“Oh shit, I’m on CBC Radio right now. I’ve gotta turn this up.”

Considering he’s spent the past five years recording and touring with the likes of Feist, Jason Collett and Great Lake Swimmers, there’s no doubt Afie Jurvanen’s work has been included as part of this country’s national public broadcasting before.

What makes this particular moment momentous, however, is that the song in question is from Pink Strat, the debut solo record the 28-year-old released this past July under the moniker Bahamas.

“I’ve been playing my own songs for many, many years,” Jurvanen explained by phone after turning down the CBC in his tour van somewhere between Montreal and Ottawa last week. “It feels good to get to do it a little more consistently for the next little while.”

Jurvanen is currently on a tour opening for Amy Millan, which includes a stop at the West End Cultural Centre on Sunday, Oct. 18.

“ It’s been a while since I told awkward jokes on stage and booked my own hotel rooms

Afie Jurvanen

Recorded last year over the course of two weeks in a cabin in rural Ontario, the songs on Pink Strat are like a trip to the Bahamas – laid back and simple.

“It was really easy and quick – very much like a Neil Young record where we set up and played through the songs two or three times,” Jurvanen said of the recording process. “I’m really pushing, even when we play live, to find that place where there’s spontaneity and curiosity.”

The album is named after the childhood Fender Stratocaster Jurvanen still plays.

“It’s more a thing of timing than anything else,” he said of why he chose to release and tour behind Pink Strat now. “I had gotten some offers to go on tours [playing in] other bands, but it was a decision on my part to focus on my own music.

“It’s been a while since I told awkward jokes on stage and booked my own hotel rooms. For some reason, I’m up for it now.”

Pink Strat is barely three months old, but Jurvanen is already thinking about his next two records: An instrumental album, as well as a collection of songs similar to the ones found on Pink Strat.

“These days its about singing for me, and singing quieter,” Jurvanen said. “I find a lot more interesting things in my voice when I’m singing quiet.”

His mother wasn’t too thrilled with Pink Strat’s cover art – a photo of Jurvanen meant to look like a mugshot – but apparently she’s warmed up to it.

“She leaves the CD in the CD player all the time so she doesn’t have to reference the cover very much,” Jurvanen said.

“The next record, I’ll put rainbows on the cover and it will be all good.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 7 of The Uniter (October 15, 2009)