Kat Harlton
Lead Photo: Lane Dorsey
Singer/Songwriter Will Bowes recently released his debut solo single “Runway Lights” as part of an upcoming full-length album produced and recorded by Rob Wells (Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Backstreet Boys). “Runway Lights” reflects Will’s travels and experiences providing a raw fresh perspective. “I’ve worked in a bunch of different musical projects throughout my life, I feel that from an early age I was always really fascinated by pop music. I remember looking at the backs of the liner notes from Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Britney Spears and there was always this name, Max Martin that kept coming up. I think I was just fascinated about what ingredient went into the recipe that made these explosive, ear-worm hits.”
An award-winning recording artist, the singer/songwriter finds inspiration everywhere, sometimes this even includes the subway, “There are certain times when I’ll hear a melody or something and I normally just take out my phone and record it, because I’ll forget these things if I don’t. Even if I’m on the subway, I’ll just pretend to be on the phone and I’m just singing very softly, recording. When I was working on this album, I was on the GO Train on the way to producer Rob Wells’ house and we were working on a song called ‘Eleven’ that basically I had a voice note for. It was called ‘Oh My God Radio’ and I didn’t know what it was or where it came from, and I tried to click it, but I swiped and it erased it. I was like ‘I’ll never know what was on this voice note’. But I did some research and it turns out all your voice notes get saved in your iTunes if you have a certain feature turned on. I searched my iTunes and sure enough this voice note came up and it ended up being the chorus.”
Also a talented director and actor, Bowes is best known for appearances in films like ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’ and ‘House at the End of the Street’, “Acting was kind of something I fell into, both of my parents were actors. It’s certainly been really cool and I’ve had some really wonderful opportunities and I really got to appreciate the art form of it. I definitely feel more passionately connected to music, but there are a lot of similaries between them as far as performative elements. The biggest difference is, in the case of music, the character is myself.”
As we discuss vulnerability as an artist, the topic shifts to social media, “I think I’m among the generation or at least a member of a generation that just missed the boat on how posting to social media was the way to behave. It’s never really been an instinct to me to post whatever food I’m eating or what I’m doing. However nobody can deny that if you’re trying to be an artist of any kind, it is a pillar of creating that artistry of your yourself. Since I started releasing solo music, I really had to stay on top of social media and pay attention to it. I think it’s here to stay, it has a lot of potential, it’s a bit of a megaphone in certain ways, your personal billboard that you can change at anytime.”
Will Bowes performs at Toronto’s Drake Underground on Monday, July 22, 2019
For more on Will, visit: willbowes.com