THE ART OF MAKING MUSIC

Jeremy Taggart & Duncan Coutts

Do you have a lot of leftover material from this record?

J: We have a couple songs but...

D: One that we've been threatening to work on for the last two records.

J: Yeah. Now we have two songs that are just kind of sitting on the cutting room floor that are still good songs but haven't really seemed to fit. We recorded another one that's pretty much ready. Just didn't fit exactly. But, it's always good to have extra songs for B-sides or whatever. Before we actually never had songs and now it's nice to have a few more songs to hold on to.

Do you think that in the next album phase you could go back to those songs and re-work them into something else?

J: Well we tried a couple, you know, we tried doing things. We've always been known to dig up old refuse and try to make something good out of it. Sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does. We have so many little tidbits of, listening back, of information that, "Hey, that's a good idea," and it could start something, or "What were we thinking?"

D: There are certain songs we got to that first level - that butting heads thing - and we could never get it past that level. But there's a couple of them that still... there's a good song in there wanting to come out. We just have to figure the way to get it out of there.

Now I've noticed with the new album, there's a lot of little technology-based "tweakings" here and there. What inspired that?

J: I think, well, Raine was getting into a lot of different weird sounds and stuff like that over the last couple of years. He's bought a lot of recording stuff.

D: He has an interesting little box in the basement.

J: Yeah, He had a lot of cool production ideas. So, I think it was mostly him that had a lot of those quirky ideas in his head. But everything else was just sitting in the studio and everybody tweaking knobs and thinking of stuff. That's why this record was fun to make, because it was, like, if someone had an idea in their head they just had to execute it.

Would you ever have a remix album?

J: I don't know.

D: There's no forward thinking towards that.

J: Yeah. I don't think so.

D: We like them [the songs] the way they are. Watch, two years from now you'll come back to haunt us about it.

J: Fatboy Slim.

I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but with the last album, there were a couple of songs on there that were being played by mix-y kind of stations, like Toronto's CHUM and the MIX...

J: Actually we've been really lucky. I mean, I listen to CHUM-FM and a lot of Canadian rock bands get played on that and those kind of stations. But we've always been kind of turned away. I mean, "Clumsy" got played once in a while on the mix-type stations.

I think "4am" did as well.

J: Yeah. But I think once the bridge came in, they realized, "Hey, this is a little too heavy." Because they didn't play it that much and it never really charted in that kind of format. So, that's O.K. with us. You hear so many bands that are on those stations and it's not that big a deal. But I guess the people that are truly fans of that kind of station aren't huge fans of us because we're not core artists on any of those kind of formats, that's for sure. It doesn't really turn our stomach to hear it on there, but we're glad we're not huge on there.

D: At the same time, we're not making music specifically to get on that station. I mean, we don't specifically try to write music to get on radio either. It's just to try and make yourself happy. If we end up on the MIX or CHUM-FM, well, so be it.

AVOIDING THE ONE-HIT WONDER SYNDROME

Jeremy Taggart & Duncan Coutts (con't)

I can't see it with this album.

J: No. I don't know if it's going to happen on this one. Maybe on the fifth or sixth record when we're all like, 30 pounds overweight and we hear music like that.

D: Or if you take something like The Joshua Tree, which is still a super powerful record, but would be heard on that kind of station.

J: Yeah. A good song is a good song, but I don't hear "Strawberry Fields" on CHUM-FM. You know, that's a good song.

D: I don't hear that song enough on the radio.

J: No.

You guys got signed by Sony very, very quickly. Do you think there's too often a tendency for labels to sign [bands] too quickly and then you get these one-hit wonders?

J: Yeah. I think, the main complaint that I have with that is they give up on bands too quickly. I don't know if it's the record company or the bands. But, first and foremost, bands don't seem to write a whole record of good material. They'll write one or two songs and get lazy and have filler for the rest. And that single'll do well and then they go to the next one and it doesn't do well. So, the record company gets frustrated, and the band gets frustrated. By that time they're all frustrated rock stars because they were so big on the first single and they can't deal with their problems. And they either break up, or the record company drops them. That's been going on for the last five years like crazy. So, it's their problem. If they want to slack, they can.

D: The record companies have to be willing to develop a band and forge a relationship and maybe be prepared that not every single is going to do great. If there's a bit of a setback, well then you keep nurturing the band. If you think you've got talent in the people you're working with, hopefully it will pay off down the road. It doesn't always happen. We're lucky in the sense that our record company's really great to us. They believed in us and essentially let us do what we want to do creatively. You don't se that as much as you should. And, as Jeremy said, I don't know if it's the fault of the band or the record company or both.

J: Probably a bit of both. If there were better bands that made better records, then that would happen. But there aren't. If the record companies maybe gave a little bit more in terms of career, looking down the road to a lot of bands, there might have been more bands that hung around. The chicken or the egg, you know?

Do you think because you work so hard - not concerning yourselves with having a hit single - do you think that's why your fans identify with you more than most bands?

J: I think that the whole point is we don't really make singles, we make good songs. Or, we try to make good songs. I think what some people see as singles, we see as just a good song. So, maybe we have 11 good songs that could possibly be singles in different kinds of radio. So, we don't make music that's like, "This is going to be a perfect alternative smash hit that's going to kill. Let's make a crossover hit that'll work for everything." We just try and make a song like this, and a song like this, just do 11 of those that fit together. When you listen to the record you have different things on your palette. I think each record we've had a little bit more of each, you know, colour on the record. I think that's why people like listening to the whole record from start to finish, because it's got all that. You don't have to put on a mix tape of nine different bands. I hope.

WILL WORK FOR FREE VIDEO GAMES

Jeremy Taggart & Duncan Coutts (con't)

Do you guys have any endorsements for this tour, any corporate backing at all?

J: No. Who knows. Not on this tour. But, you know, if we enjoy something, why not try to have everyone else realize this. I mean, we're big fans of PlayStation. We'd like to get free games.

D: But as of yet, no, we have no backing at all.

J: If we ever get backing, we'll be doing it to try to get free stuff. So, what about the Pepsi Taste Tour. Would you do something like that?

D: Well, I mean, it depends. Like, some bands do that to fund the tour, you know what I mean?

J: We did it once.

D: We did a Blind Date. With, ah, Molson Canadian? Yeah, something like that.

J: And sometimes you just do it so you can keep touring, or you know, you're at a certain level and you're going across the country and to do this, it would be a lot easier on the band, in terms of maybe we can get a bus on this tour by having Pepsi do the thing or, you know, whatever. It just makes you a little more comfortable on the road. I don't think people are going to go into a show and, "Oh, these guys suck 'cause they drink Pepsi." You know, who cares. They're comfortable, so they can play in front of you, you know, having a little extra sleep instead of sleeping in a van or something like that. So, I don't really get stinky and turn my nose up at that stuff, maybe, like I used to. I would think when Rolling Stones are doing, you know, million dollar shows in a tent... I don't understand what that's all about.

D: I would like to know what band isn't doing Tommy Hilfiger.

J: Yeah, exactly.

J: Every time I open a magazine it's, like, a three-page Tommy Hilfiger ad.

D: Next thing you know you're going to see us in Tommy Hilfiger clothes. No. Our Lady Peace.

D: I'll drive the van first.

J: Yeah, exactly. There are some things we will not do.

What was your reaction to that Billy Corgan comment a few years ago about you guys just re-hashing Siamese Dream?

D: I don't give it any credence or validity, but obviously we're big enough that he sat up and took notice. So, in a way, that's almost kind of flattering. He can have his own opinions.

J: Things kind of took an anvil-like downturn [for the Pumpkins] after he said that, in this country, in terms of - I mean we received a lot of emails and stuff like that. The record didn't really do well, anywhere but, I think that they made great records and they've been an influence just like any other band in the last 10 years that made good records. You know, we listen to music. I don't think we listened to one record and tried to emulate it. He's a good songwriter. Maybe he gets a little bit flustered at times and says the wrong thing but, who cares? I think afterwards, we heard from other people that he was sorry and, you know, didn't mean it. That's why we didn't care in the first place. Say whatever you want. That's what freedom of speech is all about.

D: Exactly.

J: We applaud that kind of stuff.

D: Yeah. And you know if we put music out for everybody to hear and it wasn't taken out of the basement, you know, you have to be willing to take the negative criticism with the praise as well. And now he's making another rock record so, like before he was saying that their fans weren't following them and gave up on them because of that record but now they're making Siamese Dream again. Which is good because it's a good record.

Would you say that was a case of "any publicity is good publicity?"

J: Maybe. I don't know. I mean, he's one of those guys that you always hear him saying something. It doesn't really bother me, I don't care, you know what I mean?

D: Yeah, and you can't really do anything about it. You can't do anything about the publicity.

J: I mean, what are we going to do, go [issue] a press release right away and say we're going to fight the guy or something? That doesn't make any sense to me. Who cares?

D: Rock 'em sock 'em between Jeremy and Billy.

J: Yeah. It really doesn't... I remember hearing about it. I think I probably just was finishing a book or something, like a magazine. It didn't bother me at all. I thought, "Wow, that's funny." Somebody's taking notice on something that we've done. We've heard a lot worse from people that aren't rock stars. And that hurt more because they don't have any reason to say something like that. At least his can end up on a headline in a paper. Somebody on the street who says that, they mean it. You know?

D: That's not as funny. You overhear it walking by. Like a big boot to the gut.

SUCCESS... CAUGHT

Jeremy Taggart & Duncan Coutts (con't)

How do you guys personally measure your career achievements?

J: I think right when we finished this record we felt that, "Wow, this is really a positive thing," in our career in terms of [being] proud of the record.

D: And how fast we worked.

J: And it's hard. It's weird because the longer you live with it, the more you think, "Well, maybe it's not as good as initially..."

D: Maybe we should've done this instead.

J: Yeah.

D: And you know, the awards don't validate what you do. It's a nice compliment, take it or leave it. No offence to the institution that gave us those awards but, it really doesn't make you a better or worse musician, or it doesn't make your record any better. It's a really nice pat on the back. But, I think we're just happy - and as simple and as stupid as it sounds - I think we're just happy having the opportunity to do what we do.

J: Yeah, and if that furthers into being able to do it again and again after that, obviously you have to sell records and you have to have people come to your shows to be able to do that. So, I think the bottom line is: the music that we like, a lot of people like and that's what happens. You know we go to a show and people relate to the way we think in terms of music. So, that's it.

D: Yeah, if they can keep relating to the way we like music and if we can keep relating to the way they like music, then do it for another 10 years or 15 years or whatever. We'll keep playing because it doesn't get any better than being able to do your passion as your work and be able to, you know, not to sound like a Tony Robbins infomercial, you know, get to live your dream. Because, you know, when I was a kid, all I dreamt was of being a musician.

J: When that car went by he said ping pong player. He never got to realize that dream, so he became a musician.

D: I got beaten by my three-year-old nephew in ping pong, so I had to give that up.

Do you prefer to be wrapped up in a live situation?

J: We're always wrapped up in something. If it's not internal, it's someone else. It's always something, it's never...

D: There's not a time when we're not taken away by the music.

J: We're never just sitting there on auto pilot, because that's not very fun.

D: When that happens, that's when we stop touring, once it becomes "auto pilot." You know what, for us, thank God it hasn't happened. We toured 21 months in the last [tour period].

J: I mean, there's certain nights where it comes up and you're scared about it. Those are just bad days and those happen in everything, if you're a doctor, lawyer, student, you just have days where you can't think properly. Too bad if it's a doctor.

D: They're not allowed to have bad days.

J: They're not allowed to do that. Especially surgeons.

What do you guys see inspiring you in music right - directly or indirectly?

D: Ooh, that's a tough one. What's the last record that I bought that I really liked?

J: (after long pause) Music isn't so hot right now.

D: It's not so hot. I mean, there's certain things, none of it in the rock realm that I've bought in the last little while. I bought that Lucinda Williams record, that was pretty cool. I bought the new Roots record which I thought was O.K.

J: I think the revolution in the last three years has been happening more in the R&B and hip-hop world. I think rock has kind of been stagnant for the last few years. It needs a little kickstart.

Interview By Melanie Windover


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