Spill Magazine, Canada
1. What’s your favourite thing about a festival like NXNE?
The diversity of music and acts is a fantastic thing for someone like me who likes a wide variety of music. Everything from Americana, to folk to punk and heavier music. I’m also a big fan of singer-songwriters. A good song is golden.
2. What should we expect from your live show?
Live at the festival, we’ll be playing a mix of my older more roots-Americana type folk and rock and also some newer material which heads more noir material, still rock, but darker storytelling and music that is a bit heavier. I like to mix the light and dark, give the set some teeth and variety.
3. Tell us something we probably don’t know about your band.
We’ve been great friends for about 10 years now, and they enthusiastically follow my lead when i want to veer off any given path and try something different. My guitarist is also the frontman for a fantastic band called Sexdwarf! They’re my favourite band! And they’re from my town!
4. If you could write the soundtrack for any existing film (from any decade) which film would you choose and what would the songs sound like?
Hmmm, well, my favourite movie is High Fidelity and i think they did a pretty good job with the soundtrack, lots of variety - and i’m a big Elvis Costello fan ! - however . . . . . I would love to find a movie about an all-female band on the road and make up a soundtrack for that ! I love lots of female artists, from Cat Power to Lucinda Williams, L7, PJ Harvey, Pretenders, Little Annie, Throwing Muses, Neko Case, The Cowboy Junkies . . . .oh the list just goes on and on. A lot of variety of styles and sonics and attitudes. The hardest part would be narrowing it down! It would definitely have to be a double album I think.
5. Would you rather open for Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen, and why?
That is a very difficult question. I love both of those artists and have many albums by each of them.
I think I’d have to say Springsteen, only because I think that he would be more approachable to talk about music with. I think I might be too intimidated to talk to Neil. Nebraska is one of my all-time favourite albums, though, of course, I love a lot of Springsteen’s other songs. Like Brilliant Disguise covered by Elvis Costello. I’d like to pick his brain on his songwriting techniques and how he’s managed to come up with so many great classic songs.