For Great Lake Swimmers frontman Tony Dekker, the shift from his usual slow, methodical recording process to a lightning-fast one for newest album “Caught Light” was both illuminating and inspiring for how to approach future projects.
“I’ve never worked as fast in my life and I feel like I really turned a corner that way,” he said on a recent call from his home in southern Ontario, Canada. “I was kinda like, ‘THIS is how I want to make records now — this feels really good to me.’ Not being too precious about it.”
Dekker, who’s played with a rotating cast of musicians over the course of the indie folk group’s 23-year history, handed the reins to producer and former bandmate Darcy Yates for “Caught Light,” the band’s ninth album, released in October 2025. Over just five days at a Victorian farmhouse-turned-studio in rural Ontario, the pair and a handful of studio veterans assembled by Yates recorded the album’s 10 stellar songs.
“I had most of the songs already so it came together very quickly and very easily and effortlessly,” said Dekker, still buzzing with enthusiasm a year after making the record.
True to the easygoing spirit of the album’s creation, its track listing almost exactly follows the order in which the songs were recorded. “This really is like a record in the other sense of the word — a document of a place and a time,” Dekker said.
Not only did he forgo his typical method of working on songs that might not make the cut, he didn’t even write album closer “All The Best” until the morning of its tracking session. A lilting, delicate rumination on the challenge of staying in touch with long-distance friends, the song took shape when the singer/guitarist was awakened by a morning thunderstorm. It sounds like it was destined to wrap up the record. “That’s the reason why it’s the bookend, because it was literally the bookend, too,” said Dekker.
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The hushed “Youth Not Wasted” continues the band’s ballad tradition, though its reversal of the old quotation about youth being wasted on the young (attributed variously to George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde) meant that Dekker’s initial plan was to make it a harder-edged, youthful-sounding tune.
“But as I started writing the song I realized that this needs to be told from the other side,” he said. “To make it authentic for me, it’s gotta be where I am, you know, where I’m coming from in my journey.”
In contrast to the more typical “Youth Not Wasted,” a two-song stretch midway through the album is a rare group foray into psychedelia. Both “Endless Detours” and “Running Out Of Time” bear those touches, from swirling organs to backwards guitar parts, the latter courtesy of studio wizard and Blue Rodeo multi-instrumentalist Jim Bowskill. Again, Dekker put his trust in producer Yates. “I was happy with it in the end,” said the frontman. “I just had to be OK with being out of the Great Lake Swimmers box on those ones, totally out of the comfort zone.”
One influence on Dekker’s writing for “Caught Light” was his return to the Niagara region, where he grew up, after many years in Toronto. “It’s the idea of just returning to a more community-based existence and fleeing the big city, as a lot of people did when COVID hit,” he said. “There’s definitely an aspect of reflecting on that on the new one.”
The trio of musicians have gotten a number of performances under their collective belt since the album’s release. Now, after a few shows in their native Canada at the beginning of October, Great Lake Swimmers return to the United States for a five-week fall tour. It will be a true zigzag affair, taking in the Northeast, the South, the Pacific coast, the prairies and upper Midwest.
The touring has prompted Dekker to reflect on how its songs have evolved in the live setting. One factor is that Great Lake Swimmers are now a trio, with Colleen Brown (“a great player and a great person to have in the band”) and Marshall Bureau (“He’s had a music career as long as mine, or longer even”) alongside Dekker. A well-known drummer and vibraphone player, Bureau also plays some bass and is now singing live for the first time in his career, providing the low third part to complement Dekker’s soaring tenor and Brown’s high parts. In addition to singing live (and providing harmonies on “Caught Light”), Brown plays keyboards and guitar.
“With the trio the songs breathe in a different way,” he said, noting the many years in which the group was a quintet. “The focus has really shifted to the songs in a nice way, I think. They’re allowed to float a little more.” Lead single “One More Dance Around The Sun” epitomizes this evolution. “It’s a little bit more scaled back than the record version,” Dekker said. “But it’s given it this different life.”
The success of “Caught Light” has added to an already illustrious multi-decade run for the band. The Great Lake Swimmers’ resume includes two Juno nominations (Canada’s equivalent to the Grammies) and the standout album “Lost Channels” was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize in 2009. To the delight of Dekker, new fans are frequently joining long-time ones.
“I love that people are still finding out about us because they have this catalog to discover,” he said. “I feel like with ‘Caught Light’ people are catching up with us again.”
The wave of optimism and energy that carried Dekker and friends through the rapid creation of the latest album and its subsequent connectivity with old and new fans alike shows no signs of cresting. Recently he completed an artist residency in a remote stretch of northern Ontario, near Lake Superior.
“I spent a week plus writing and being basically in solitude,” he said. “I feel like I’m on a bit of a creative high right now in terms of my songwriting and all that, so I’m really excited to get to work on new songs as well.”
And on the fall tour, it’s likely U.S. fans will hear Great Lake Swimmers try out brand new material alongside the bulk of “Caught Light.”
Next year will see the band both celebrate its past and push toward the future. Fan favorite album “Ongiara” will celebrate its 20th anniversary, for which Dekker is planning a deluxe vinyl reissue. More touring is likely, and happily so is new music. Said the singer, “If all goes well, I’ll have some new songs and we’ll be looking at doing some recording as well.”
With Dekker’s new-found enthusiasm for working quickly, 2027 is looking to be another banner year for Great Lake Swimmers.
See the Great Lake Swimmers perform at The Ark on Nov. 12 at 8pm.
