Interview - Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) - October 2019
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Preparing for their second show in New Zealand, the first being at the classic Sweetwaters Festival in ‘98, guitarist Michael Timmins sat down with one of our interviewers Labretta Suede. Between sweet Canadian accent to easy-going laughter, they covered it all from best performances to play styles to working with family.
Cowboy Junkies will be returning to New Zealand May 2020, showcasing their newest album All That Reckoning and old fan favourites. With three decades behind them, consistently delivering creative, alternative sounds and staying true to themselves, they are eagerly anticipated by their Kiwi and Aussie fans.
I would like to know more about who switched you on to that wonderful amber sonic microphone that you recorded your first two albums with.
Peter Moore. It was his microphone and he was the one that recorded us. We actually used it on our first record before Trinity Seasons on Whites Off Earth Now!!! We still work with him and he's a real recording genius.
Now, you've got quite a unique guitar style because you definitely have a love for the noisier stuff and post-punk having been in a post-punk band yourself like Hunger Project. So how do you navigate your way through your guitar sound? What is it that really resonates with you?
Wow, good question! For me comes down to tone and also I use the attitude of some of the blues masters like Lightning Hopkins and John Lee-Hooker and those guys. Where it kinda all comes down to one note or two notes and that's the attitude. So, if you play it right and it sounds right and you out get enough emotion through it, then it works right?
As long as the emotion is feeding the song and visa versa then it works. So, it comes down to tone and the right combination of noise ya know? It's the quality of sound. I'm not so much into scales and stuff like that it's emotion right?
As you say, I come from a post-punk background, so I was very DIY.
I have never taken a lesson and if someone asked me to teach them the guitar, I'd say, well, here, I dunno, take this and plug it in and play. So, ya know that's sort of how I've done it and approached it from the very beginning. I hate it when I meet people who do both, who have that attitude but also know the guitar in and out. So, basically, when I need a real guitar player I hire one hahaha!
Being that the Cowboy Junkies have a rather melodic smooth sound and all, what is the wildest crowd you have ever had to play?
There were some clubs in the earlier days but nowadays we definitely play more theatres and people kinda know what they are coming for. Or at least they think they know what they are coming for and they are there to listen. However, in the earlier days, we had some shows especially when we were just taking off and Trinity Seasons was just taking off, a lot of people were there just for the sake of being there. It was just the place to be or the club to be at and they weren't necessarily rowdy but they were just loud as people talked amongst their friends. So, the way we used to deal with that was in those days most people would turn up. We'd get quieter and quieter and quieter and we'd turn more introverted and get more into the stage and it was really cool because we tended to draw in the 20 or 30 people that were really into it and they would come up to the stage and get closer and everybody else would have their night at the bar but we'd have our lil gathering. I guess that's sorta the way we'd used to deal with it.
What is the most relevant performance in the course of your career?
Well, I guess it comes down to venues right? When you play a venue that's been important from your knowledge of rock history or just live music. Ya know, those are the important ones. So, in the early days, we played CBGB's and that was fantastic. I mean, it the worst club in the world but it was pretty fantastic to play it but then on the other side of that scale, we have played 'The Royal Albert Hall' a couple of times. So we walk in there and you can't believe we are playing this place. Then we played Carnegie Hall a couple of times and here in Toronto, we have this hall called Massey Hall which is very famous, as it's been around for over 100 hears. Those are the kinda more internationally known ones but there's also a lot of venues, especially in the states like old vaudeville theatres and ya know you get the history of them. Like you found out that Duke Ellington played on this stage. So, it's stuff like that and those things that are pretty cool when you sorta feel that connection with the past and with the live music past. Which is what it's all about right? Ya know, it's about just bringing that stuff forward.
So, I can't specify one but it usually comes down to the venue, that's usually what it is.
You guys have chosen a few covers along the way. What was it that excited you about the thought of Sweet Jane? Obviously that has propelled you into a different limelight with the use of it in Natural Born Killers but what was it that made you go "that's the one"? Was it that you love Lou Reed?
Yeah, we are huge, huge Lou Reed fans and huge Velvet Underground fans. So that band are obviously an influence on what we do and where we come from um.... and we were putting the songs together and part of what we doing at the time around 'Sweet Janes' is that we were doing a lot of blues songs but we were sorta reinterpreting them all. We were sorta putting them through our own lens and when we were putting songs together for Trinity Seasons and the kinda covers we wanted to choose, were our own version of the old American classic songbook. So, ya know and we wanted to include a Lou Reed song in there and we felt like there were probably other songs in the Lou Reed cannon/songbook that mean more to us but we sorta looked at Sweet Jane as being the classic bar band song that has been done 1000 times and has been done badly 99% of the time. So, we wanted to bring it back to what it was, as it's a beautiful song. We wanted to do it right. It wasn't necessarily our favourite Lou Reed song it was just a song we thought had been covered badly so wanted to cover it right.
You are coming to NZ and Australia so what can we expect from this performance and will there be a bit of back catalogue or is it more about the latest album All that Reckoning?
It's a real combination. What we do is we tend to do two sets every night and in our first set we concentrate on the new record All That Reckoning because it's where we are now and we throw a few old songs into that set as well. Then, the second set is really about the catalogue as we carry a huge repertoire with us, so it changes up every night. There are a few songs that get played over the course of the tour but if you see us two nights in a row or if you catch a couple of shows on the tour, you'll hear a lot of different songs. As far as the catalogue is concerned we try and pick on and throw in a few songs that we know people will know and we also what to put in some deep cuts for the sorta real fans, something the people that have been listening to us for years and years can enjoy. It's sorta a combination, we realise that there is an entertainment side to this we want people walking away feeling like that have been entertained and hopefully have been introduced to some new music.
They've gotta get their monies worth right?
Exactly, exactly. [Giggling away]
You work with your siblings! How on earth is that?! What's Margo like? Is she hard work, [laughing] joking...
[Michael seems amused] It seems to work, it's been 30 years.
Well, it seems to have worked for other people and for us it's worked. The way we have done it is that we have adjusted how we approach it. Especially touring over the years and I think touring is what breaks up most bands. It's about the stress and the strains whether they are your siblings or not, about being on the road with the same people. So, we try and really adjust how we do it. In the earlier days, we were in a little van and we travelled non-stop and as we got more popular we got buses but we were still on the road for months on end. Now that we have gotten older we have pulled back on that, especially if we are in northern American. We just got out for 4 or 5 shows and then go home and get away from each other. So ummm... we try and make sure we keep it fun. We want to keep playing live fresh, that's what it's all about for us and if something begins to go stale then we figure out why it is turning stale and we change it.
So, this is a fun question really. Were you cowboy enthusiasts or were you just a bunch of Canadian cowboys that were really into heroin?
[Chuckling] probably neither...
It literally came down to we had our first show coming up at a local club on a bill of some sort and the club owner needed a name. So, we sat down and began to throw words around at each other and our only criteria was that we wanted a name that would make people go huh? What's that? Sorta putting two words together that didn't make any sense. The weird thing is, it became to define our sound over the years. Like when we started it we never had any country or folk influences in our music, it was all very psychedelic and bluesy but the weird things was that 5 years later it kinda defined the sound but it wasn't meant that way. It was just meant as a name that people would remember.
When was the last time you played New Zealand?
It's been 20 years we are looking forward to it for sure and I can't wait to get back. I like to say to everyone to come out and after 30 years of being the same people in the same band, we are pretty good live band these days. Yeah, we've finally figured it out and you might think you know what we sound like but you probably don't. So, come on out and take a listen and we can be pretty sure you'll walk away entertained. My message is it that live music is important and we think we will give you a good night out.