Walking Footsteps

My name is Mitch Knowles, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and I have been a prolific songwriter for over 40 years. My main claim to fame is being the guitarist for the PBS series Arthur™ (25 years), as well as co-writing some of the cues for the show. The music for the series actually started in my basement so I was literally involved from the ground up. I also sang and played guitar alone on the demo song The Ballad of Buster Baxter, which was then presented to Art Garfunkel. This pitch assisted in getting him to be the voice of a singing/narrator moose for Arthur’s Episode #51. Finally sung by Art Garfunkel, the tune eventually made its way to the airwaves in November 1998.

My guitar playing can also be heard during all the opening campfire scenes in the show, Are You Afraid of the Dark? I have also done a lot of voice work and sang theme songs for children’s educational material /interactive CD-Rom’s (Tracker Finds a New Home; Mia; Didi & Ditto). I co-wrote the theme songs for the TV series Mental Block and the spin-off of Arthur called Postcards From Buster (sang by Wyclef Jean). I also wrote a tune for Caillou's Holiday Movie Soundtrack, amongst other children's material. Life brings out the kid in me I guess ;-).

Music is my soul. Perhaps in part thanks to my late grandmother, Nana, for her brilliance as a phenomenal professional organist and piano player. She believed in me. I have owned a recording studio since 1985. The advantage of that is being able to record my own material anytime the creative juices decide to flow. I write the music and pen the lyrics to all my songs, I play every instrument required for my own productions, I sing all my tunes and produce the "wall" of back vocals which is part of my trademark, so what you hear is yours truly (unless otherwise specified). When I leave this Earth, the happiest thing I could take with me is what I give away and that is my song to you. Oddly enough, I’ll probably end up on Mars because I certainly have Perseverance. Ba-Dum-Bump!

In the late 90's, I gigged playing keyboards in a Janis Joplin Tribute band and later was the guitarist for Garou. My last gig was singing and playing guitar on a dinner cruise boat for two summers with a keyboardist and bass player. A few years ago I had the great privilege of befriending the legendary Mike Gauthier. I feel he is one of the finest jazz musicians I know and together we have been arranging and recording Beatles songs in my studio. For some reason we seem to click and I scratch my head wondering how somebody can know so much about music. I blame him for introducing me to the Devil’s Interval. I feel like I'm working with the late Grant Green.

My favourite original song is always the song I am writing and I do my best to improve on each and every single one. I have a tendency to write what I consider extremely clever words of wisdom because I feel there simply are no rules. How can there be set ways when there are no wrong notes when played in context!?

I have been blessed to have worked with some of the finest musicians here in Quebec and I am still extremely humbled by it. Lyrically, I tend to laugh at myself constantly because I can be so obscure and quirky at times. Ultimately, we're never promised a tomorrow, so I make the best of every tuneful word that comes to mind.