Calgary local is keeping at it

By Natascia Karen Vervena

Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is all about love. His YouTube channel is populated with short love songs dedicated to Twitter, the Internet, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto. His latest album, MBF Love LP, is another piece of the recurring theme. Fitzgerald also loves performing live and thrives on the audience’s energy, fully immersing himself in his music.

Only 24 years old, Fitzgerald remembers studying at the University of Lethbridge and stays connected to students by performing on numerous campus stages.

“I think that the venues are always a lot of fun, the crowd’s just super appreciative like I think some of the best shows I’ve ever played in my life have been in front of a university crowd.”

No matter what crowd you are a part of, if you love Fitzgerald he will be sure to love you.

“I love a lot of different performances for different reasons, like there’s been acoustic shows where I swear I had the best time I could ever have,” he says.

Fitzgerald even thinks of his live performances while writing songs and fleshing out new material.

“My favourite song I think is probably “Brand New Spaces” just ’cause it’s so much fun to play. I kind of gauge songs by whether or not they’re fun live,” says Fitzgerald. “If I had an album full of songs that I didn’t enjoy playing live, I think I’d probably stop doing what I do.”

The song “Care For You” is the perfect depiction of Fitzgerald’s personal description of his open-heart musical style. With lyrics like, “I’ll take extra care to pull out your chair for you,” Fitzgerald emits a truly sweet-guy persona without a doubt.

“That song is like a date, I took a person on that date exactly, yeah so that’s where that came from,” he says. “I like having really lavish nights but I also really, really love having some at home nights, you know? I think someone that can do both, they can fit into a leading role.”

While Fitzgerald enjoys a cozy night at home, his spontaneous side is apparent in his work. The “Care for You” video came from an impromptu filming session with friends.

“Actually that night in that field, we were having a party there, we were just celebrating our show that just finished,” he says. “So I just decided that everyone kind of take turns and go film a little bit of that video and we’d see how it turned out. It’s always fun when videos like that kind of work. I’m really thankful that that’s gotten the review that it has, but yeah, it’s just having fun.”

Other examples of spontaneity can be found in Fitzgerald’s song writing. Anything is a possible source of inspiration.

“I don’t use any definite place . . . one of the last songs I wrote I was at Costco getting my tires rotated,” he says.

It has been almost two years since the release of Fitzgerald’s last album and he currently working on his next one.

“[My new album will] be more of the same but more grown up,” he says.