Do you consider yourself an artist?
Absolutely not. And if I asked my mom, she would agree that I’m not at all an artist. But I suppose everybody has got a little bit of art in them and [an idea of] how they want to express it. I write songs that I don’t play for anybody and I showed you a poster that I made. So, I suppose that’s art too.
I don’t draw, and that’s what people would most think makes an artist. But what makes an artist now is a pretty big place. Is Britney Spears an artist? Hell, you can even be a pizza artist now.
An aspiring artist — that’s what I am still. You have artists, and then you have aspiring art- ists. I am the latter. And still aspiring. I’m going to get there one these days, I promise. By the 14th annual Acoustic Christmas concert, I’m going to officially be an artist. That’s my goal.

Well, that means you’ve got seven years. You told me an interesting story about the original Acoustic Christmas where you wanted to do something decent and pick up a guitar…
Well, I was pretending to want to be someone decent. The truth is, I was in a conversation about seven years ago around this time, and I was talking to somebody from City Kidz about how their donations were down and how difficult it was, and how it was getting harder and harder. And I seemed to care. And I seemed to be interested in what they were talking about. The truth is, I was just trying to figure out where the bar was and how the rest of my night was going to unfold. I walked away feeling like I am that guy who acts like they care. Sometimes in life you have to not just seem to be interested. Just do it. It’s as simple as that.
I realized if I just went and found a stage to stand on at Christmas, learned to play a couple of chords, told a couple of stories and put a hat out, and seven people showed up and each threw in a toonie, that would be $14 I could give to City Kids and then I could stop pretending like I cared about that conversation. So, I asked Brodie at the Casbah if he had a stage available. The 23rd was the only night available, so I took it. The next night I ran into Tom Wilson, who’s a buddy of mine. I was telling him that I was going to do this, and I asked him if he could teach me how to play a G chord and maybe a C chord so maybe I could actually perform. He said, “Well, why don’t I just come and perform with you and we can do it together?” I said that would be great.
Next thing I know, Mike Trebilcock from The Killjoys and Tomi Swick and a whole bunch of other people joined in and we turned it into a concert that sold out. We raised a bunch more money than I expected to.
Then the next year we did it again and it got even bigger. I put a little effort into it, probably made a poster or something. And it sold out again. And all of a sudden it was like, “This is a thing!” And then the next year I had gotten to know Max Kerman from the Arkells a little bit better. (It’s all just friends of mine — nobody’s really been a part of this that I don’t know personally. It’s just that kind of gathering. I know most of the people who show up every year now.)
So he, being Max Kerman, joined in. And he was brilliant and he brought another dynamic to the show. And all of a sudden it had turned into this really cool bunch of people, where Max Kerman is Hamilton’s favourite son, and Tom Wilson is the grandfather of Hamilton rock ’n’ roll, and I am the weird uncle in this family who has the ability to call everybody and make sure we get together and throw a party.