While speaking with Jamison Isaak in his basement studio in Chilliwack, his young son Oskar comes down the stairs to request his dad turn on the audio book Pancakes Pancakes by Eric Carle for him.
Such is the life of a Juno-nominated electronic music artist who is also a suburban dad.
It’s not all clubs at 3 a.m., sometimes it’s the park at 3 p.m.
“Life here is very mellow,” Isaak says, surrounded by keyboards and electronic equipment with a view of neighbouring townhouses.
Isaak’s alter ego is Teen Daze, an ambient indie pop artist with 10 albums under his belt (not all as Teen Daze) and even more EPs, including 2023’s self-released Natural Movement.
Isaak has been at it for a long time, but he is being recognized by the top brass in Canadian music with a Juno nomination in the category of Electronic Album of the Year.
That album is Interior, one that Exclaim Magazine reviewer Joseph Leroux describes as finding “Isaak succeeding his signature realist ambiance with French house-inspired kicks and bitcrushed samples. It’s a danceable deep-dive into some of Isaak’s first inspirations, and a demonstration of his mastery of production methods both old-school and contemporary.”
Isaak grew up on the Prairies, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but his mother grew up in Chilliwack so he has roots here.
He said he was in a “guitar emo rock band” in the early 2000s, but he started doing electronic music as a side project.
The “terrible” life of travelling in vans and sleeping on floors and playing in crusty venues wore thin.
”I had a long creative journey,” he said.
In 2010 he put out his first self-released album, My Bedroom Floor and his first EP Beach Dreams that same year.
Asked how his career grew, Isaak pointed to how much the music industry has changed in the last decade.
“It’s surreal to think about because I don’t really know how it happens now,” he said.
Back then, the underground electronic music scene was all about Mp3 blogs. He said one blogger would share, then two more, then four and it could snowball.
Then his songs would start to show up on “real” music sites, then venues from across North America came calling.
He’s always made music at home, at least started his projects there, but with a pandemic, a child at home and now a new baby, it’s actually become quite a positive experience for him.
“I’ve always just made music at home,” he said. “It’s an amazing experience. I’ve got a lot of infrastructure in place so I can make music almost to the standard I need to” before going to a real studio.
Touring, however, is much harder being away from family so it’s something he only does once a month or so.
As for the Juno nomination, he said it was a surprise.
“It’s really quite unexpected but very cool and flattering,” he said. “It’s so exciting for everyone around you, because I didn’t expect it.”
One of his fellow nominees is Rich Aucoin, who is a friend of Isaak’s.
In some ways, he’s living the perfect life with a wife, two kids, a nice suburban home, and a home set-up where he can make music exactly the way he wants to.
“If I walked into this space as a kid, I would have had seratonin overload.”
Isaak and his wife are off to Edmonton, leaving his kids in the care of his parents.
Isaak isn’t the only one from Chilliwack up for an award. Corben Bowen who goes by the stage name Boslen grew up in Chilliwack and he is nominated for a Juno for Rap Album of the Year.
READ MORE: ‘An amazing moment for my career’: Chilliwack-raised hip-hop artist up for Juno Award
The Junos are March 13 at Rogers Place in Edmonton and will be televised and livestreamed on CBC.
READ MORE: 2 Chilliwack solo artists nominated for Juno Awards
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