This spring, Toronto-based singer-songwriter Jason Collett and indie bands Zeus and Bahamas unleashed “The Bonfire Ball” in North America. The three-in-one tour has been travelling across the continent since the beginning of March, and has even been as far south as Mexico City, playing a show for the one-year anniversary of record label Arts & Crafts’ expansion to the region. Alfie Jurvanen, a former member of Collett’s backing band and now performing under the name Bahamas, joined the tour as it moved up the West Coast following their stint at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

While Zeus was working with Collett on his newest album Rat A Tat Tat, the band was also writing and recording their own debut, Say Us. “It was great watching my backing band becoming this thing which is their own,” Collett says. “It’s fun to play shows together. It makes it more interesting.”

None of the three bands are listed as opening acts, and each is given stage time to showcase their talents, as well as collaborating with the other bands. “What’s great about this tour is it’s a three-band project, but we all get to play with each other, learn each other’s material,” Collett says.

The collaborative nature of the tour is a continuation of Collett’s recording process for Rat A Tat Tat. Zeus and Collett worked closely together on the record, drawing inspiration from their surroundings and the new incarnation of Collett’s backing band. “It was sort of a culmination of my work with the band,” Collett says about the album. “I’ve been able to take advantage of their talents as producers, as writers, as musicians, in an artistic sense. It was great to tap into that and write with them in mind … There were hints of it in the last record, but it really came to fruition in this one.”

To avoid the monotony of the touring schedule, Collett believes it’s important to keep things interesting. Part of this involves the bands playing more covers. “We’ve been having a lot of fun playing Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head,'” he says. “For the encore, we like to just bust out playing a lot of covers, like we’re a wedding band or something.”

The extensive territory covered by the tour demonstrates the growing popularity of Canadian independent music outside the country. Much of Collett’s inspiration for songs comes from his personal experiences, many of them explicitly Canadian. Songs like “Winnipeg Winds” and a single titled “Love Song to Canada” reflect Collett’s experiences on the road and at home. “People always ask me, ‘Why would you reference Canada?’ [They’re] afraid that you’re not being universal,” he says. While his references to names and places may not be familiar to all who hear them, Collett isn’t worried about alienating his global audience. “The wonderful thing that I’ve learned from mythologizing a bit of Canada is that it becomes something for people [who] have never been to these places. It works. It lends itself in an intriguing way that can bring people in even more.”

Jason Collett, Zeus, and Bahamas play Petit Campus on April 15.