AS HEARD ON ...
ALEJANDRA RIBERA
DANKO JONES
AS HEARD ON ...
MURRAY MCLAUCHLAN
For the full interview , listen to the March 1 , 2017 episode
CM : Has the current political and social climate here in North America been creeping into your work at all of late ?
McLauchlan : First of all , on the matter of
the Orange Wonder [ aka Trump ], one of my favourite old poems , you learned it in school , but it concerns an explorer wandering in the desert and he comes upon a half-buried gigantic old statue and the inscription is half buried and he digs it out and it reads , “ My name is Ozymandias , King of Kings ; Look on my Works , ye Mighty , and despair !” So that is what I think of the Orange One …
The last record I put out in late 2012 , I certainly hit some buttons . I went on [ CBC Radio ’ s ] Q with Voldemort [ aka Jian Ghomeshi ] and got thoroughly interrogated about one of the songs on that record , which the opening verse was from the point of view of a burned out soldier who ’ d been reduced to ashes by the Afghan war . You know , I got pretty roundly queried on that matter and my opinions on the Afghan war were well known . It actually won me the grand prize in Canada from the Harper Government where I came back from Italy and the first thing that was on my desk was a demand for a tax audit . Mere coincidence ? No .
So as a songwriter , I ’ m not unaware of these things but I think it ’ s safe to say with the newest record , Love Can ’ t Tell Time … I actually wanted to create something where if people sat down for a minute , they could smoke a joint , light their bayberry candle , and just feel good for 45 minutes .
ALEJANDRA RIBERA
For the full interview , listen to the April 12 , 2017 episode
CM : Your debut album , La Boca , received critical acclaim and you won the SOCAN Songwriting Prize for the song “ I Want ” off that album . Because of that , did you feel any pressure writing the new album , This Island ?
PHOTO : BRUNO RIZZATO
PHOTO : DUSTIN RABIN
DANKO JONES
For the full interview , listen to the Feb . 22 , 2017 episode
CM : Your last record , Fire Music , was your highest charting album in some big European rock markets like Germany , Holland , and Finland . Does that inform how you ’ ll approach the promotion and support of the new album , Wild Cat ?
Danko Jones : You make it sound like we have the choice as to where we go . We go where we ’ re asked to play and we ’ ve been asked to play Europe the most so we ’ re always in Europe rather than North America . So we don ’ t choose where we play ; we ’ re not Metallica , and even Metallica , I don ’ t think they even choose . They just go where they ’ re asked and where the offers come in . In terms of that , we go where rock [ music ] is the hottest and they want us the most . In Europe , rock and roll really lives there and it ’ s celebrated the most and with the most knowledge and respect . And thank god there is a place that really kind of understands our band .
Alejandra Ribera : It ’ s funny because I guess there ’ s the external perception of how a career is going or how someone is perhaps being received and then there is the reality that you ’ re living in . I remember finding out about that SOCAN prize and I was taking care of my nephew who was five at the time . I ’ d taken him for a week in Montreal , and the kid is so full-on intense [ laughs ]. He is like ADHHHD . I was just fully present with him at every moment because he needed everything I had and I remember he was having a random quiet moment where he was colouring , which he normally can ’ t focus long enough to colour , and I had just a split second to open my laptop and look at my email and then I saw this note about the SOCAN thing and then he just started asking me questions and then it was done . So that ’ s how I found out .
The thing is , especially when you ’ re on the road , there isn ’ t a lot of ceremony to mark these moments and I ’ ve been living away from my management for a long time , too , so a lot of that stuff is like you ’ re in a hotel and you get a call or see an email and you ’ re like , “ Oh , that ’ s nice ,” and then you go to soundcheck and you sort of forget . I did an interview the other day where someone told me about some accolade I didn ’ t even know I ’ d been given . I ’ d never heard of it before and I was like , “ Geez , maybe I did and then I fell asleep .”
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18 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN