From humming tunes while assembling legos to writing and producing his own music, Bajec continues to shape the musical landscape around him.
By Sia Shete
Musician Noah Bajec has found a voice and way of expression through songwriting (Courtesy of Jessi Priestley).
Noah Bajec, a 19-year-old singer-songwriter and music producer based in Toronto, says creativity of any form was a significant part of his life, even before getting serious about making his own music. “I’ve always liked the idea of creating something. I started as a visual artist,” says Bajec. With both of his parents being artists, there was always support and encouragement to “pursue the creative,” he says. Bajec reflects on a distinct childhood memory: “No boredom allowed! That’s what my mom painted in the treehouse. It helped me recognize that there is no such thing as boredom.” Boredom was never a bad thing because it led to creativity, he says.
Bajec is currently studying at Recording Arts Canada in Toronto. His sound is built upon authentic songwriting, backed by what Bajec calls “nomadic tendencies in instrumentation and production.” Inspired by the many artists and musicians surrounding him throughout an itinerant upbringing, Bajec gathered inspiration from popular soft-rock and r&b/soul artists by diving deep into their style of songs and immersing himself in their music. “It started as listening,” he says. Before he began making his own music, he enjoyed being a part of their world and the stories they painted with their songs.
The first song Bajec ever wrote was called ‘The Brink.’ “A lot of people listen back to their first music and are really critical about it,” says Bajec. “But when I listen back to it, I can hear the creative force and something really pure about early works.”
Bajec’s style of making music is a careful amalgamation of folk-singer songwriter and a profusion of processed sound. He gathers inspiration from known songwriters such as Sufjan Stevens, John Martyn, Fleetwood Mac and D’Angelo. “Their songwriting and fingerstyle, open, lush and alternate tunings, paired with an infusion of afrobeats and Latin jazz styles is something I love,” says Bajec. A year into playing the guitar, he really connected with the sound of the electric guitar and played around with an array of electric effects and sounds. “Then, as I started to write, I stripped it down a bit more and focused on more acoustic sounds.”
Bajec’s self-produced and self-written track ‘Empty House’ is a song he wrote while living in British Columbia during the summer of 2020. “I tucked it away and forgot about it until January of the following year when I revisited and recorded it in Ontario.” According to Bajec, ‘Empty House’ explores the idea of “home,” — what it is and how to feel it, accompanied by the distress from the inconclusiveness of believing and searching for it in a physical form.
While discussing his process of writing music and how sometimes the “lines are blurry,” Bajec says, “some people write it fully then go into production.” Bajec talks about how the songwriting finishes itself, during the process of recording. He says there’s always something left to chance during the production of a piece, and having a certain “stamp” of the moment he records is something that makes it even more special.
His song ‘Human Dude’ is a ballad and a “rumination on the voices of the human condition.” It was written and recorded during the cold of November at Bajec’s old home studio in his childhood home in Muskoka.
“I love the moments of stillness. I might be sitting down somewhere and listening to the silence or birds singing or the leaves or the wind. There's something that starts off a dance with your instrument,” says Bajec. He emphasizes a sense of intimacy that arises with his guitar, feeling it wholly and “making space” for the voice, if needed. He also mentions how he is extremely “attentive” to the fact that he is playing an instrument, which opens the gateway for lyrics to just start flowing out followed by the melody. “Sometimes I am making a sample and playing around different soundscapes and I find inspiration in that. Songwriting comes out while I'm producing.”
Bajec discusses how it can be a real struggle to set goals for the future, saying, “I can get tired or hypercritical of the music sometimes. I'll hold myself from seeing the initial magic in a song that I would have seen before, and it makes me struggle.” He says the songs “come and go” with regard to what is happening in his life at a certain moment. “Sometimes it's hard to promote something or share something you have written in a prior period. As that song could be a snapshot of a time in the past, a you in the past.”
Bajec plans to release a body of work, independent of the oeuvre that he is proud of, in the future. His newest piece, called ‘Don’t Look At Me’ will be released on all streaming platforms on Dec. 1. Bajec says he doesn’t wish to say anything about the song’s meaning. “I'd rather someone listen, hear it themselves. The track is smooth and airy, flow is contagious. The shimmering guitars, the visceral imagery in the songwriting, this one’s good.”