Canadian Musician - January/February 2019

AS HEARD ON... Max Kerman of ARKELLS For the full interview, listen to the Dec. 5, 2018 episode CM: There are a number of political and social themes and messages through- out the new record, Rally Cry. Did you consciously set out to write a more political album? Max Kerman: I think there are two parts to this answer. The first part is that I think all the songs come from a place of real passion and just an idea that you think is worthy of writing about. For instance, a song like “Com- pany Man” was, funnily enough, inspired by Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary – just thinking about this idea of tribalism and how you have these family traditions that are passed down and what “team” you think you should be a part of and this idea of not thinking for yourself. Because when it comes to a point, you could think the University of Toronto Music Business Professor CATHERINE MOORE For the full interview, listen to the Nov. 7, 2018 episode CM: In the long term, is Spotify in a precarious position as an independent music-only service when its main competitors are essentially music divisions of larger, more diverse tech companies? Catherine Moore: Well, Apple doesn’t need to make money on music, Google doesn’t need to make money on music, and Amazon is the same and go through the list of those companies. They are not vulnerable in the same way [that Spotify is]. If those companies cause you’re a part of is noble, but if it gets taken over by someone like Donald Trump, you have to think for yourself and walk on your own two feet. So, a lot of the songs are just about thematic ideas that I think are interesting to write about. The second part to this answer is that I think it’s important for artists and writers to just try to get to work every day [laughs]. You know, I read this book by Stephen King called On Writing. I’ve never read any books by Stephen King before, but this book is all about his process… It’s really awesome because it demystifies the whole process and he’s very matter-of-fact about it all. Obviously, he’s an amazing talent, but he just says, “I try to work from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day and my goal is to get 2,000 words. Sometimes I get 1,000 and sometimes I get 3,000, but if I do that every day for six months, chances are I’ll be able to turn around and have a book.” I really like that because often the narrative around a lot of songwriters and writers is that it’s a really tortured existence or something really pro- found has to happen to you in order to be great. Sometimes that can be the case, but also, there’s no substitute for good, old-fash- ioned get-up-in-the-morning-and-do-it. So, my roommate at the time, Greg, who has a nine-to-five job, before he’d leave in the morning, I’d ask him to give me a songwriting assignment. So, he’d be like, “You’re always talking about politics, so write something political or Trump-y and give it to me with an Arcade Fire-meets- Stevie Wonder vibe and have something for me by the time I get home.” And that’s how “People’s Champ” was written. So, it was a combination of me being fired up to think and write about Trump, and also a deadline [laughs]. I think that was a helpful thing to remember – that nothing gets done if you’re just waiting for the songwriting gods to smack you in the face. At a certain point, you just have to take it into your own hands and do it. want to keep investing and losing money, they can. Because, does Apple Music make money? We don’t know. Does Apple need to tell us? No. So what matters for Apple is, how can they use music streaming to leverage other things in their business?... All those companies are trying to keep consumers within their buying ecosystem and arguably the most suc- cessful one of those is Amazon because it’s across every category you could pos- sibly think of with Amazon Prime and everything that goes into the Amazon universe. They want people to be loyal and stay there and not go anywhere else. That is very difficult for any stand-alone music service to compete with. Listen to new episodes of Canadian Musician Radio every Wednesday at www.canadianmusicianradio.com. All episodes can be found on the website or through Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. 18 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N

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