With a ukulele, a foot tambourine and a harmonica, 19-year-old Dylan Sylvester describes himself as a junior one-man band.
Dylan is a busker. It's his real job - by choice. Driving an ancient blue van, overnighting in brightly lit parking lots, Dylan makes enough to support his lifestyle.
"I have no needs," he says, except "saving up for the next tank of gas."
At this point, he has no plans to do anything different. He may be a busker forever.
"In an ideal world, if I won the lottery or something, I'd do it and donate all the money I make," says Dylan. "I just want to sing, I just want to play, I just want to give my music to people."
Dylan explains, "It started when I got my first ukulele in 2010."
Prior to that he had been through the music festival system, mostly playing the trumpet. He played in his high school's concert band and jazz band and in the Kinsmen City Band. From Grade 11 until he graduated in 2013, he and a group of friends had a funk band called The Cunning Men.
Once he'd been playing the ukulele for a while, the 16-year-old North Battleford Comprehensive High School student decided he might just try playing in front of his school with the case open.
"It went over pretty well," he says. "In a half hour I made $12, better than the job I had at the time, working at the pool as a lifeguard."
He'd found what he wanted to do.
Street performing has been around forever. The term busker has Spanish roots - "buscar" means "to seek or wander."
Dylan wanders Saskatchewan and Alberta, seeking places to play. His repertoire features folk, rock, pop and indie covers, "basically what I like at the time," he says. Since he has started writing his own music, he has added three original songs to his lineup.
Now that the weather is turning colder, one might expect a prairie busker to retire for the winter - and Dylan did last year. But he plans to work through the entire season this year.
"You just put on your gloves and bundle up and grit your teeth," says Dylan. "You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore, man."
Dylan is a North Battleford product, the son of Doug and Louise Sylvester and a member of North Battleford Comprehensive High School' Class of 2013. His decision to become a busker can be traced back to examples his parents have set for him. His dad, Saskatchewan's provincial biathlon coach, is a singer-songwriter who has even co-written a song for Jaydee Bixby of Canadian Idol fame. His mom is a bookkeeper who, now that her kids are grown, is getting more involved in a dream she's been chasing for herself - instructing yoga.
He laughs that he and his brother are complete opposites.
"I was in drama and stuff and he was in football, and we even went to different schools," says Dylan.
His brother went to John Paul II Collegiate, and became a firefighter, while Dylan hit the road with a ukulele.
While he's on the road, he maintains a blog, which can be followed at opposable music.wordpress.com or by visiting https://www.facebook.com/OpposableBuskingCompany. Each day he records his earnings, his venue, how long he played and highlights of the day.
"It's about keeping it professional and real," says Dylan. "When I go out to busk, I say, 'I am going to work.'"
When he started keeping statistics in 2013, he was averaging about $27.50 per hour. So far in 2014, he's averaging $29 per hour.
As a busker, he averages two to four hours a day performing. When he's done, he retires to The JUG, where he might blog, read a book or write a song, "then take naps."
His home on the road is a 1979 200 series Dodge B-class camper van. It features a queen size bed, fridge, stove and heater, plus a bright orange plush interior worthy of the seventies. He has added a guest book, because The JUG is often a popular place for his friends to hang out.
Dylan says The JUG has everything a busker could ask for, even though it's kneeling room only and he tends to rip the knees of his jeans getting in and out. He never drives it more than four hours of day.
"It's as old as the video game Pac-Man, so I don't drive it too hard," says Dylan. He adds with a laugh, as a busker, "There's never anywhere that I need to be."
While he plays many places, his favourites are Moose Jaw and Canmore, Alta.
At a recent farmers market in Canmore, he made $125 in two hours.
In Moose Jaw, they let him play in front of the casino as late as 8 or 9 p.m., and only in Moose Jaw or Canmore will he play late after dark in front of bars where he knows he's safe.
Most of the time, he plays during the day. The best time is usually around lunch.
"I've heard it said, 'Go for their coffee change or their lunch money.'"
Many people stop to talk to him. They ask questions - how long have you been doing this? What do you play? Do you know this song? What do you do when it's cold?
"I get a lot of people saying, 'I wish I did that,' or 'I did something similar back in my day,' or 'Man, I wish I could do that but I'm not brave enough.'"
He likes to think he may be an inspiration to people around his own age. He says, "Whatever you want to do, you'll find the money if you want it bad enough."
He says he gets very little negative reaction.
"Every once in a while a person will say, 'Why doesn't he get a real job.'" But Dylan says, "It is a real job. That's why I do the blog. I know down to the tenth of a penny what I made this year."
People often ask him what he's saving up for. But with no plans to do anything but what he's doing now, he says, "I'm doing it just to keep doing it!"
Dylan says he has no idea how long he will be busking.
"Another year? Until I get old, or bored, or scared? But whatever I do after, I still want to be a professional musician."
He once thought about being a band teacher.
"I like teaching," he says.
He also has a musical venture going with former bandmates Sam Burns and Sean Newton of The Cunning Men.
"We actually released an EP not long ago," he says.
Together, they are Grade School Music and can be found at www.gradeschoolrecords.ca.
Their music has variety, he laughs, because they have completely different tastes in music.
