Small Communities, Big Ideas

For a small city, Guelph, Ontario has had an immense influence on Canadian music. A university town known as much for its veterinary college as for its many bars and clubs, Guelph has become a mecca for artists, and nowhere is this truer than in its tightly-knit indie music scene, which has produced members of internationally renowned acts like Arcade Fire, as well as multitudes of forward-thinking local bands. Musicians in Guelph form a life support system—swapping shows, equipment, rides, and members to help musicians who are friends as much as colleagues. The community that makes it possible is the work of talented musicians like singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie, who grew up in the city and lived there for 26 years before relocating to Toronto. And it’s evident in Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, an acclaimed iOS game that marks Guthrie’s first videogame project.

Guthrie’s singing voice, a conversational falsetto, doesn’t sound like it should come from the 30-something indie rocker, who has long, black hair parted in the middle and the impressively robust moustache and goatee of a bygone gunfighter. His unassuming appearance and nervous-sounding vocals belie a musical stature that towers large over Southern Ontario’s indie scene. Listening to his songs, it’s easy to understand why.