Mike Legere is a songwriter and producer based out of Toronto, Ontario, originally from Nova Scotia. He released his first solo record Ourselves in Public on June 8th, 2018, followed by a music video for the single “Love Songs (In Fear of Dying Penniless),” and a second single, “Billboard.” His sophomore record Memory Forming Clouds, will be released in 2022. He’s also played with such acts as Century Thief, Places Erupt, and Omar Shabbar.
“Dawson City”, the latest single from Legree, tackles the age-old insecurities familiar to anyone that’s ever decided to pack up and leave their hometown in hopes of something better, even if they’re not sure where or what that something better is. It’s a cleverly arranged track with its rhythmic and harmonic complexities tucked neatly under a sincere voice and deliberate, catchy melody. Recorded during a somewhat unexpected return to his hometown in Nova Scotia, “Dawson City” is proof that, despite all the uncertainties that surround the idea, sometimes you can go home.
“The name Dawson City was one I had in mind for a long time, I came across the story of the town in a textbook years ago, talking about the Klondike gold rush- how the town developed quickly in this period to house all of these underprepared travelers who would end up either dead or with nothing…I was writing this song about losing direction; realizing your own motivations and preconceptions were misguided, and having to admit that things didn’t go as planned. I wanted to reconcile these two situations and find the hope in them… so I think overall it’s about coming to terms with loss, squaring these old ideas or directions that don’t hold up, admitting they don’t, and then finding what you can walk away from it with, and finding that hope in what feels like failure,” says Legere.