Tony Dekker has had the right posture from the beginning. Of course, it probably helped that he was never trying in the first place.

The central figure of Great Lake Swimmers has made a career in the music industry for more than two decades now, but as Dekker tells the story, that first self-titled record was never intended to be anything more than a personal passion project—to be heard by family and friends. 

What so many more of us know by now is just how magnetic the soundscapes created by Dekker and his bandmates would become over the years. There’s a lo-fi enchantment at work on each of Great Lake Swimmers’ albums and that’s partially due to the choice to include the recording environment so purposefully in each recording—whether that’s in an actual castle, an old grain silo, a cave system in Ontario, the Toronto subway.

Great Lake Swimmers continues to gain ground with each passing year, but Dekker’s ability to stay as open-handed as he was when he first started the band is the healthy core that’s allowed him to stay the course for so long in an ever-changing industry. He’s never lost himself to marketplace chases or label demands. And that authentic centeredness informs the alchemy of one compelling album after another. 

On this episode of the Resistance, we asked Tony Dekker to tell us about Great Lake Swimmers’ origins even as he recently celebrated an acoustic retrospective release titled “In Pieces.” It’s also a conversation about staying creatively present and letting the pieces fall where they will.

VISIT: Great Lake Swimmers

Photo: Ed Ng