He began writing songs at a young age to escape the boredom of his suburban life, and cites Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Nick Lowe as influences.

Eventually, Collett moved to downtown Toronto where he worked as a woodworker and carpenter, doing renovations and custom home building, while he pursued his music.

In the late 1980s, Collett co-founded the band Lazy Grace with Kathryn Rose and Kersti McLeod,[2] performing every Monday at Toronto’s Spadina Hotel at the popular indie music gathering, Radio Mondays, alongside The Weakerthans and artists on the record label Arts & Crafts, who would perform and write songs together.

[3] Around 2000, he was a part of the short-lived alternative country group Bird, of which Andrew Cash and Hawksley Workman were also members.

Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Leslie Feist and Brendan Canning all contributed, as did members of bands Stars and Metric.

[9] In 2007 Collett and poet Damian Rogers began coordinating The Basement Revue, a recurring concert series at Toronto's Dakota Tavern which saw writers and musicians collaborating on performances, with lineups not announced in advance of the show.