SUNDAY SESSIONS presents WiL & Co

On any Friday night, in the 1970’s, somewhere in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, a young Billy Mimnaugh would be found sitting in on his parents late night ‘kitchen sessions’ his father playing guitar, his mother and friends singing the songs of the country and folk singer/songwriters of the sixties and seventies; artists such as Simon and Garfunkle, Hank Williams, The Mama’s and Papa’s, John Denver and the like.

From the moment he was handed a real guitar at twelve, Billy practiced. And practiced some more. In his teens you would find him holed up in his room; a set of headphones perched atop his head, listening to new influences like Pink Floyd, Metallica and even Leona Boyd but it wasn’t until 1992 while sneaking his guitar in to play a cover song as a birthday gift for a buddy that the manager came over and asked if he’d consider a paying gig in the loft upstairs.

And so, for the next ten years you could find Bill, who became WiL ( with one L ) packing the bars of Calgary Alberta on any given night of the week. After successfully sneaking the odd original tune into his set he took a leap of faith. With the help of friends at Six Degrees Music and Production he recorded and released his 2003 debut album ‘’. Selling 6000 copies off stage alone, an agent came a knocking and before he knew it he was showcasing the album at Toronto’s Canadian Music Week where he was promptly signed by Canadian music label, EMI, effectively jump starting his career as a song writer and touring musician.

The road has been a long one. It’s not an easy sell playing original roots-tinged rock songs to unsuspecting folks…lucky for wiL he was never that interested in the sales part. Call it determination, call it crazy, call it whatever you want, something is still working and it’s working pretty darn well. At 54, the enigmatic, fiery, silver bearded front man heads up the west coast Indie folk rock outfit known as WiL and Company. ( Formerly ‘WiL’ but he felt odd that his name left out his trusty long time drummer and any guest musician that might come on board for a turn )

But how can someone known for conjuring sensitive singer song craft like Travel Alberta’s soaring anthem ‘‘ or the gut wrenching apology song be the decidedly un-wimpy front man whose website was coined from routinely breaking strings???

The answer is found in the juxtaposition of it all. Like life, there is delicate balance between good and bad, light and dark, soft and hard. “I enjoy the profound dichotomy of writing a delicate lovely piece of music and then performing the shit out of it live. It’s unexpected and it can unnerve people; especially if they expected something a bit more tame, more folksy. I’m not a sit-on-a stool performer. I’ll put my soda cranberry on one but that’s where it ends. If I’m not sweating buckets by the fourth song there is definitely something going wrong”.

It has taken the better part 25 years to get there and he’s still not done. Fastidious. Yes. Meticulous. Yes. A.D.D.?? Probably, but it’s precisely this that has landed him some pretty cool gigs. Standouts include opening for soul legend Mavis Staples, Canadian Indie darling, Feist and one of his music heroes, Ray LaMontagne.

WiL spends his time off the road penning music for TV/film, song writing, practicing Goju Ru karate and riding anything with two wheels.

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