DANKO JONES just as firmly willing to make sure those who resist them know they ’ re making a grave and selfish mistake .
“ We didn ’ t actually see each other when we rehearsed to go into the studio . We would just kind of shout in the room to each other … What ’ s actually really fascinating is some of the stories of bands who didn ’ t adhere to COVID ways of doing things while making their albums , and that was shocking to me . I would think and assume that a lot of the time that musicians are the most careful because we ’ re going to be the last to get back to work . Everybody ’ s pretty much back to work except for us , so I would think musicians would be more careful about masking and social distancing and getting vaccinated .
“ I mean , I even saw there ’ s a clip of Dave Mustaine from Megadeth on stage complaining about the tyranny of wearing masks ,” says an exasperated Jones . “ I tweeted this and said , like , ‘ you ’ re not living under a tyrannical regime if you can call that so-called regime tyrannical through a public address system and nothing happened to you .’ So these people have no idea what tyranny really is . If we don ’ t mask up , social distance , and get vaccinated , we ’ re never getting out of this ; and that ’ s not me , that ’ s scientists .”
CM : In your experience , is there an explanation for the dichotomy between the success and recognition you ’ ve received internationally versus in Canada ?
RICH KNOX , GOTHENBURG , SWEDEN ; 2017
rhythm section the worst thing you can do is play on top of the melodies ; so , I think a lot of it is what you ’ re not playing . That ’ s the hardest part to get together .
I think me and Rich , we ’ re very conscious and we fine-tune that relationship as a rhythm section to really anchor the melody that has to come out , and being a three-piece , it has to be very bare … And when we did do the tracking , it was me and him playing along [ together ]. We want to leave that [ feeling ] and we don ’ t want to be committed to the grid ; there ’ s a lot of push and pull where it breathes .
Once the songs were written , arranged , and demoed , Calabrese set up partitions in the group ’ s rehearsal space in order to safely begin playing the songs together for real , according to Jones , who has been a staunch advocate for COVID safety measures , and is
Jones : Once the opportunity to do an international tour dropped in our laps , we took it . And by the end of that first European tour , we were asked to play Roskilde [ in Denmark ]. You play Roskilde , and it ’ s bigger than anything Canada could ever come up with . Then you come home and you tell people , “ we just played Roskilde ,” and nobody knows what you ’ re talking about here .
The problem with Canada , and when I say this I always run the risk of pissing Canadians off ; but we live in a sports-dominated culture , where the arts aren ’ t even second fiddle . It ’ s like , fourth fiddle . For example , I ’ ll never forget watching the Junos one year when we were actually supposed to be present , but I was in quarantine because my father had SARS . So , I ended up watching the Junos on TV and Shania Twain was hosting that year . And no matter who came out , including Shania Twain , they didn ’ t get as much of a pop from the audience as
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