Interview with Blaine Komatich

The Sunday before Christmas, I was reading the Times-Colonist newspaper, when I came across a photo of accordion player Blaine Komatich and his canine companion Ranger, under the heading “Busker doggedly pursues the holiday crowd.” After the new year had arrived, I made a point of searching them out to see if I could get an interview for the blog.

Blaine, 23, was born and raised in the north end of Winnipeg MB. When he was 8 years old, an uncle who was visiting from Gabriola Island gave him a little baby accordion, and he took beginner lessons until he was 10. He later attended Music Conservatory where he took piano lessons for a while. He also played guitar in his high school band. At 19, he decided to take a couple of months of classical lessons, but decided later that classical accordion wasn’t what he wanted to do. Blaine also spent a bit of time in a street marching band that walked around the neighborhoods once a week playing in outdoor bandshells and parks.

I thought I’d start by asking Blaine about the busking scene in Winnipeg, and he told me there were a few magicians and jugglers, but not a lot of music buskers. “Sometimes they’re passing through town and they’re playing fiddle or something in front of the liquor store, just trying to make enough money to get out.”

CD – Do you know if you need a license to busk in Winnipeg?
Blaine – You do in certain spots, down in the Forks, (at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers) some of the tourist traps down there, you need a license.
CD – Have you ever busked in Winnipeg?
Blaine – No. I liked to play outside a lot, I’d go play in the park more often than go out on the street. I had a little bit of change thrown in my case, but never really made a point of doing it every day.

When he was 20, Blaine got an offer of a job in the Northwest Territories, so he left Winnipeg and headed north to Yellowknife, where he did maintenance work on Twin Otter floatplanes. He spent the next 2½ years in Yellowknife and it was there that he got Ranger, a Canadian Inuit husky, and they have been partners since.

Not too long after he arrived there, he moved onto a houseboat that was only accessible by canoe, which he tipped one day with his accordion in it. He managed to save the instrument, but all the seals were broken so he had to get a new one. “I had a nice one shipped up from Winnipeg, one I kinda had my eye on before I left. The fanciest accordion in town, and probably the only guy who could play it.”

According to Blaine, Yellowknife is a small town, but it does have a pretty good music scene with a few local bands, and some open mics and jam spaces.

“I ended up living in the backyard of, this guy, Chris, who played in an 8-piece bluegrass band, and I was playing in the backyard one day and he walked over and said he’d love to make it 9. They had a nice medley of instruments, and they wanted to have it all, banjo, ukulele, electric bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, fiddle sometimes and accordion.”
“The coolest place I ever jammed, the band’s jam space was an old derelict ship, a surveying vessel called the Aurora Surveyor, that had all the engine ripped out, it was rusted away, and anchored out on Great Slave Lake, you had to canoe to get there. We had a nice jam space, carpets all over the walls, it was safe, quiet, good vibes in a rusted out ship.”

In August of last year, Blaine and Ranger left Yellowknife and hit the road together for “the long trip down,” to Victoria. They finally arrived here this past October, and since then they’ve been busking along Government Street.

“I came here and I got a brand new accordion, dropped a whole bunch of money on it as soon as I got into town here and decided to try and pay it off. I met all these buskers that were working down here everyday and just felt like joining the family” he said.

CD – How have you been finding the busking here?
Blaine – Oh, great. It’s a lot of fun, yeah. I get to come out and practice, got children dancing, and smiles on people’s faces. And it’s a really nice way to sustain yourself to get your groceries and whatever you need, food for the day, beer, (laughs) it’s a really nice way to live, fall in love with the life, just playing music everyday in the street.

CD – Do you have a favorite spot to play?
Blaine – Starbucks (on Government). I like it ‘cause it’s dry, ‘cause you never know when it’s gonna start raining, and water and moisture’s not good for my instrument. And the sounds, I have a hard time time hearing myself when I’m too close to traffic, even though the thing’s bloody loud, other people can hear me but I am distracted by the traffic a little bit, and at Starbucks there, I can stand back, and you have stone walls behind you and above you. I can hear myself a lot better, it’s helps me play better. Playing outside’s difficult sometimes. I don’t know how those guys do it up on Douglas (Street).

CD – How would you describe your style of music?
Blaine – Oh boy (laughs), I don’t know, that’s really hard to do. It’s really my own style of accordion. I like alternative accordion. Right now, I’m more inspired to play rock oriented style. You know the accordion’s like an acoustic organ I can carry around with me. That’s the way I’m seeing it now. I really like playing with guitar players, and improvising and jamming, and finding the right keys to play in, and soloing on the accordion like a rock organ player would solo a bit.

CD – Who are some of the musicians that have influenced your style?
Blaine – Tom Waits, I guess. Ian MacKeye (from Minor Threat). I listened to lots and lots of music, and I went through lots of different phases. Listening to Robbie Robertson particularly, and the Band, for sure.

CD – Do you write your own material?
Blaine – Yeah, it’s almost all original and it’s all starting to come together the more I play it. I really improvise a lot of it and what’s happening after you improvise a lot, is you start to remember things and you write, you keep on playing and you keep improvising and you end up getting something together, trying as best as you can to play it exactly the same. (laughs) That’s why I have this (digital palm) recorder now, so I can record myself, if I forget, I can listen to it.

CD – What’s your most memorable busking experience?
Blaine – All the crowds of people around this (past) Christmas, and lots of little kids dancing in front of me. When there’s lots of people out, it’s nice, when you have people who are going to sit and listen, and it happens. I don’t think I have one that’s most memorable. I’ve had a lot of (laughs) interesting offers. Somebody offered when I was playing with a guitar player, told us to come and play at their hot-springs. I had a lady come and ask me if I wanted to come live on a farm with them.

CD – Have you played at any open mics around town?
Blaine – Yeah, I’ve done a few. The Hootenanny at Logans. Ocean Island a couple of times, I was living at the hostel when I first got here, so I did the Ocean Island one. Cabin 12. I prefer open jams rather than open mics, I perform just about all day, every day, so when it’s time to go to open mic, I’d wanna go there to be playing with a bunch of other musicians who wanna jam together. That’s what I prefer, and you can find things like that. Once in a while, the Hootenanny’s all right for that, you can kinda just go up and play. I’ve been to open mics where there’s more of a circle, like a song circle, and you can play, everybody can either request something, play something, sing something, and pretty much anybody can play, if they want to, everybody in the circle.

CD – I’d guess that when you’re busking, Ranger here, is probably a big part of the attraction?
Blaine – Yeah, talk about the dog. He’s become part of my act more just because I can’t leave him at home, but, he’s become part of it, yeah. People like seeing this guy. It’s a little bit like a circus sometimes, when I’m playing something fast and weird and the dog’s tied to my leg, trying to chase after another dog.