When Nicholas Durocher performed at the Canada Day celebration at LeBreton Flats on Tuesday night, it wasn’t just the opening of one of the most important shows in the country. It was also the fulfillment of a longtime dream for the Ottawa native and JUNO Award-winning musician.
“I remember about 10 years ago I was at a friend’s cottage and we were watching the live broadcast, and we had been drinking — so it was quite a laughing-fest,” Durocher recalled ahead of his July 1 performance. “But I pointed at the screen and said ‘I’m going to be there, I’m going to do that’.”
Durocher is now better known as TALK, the Toronto-based performer who blew up with his hit single Run Away to Mars in 2021. He wrote the song while hunkering down during the COVID-19 pandemic at his childhood home in Stittsville.
Since then, his music has soared in popularity on streaming services and social media, as also among music critics. He took home the JUNO for 2024’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year and was nominated in four other categories of Canada’s top music awards. Previous winners of the Breakthrough Artist prize include Drake, The Weeknd and Serena Ryder.
“Every song is a tear-jerker that you can take something away from,” reviewer Katrina Yang from the Rising Artists blog wrote in describing TALK’s JUNO-nominated 2023 album, Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees.
Durocher said it’s always special performing in his home town, noting that Ottawa residents in particular have embraced him and his music.
“I stay with my parents when I come back,” Durocher said. “I’m fortunate to have my brother here with me this year and my girlfriend. It’s a full family affair.”
TALK’s key partner in music, guitarist Connor Riddell, is also from Stittsville.
As many would have predicted, on the Canada Day stage TALK performed the space-themed ballad that shot him to stardom.
“It’s a song that’s followed me around for four years,” Durocher said of Run Away to Mars. “I don’t feel like the song really belongs to me. It belongs to those it’s had an impact on.”
The performance featured Durocher front and centre, wearing a red and white jumpsuit adorned with a maple leaf. He was joined by a dancer clad in white at the front of the stage, as well as Riddell and his other bandmates.
The version of the song they performed included an added guitar solo that really got the crowd rocking.
There’s an added element of patriotism in this performance beyond just the red and white colours. Durocher, who had previously recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville, said that he felt this Canada Day was extra special given the current tensions in Canada-U.S. relations.
“We as a country have really come together, and like a lot of other Canadian artists, I chose to not pursue opportunities in the U.S. touring market this summer. Honestly I think it’s the appropriate response to threats coming from the other side.”
In terms of what’s next, Durocher says that he is currently working on a new album that will be the follow-up to Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees, which was also a Polaris Prize nominee in 2024.
‘We as a country have really come together, and like a lot of other Canadian artists, I chose to not pursue opportunities in the U.S. touring market this summer. Honestly I think it’s the appropriate response to threats coming from the other side.’
— Nicholas Durocher, better known as musical performer TALK
“I want to make the next album perfect,” Durocher said. “I felt like with the last album, I left a little bit on the table, so I’ve taken an extra long time to make sure the next album is the special one.”
Still, Durocher wants people to know that the album will still very reflect the music TALK fans have come to love.
“I think I’ve matured as a writer and musician,” Durocher said. “So it’ll be a little change, but mostly the same — just more mature.”
Perhaps one day, Durocher will be able to perform his new tracks at Canada Day celebrations in the future. In the meantime though, he says he’s happy he achieved one of his longtime goals.
Remembering his bold prediction at the cottage a decade ago about performing on the Canada Day stage in Ottawa, TALK said he was “adamant I’d be there the next year. It took an extra nine years, but I got it done.”
