Back when he was a student at MacEwan University, Travis Switzer, Music ’05, made himself a promise: nobody was going to outwork him. With five Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMAs), a place in the National Music Centre's Musician Hall of Honour and now a 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award, it's a promise he kept.
Why bass? My mom's a folkie from the ’70s, and my Dad's a country guy. When I was seven years old, he came home with a half-size Harmony brand bass from the Sears Bargain Centre in Regina, and I became the family band's bass player. When I was 10, I started taking music lessons in Regina. I fell in love with jazz music and started tinkering on the piano and guitar, but I still came at the music as a bass player. For me, it's always been about the rhythm and root notes.
You have an impressive collection of awards, but none are in your studio. Why? It's a huge honour to be recognized, and each of those awards hangs proudly in the hallway just outside my studio because they are for what I've done in the past. Inside the studio, my motivation is to keep making a living. What am I going to do today, tomorrow or next week? That's what keeps me going. I don't want to leave anything on the table or to feel like I'm half-assing it. That's not who I am or what I want to be as a musician.
So, who are you as a musician? I'm not a gifted, savant bass player, but I learned early on that there's a place in the music industry for people like me. I would be fun, on time, learn the parts and obsess over the little things in the music. I would continue to grow, and accept that doing that would mean being a bit uncomfortable. I made a promise to myself that nobody was going to outwork me. Looking back on my career, that was the only thing ever really in my control.
Stand-out career moment? My bass instructor at MacEwan got me my first gig, and I started playing club shows, bar shows and corporate events. Once I got my foot in the door, it just snowballed. Not long after graduation, I found myself with a plane ticket and hotel reservation someone else was paying for because they wanted me to play for them. I remember sitting on that flight and thinking back to when I was 16 years old, playing rodeos for 40 bucks and a beef on a bun.
A few weeks ago, you were on a different kind of plane. It was my first time on a private jet. I was touring with Dallas Smith and playing the Boots and Hearts festival outside of Toronto for 40,000 people. When I was 21, I never imagined that would be in the cards for me – and it may never be in the cards again. I can't control that, but I can control how hard I work.
Who would you love to share a stage with? I've played with many incredible people in my career – name a Canadian country artist, and I've probably worked with them. But the very first album I ever fell in love with as a musician – this could be the nerdiest thing I will ever tell anyone in my life – was Vince Gill's 1994 album When Love Finds You. I couldn't tell you three words of the lyrics, but I can play every bassline. Being on stage with him would probably be the peak; I could retire right there and fade into the sunset with a smile.
What would you still love to do? I don't ever want to be static or complacent. I’m currently throwing myself way out of my comfort zone as a bass player – opening exercise books, picking up my string bass and practicing like I was in college. I'm pushing myself on the live side and in the studio. I’m saying yes to gigs I never would have taken before. I'm focusing on the engineering side of producing, taught an online course on country music for the Winspear Centre last February and gave the convocation address at MacEwan last June. Growth comes from being uncomfortable, so that's what I'm doing.
Watch Travis Switzer's nomination video
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