Worth the wait

Jacob Brodovsky shares new album at the West End Cultural Centre

Singer-songwriter Jacob Brodovsky, usually a solo acoustic act, will lead a rare full-band set to launch his new album, I Love You and I’m Sorry. (Supplied photo)

Local singer-songwriter Jacob Brodovsky has spent the past 18 years writing, performing and honing his craft. Fittingly, his forthcoming album, I Love You and I’m Sorry, is a distillation of a music career that began when he was 12.

To celebrate the release of his solo debut, Brodovsky and special guest Ellen Froese will perform at the West End Cultural Centre on Jan. 19.

Up until recently, the majority of Brodovsky’s writing has been as frontman for the band Kakagi. It was following the dissolution of Kakagi in 2018 that Brodovsky began work on I Love You and I’m Sorry, which would serve as a meditation on where he stood as a musician going forward.

“When my band broke up, that was the vehicle that I put all my eggs into,” Brodovsky says.

The end of Kakagi forced Brodovsky to rethink his ambitions as an artist. Brodovsky’s new solohood was coupled with his exit from the golden age of many artists, his 20s.

Despite only recently turning 30, Brodovsky is no longer the wunderkind he may have once been but an adult making serious decisions about his future as an artist.

“It’s a tough time for anyone,” Brodovsky says. “It’s a weird sort of purgatory a lot of us find ourselves in. (I’m) thinking about what I actually want to spend my time doing.”

Brodovsky’s transition into a solo act has led him to focus on earnest and emotionally resonant songwriting. Brodovsky wants his listeners to experience a “chuckle in the first verse and then a gutpunch in the second.”

“It took me a long time to become comfortable to say the things I am saying as myself and not as a band,” Brodovsky says. “For a long time, I was uncomfortable saying ‘I am Jacob, and this is what I want to say.’... The songs are in turn able to be delivered in a more honest or hopefully authentic way.”

However, he didn’t create this entire album alone. The earliest components of I Love You and I’m Sorry came from Brodovsky’s work with drummer Jason Tait, who previously worked with Bahamas and the Weakerthans. Brodovsky says he has gotten a lot out of his collaboration with the other artists on the record.

“As a solo artist, what I like is that the collaboration is way more flexible. I put together a pretty ridiculous band for the release show, and it will never exist again after this show, and it will be the truest iteration of a lot of the songs.”

With the upcoming release show, Brodovsky plans to use his new flexibility to realize his songs to their greatest potential.

“When I am seeing a band play, and it’s really kicking it into high gear, you feel it in your chest, and your hairs start to stand up ... If I can get a few moments like that, it would be great,” Brodovsky says. “If not, it’ll be a nice way to put the song out to pasture.”

Jacob Brodovsky will perform at the West End Cultural Centre with special guest Ellen Froese on Jan. 19.

Published in Volume 77, Number 15 of The Uniter (January 19, 2023)

Related Reads