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Published: November 01, 2007 03:48 pm
MUSIC: Ron Hawkins discusses the Low, Buffalo and Toronto references
By Kevin Purdy/purdyk@gnnewspaper.com
Greater Niagara Newspapers
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Ron Hawkins acoustic and electric show with Jeremy Hoyle
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: The Tralf, 622 Main St., Buffalo.
COST: $20, all ages.
INFO: Call 852-2860 or visit www.tralfmusichall.com or www.ronhawkins.com.
If you’ve never heard of Ron Hawkins or the Lowest of the Low ask your bartender. Or your local record shop owner.
Like hockey, Tim Hortons and a few other select Canadian traditions, Hawkins and the Low are welcomed with open arms in Western New York. The Toronto-based quintet’s 1991 debut album, “Shakespeare My Butt,” is a jukebox staple, and copies continue to be picked up each week by college students and area newcomers just starting to hear about this “local” band.
Three years after their blend of folk, punk and straight-ahead rock had started turning critics around and becoming an oft-quoted classic among fans, the band released “Hallucigenia” through a major label, confused critics and left fans indifferent, and then quickly fell apart.
Since then, the band has been reborn twice for a tour, live album and new studio record, and Hawkins has moved on to play both with his Rusty Nails band and as a solo artist, and works also as a painter. In advance of his upcoming show at Buffalo’s Tralf Saturday, Night and Day spoke with Hawkins and tried to ask a few questions that long-time fans might have been wondering for, well, a long time.
QUESTION: Tell us a little bit about your new album, “Chemical Sounds,” and what it came out of.
A: I had been doing demos a little while back for what was going to be the next Lowest of the Low album, but a lot of the other guys have day jobs, so I was going in and working with just an 8-track deck. When it looked like it wasn’t going to be a Lowest of the Low album, I decided to work more on the songs, do as many of the instruments myself as I could.
Q: Where does the name come from?
A: It was partly a tribute to the Chemical Sound studio in Toronto, which has been bought out by developers. It’s a terrible shame for anyone who loves the music scene. Some of the best music, by The Weakerhans, the Constantines, was recorded there ... it’s also a tribute to how it was made. Some of the album is quite stripped-down, but then there are songs that have 64 tracks on them. (But) I was working on the demos so much by myself, esconced in the studio and becoming a kind of hermetic conductor, it’s a reference also to Brian Wilson and “Pet Sounds.”
Q: I've heard no fewer than three stories from friends, about friends-of-friends, whose weddings you supposedly played at. Are they all talking about the same wedding, or is that a common thing?
A: Yeah, I think it's one or two weddings and a lot of storytellers. (Laughs) Since the early 90's, I've heard from couples who say "their song" is "Subversives," or "Rosy and Grey," and they've either played it at their wedding or wanted to have me play it.
Q: So how do you handle that? It's a pretty vulnerable moment when a couple tells you it would make their wedding perfect if you'd play at it ...
A: I had an out-and-out refusal system for a long time, just because it felt like, well, soon after that I'd be playing Bar Mitzvahs. I've played my friend Frankie's wedding, I've come down and played a song (in Buffalo) for friends, but on the same hand, what should I do if a long-time fan, someone who's been to every show, asks me? And then the next biggest fan? It's a tough question of where to say no, so I generally avoid it.
Q: One thing I think fans in Buffalo in particular like about your work and the Low's music are the dense amounts of references — they dig knowing that "The Only" is actually a bar, the Canadian references they can understand. Have you ever considered dialing back the specifics in your songs, to make them more accessible?
A: I think that was actually a door that opened up for me, when I was writing for "Shakespeare My Butt." I was writing much more abstractly than that at first, but mentioning my local pub, the guy I met in the street ... it felt right, and it resonated with a local audience, and even with people who had never been to Toronto. Everybody has a street in Toronto they know, or they feel like they know. Another way to say that is that Toronto is a big city, but it's also a very young city. Up until then, I'd never really known anybody who'd written about Toronto like that. You're expected, as a writer, to write about New York and Paris and all that, but if you're doing it well, you can give people the place, the feel of your city.
Q: It seems like fans of the Low spend more time talking about the band getting together or breaking up than going to shows. Why does there never seem to be one consistent message out there about the band's status?
A: It's maybe something we're a little bit sick of talking about, but we've had some confusing times, sent out some mixed message. I myself have probably said publicly that I'm retiring from music three times. We recognize it, it’s not a normal situation and there are a lot of contradictory statements about the state of the band ...
Q: Okay, then I’ll just apologize first and ask, what is the band’s status?
A: Well, (last week) we played a benefit in Toronto. If I had to give a quick answer, I’d say we’re kind of in dry dock right now. When things get lined up, we’re definitely full speed ahead. Stephen (Stanley, guitarist) has a record that I’ll be helping out on, playing a lot of instruments on ... When he puts a band together, we’ll be moving again.
Q: What do you have time to do in the Buffalo area when you play here?
A: I’ve spent a lot of good time in Buffalo, and I’m always telling people about it. My partner Jill’s from Winnipeg, and when I met her, I could name all these things there that I loved to do, which she kind of found strange. It’s like when people ask about Buffalo, they aren’t expecting much, maybe? But when we’ve had downtime there, it’s been so much fun, going to the Elmwood area, hitting the great spots in the city.
Q: A friend of mine once said that the Low and your early solo records had so many tracks on them, you could have split them in two and doubled your career. Why did so many songs make it onto those records?
A: When we started out, there were so many things we hated about the music industry. I remember going to buy so many import records, and you’d find 6 songs already on another record, 3 new songs maybe. When we made our record, it wasn’t trying to see how many songs we could jam on there, but it felt good for us to give people everything we had ... You could make an argument that some records I’ve made aren’t as concise as they could have been, but I like the breadth of some of the “Crackstatic” (with the Rusty Nails) tracks. I think it’s knowing what each song accomplishes that makes something a much better record.
Contact reporter Kevin Purdy at 693-1000, ext. 107.
Why not jump onto MySpace for the third time today and check out Night and Day. Don't be afraid to ask for a friend add — we're just as anxious to raise our count as you.
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