RICH IN TIME is Jack Pine's first new single with Jack Pine and The Fire since nominations at the 2019 JUNO Awards and 2018 CFMA Awards in Calgary, AB.  RICH IN TIME was created with inspiration from genuine financial and career anxiety as he trudged deeper into the annals of the independent music industry. Produced with the support of FACTOR, the fresh single is a new millennial folk anthem that will see a digital release to online streaming and downloading platforms on Friday, April 24th, 2020. A theatrical music video by Alain Ouellette will follow.

Polished by JUNO and Grammy winning Mastering Engineer Philip Shaw Bova, Jack Pine likes to refer to his self-produced new single as “anthemic slacker-folk”. RICH IN TIME has a laid back country-folk groove and an old-school meets new-school sensibility that’s come to become synonymous with Jack Pine and The Fire’s always-acoustic Alt-Folk sound.   

RICH IN TIME's lighthearted lyrics compare the DIY attitude of the widening gig economy to that of the nuclear family mindset and job security of previous generations.  Jack had hoped that the song would appeal to millennial slackers and entrepreneurs alike while playfully jabbing at the boomer set, but with recent pandemic isolation measures the song’s simple message now speaks more widely to the dreams and fears of a suddenly insecure working class:

Do what you love and you’ll always be RICH IN TIME!

Jack Pine and The Fire gratiously acknowledges the support of the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings in the creation of this single and video.

Left To Our Own Devices has been nominated for a 2019 The JUNO Awards!!! As a 100% independent artist it is truly an honour to be recognized with this nomination for Canada's highest music award. [Long post...] 

Does this mean I need to add "Nominated Art Director" to my resume? The all-indie thing also means that I (Gareth Auden-Hole aka Jack?Pine) had my hands in literally everything that went on with this album and am still basically the sole driving force behind the project as songwriter, producer, engineer, mixer, manager, art director, booking agent, promoter, distributor, and everything else (yes, there's even more). I was in the drivers seat from the start, crashed hard when we had to start the record over from scratch, but picked up the pieces and got.it.the.f**k.done. It was a loooong haul and there is so so so much of ME that went in to this album and so I could not be more proud of this achievement. 

All that said, Emil Mateja really deserves the bulk of the credit for this nomination as he is the extremely talented artist who created everything that's interesting about this packaging. He was a pleasure to work with and the art and illustrations he created for the cover and interior of the album sleeves are the true source of this recognition. He took my ideas and patiently moulded them in to a strong concept, taking all my last minute additions and strange stream of conscious thoughts in stride. Then he knocked it out of the park with a bold, striking, simple cover image that is exactly what I wanted and perfectly compliments the music it represents. As much as I had my hopes high for a roots music nomination, this means no less to me and I'm proud to share this nomination with Emil. 

Emil's cover art is the striking image of a woodsman standing in the doorway of his burning log cabin surrounded by Jack Pine trees. The shadow of the man that the fire casts is that of a wolf - he is the lone wolf, a captain going down with his ship under a full moon in blood red skies. On the back of the record and on the disc itself is a crow with a smoking match, continuing the ongoing battle between nature and man. And inside are a handful of other little illustrations Emil made to pretty up the lyric book (Cardinal lovers left behind, rats eating family photos, and fish over fire).Sean Hyatt Art deserves credit for his awesome "Lone Wolf EP" album art that is reprised in the interior lyric book. 

The cover art was silkscreened on to raw cardboard sleeves and more than anything, the overall design was focussed on simplicity and quality from the start... I commend the jury for nominating a design like this considering that much of what I saw from previous nominations looked like very elaborate "special edition" style packaging that must have cost a fortune to produce (even ours wasn't cheap... but we sell 'em cheap if ya wanna buy one). 

Tristen Coffey and his crew at Precision Record Pressing put up with a lot of hassles with my inexperienced art layouts for the vinyl manufacturing (which really really look great!). And Superlink Communication & Printing Inc. did the CD manufacturing. If we add Stuart Rutherford Mike Essoudry Martin Newman Anders Drerup Al G Wood Chris MacLean Kelly Prescott Pat McLaughlin, Kaylen Irwin Curtis Chaffey Dean Watson Philip Shaw Bovathat's pretty much the entire credits for this completed album.. a very small list of incredibly amazing people (mostly the musicians on the recordings) that helped to make my life feel quite full at this moment. Finally, I could never have afforded to record and manufacture the CDs, LPs, Tees, and Trees without the generous support of City of Ottawa and the many many fans that contributed to our PledgeMusic presale campaign 

A heartfelt thanks to all of these people as well as my family, friends, fans, and especially Martin Foucault for standing by, putting up with me, and encouraging me through all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. 

ps: Limited vinyl copies are still available for sale (maybe 150 left?) - get them from www.jackpinefire.com/store.

Great news, folks, we've been nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the Emerging Artists category.  It's an honor to have been selected among such talented Canadian folk artists and we wish the other nominees a heartfelt congratulations... we did it!  Much love to The Aerialists, The Lifers, Annie Sumi, Mattie Leon, and Raine Hamilton who are in the same category.   Congratulations as well to my fellow hometown ottawa artists and friends who where nominated:  The LYNNeS, Jeremy Fisher, and Christine StPierre!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkEOGUtPysE

During the band’s successful 2017 crowd-funding campaign, singer-songwriter-producer Gareth Auden-Hole (aka Jack Pine) revealed that, like much of the album, "You'll Find Me Waiting" was inspired by the island cabin built by his grandfather on Lake Nipigon, Ontario. Having spent the majority of his summers vacationing on this same family island, Gareth recalled family stories of his grandmother being left alone with her 3 daughters for days at a time while grandpa Jack took the boat with him to camp and work on the lake for Abitibi Forestry.  Although the song doesn’t retell this story exactly, the inspiration is apparent in lyrics that explore the loneliness and longing of the song's protagonist for a lover that’s left them behind: “Oh so blessed will I be to hear your voice, dear, and replace that wretched tone of a man alone.” 

To create the ghostly new video, Gareth Auden-Hole collaborated with videographer Monika Kraska (known for her previous work with the band Boyhood) to create a more modern interpretation of his grandparents’ legend of love and longing, starring Gareth himself and his partner in real-life, Martin Foucault.  The story follows Martin through days upon days of lonely moments in a secluded lakeside log house.  He appears to be alone, but flashes of a missing lover (played by Gareth) cross his consciousness and blur the lines between imagination and reality. 

Needless to say, this video is as personal for singer-songwriter-producer Gareth Auden-Hole as it is important for Jack Pine and The Fire. Gareth explains his reluctant decision to star as himself: 

“The stories of my grandparents’ era at the island inspired most of the the lyrics for “You’ll Find Me Waiting”, depicting a traditional Canadian marriage between a hard-working lumberjack and his wife back at home.  The song assumed her perspective but I stumbled when my lyrics required me to reveal the gender of that isolated voice - is it the performer, me, “a man alone” ...or the more traditional “girl alone” that I had been imagining as I wrote.  I found myself wrapped up in useless questions of sexuality, gender stereotypes and perceived identities despite knowing the song itself to be a universal story where the characters'  gender meant very little.  Similar lyric-writing conundrums had previously led me to leave songs gender ambiguous but in this case I chose to stick to the true first person in the song: Me. 

When it came to making the video, I again struggled with the gender of the characters and it just felt petty. I compelled myself to confront both the societal biases and the personal insecurities that were causing me to subconsciously question the appropriateness of a same-sex relationship in a 'popular' media production.  I stuck to the 1st person lyric and decided to further own it by casting myself and my actual life partner, as ourselves.” 

The love and longing of his grandparents inspires the lyrics for "You'll Find Me Waiting" and with this new official music video Jack Pine further personalizes the age old stories of his family's heritage.  Fitting too that the video is launched on August 17th, the same day that Jack Pine again leaves his partner behind to embark on an 11 date Northern Ontario leg of his solo “Lone Wolf Tour”. He’s stoked to get back out on to the long open road and threatens to make this route an annual pilgrimage.

On November 27th, 2017, Jack Pine launched a new video single "The Only Thing", a previously unreleased original song performed solo, live and raw, and produced by videographer Alain Ouellette.  "READ THE BACK STORY HERE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WIDELY.

The Only Thing" tells a powerful true story of a personal experience with gun violence in Canada - it's about the fragility of life, the volatility of the world around us, and compassion for humanity.  The song and video is dedicated to the two men in the story and all victims of violence and with its release Jack is raising funds and awareness for a worthy youth leadership anti-violence organization that serves under-supported Ontario communities L.O.V.E - Leave Out Violence Ontario - Please consider donating to their valuable work.