The dedication Noah Malcolm makes on his latest single reads, “To anyone who has ever left home, wherever that is.” It’s a concept that seems so arbitrary and yet often forms a large pillar of our identities; that any place, whether through some quirk of our birth or years of familiarity, becomes the preferred context of our existence.
For Noah Malcolm, at least since 2015, that had been Toronto. But the Prince Edward Island-born musician has recently and unexpectedly found his way back to the east coast. It’s made him reconsider where he calls home and, inevitably, he’ll have to say goodbye to one of them.
His new single, “City/Country,” might present the two options as a dichotomy, but the lyrics seem to show that Malcolm’s choice has fallen to the latter. The song pits the life he and his partner have built against what he’s rediscovering about his home province.
“I’ve been based in Toronto since 2015 but flew back to PEI in October after my grandmother passed away,” says Malcolm. “Feeling like Toronto was unsafe, I felt more and more like staying on PEI. But, this meant leaving my job, my friends, and my partner of almost 5 years behind.
“My time on PEI was really fulfilling; reconnecting with old friends, spending time with my 10 nieces and nephews, and more. Time crept by and people in Toronto kept asking when I was coming back.”
During his extended-sojourn, Malcolm released his debut EP, On Time, and recorded a music video in his parents’ backyard that won him the Best Folk Video at the Canadian Independent Music Video Awards. The success and community he’s found from Prince Edward Island’s small but mighty music industry seem to have taken him a bit by surprise.
“With my budding career and live music happening on the island, it felt more and more like sticking around was the right thing to do,” says Malcolm. “Many long phone calls with my partner in Toronto resulted in us doing all the logistics of getting him to the island.”
While that’s proving to be a very popular option right now, it doesn’t come without its complications. Just as many young people flee for the big city, it can be nearly as hard to make the decision to come back. It was while weighing these options that Malcolm wrote “City/Country” in his hometown of St. Peter’s Bay.
“I was feeling so torn about where I wanted to be, but just feeling so in love with my home. I originally left PEI for more opportunity but, now, for the first time, I felt PEI was where I had the MOST opportunity. There’s a community here I want to be a part of,” says Malcolm.
“Now, it’s March, I still haven’t been back to Toronto. Since being on the island, I played my first live show to a PEI audience and am booking gigs in the Maritimes for the summer and expect to stay.
“None of this would have happened without COVID. It seems to have caused a big exodus back to rural life, back to people’s roots, and I know that so many people (especially my artist friends) are always stacking the pros/cons of rural and urban living. I think this song captures that sentiment well. The response has been one of deep resonance.”
Malcolm hammers the message home with a video showcasing his life in both Toronto and Prince Edward Island, interspersed with video from the live recording at the award-winning The Sound Mill recording studio. It makes for a warm, feel-good message that home is, ultimately, where you make it and the people you make it with.