City artist invited to SCF songwriting competition

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on May 25, 2023.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Thorsten Nesch stands outside The Slice where he will perform an original unpublished song on June 4 in the South Country Fair songwriting competition.

Editor’s note: The artist just received word that he’ll play on the 3rd instead of the 4th so this is an updated version of the story.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

South Country Fair organizers made Thorsten Nesch’s day on Wednesday.

Nesch was invited to perform a song in the SCF songwriting competition at The Slice on June 3.

The performance will earn him a chance to play on the main stage of the fair this summer.

The competition has three categories – Cherry for songwriters aged 12-17; Plum for those 18 and older; and BeefSteak for those 18 and older who must meet one of two criteria. Grand prize for winners in the first two categories is $250 plus two weekend passes and a chance to perform at SCP while the BeefSteak winner gets $750 and the other two prizes.

This year’s festival runs July 21-23.

A native of Solingen, Germany, Nesch, along with his wife and three kids have made Lethbridge their home since 2014.

The soft-spoken Nesch is a songwriter, poet, novelist and filmmaker with a long and diverse career starting in his homeland.

He has worked as an instructor for film, radio, creative writing and conducted workshops in Germany. He has lectured and worked as a culture journalist for a monthly magazine in his homeland, served as a juror at various artistic competitions, and in 2008 a novel he wrote was nominated for Best German Young Adult Fiction Debut. He also has a novel published in Canada

His art and performance history dates back to the late 1980s when he did street art in Germany. He’s had several exhibitions in southern Alberta including at Casa and has been a performing author at the SCF.

As a musician, his work encompasses elements of several styles. And now he may get a chance to showcase that music on the SCF main stage.

Nesch started out with poetry when he was younger and moved onto other writings. In his 20s, he took up the guitar and kept writing. He and his Calgary native wife first lived in Victoria and then Calgary where he started on guitar. As a landed immigrant with just a tourist visa, he wasn’t allowed to work – which he says wasn’t bad for an artist – and he decided to see what he could do with a guitar.

He spent 10 years as a full-time author. He estimates he gave about 1,500 readings of his works over the years at schools, on cruise ships and elsewhere.

When travelling, he listened to music and would get an idea and then write a song.

He’s looking forward to the chance to get on back on stage and showcase his work for the SCF.

“I kind of missed that stage adrenalin a little bit”, Nesch said.

His music styling includes alternative folk and alternative country – “I always loved that. There are elements of that in my music as well as songwriter, but also lo-fi indie.”

For a while now, he’s been releasing one extended play recording a month to Bandcamp and streaming services.

His submission for the SCF is a song that hasn’t been published, one of the requirements of the competition. Nesch works three months ahead on making his recordings – with him now recording his August piece.

“That was one of the songs that I had almost finished but wasn’t released.”

He is well familiar with the SCF having been pulled onto the stage one year by poet and musician Kris Demeanor to do poetry.

While on the west coast, Nesch got to know Demeanor and Geoff Berner and the pair stayed in Germany with his family about 20 years ago. Demeanor even wrote a song about one of the Nesch family’s sons.

For him the songwriting competition “is a little recognition.” The talent at the SCF, he says, “is really amazing.”

Nesch says the music industry really hasn’t changed much for artists over the decades. The difficulty in getting exposure is the same perhaps as it was 40 years ago when the industry had major record labels signing artists who needed label support to gain audiences.

Now, artists can publish their own material but there is so much music out there, it’s hard to get noticed. Nesch says while there won’t be potentially millions of listeners for his work there realistically might be 20,000 worldwide “that really get it.”

“But it’s hard to find those.”

Lethbridge will be the permanent home for him and his family, says Nesch.

His art, however, has roots here and in Germany.

“I said that in Germany I’m a German author but I’m a Canadian storyteller because with my novels, the whole thing’s about structure I learned in Canada.”

You can check out his music online at thorstennesch.com

Among the artists scheduled to perform at the SCF this year at Fish and Game Park are Shaela Miller, Skinny Dick, Moranz & Fremlin, Atomicos, Badlands and Ellen Froese.

Tickets are available online at southcountryfair.com

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