'Music was first,' says Joel Thomas Hynes

"Music was first," says multi-disciplinary artist Joel Thomas Hynes.

Hynes has finally found some time between his writing, film and television projects to promote and perform his new album of original music, Dead Man's Melody.

Hynes said his uncle, the late singer/songwriter Ron Hynes, started him on the path to a creative life when he was about 13 years old and growing up in Calvert on the Avalon Peninsula's southern shore.

"My Uncle Ron would show up like a tornado and drop albums and demos," recalled Hynes. 

Having [Ron Hynes] as this sort of distant, renegade black sheep uncle who was out there doing it, it sort of opened up the possibility.- Joel Thomas Hynes 

"Having him as this distant renegade black sheep uncle who was out there doing it, it sort of opened up the possibility."

Hynes said soon after that he started to write poetry and stories,

"And some of them became melodies."

Books, television, music - all at once 

Hynes has been on a bit of a creative tear over the past couple of years.

His novel, We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, has received the 2017 Governor General's Award for Fiction and the 2017 Winterset Award.

His television series, Little Dog, just wrapped up its season on CBC Television to critical acclaim.

He said he tends to go back to music and songwriting when he is between major writing and acting projects. Dead Man's Melody was recorded just before Hynes began writing and shooting Little Dog.

However, Hynes said whatever he's doing, he always keeps his guitar with him and he's ready to write a song, in case an idea comes into his head.

"For me, personally, it feels like they're [the songs] dropping from the sky and someone's going to grab it if you don't."

Have a First Listen to Joel Thomas Hynes's conversation with Weekend AM host Heather Barrett.

Do you have a new album of music that Weekend AM should know about for First Listen? Email us wam@cbc.ca and tell us about it.

You can hear First Listen Sundays on Weekend AM from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in most of Labrador) on CBC Radio One.