Canadian Singer-Songwriter Joel Plaskett Interview

by Spencer Stewart

Joel Plaskett - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

If the name Joel Plaskett doesn’t ring a bell, you’re probably not from Canada, where he’s known from coast to coast. The Halifax based musician’s style draws upon an eclectic range of genres, ranging from English folk to 1970s rock and roll.

After spending most of the 1990s with the alternative rock band, Thrush Hermit, Plaskett formed The Joel Plaskett Emergency, with whom he currently tours, in addition to his solo career. Plaskett’s ambitious solo project, Three,  is a three-disk album released in 2009, distributed in both CD and vinyl.

The Canadian also opened up his own Scotland Yard Studio for recording in Halifax and his own label, New Scotland Records. The Juno Award nominated musician welcomed Guitars International Magazine into his studio to chat about guitars, the art of songwriting, and his beloved home of Nova Scotia.

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Spencer Stewart: Anything you want to see about the new album, Three?

Joe Plaskett: I’m excited that it’s out and I’m really enjoying touring it. There’s a pretty wide variety of material on it, it’s giving me a lot to dig into as far as solo shows, duo shows and band shows. The response was a lot better than I thought it would be frankly, I knew that it was a bit of a risk. I was really pleased that people actually listened to it in its entirety. I created something ambitious and people responded to it.

Spencer: Why a three CD set?

Joel: It rarely gets done, a triple record. I released it as a triple vinyl as well. Also, because I could. The theme of the record, of traveling, loneliness and return. Departure, isolation and return. I was supposed to feel like a journey. It needs to be long. It’s a lot to expect people to listen to it in one sitting. For it to serve my artistic purpose, I wanted it to be three records, like a three act play.

Spencer: What do you have in the works?

Joel: I was thinking I might try recording some singles. I’ve got a covers record in my mind called, “By All The Girls I’ve Loved Before”.   I want to do a record of all songs that women have sung. I haven’t seen the theme of what I’ve been writing at enough of a distance yet to know if they merit an album. I’ve been playing a lot of tenor guitar, and I write a lot on that.

A lot of Three is on the tenor. I’ve got a Gibson from the ‘30s. I wanted a big tenor that I could strum, it’s really lively. I play it in open C, CGCG, but then everything’s in C or I have to capo.

If I want to get into other stuff, then I’ll drop these to F and then I’ll get open F and then I can get the I and the IV, it’s an easy way to get to a variety of keys. I’ve been playing it on all my solo shoes. With the Emergency I’ve got an electric tenor, built by Andy Munro. It’s got these bass pickups he put in it, you can get all these scoopy sounds, because you can get out of phase positions, and it’s got a really unusual sounds. I play it on the new record on the songs, “Safe in Your Arms”, and “ Blue Moonlight”, and it has this really chimey sound.

Joel Plaskett with his Gibson 12-string: Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

I’ve been playing a lot of 12-string as well, this one’s a Gibson, a 1967 or ’68. I’ve got a ’76 P-base. I got really into playing bass on the last record. I play Stratocaster more than anything else with The Emergency, but this is just a Japanese made one, 1982 or something. It’s not precious at all. It’s a workhorse. I’ve got an old May-Bell tenor banjo. I’m not much of a banjo player, but I’m getting into it.

On the road with The Emergency, I usually bring an acoustic, a tenor, a 12 and then my strat and some other electric guitar. I usually have a compliment of about five guitars that I use on a full band show. On a solo show, I’d usually bring just my six, my tenor and my twelve. My first guitars were Gibson RDs, a blonde and a brown one. I’m not precious about my guitars, I buy them to play, not to collect.

My favorite guitar is this guitar that I got from the [Halifax] Folklore Centre it’s called a “Bruno”. It’s got this aluminum plate on the headstock; it’s from the turn of the century. It’s a really interesting instrument. Brazilian rosewood back and sides. And it would have either been made by or Washburn or another company at the turn of the century.

Tom [Dorward] built an intonated fretboard for it and braced it so that it could handle steel strings. And then he put a bridge on it. It’s hands down the best sounding instrument that I’ve ever played. It’s really amazing. I fell in love with it.

Joel Plaskett - Photo credit: Spencer Stewart

Spencer: Who are your influences?

Joel: I’m all over the map, but I really admire Led Zeppelin; they were the first rock band the really freaked me out as a teenager. That stuff really holds up as far as guitar goes. Neil Young is a artist who’s true to himself.

As a lyricist and melody writer, Joni Mitchell is unbelievable. Nina Simone is a big influence. The thing about her that’s so amazing is that you can’t categorize her at all. She’s not Jazz, she’s not folk, she’s totally her own thing. She should be mentioned in the same way as Miles Davis and Bob Dylan are.

Nick Lowe is kind of my more recent hero. I think he’s making some of the best music of anyone right now. His last few records are insane. Here’s a guy who’s made really cool music all his life, been true to what he does, produced some amazing records, learned a lot about his craft.

He’s a great bass player, and now he’s this great guitar player, and his singing is better than it’s ever been. He makes music for the people who care about music. And he now has a cult following and that is what I’d like to achieve.

Spencer: How was it opening for Paul McCartney in Halifax?

Joel: It was amazing, it was an incredible opportunity. We didn’t get to meet him- I didn’t expect to really. There was some chaos surrounding the show. The power blew right before we went on, the generators went. We were supposed to have about 45 minutes to get ready, we only got 15. We were line checking before 50,000 people. So, it was stressful.

But, the show went really great. We played well, I know we did, everyone said we did, but I have to say my actual memory of it was just jumping in and doing it.

Joel Plaskett's latest CD "Three"

Spencer: How do you craft your leads to your songwriting?

Joel: I’ve always considered myself a pretty limited guitar player. There are some certain stylistic things that I’ve always loved. I love the way Bert Jansch plays acoustic guitar, I have these little hammer-on flips that I do that show up on different instruments. Jimmy Page was a huge influence as a teenager .

I have a couple of electric guitar sweeps. And then I was really into Robbie Robertson. I glean a few licks here and there. I like guitar playing that serves the song. I consider myself a writer and a lyricist before a guitar player but I’m really into guitars as you can see. I always find a different instrument leads me to a new song and to a new melody.

George Harrison’s really great because he’s always serving the song. The Beatles aren’t long winded ever! What’s their longest song? I like that- I don’t have any really long tunes, aside from “On & On & On” from my latest record. I think now with having a studio set up, I understand more the world that they [The Beatles] inhabited, because now I can really start to overdub and experiment more on my own time. I’ve never had that luxury to mess around, and now all of a sudden I do.

Joel Plaskett outside his studio in Nova Scotia - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

Spencer: Are you enjoying the new found freedom of self production which New Scotland Records allows?

Joel: I learned so much from working with Gordie Johnson, he produced “Ashtray Rock”; that was a great experience. He also mixed my latest record, I think he’s got great ears.

Ian McGettigan, who used to be in Thrush Hermit with me, my previous band, co-produced some records with me- he’s got a natural, innate engineering sense and he’s just a fun guy to make records with because you don’t have to communicate things, you just do it.

Right now I’m just trying to use my studio to improve my discipline. I stumbled across this place, and started with an eight track tape recorder that I got when Thrush Hermit broke up. I was at the Junos the year previous and met Ken Friesen, who runs a studio in Ottawa. We were talking about this space that I’d just acquired, and he said, I know where there’s this Studer 2” 16 track, which is what this beast is. They’re pretty hard to come by now.

I don’t have a computer in here, I’m strictly analog. I have converters to transfer it if I want to take it to mix somewhere else. All my overdubs, I have to punch it in on the same track- okay, that’s it- I either have it on tape or I don’t. I have one track for electric guitar assigned on that machine, here it is.

Joel Plaskett - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

Spencer: Tell me about your first guitar and early band experiences.

Joel: I was twelve years old when I moved to Halifax, and I met some guys, and I was just this kid from Lunenburg. My dad had played guitar my whole life, but I didn’t have any interest to learn guitar really.

Then I moved to Halifax and I met two guys, Ian and Rob, we went on to be in Thrush Hermit together, we were like thirteen, getting into rock, and Rob started playing guitar, and I thought, if I learn guitar I’ll have something to do with these guys, it was a social thing, a way to become better friends.

I don’t know if I consciously thought that, but I just felt like this is what I should do, I should learn to play guitar. My dad showed me some chords, he’s a great guitar player, he taught me all the basics. My love of British folk music comes directly from his influence.

I discovered Bert Jansch and John Renbourne from his collection. My parents were super supportive. I bought a ton of records as a teenager. I spent any money I had. We lived out in the suburbs of Halifax, and every weekend we’d walk an hour downtown so we didn’t have to pay bus fare , buy records and a couple of doughnuts and walk back. Any money I had, I was always being cheap so I could buy as many records as possible. I’d get into an artist, I’d get into Elvis Costello, and I’d go and I’d buy every vinyl record of his I could find.

So that was what lead me to playing in a band, it was a social thing. We called ourselves the Nabisco Fonzie and then we were like 13 or 14 were the Hoods and then we changed our name to Thrush Hermit when we started playing our High School and gigs, and then we were opening for Sloan all of a sudden, we found the local scene downtown and they put out some records of ours.

We went on tour and got a publishing deal with BMG in New York when were 18, We signed with Electra when we were 21. We made a record for them. It bombed. We made one more record with a Canadian label called Sonic Unyon which did really well. We broke up in 1999. But, it was all a good experience.

That band was really important and we toured a lot. I learned a lot, got to see the country as a young man, and play with my friends. When I started the Emergency, I already had a pretty good sense of what I wanted and didn’t want to do. I haven’t looked back since. The ideas of commercial success and artistic success have always been two separate things for me.

If they happen at the same time that’s great, but I don’t know if I want my life to get a whole lot busier, I’m feel like I’m running ragged, I’m making tons of music and having great opportunities. One thing I will say is the idea of fame is different in the United States, the way they treat famous people is different there. Some of the most famous people I know in Canada , the Tragically Hip, the Blue Rodeo guys, big Canadian bands, the idea of them ever appearing in the tabloids is so far fetched. Fame on a Canadian level is like, yeah, these guys are artists.

The distance between your fans and the success of an artist is not that dramatic. I’d like to be successful and have an audience in the States, but the idea of chasing fame there is the least appealing thing to me ever.

Joel Plaskett – “Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’”

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About Spencer Stewart – Music has been a constant presence throughout the life of Spencer Stewart. He has traveled across the United States working folk festivals as a photographer assistant for his father’s photography studio (Imaging Solutions), as well as pursuing his own multi-instrument interests. Music has always been there, shaping his world perspective. Stewart also writes about disappearing roadside Americana, at the Dinerman website and deals in vintage menswear. Spencer now attends Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

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Joel Plaskett

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