“I've been in that hospital bed and thought ‘I might not ever see another room other than this one,'” remembered Toronto-based singer-songwriter Peter Katz over the phone from Calgary, Alberta. At the age of 19 he was diagnosed with leukemia. After several months of grueling tests, the diagnosis was proven false, but the experience changed Katz's life forever.

“Having faced that, I've kind of just relentlessly done all the things I want to do,” he said. “I really did lose the ability to plan ahead because I just don't think it's true that you're going to live forever and time can't be wasted.”

An empathetic songwriter with a knack for pulling at heartstrings, Katz certainly hasn't wasted any. He is a recipient of the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award, he has written and recorded several albums and has crossed the country dozens of times. The leg of his most recent tour will see Katz perform at the London Music Club on December 3.

He'll be promoting his most recent album, First of the Last to Know, an effort which lies somewhere between Jeff Buckley and Ron Sexsmith-style folk and pop music. It was recorded last year with friend/producer Rob Szabo, and titled to describe Katz's own place in life right now.

“For me, First of the Last to Know is kind of about being somewhere in the middle, somewhere in process. You're not the best. You're not the worst. You're kind of figuring things out. One night you might have this amazing epiphany and you're feeling amazing and it's like ‘Wow, life is amazing!' (Then) you wake up the next morning and it's like ‘Oh, I've got to go grocery shopping, and how am I going to pay for those?'”

It's no secret that breaking into the music industry is incredibly tough, but the journey, to Katz, has been one of immense satisfaction. Earlier this year one of his dreams was realized when Glen Hansard, former frontman for The Frames, sang on the title track of his album. Katz then went on to open for Hansard's band, The Swell Season (which he co-fronts with fellow collaborator in Once, Marketa Irglova) at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to a crowd of 1,200.

“I'm a big believer in the philosophy of working with people who are better than you so when it comes time to making a record, I try to find the right people who are going to elevate me to something beyond what I could just do on my own,” Katz said of the opportunity.

Perhaps the most interesting collaboration on Katz's album came from Oliver's Tune. It was written as a tribute to Oliver Schroer, Canadian fiddler, composer and music producer who passed away in 2008, succumbing to leukemia.

An interview with Schroer after his diagnosis proved very personal to Katz, returning him to his own run in with the often fatal disease.

“(Schroer) said, ‘I'm doing what I want to do with my life and even though I'm going to die, I have nothing to change. I'm making the choices that are what I want to be doing' (and) I felt the same way. I was like ‘Yeah, I know it to be a fact that my life could end tomorrow.'” The interview concluded with a 10-second clip of Schroer's song, A Song For All Seasons. Katz didn't pay much attention to it, though, until after he returned from an overseas tour.

“When I came back from Europe, I had been playing Oliver's Tune and I sat down at my computer to catch up on e-mail or whatever and the album was there by my desk. So I put (it) in my computer and all of a sudden the first track came on and I just started singing (Oliver's Tune) over top of that song and I realized that the two fit perfectly together and every change that happened I kept singing and it kept working.”

Katz soon thereafter had a friend record the opening part of Schroer's song over Oliver's Tune, and a perfectly fitting Canadian tribute was made.

“It was one of the most amazing moments in my life, without a doubt.”

Peter Katz will be performing at the London Music Club on December 3. Tickets are $10 at the door, $11.50 online from ticketscene.ca