From a trucker’s cab to Northern Ontario’s heart, Graham Murray Sears hits all the right notes with his debut single, Snow Machine.
The folk-rock anthem, a celebration of winter in the north, is just the beginning for the 47-year-old musician who is set to release his album SHARE, on June 27.
Snow Machine was inspired by Sears’ newfound appreciation for winter in Northern Ontario. Having moved north three years ago, he quickly learned that winter is a way of life.
“Winter is like 10 months of the year up here, you’re going to want an activity,” Sears said.
Though he had previously enjoyed snowboarding, he recognized that snowmobiling offered a unique way to experience the landscape.
“It sounded thrilling and exciting, having an opportunity to go out and see the beautiful landscape that we live in,” he said.
Sears, a former long-haul trucker, describes music as a “calling,” that he’s answered after 25 years of writing songs as a hobby.
Music has always been “almost therapeutic,” allowing him “to get things off my chest and get it out there,” he said.
Although he found financial success in trucking, it lacked the passion he craved.
A significant life change led him to Northern Ontario. “I left my wife,” Sears said.
“I sold my home and somehow the powers of the universe basically enabled me to walk away from my business.”
He met a woman, fell in love, and within 10 months, they bought a house up north. “Life made a lot more sense,” he said.
The move north provided Sears with the time to explore his musical ambitions.
“The powers of the universe,” led Sears to Mark Zubek of Zed Records, a producer Sears calls extremely talented.
“I would record my part in the kitchen,” he said. “And I would do the best of my abilities, just record on my laptop.”
The song practically wrote itself. After a chat with a local radio station owner who suggested a Christmas song, Sears had an idea.
“I thought if I could write about something that’s like the 10 months of the year, like the winter up here, maybe now we’ve got more of something that’s marketable,” he said.
He picked up his guitar and started writing immediately.
The collaboration has been transformative. “He’s made my songs become far greater than what I could do just by myself,” he said.
“I was like ‘oh my god, this is unbelievable.’ I was speechless after the first time I heard them.”
Sears said the response from his community was unbelievable.
The positive reaction inspired him to create a full album.
“If one song has made people that happy, imagine what 10 could do,” he said.
Sears named his album SHARE to represent giving back to the community.
“I am so grateful for all the people that have recorded music and taken the time to share it with us,” he said.
“It’s my turn now to give back to that.”
Instead of seeing his late-in-life pursuit of music as a risk, Sears sees it as a necessary step. He didn’t want to reach his later years with regret, wondering why he hadn’t explored his passion.
The road to Snow Machine hasn’t been without its challenges. A broken wrist slowed him down for seven months. During that time, he found rehabilitation in an unexpected way: by playing bass, later followed by acoustic guitar.
Slowly regaining the feeling in his hand, he realized that music wasn’t just passion, it was therapy.