Joel Plaskett

Part 1

0:03Appreciate having me in to talk man. That's great. Oh always I wish we had more time to go Not go through all 20 Go through a bunch of them. Absolutely. So Joel Plaskett welcome to the studio. Thanks man. Happy to be here It's always a pleasure to have you nice to be back and it's nice when you when you do some insane like this Yeah, it's a lot of you've heard that from a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah, you lost your mind got a bit of reaction I felt like I was losing my mind making it, but I was having a good time doing it So yeah, there we go new record three So what does allad read say when you go into his office and you're like I want to put up 27 songs You know I want you to distribute that for I gotta say maybe we're real cool about it. I mean I've had a like a pretty long standing relationship with them and I think You know ever since sort of la de dah, which was kind of like a You know a sort of left to center record in terms of when I delivered that to them

0:49They're like this is cool But then it did really well and and they were like hey, this is good All right, you know they kind of gave them a confidence in what I'm doing and it gave me a confidence to just feel like I could create something You know for myself and for my audience that I know that I have you know and by changing and then having a label that kind of Embraces that has made it really great. So the biggest challenge was like, okay, this is cool How are we gonna sell it or you know that's what cuz that's what record labels do So you know they have to kind of determine how they want to price it and all that There's big you know you have that there certainly it's not without its Debate in terms of trying to figure out how you want to present it when I'm like, yeah I want to make it a triple package three CDs and three booklets and all this is like, oh, okay Oh, yeah, really all right interesting, but you know they were they were great and that the reaction has been really

1:37Exceptional so speaking of three booklets if people do pick up the desk the actual physical desk as opposed to downloading it as Kids do nowadays. They'll see it cat sitting in the in the drum kit. Yeah. Yeah my kitty cat Why thanks you ever actually sat in while you played no, she's walking it working as padding no she yeah She'll walk by it though. She's deaf right so she could sit and she probably could sit and I mean imagine the Thump would bother but yeah, it's funny. I took her down to my space. She just crawled right into the bass drum was like This is where I'm gonna hang out. It's a cool picture. Yeah, you're a rosin Anna and your dad in the room. Yes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely A different kind of tour. It's really it's really fun. It's such a it is a different show The band's joining us for the last four shows of Toronto were playing Massey Hall the emergency Emergency so I auto watch Toronto and Halifax and Montreal. I got right I got the It's a place to fly west for everything. Well, it's just it's it's too hard when you're trying to do things in one vehicle and stuff

2:28You know when you as soon as you start doubling your costs you got to start doubling the amount of people that you're drawing You know really that's what it boils down to you have to and you know I mean it's it keeps getting better calories has been a member last time you're here was a sold out show Yeah, and the show and tonight sold out and so it's like Boy, I'm like I'm thrilled, but it's just kind of like you know I'm also pretty realistic about trying to make sure that I don't you know like just go You know I've never tried to order to tour bus or anything like that Just because I like many Canadian bands do unless you get to a certain level No, I mean a lot of the time if you do see a band in a bus unless if they're not drawing huge numbers of people Somebody's bankroll and I just don't you know I don't like to take those risks Oh fair enough, you know, I miss having the emergency along sometimes But I gotta say this acoustic tour has been really funny Yeah, it's it's been a good challenge for me to try and pace a show differently with different people

3:15You know and in rows or such great Oh, it's phenomenal It's a great player and we're just like it's fun because I have to kind of I have to I have to Bring my adrenaline back a little normally. I'm a bit like, you know, I'm kind of like full-on, you know I get run a little bit, you know Over I overheat or something but I try to cool off a little play with you know playing with acoustic people who are you know Playing a little cooler than I have some fun. You mentioned your dad. I know your heartless heartless heartless. You you co-wrote with him Yeah, yeah, we worked on the music to that together words and he and he and that tenor guitar line that I'm actually playing Yeah, it was kind of the first time we've really written anything together We sat down and played guitar and worked on a couple a little Major major influence in music well I mean, you know, I mean in a in a in a way in terms of like going back a long way

4:04And certainly with folk music my introduction to a lot of that the songs that I love There's a lot of like British folk and Irish folk music that I love that I've is stuff that my dad turned me on to And stuff that he would play songs that he would sing and stuff So I kind of he's been a huge influence me in that respect I mean, there's a lot of other music that I went off and kind of got into as a teenager But especially now going back and trying to make a record that has the definitely showcases the guitar and the and the and the kind of has a folk music You know Part you know having him play on it makes a lot of sense because my that my guitar style when I play in that way is very much Inherited from him. So that's cool. Yeah, and he's finished throughout the record. Yeah, he's all over the record I wish you could have come here today. We just kind of like we arrived on the venue and think about it

4:51You know leave him there. Let him sit. Yeah, exactly give him time to write this show It's a bunch, you know, there's a three word title themes. There's also a tweedle dumb and tweedle Do you chose up the Berlin Wall shows up all over? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, London Berg Are you living in the moon and Berg? Yeah, I don't live in Luna Berg. I grew up in Luna Berg So that's my little records. Yeah something else. Yeah, good things come to those who blank. Yes, exactly Yeah, run roll, you know, you're gonna you're gonna recur a lot of themes I guess when you write 27 songs over the course of a yeah And then and then once you start realizing that there are a few because when I'm doing these Writing I often notice similarities in our recycle phrases now. Yeah, sometimes I know some people bother to say Oh, I don't want to use that line. I already use it. Yeah, but then you hear it back You're like oh that song too. It's kind of yeah, I embrace it on this record. Yeah repetition would be the thing that would glue it together Yeah, you know and and bring some kind cuz there's a lot of different genres of music to

5:40Folk songs and country sounds yeah, so by pulling the lyrics into the same world, you know I've always loved like Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen guys like that You know when you listen to their words There's they recycle a lot of phrases and they mine the same terrain You know in terms of like they evoke a certain place and so I kind of I love language And I like playing with it and I like turning some of those expressions on their ear and yeah reason them here and there That's cool. I know you're in a rush. So we'll do five questions and I'll let you sure here Road or studio Boy, it's that's like you know, it's like hot and cold, you know, it depends on the winter in the summer, right? Well right now you enjoy me right now. I'm really enjoying on the road right now. Yeah, and I was I was kind of maxed out of the studio I think I'm I'm through at the studio in twenty seven songs and I just finished producing a record for two-hour's traffic

6:28Oh good, which is great and I but I basically spent the last year in the studio doing stuff, you know So I'm kind of I'm ready for the live stage right now. I'm loving it speaking of studio Last time Peter I'll go to series that he was going out to you to record some stuff. Yeah. Yeah, he came out Yeah, we did well we did two songs for a seven inch. I have a new label called New Scotland Records Two songs of Peter is out on a seven inch single and you know he plays on the new record on piano on one track and He's joining us for the Massey Hall gig. He's nice the emergencies He's when I'll use that he was here with Jason Kulllett and he played in his band to play like three hours on stage Peter's a really heavy weight musician. He's amazing back to five questions. I know you gotta go. Yeah, let an every cartney Jeez, you know, I'm a Lenin guy. I mean plastic ono band for me is the record You know, I actually kind of prefer both of them solo that more so than in the Beatles really yeah

7:17Sort of even the later McCartney discs well, you know like wings and like you know I mean it's not solo. Yeah, I mean once you hit no, it's everybody everything gets dicey We're gonna point the 80s, but I love plastic ono band that Lenin record for me is a really magical record So yeah, cool most important thing in a song lyrics melody your cadence You know you kind of can't have one without the other but for me good words make a break or two cool song you've written your most proud of Right now, I'm I'm really Really happy with the song called lazy bones on the new record. Yeah, it's one of my favorites and And then if I go into the back catalog there's a couple others lazy bones works lazy bones Yeah, that's that's that's one of my favorites light of the moon is another true patriot love and it's not called before you leave

8:05From the thrushroom at back catalog those are some way back you still pull those teams out live That one idea haven't done much else. I'd love to see if I I could at some point, but it's it's right now I'm trying to cover one One word before you go Joel Plaskett one word one word geez if I had to pick one word. Yes, what you're asking for Yeah Describe your music maybe not you but your music one word Ramshackle there's a word there we go. It's a good words. There's a lot like that one Well Joel Plaskett. Thank you very much. I knocked United Church tonight sold out show We don't need the plug selling tickets. You can't come in if you wanted to

Part 2

0:00Do the... Okay. There's almost there. So listen to the record today. Oh right, I took forever to get to it, but you know with my job, it's like one record for you kind of... Yeah, yeah, yeah. ...the whole thing. Alright, I'm excited to talk about it. Oh cool man. Awesome. Not quite as daunting as three, but still daunting nonetheless. Did we talk around three times? Yeah, you came in and you did a sick version of Denai. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, I remember it now. Okay. Yeah, I remember it. Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Yeah man. That's online too, right? That video, isn't there a video of us playing that version of Denai? Yeah. Yeah.

0:45I checked out the issue for this afternoon, it's at like 47. Yeah man, it's a really great video. Yeah, cool. Well, that's thanks to you, not me. I did nothing. How about it ended up looking, sounded good. Yeah, it's cool. Okay, so more daunting to do this than making three records at once. Or no. Different, you know, in more intense, ten weeks. But then it was done, it was kind of like, you know, no, it was probably easier. Three was kind of a, like I get pretty obsessive about any project I work on. Sure. That having at least an exit point for this project was good, you know, okay, I'm going to work really hard for ten weeks. Was it just ten weeks though? Because it's one song. You write the songs at the same time. No, the songs were written. So I guess the thing was, is most of the songs, we'd rehearse a handful of them, played them here and there, but it was kind of like, all right, let's go to work this week on a song.

1:38And it was the first time the song was ever recorded is what you're hearing on the record. Right, so no demos. No demos. Okay, it's time. We had done stuff live and played some songs, but I'd made a point of not demoing anything, because I didn't want to be chasing a demo. I wanted these to be the demos. Usually demo stuff though, I assume. No? Most of three wasn't. Most of three is all of this. Are you playing everything on three though? I can't remember. Yeah, so it's different with the band. How did the band record get demo's as you're creating? A lot of the band records get downloaded or get some pre-production or whatever, you know, but, so, this was, it was an exhausting ten weeks, like, at about a week, five, you're like, fuck, I got deadlines for another five weeks, just felt like, kind of like, I was watching the video stuff and you looked like, okay. That one, that was, yeah, and I mean, of all the songs on the record, I'd say that's probably the one that I could see my way through it a lot clearer now.

2:25I went on doing it. I never, I don't, you know, I like the song enough that I'm happy that it's on the record, but I know if I press record on it tomorrow, it would turn out differently. I had a question I was going to ask you about that. Now that you've been playing these songs live for almost a year now, I think, and make the fact that you had to record them so quickly, there was a Thursday deadline every time. Now that you've had time to flesh them out and live with them a little more than maybe her songs in the past, or other things you would have changed. Do you play them differently live, and maybe what we hear on the record? No, I mean, some of the time the record sort of guided us to the live versions, and not all of them were even getting played live. You know, there's still a few that we haven't totally tackled as a band. I play Slow Dance solo, but we don't do that as a band. Old friends, we haven't done it a while. We were doing it a bit. But like Tough Love was really worked up in the studio, and that became the template on which we do it live.

3:13Lightning Bolt's the one song that morphs a little bit every night. Oh, interesting. But, yeah, they're pretty, you know, what we're doing live is pretty true. I mean, I'm happy with the record, so I don't, you know, what has been happening on these shows, because Mo Kennedy's opening the shows for us, has been doing a version somewhere else where she sings it, an acoustic version. And that's pretty cool. You're just playing guitar? I'm playing guitar, and she's playing guitar. I'm playing ten-hour guitar, and she's playing sixth string, and we just do it together. The two of us. Is that a little force for you, too? Yeah. Okay. You know, I mean, I like re-inventing, I like changing things up, going electric, going acoustic, you know, kind of playing with people's expectations a little bit in terms of what they thought they were going to see. But we're digging into, you know, Lightning Bolt's a big part of the set, you know, and that's why I opened the record with it.

4:04I really felt like it was kind of a mission statement. I was going to ask you that, because it's the last song you guys recorded. And the sequencing of the tracks are completely different the way they were released. Yeah. Why is that? I thought it would make a better record. I mean, the sequence of recording the week to week, I wasn't in... I knew that I wouldn't know what the sequence was until I was done the album. So I didn't want to be a slave to putting them out in the same order, because I felt that, well, this is an album, you know, at that point here, you're not talking about ten singles, you're talking about an album. Sequencing is just becomes a part of how to make it flow. Has there been, I wonder, because this is something new that not... Well, maybe a few bands have done something similar to this in the past, but it's still a new experiment for the industry, especially. So, single sales versus how long sales? How has that worked out so far?

4:50I don't know. The more people buy the songs as they were being out there. There was more of that going on. I don't think the record has sold as much as like three has today. But that's because people bought the singles first. I think it was because it was kind of dividing up. Yeah. You know, some people have it and they don't go and purchase the full album, or they pick the songs they like, and then maybe they don't feel like it. I'm sure I would have maybe had more initial sales of the record if I hadn't been debuting the songs. You know, if it was like, oh, finished the record, sit on it for six months. Right. But that wasn't the point of doing this. Wasn't the point. Yeah. And it was the point of challenging myself and also doing something different from my audience, my core audience, who have bought the record. And I mean, I sell a lot of my records from the stage anyway. So it's like, let's go out. Yeah, most bands see, right? So I'm just kind of like, put it out, let everybody here go out and tour it.

5:42And we're selling tons of vinyls. I'm selling a lot of stuff. Yeah, that makes sense. It's cool. And, you know, things are really, it's really encouraging. The reception to it. I know that it's like a different record than three. I knew it would be kind of, that was a tough record to follow maybe because it was just so intense. It was intense a project and it was well received. So I knew that Scrappy had to be something kind of different. Yeah. That's like three years though. Yeah. Yeah. So I knew that it would be kind of like, oh, what do I, if I, if I toil over an album for a year, I'm like going to be happy with it. No, why don't I just do it really fast? When we actually got down to it. It was like, that's just, you know, were you writing through those three years? I guess you do the record for a year. I'm always writing.

6:28Always writing. You know, there's always something. I mean, you know, always being a month ago by and there's not a new song, but then some day, you know, four ideas come and they turn into songs a year down the road. Like I would stick to phone in a log of like, just ideas that eventually flesh out the songs. I like talking to songwriters about songwriting lately in these pieces. So do you have a room? Do you have a place that you go to write most of the time? Or are you someone that can just write anywhere? I can't write anywhere, but I just, I mean, I just need some time to myself. So I'll write in a hotel room sometimes, but I'm usually too tired on tour to do a lot of writing. Sometimes I'll just get lyric ideas and document them. But I write a lot at home late at night, just in a little back room. On guitar usually, or a mando or what?

7:14Guitar or tenor guitar. Okay. Never piano? You play a little piano though. Not a hack, not much on piano. Well, enough to, you know, kind of set up. But you choose not to. Yeah, yeah. I've written a couple songs on piano, like television set, you know, Rewind, that was piano. Those are pretty much the only, and then there's a couple other ones that have never been released that I wrote on piano. They're the only ones. Everything else is guitar or tenor guitar. And I use a lot of open tunings and stuff. So why end up hauling a million guitars? I've got all these different songs and different tunings. Well, you don't want to be on stage, retuning, or talking springs here and there. Try not to, yeah. You labor over lyrics? Are you someone who scratches out words here and there?

8:00Do you feel like, what comes out of you during that initial stream of consciousness? That's what you're meant to say. Yeah, I mean, I usually edit them a little bit, but usually, usually once I get the meter happening in my mind, then I don't, I just, I write more than I need and then I edit out what doesn't seem as relevant. Or sometimes it's just, that was it. It's not. You seem like someone who gets rhymes really easily. Yeah, I like rhyme and they come to me. Yeah, yeah, I just, I've always like the sound of language and percussion and rhymes and meter. Yeah, so I don't, I don't have too hard of time rhyming stuff. And I enjoy the challenge of, you know, trying to internally rhyme sentences. Not just the end word, but working off or earlier words in the phrase.

8:49So you get, cut more complicated rhymes, you get three words in a line than rhyme with three words in another line. What was the most daunting that way on this record? No, I'm really, I really like the, I mean, I like the words to light involved a lot, just because there's a lot of them and I think it's, I'm, I get kind of verbose and that song reflects that, but I like them, I like the mission statement behind that song. But I think my favorite words on the album are, are some called old friends. Someone said that it was McCartney changed in a review. Interesting. I hear it. Well, the whole demo, like really McCartney. Yeah, yeah, I know. I think of it as very Neil, youngy kind of, you know, myself, but it's sort of, it's sort of the one song that most people don't notice from the record.

9:37And we don't play very much. Well, why not if you like it so much? Slow. You know. I want to keep the set up, leave it to Ben. Yeah, or you know, there's other songs that fill, like, you know, there's other songs that are bigger moments, like the natural disaster that rock at the same tempo, but maybe go. They, they, they are my direct. Sure. Old friends is a song I wrote for myself and for the friends that it's about, you know. So I like the words because they're, they're of a personal nature. Yeah, talking about rhyming. Where did I write it? You write, you figured out how to rhyme orange. Orange is engorgous. Yeah. Yeah, orange is engorgous. But it works. And rappers do that kind of stuff. Were you just mispronounced it just a little bit and it works. Yeah, well, that's kind of it. I mean, who rhymed orange one time too was a buck sixty five.

10:22You rhymed it with Doryn inch. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard him do that. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I love rap for that reason. I like, I think I love the early days at Handpop, man. Just like this really square. Yeah. Yeah. And it just, you know, go, go. You know, like that cool modey. Right. Just really, you know, went to the party too much precurting. Like fucking right. You got the precurting wrong on this record. Yeah, I had to get that into that. I was in the middle of the lot. To the head, possibly. To do every young band wants to build the wall, but a real rock record is like a wrecking ball. You want to make a Pink Floyd in singing record like that? Um. Was that a goal of yours when you started? No, no. Yeah, not like the- Sorry, a Pink.

11:07Yeah, I mean- A Pink Point lyrics here. Yeah, I know. I like being asked about specifics. You know, I guess- It's all a little funny. Yeah, I like the line. I guess for me it was just the idea that it's like, you know, you're out on the road and when you're young, there's a million bands playing. There are- Oh, there's always young bands coming up. Sure. It's great. Every- Everybody in place means it has aspirations. Mm-hmm. Or has the dream of it being something big. Right. The actual alchemy of that happening are kind of for a chosen few. It might have to do with the timing. It might have to do with the talent. It might have to- Or the reception. Are you talking about the popularity of the record, the creation of it? I'm talking about both. Okay. I'm talking about not so much the popularity.

11:53But you know, I guess more like, I mean in the- in the idea of it relating to Husker-Doo as I mentioned in that song, you know, and then- Mm-hmm. They were like a very influential band, but not everybody knew who they were, but the power that record wasn't in is perfect. Every band wants to build like, wants to make the perfect record. Like, use the wall as like, perfect or something. Like, some big composed thing. Sure. But sometimes just like a punk record comes along a blind side. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. A rock record is like a record. It's like, there's sometimes it's just like, it's like never mind. It just kind of, it blows away everything that came before. Yeah. They didn't know what they were making when they made it. They just made it. So that's for somebody else to determine. But sometimes history allows, you know, sometimes, you know, a band finds its place in that.

12:42I'm not suggesting that I'm one of those people, but I just mean, I think that there's- Um, there's- some things are just heavier than others. And I don't mean like, musically heavy, sonically. I just mean, sometimes it stars a line and something. And what means a lot to me doesn't necessarily mean a lot to somebody else either. Sure. So it's all a personal thing. But, you know, I just believe in the power of rock music, I guess, with that line. There's a quote. There's a quote that I get in here. That's good. So your dad's on the record. I saw a video of him playing with you. Does that happen often? I mean, I know you toured with him the most time. He played a lot on three. He played on- Oh, you know the story? He sang on three. He sang on three. Um, he played a bunch on- Oh, no, he didn't play a bunch.

13:27He played at the end of the Down at the Kyber record. He played on Light of the Moon. He played on medical attention. He didn't play on Laudida. He didn't play on Truthfully. Or Ash Trier. But throughout the career he's- But he's always been- So what makes you think- Dad, coming on this one? Well, I just- that nature of that song I knew his guitar playing with compliment. Yeah, he's a really steady guitar player. Yeah, nice. Finger pick, not- Good finger pick. Yeah, he's really good at it. Obviously that's where you get everything from. You dad was playing these around the house. He was. Yeah, that's where I get a lot of it from. When did you get the guitar for the first time? 13? 14? So a little later, but not really. Yeah, he would have taught me if I wanted to younger, but I was more interested in drums. And then saxophone. And then I said- He started as a drummer. Yeah, if you call it that. I started with the drums set. Right. Yeah, okay.

14:12Yeah. And then how do you decide to bring the guys in on a tune? Because you're playing drums on one of the songs I saw in the video. Do I? I want to do it right. Do I play it on slow dance? I tried it on slow dance, but then Dave came and saved the day. More than the earlier ones. I remember that earlier in terms of recording. Yeah, I tried drums on a few, but I didn't end up playing them on any of it. Dave plays any drums that are on the record or all Dave. I played all the drums on three. You know, more of the exception of the last song that the guys played on and on and on. The epic one. I just, the material kind of dictates, I knew this was going to be a band record. I wanted it to be. We were all everyone's game. And I just thought this will be more about, um, these songs are about playing as a band to rock record.

15:02Three was about lyrics and my story. It wasn't so much about what the bass and drums were doing. Right. And frankly, I didn't want to have to rehearse or explain what I was doing to everybody. I had a shitload of songs. And all I wanted to do was get them down on tape. And it was an experiment for me. On tape. Always on tape. Yeah. How come? Just sounds better. Sounds better. And it has a limitation. Which is more expensive. It is. Yeah. It's 400 dollars a year. Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. It just sounds better and it's limited. It means you have to make decisions. You have to erase the guitar as opposed to tracking four more and spending nine hours editing later. You have to go, was that it? Did I get it? No. Let's start again. Yeah. That's it. Best records are made that way.

15:47I agree. Computers haven't helped anything at all. All computers have done. All computers have done has made more work for engineers and more work for artists to sift through their million takes. When they come back two days later because they're exhausted and they try and sift through twelve vocal takes to determine which is the best one. And then they do a comp and realize it's not any better than the first take they did. That's my theory for multiple choice. Go with the instant. Go with your gut. Always. I'm yours and your mind. That's interesting that you have both those song titles on the same record. Yeah, it wasn't lost on me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like they're brother and sister. Very different songs. Very different. But quarter leave very similarly. They're both written on the tenor guitar and they're both in the key of C.

16:37And they both have kind of melodic turns that are quite similar. They're a range very differently. I actually think of them as quite similar. See, I like these. Oh, yeah, so the tour. Last couple of days we were writing off the new film. So you've been on the road for about a month? A month and a bit now. Yeah. How's it been? Well, I know that to be fair, I've been on the road for about two weeks. I used to go a little break. Yeah, great. We did. It shows that I was out west before that. I was out in Alberta. And I had about five days at home and I hit the road for this. And then I went for ten days and then I was going to new film for two weeks. And you guys show us to make the bass drum from this tour? No, not yet. A couple were really, really close. Huntsville almost made the bass drum because to make the bass drum, I don't know if I've

17:24explained this to you before. No, but I know enough that I could write it in a question. Basically, to make the bass drum, it's not just about the show. It's about the circumstances surrounding the show and after the show. What might have happened later? It's about the night. Right. The show has to be off the hook, good. Great. But it also has to, there's events surrounding it and that's what it makes. So we've played plenty of great shows that are never made, that won't make the bass drum. It's usually the kind of unusual ones. It's a Kecosok guard like Hobart in Tasmania. It's interesting. Just weird places that turn into a night. It's not so much the show, it's the night that it's the bass drum. I want to go with the Tasmania thing. Obviously, it's working around the world.

18:11The music. Well, yeah, we went to Australia once full band and I went twice solo. And it was great. I've been back in a few years. It's a long way to go. Well, yeah, it's been a long way to go. It was great. We've had some, you know, I made some fans there and it was really good. I'm not a, Canada is my lobby. Have you done this? You must have tried the States a few times. Yeah, I've hammered away the States a little bit here and there, but not in a while. The Hermit spent a lot of time there and then we went and we opened for the hip there. And I've gone and done some shows. But again, like it's an expensive place to go. And you really got to trick on the road for that too. You got to get on the road. You don't get paid anything. And you got to slum it a little bit. And, you know, we're now having a name here in Canada so things get a little bit easier and you can afford a little bit more comfort.

18:57So to go and eliminate that is difficult. Sure. So I'm not inversely going to do some work in other places. I do enjoy the challenge sometimes. But frankly, you know, I'm no desire to retire, but what I will say, the closer the gigs get to the back door, the happier I am. I mean by the back door. I like being home too. Oh, I know what I mean. So if I don't have to go too far to play, that's all right. You know, I don't mind being a regional artist. Well, regional being of a large region. Yeah, of a large region. I mean I have aspirations. I'm going to go to the States a little next year into the UK. I'm always going to dip my feet there.

19:42I want good opportunities. I'm not going to go chasing. There's no point going to the States and playing to a bunch of empty rooms. So until somebody invites you on a good opening to give you a good get in front of people. That's how you need it. You need somebody promoting you or you need somebody vouching for you and other artists to say, hey, we want you to open. And I'm not a great opening act because we come out and swing pretty hard. Yeah, you do. Notice that. You can't be fun. You can't be fun. Yeah, it would be great to play with Wilko, but I wouldn't want to be the one you're on. I don't don't quote me. I'll take that out. I know I just mean, you know what I mean? I recognize why we're not a great. We're used to headline it. So it's hard sometimes to open. The hip was a great fit. Yeah.

20:27Well, there's such a great live show. The show, and their fans are so hardcore. And they're really like, go live act. You know what I mean? Like, Gordon's so visceral too. So when we got out in front of them, it made sense to their fans. But if we get up in front of a band that just kind of stands there, then we look like fish in a bowl. Or we don't make sense because the audience used to something more chill. So if you get up there and do a really, you know, yeah, I'd love to open for Springsteen. But he doesn't have opening act. I mean, it's not for your play in four hours. Yeah. Before I let you go because I know I got a drive to Richmond Hill. Don't put that woke up. I won't. I'm done in four. Maybe look like a fucking answer. We always do five questions, five quick questions, one more answer. Rode or studio?

21:13Well, you know, what's that ying? Isn't that like apples and oranges? I mean, it's like... It's always a good answer though. I mean, you know, you go nuts on either. You go nuts if you just do either exclusively. You know, either will drive you crazy. So you have to say both. Let's talk about the news studio just one second. Where's that to? I can't be building anyone. Yeah, I'm working on a new one. It's in Dartmouth, just a new location. And it's kind of being worked on while I'm gone, actually. Oh, okay. Pretty excited about it. It's going to be a lot bigger. Drive wall, all done, everything. Yeah, like, well, it's not drywall. It's wood floors going in. It's an old vault. Yeah, so it's going to be pretty cool.

21:59Like a big old, like, fur, or fur year of vault. At least it's to our fur coat. It's amazing. Cork on the walls. If you leave it, work in fur, yeah. That'll sound cool. Yeah, it's going to be cool. It's big. It's like a thousand square feet. And obviously, it's bigger than the one you have now. Yeah, yeah. This old Scotland yard was like 370 square feet. Oh, it was a tiny. Clubhouse. But I guess that's good to keep the band tight together for the recording. Yeah, this is a much bigger space. I mean, I'm pretty excited about it. It's going to be interesting. It'll really inform the next record. Yeah, do you know who's going to be the first band to work in? Is it going to be you or is it going to be someone else? No, a couple of guinea pigs. I think Sean McCann has asked me to produce his solo record that he wants to work on. Sean from Jeep. Yeah, yeah, I saw him close your eyes. So yeah, Sean wants me to produce some stuff for him.

22:44The Scow Meredith Shaw from Toronto wants me to produce some stuff for her. I know that name. She's some talented, right? Jody Johnson produced some stuff for her. Oh, that's probably why. And she's a kind of a pop writer, you know? Like she's not indie at all. She's like really pop, you know? But I really like her. I think she's talented. We wrote a song together that's really fun. I think she likes to kind of play full aspects of what I do. Sure. So it could be an interesting fit. So we're going to do that and then start turning my own, myself towards my own record after that, imagine. What an incredible journey. Well, either of them solo. I love plastic on Oban though. If I had to pick one, cool. Landon's plastic on Oban. Right. When you hear a song usually it's your first lyric smelly or rhythm. Usually lyrics.

23:32Song you've written your most proud of. Lazy bones. I think you said it last time too. You did say it last time. In one word, Joel Plaskett. Emergency. Since you're on a run with them. Alive? That's good. It's like that. That's good man. Thank you very much. Alright man. Beauty. Thanks man.