Mitch Zorn
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For country singer/songwriter, Mitch Zorn, the approach to his debut album, Back To You (604 Records), is the same he's always taken to songwriting. "Win, lose, or tie, I'm going to do this forever, so I might as well do it the best way I can – authentically – and say what I want to say." That's abundantly clear on each and every track of Back To You, particularly on the title track, ‘Back To You.' "It's one of those songs that just seemed to fall out of the sky," Zorn says. "I wrote it in twenty minutes. And, personally, it's the song that's the most ‘me' in terms of finding my sound." Finding his place is a thread Zorn teases out of album opener and lead single, ‘Home' – a track that beautifully sums up Zorn's ‘full circle' musical and personal journey from his hometown of Nakusp, BC, across Canada and the US, and back again. While ‘Home' telegraphs the joys and simple pleasure of knowing where you belong, ‘Back To You' dwells on the valuable lessons to be learned during stops in between being home and away. "This album is a decade in the making. Some songs I wrote in oil camps in Northern Canada and Texas, some in Nashville, but they all tell the story of the last ten years." Consequently, Back To You preoccupies itself with comings and goings, thoughts long mulled over, and deeply ingrained experiences, treading the line between traditional and modern country while leaning heavily on Zorn's affirmation that he's always known exactly where he belongs and who he's meant to be. That dates back to his childhood, growing up in a town of roughly 1,500 people, where he spent summers in the BC backwoods with his grandfather, am outdoor guide, took up guitar at age eight, and joined his father's country blues band on rhythm guitar at nine. "My dad had a guitar in his hands my whole life. He's a singer, my grandma's a singer, and my aunties are singers. We played all kinds of shows and practiced twice a week for most of my life." By age twelve, Zorn was writing his own songs, not so much to develop the craft, but as a way to get things off his chest. "Songwriting was cathartic. I didn't think of music as a career. I just loved it, so I'd bury myself in my room and write every day." After high school and the first of many trips to Nashville however, he decided to give music a shot, but, knowing full well a straight nine to five job would interfere, got his electrician's ticket and took a gig in the Canadian oilfields – two weeks on/two weeks off – leaving plenty of room for music. Later, he landed a job in Texas – 4 weeks on/2 weeks off – splitting his time between the oil fields and Nashville, where he made the rounds of local studios, met with working musicians, and booked writing sessions roughly five times a week. Ultimately, five years on, in 2021, Zorn made good on a promise he'd made to himself to move home to Nakusp. Over time, between his father's band, shows in Texas and Nashville, and two years of regularly playing six nights a week in Western Canada, Zorn's put in his 10,000 hours and then some on stage. He's also developed a knack for taking the stuff of everyday life we all deal with, weaving in his personal experiences, and writing songs that speak to the kind of yearning we all feel for finding that one place where we belong. For Zorn, writing is about capturing the emotions of a story, of a moment or moments in time, inviting listeners to set their own lives to his music and words. That's the driving force behind the standout track, ‘Can't Have Both' – an ode to the road that examines the "what if? and might have been' moments he's experienced personally. But in a way that's simultaneously upbeat and personally revealing, yet instantly relatable. There are a few co-writes on Back To You, ‘Home' with Allie Sealy ‘and three with Dawson Gray, including the rock-tinged, ‘Just Notice' and '10 Days In July,' a blend of roots and contemporary country. But Zorn wrote the lion's share of the album's songs, and while recording with producers The Renaissance (Dan Botch and Garrett Ward) it's clear the only sound Zorn was chasing – that he's ever chased – was his own – a sound that takes cues from a wide range of artists and styles, from childhood heroes like John Mayer, Rob Thomas, Jason Isbell, and Jackson Browne, to 90s-era country, Hip Hop and Grunge. "I love a lot of different music, but you have to pick a lane and I always knew the lane I was going to take was mainstream country. Still, I'm always trying to figure out how to add elements from all those styles and get those things in there. I think you find your authenticity through that (process)." Ultimately, on Back To You, Mitch Zorn is just being himself – sticking to his lifelong ethic of constantly learning, developing his craft, and honing his chops to express the wide range of experiences and influences he's had in a way that's light on its feet, hard to pin down, yet absolutely authentic and unfailingly honest.