I bet that wherever you are in the world, there’s at least one musician/band/rapper that you thought was destined for the big time but never broke through beyond your local scene. In Canada - where I’m from - it happens on the national level. There’s a long history of bands that were huge here but that never really found an audience outside of Canada. The Tragically Hip comes to mind right away. They’re arguably the biggest Canadian band ever but they’re largely unknown beyond our borders.
The Tragically Hip was fronted by the late, great Gord Downie. How to describe Gord… He was a madman poet. A shaman-like figure. He was a true native son - he loved Canada and told a lot of Canadian stories. He was a champion for overlooked and oppressed people. A lot of things about Gord seemed kinda weird, so it’s amazing that he and his band were so huge here. But something about the things he did resonated very strongly for Canadians. Almost 12 million of us watched the broadcast of The Tragically Hip’s final concert, which took place a year before Gord passed away.
For whatever reason, Gord took a shine to me somewhere along the line. He invited me to open for the band for a few shows back in 2006. A few years later, he and I recorded a song together called “Whispers Of The Waves” for my 2011 album, 20 Odd Years.
It all started when my friend Charles (who I made a lot of music with during the Warner years) sent me a little sketch-thing he came up with. He named the file Tourégically Hip, or something like that. The idea was that the vibe of the piece reminded him of a combination of Ali Farka Touré and The Tragically Hip. I took what Charles sent, chopped it up, added elements and the skeleton of “Whispers Of The Waves” took shape. When Charles and I got together in the studio sometime later to start work on 20 Odd Years, I suggested that we should send the beat to Gord Downie and ask if he’d be down to collaborate. We figured it was long shot of the century because he was the biggest name in Canadian music but what they hey? We had played those shows together in ’06. Maybe there was a chance. To our surprise, Gord responded quickly, saying he’d love to work with us. What happened next turned out to be one of the greatest lessons about music I’ve ever learned.
Gord said he wanted to talk and so we arranged a phone call. I remember that I was crashing at my sister’s house at the time. I was laying on my niece’s bed with the phone to my ear as Gord explained that he couldn’t just slap a part on the song. That wasn’t how he rolled. It had to be a true, meaningful collaboration. Firstly, he wanted to know what I had in mind. I said I wanted to flip the idea of the standard rapper/singer collaboration and have him sing the verses and I would rap the chorus. He was down for that but he needed something deeper from me. He needed to know why it had to be him on the song. And if the song was going to feature both of our voices, what was the relationship between the two? Everything happening in the song - including his contribution - had to serve the greater purpose. It all had to mean something. It wasn’t good enough to add an element ‘just because’.
For us to come to a mutual understanding, we spoke for at least an hour. Gord schooled me but in a way that wasn’t humiliating at all. He treated me as an equal even though we weren’t, quite frankly. He was a great teacher. In the end, we came up with a story. A man lost his wife to sea somehow. And now that man (Gord) was having a conversation with the sea (me) and pleading for the return of his wife.
The plan was to record the whole song in Halifax. The Tragically Hip was scheduled to play a show in Halifax during the time I had the studio booked to record 20 Odd Years. But something happened (I can’t quite remember what) and that show ended up being cancelled. So plan B was for Gord to record his parts in Toronto at a later date.
When the day came, Gord and I met in the studio owned by the guys from the band Blue Rodeo (another band that is huge in Canada but not so much beyond). Gord walked in, headed straight for the microphone and nailed his parts in one take. He was very well prepared. We couldn’t have been in the studio more than ten minutes. He saved me some money!
If I remember correctly, it was after Gord recorded his parts that he called me again. He said the song needed more from me than just the chorus. There had to be more of a conversation between the characters. Of course, he was right. Back to the notepad I went. That turned out to be another good learning experience. I’m pretty sure “Whispers” is the first song on which I rapped to a beat in 3/4 time.
As you may know by now, I have weird feelings about the 20 Odd Years album. There a few songs on it that I absolutely hate. There are some that could have been so much better. All-in-all, it’s an album I would erase from memory Eternal Sunshine-style, if I could. But the one thing I’d keep is “Whispers Of The Waves”. Working with Gord was such a great experience and I think (all credit to Gord) that that song kicks a fair amount of ass.
By the way - returning to my original point about artists who never made it beyond their local scene… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bon Shah from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia is one of the greatest rappers of all time. So much great hip hop talent from Halifax never got the recognition it deserved. Shouts out to Caleb Simmons and Nathan The Alien and Tachichi and Jesse Dangerously. And love and respect always to the ones who broke out: Jorun Bombay and Skratch Bastid and Sixtoo. I never knew Pat Stay (RIP) but I have great respect for his accomplishments. Halifax rock, rock on.