Paul Haggis

Paul Haggis is a singer-songwriter rooted in a prairie tradition of folk, country, and blues that bears the influence of other Canadian artists: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson. As he ventured into Jazz and experimental forms of music he discovered a technique that gave rise to the concept he calls Primitivesax, a unique idea that marries the sound of the saxophone with the electric guitar. For that innovation he was awarded a Canada Council grant, and he has continued to integrate Primitivesax with other forms of rock, funk, and ethnic music. His professional career has taken him throughout the Americas, and more recently Haggis spent a period of time in China, where he formed a band with musicians from Inner Mongolia and performed at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
Since his return to Canada, Paul Haggis, has made appearances at The Kulth Music Festival, on Vancouver Island, and the International Looping Festival in Santa Cruz CA. Along with his partner Jenn Ladd, they own and operate Bluedog Guitars in North Vancouver, a boutique shop for acoustic instruments. Together they wrote the song, "Rogue River", that was selected as a finalist in the Folk category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2011.

The technique involved in Primitivesax allows a single instrumentalist to play both saxophone and guitar simultaneously, with only a brass hook connecting the two instruments. Sympathetic vibration allows the sound of the sax to trigger overtones from the guitar, which are then sustained using feedback and digital delay, creating a drone accompaniment from the amplifier. The vibrato arm (whammy bar) of the guitar is employed to control the frequency of the guitar tone as it merges with a note from the sax, with control being exerted from under the palm of the hand operating the lower keys of the sax. This marriage of the sax and guitar creates a sound node that is purely analog in nature (not unlike a Theremin), hence the name 'primitive', and represents a unique development in contemporary electro-acoustic music.