(On a golden May afternoon in Cobourg, Ontario, with the sun seeping into the a-frame bedroom, while typing in an odd position on the guest bed of my in-laws, Joel lent me a few moments out of his uber-busy schedule and we rapped about Halifax, 'Three' and all things Plaskett.)
MM: Take me back to the days of Thrush Hermit and before – what first started you down the road of music?
JP: Well, I guess as a kid, I grew up around music.I was immersed into kind of a weird blend of music but I heard a lot of funk music, actually. My mom was a dancer and my dad was a musician and guitar player, so that helped. My mom always had cool records that were playin'. But I remember that I didn't want to play music as a kid but as a teenager, I moved to Halifax and met my friend Rob (Benvie) who had started guitar at age 13 and then I met Ian (McGettigan), too. We all kinda started a band as a social thing – it wasn't so much a musical thing. But we all started getting into a lot of punk, metal, and other stuff, and ya know- Zeppelin, The Pistols, and many more. We were discovering all this cool stuff and we changed our band name to 'The Hoods'. But in grade nine, I specifically remember going to see a Kearney Lake Road show – and I remember thinkin 'whoa! THIS is what I want to do!' Also, I mean Dave Marsh's band 'No Damn Fears' played back then too and they were pretty awesome. I saw all those people at this show and it inspired me. By age 16, we had 'the Hermit' (Thrush Hermit) all made and we wrote our own tunes and I guess, in some ways, we were right in the right place at the right time. It was all really natural and a lot of it had to with friendships.
MM: 'In Need Of Medical Attention' – take me on the journey that sparked the creation of that album and the start of your solo career
JP: Well 'The Hermit' was still goin' strong and as we were still in the midst of Sweet Homewrecker and working up to Clayton Park, running parallel to all of this was my love of folk music. Ya know, I found myself getting really into country – George jones – Grand Parsons - certainly The Stones more ballady stuff – I was also struck by Gillian Welch – but writing a lot of that style of stuff never felt quite right in 'the hermit' as we were becoming mainly a hard rock band. Anyways, I kept doing mellow stuff on the side and I actually had the medical attention album finished and mixed with Rick White in New Brunswick and had a little band that played with me on that album. Actually, MA was done before Clayton Park was even recorded. CP was out in 99 but MA was done and finished in 98 so I kinda sat on it as I didn't really have a home for it. But my friend Tim from minneapolis sent it to a few places and helped me get it done, and then in 99, The Hermit was on its last tour as things were just kinda at an end for the band. None of it was deliberate, and in hindsight, everyone from TH was starting to do their own thing and everyone has different aspirations. Rob wanted to leave and do his own thing and Ian and I were like 'Well, it just won't be the same band without Rob' so it ended there. But in the midst of all that craziness, I got really run-down and had a big scare from doctor. My white blood cell count was super low and the doc told me I could have leukemia, and I was like 'What the FUCK!' - and he was like, 'Yeah - if you catch a cold, you could die.' So that was all sorta strange in the midst of me releasing 'In Need Of Medical Attention' as that album was mostly about the passing of my uncle who was a doctor.
Do you find the Creative Canadian east coast stigma a positive or negative factor towards your work?
Usually, I find it to be a pretty good thing – I mean, it's like anything – even when you use terminology like 'Canadian band', there are weird things attached to that. But people think pretty fondly of The East Coast. I tend to get a lot of maritimers comin out to my shows, and sometimes I feel a bit of pride towards the east coast, and I get down with that. You find good people wherever you go. I'm sort of fond of the idea of regional music. Memphis sounds like memphis, new york sounds like new york – I dig regional music. I feel like it's a good thing – if people have a negative perception of something, it always changes.
MM: Moving on to 'Three' – everybody is talking about this album and sort of in disbelief – 27 songs! Were these all newer creations or had some of these songs been in the hopper for a while?
JP: It's kinda of a bit of a mix of both – a lot of them were pretty new. Demons was actually a song from 99 and demo'd it way back with True Patriot Love. I was kinda like 'one of these days, it will fit'. But the album is pretty varied. A few songs go to a real dark place and others stay pretty light. Lazy Bones was kickin around for a few years and was always not quite finished. I actually remember jamming it out with Gordie Johnson during the recording of Ashtray Rock. But most of the songs were pretty close to ashtray – a few were older. Ya know, it was kind of a cultivation of songs from travelling. I went to Australia and Shine On, Shine On, Shine On was sort of about my time there. Safe In Your Arms was another song I had in my head for a while. But as I was doing this triplet theme throughout the album, 3 songs didn't make it and 3 more had bed tracks which are part of this EP called 'Long Way Home' – 45 or 50 minutes in total. Anyways, I tried to keep each of the three albums tight.
MM: Tell me about the recording process of Three as we see it in picture within the album jacket
JP: Oh yeah, it's this little place that I rent. Outside of the pictures, though – it was kinda funny because couches were crammed into a corner and everything out of the shot was a mess. I just wanted everything to look very OCD and meticulous in that shot. Ya know, I love art and I kinda feel like with a record of that much material, you gotta bring people to it. If people can inhabit it and inhabit that space, then maybe it will work.
MM: And you're still a big fan of analog recording as opposed to digital, right?
JP: Oh yeah. Always. The digital recording started in 'Gone, Gone, Gone' and one other track – but all the rest were tracked a tape machine. It was great, man. It reminded me of my love for tape. Computers were only ever used to transfer the audio. The only time I used digital stuff after is when I comped a vocal and I cut between it – but the rest of time, I just sang it til I got the take. I like the sparseness that the 16 track lends itself to. It's pretty basic, ya know? 5 tracks of drums, 1 track of bass, a few tracks of guitar, a few vocals, a few odds and ends...and that's it, man.
MM: How did the family (i.e. Your dad Bill) and community aspect enter into the creative process of whole work?
JP: Well, Anna Egge from New York and Rose Cousins really got me writing and designing stuff. I wanted their voices to be something that the audience could listen to and be a part of. They were both a huge part of the record. Basically, I wrote all this stuff and I was like this 'sing this' 'sing that' and they did! And of course my dad was playing guitar on a lot of stuff and I always wanted to get him involved with a record somehow. Our styles went really well together. And then JP Cormier came in for a few songs and tracked a few songs. That guy is incredible - he walked out after all first takes! A few guys played whistles, and I got The Emergency in on a track. Pete Elkas also came in for a few tracks. I just wanted to involve as many people as I could but to also keep my producer's cap on pretty tight.
MM: How have you managed, in an industry where there are many snakes, to find the right apples and be successful – or maybe a better question is how does Joel Plaskett describe success in the music world?
JP: Ya know, everybody has a different version of what they think of success – but I find I always tend to be pretty restless. You might have one experience but you're always thinking about the next thing - the next venue – the next album. And you think 'how can I do it differently?' In my mind, I consider a lot of my friends to be people who are artistically successful but not necessarily commercially successful – but that's okay. But there are also lots of people I know who barely scrape by. I guess for me, I remind myself constantly that I'm lucky. Very lucky. And then I've also seen people fast track it – the commerical success side - and it's easy to get jealous. Everyone has a different trajectory. It's been a rewarding journey so far, though – I feel fortunate. Sometimes I wish things would move quicker but then I also like my privacy. It's not so much about who I am or what I do – it's the music. You're kinda fucked when you become famous, ya know? I get recognized sometimes but other times, I'm still just an average joe.
MM:A friend of mine was at the Massey Hall show and mentioned that Miniature Tim came up to the stage for 'Love This Town'. Describe briefly how special that show and that moment was-
JP: Oh man, it was pretty incredible. I felt like everything was building up to that show. Tim was a friend who moved back and forth from Toronto to Halifax a few times – but I knew he was coming to the show. So it was a perfect moment. He came forward and then he slipped into the shadows – never to be seen again! Tim's real dear to me. Having Timmy come out made it into a great show.
MM: Is it true that the song 'Light Of The Moon' (my personal favourite) is about a road trip you took across the prairies in a vintage vehicle?
Ha, ha. Yeah, I bought a 69 pontiac and I had the car for a few years. Rebecca's dad had a line on it so I went and saw it. I loved it. I drove it all the way across country and on the Prairies, I completely turned the lights off (before the safety regs of running lights). And it was amazing. It's sort of a surreal moment that I'll never forget. The highway was totally brightly lit up by the moon. I slept on the front seat the whole way. And I rememer thinking 'I'll get there By the Light Of the Moon!' – such a memorable song for me in how epic that felt. And I'm not a big nature guy – but once in a while, Mother Nature moves me, big time. That was one of those times. I still feel compelled to still sing that song – it's one of my favourite songs.
Matt McKechnie is a musician and writer from Ottawa, Ontario.
