I’ve told this story before. Let’s see if I can tell it better this time.
I grew up in a small rural town in Nova Scotia called Mt. Uniacke. According to Google, 3500 people were living there last time they counted, which was in 2011. When I was a kid, it was far fewer. I’m guessing less than 1000 - maybe way less.
Mt. Uniacke was originally settled as a gold mining town. Once all the gold was dug up, there wasn’t much reason to be there except that the land was cheap, I guess. So there has always been a lot of poor people in Mt. Uniacke and no rich people. Back in my day, there was one house that was nicer than the rest. A guy named Tony lived in it. Not sure what his deal was. He seemed to be rich but looking back on it now, he was probably just middle or upper-middle class.
There’s basically one main road that runs through Mt. Uniacke. No traffic lights - not even a stop sign! A few people live on the main road. When I was growing up there were only three or four businesses including a junkyard and the gas station that my dad ran. Branching off the main road are some smaller roads where most of the people live. When I was a kid, many of those roads were dirt roads (including the one I lived on).
One of the branch roads led to South Uniacke, which was (probably still is) the poorest part of Mt. Uniacke. I grew up hearing stories that made me think of South Uniacke as a scary place. I think I only ever went there once (can’t remember why). We’ll come back to South Uniacke in a sec.
Another thing I heard when I was a kid was the name Stella Kuen. Seemed like that name was evoked at least once a day. You know how kids are shitty and cruel? Well, back in my day in Mt. Uniacke, one might say to another, “eww, you kissed Stella Kuen!” Or you’d make a girl feel bad by calling her Stella Kuen. The implication was that this Stella Kuen character was some sort of terrible, ugly witch or goblin. I assumed she must have been a character in a movie I’d never seen or a book I never read. And I assumed that kids everywhere used her name the same way - as an epithet. That is, until one of the most mind-blowing moments of my entire life.
One day, I was walking down the corridor of the school with a friend (I forget who now). It was late afternoon, after classes had gotten out. Maybe I was there late for basketball practice or something. Anyway, we walked past a classroom when my friend became suddenly startled and said, “holy shit, did you see who was in that room?!” I said, “no, who?” He said, “STELLA KUEN!!”
The earth stood still. It took me a moment to process what was happening. Years of wiring was suddenly undone as I realized for the first time that Stella Kuen was a real person. I was legit-scared to go back and look. But my curiosity was greater. I think I was expecting to see someone with severe birth defects - some kind of monster (I watched a lot of horror movies as a kid). Instead, I saw the prettiest woman I had ever seen.
At first, it was very difficult for me to understand. I’m guessing I was 12 years old at the time. Why was this nice-looking lady’s name used as an epithet the way it was? I eventually figured it out on my own. Stella was from South Uniacke. Like I said, I was raised to fear South Uniacke and the people who lived back there. They were viewed kinda like the hill-people in that movie Deliverance. Stella was beautiful and people didn’t know how to handle that. I guess she created some sort of cognitive dissonance. And so in their ignorance or pettiness or whatever-it-was, they turned her into a monster through talk. In that sense, she was kinda like Monica Bellucci’s character in that movie Malèna (not exactly but sorta).
So when I wrote the Stella song that appears on the Square album, I was trying to make a statement about messed up small-town mentalities. There’s a line in the song about someone burning a cross. As I wrote in an earlier post, there was some severe racism there too - all manner of small-mindedness, really.
The original beat for the Stella song was made by the enigmatic DJ Signify. I can’t remember for sure, but my guess is that I wrote the lyrics for the song before I had a beat and that when I heard Signify’s composition, the vibe fit. Up to a certain point, I always wrote lyrics first and then looked for a beat that fit. I never-never do it that way now. I think the turning point was probably the Talkin’ Honky album.
I ended up learning a valuable lesson from the Stella song. Square was my first album that came out on the Warner label. Before that, everything I did was very underground and I operated on the assumption that beyond my circle of friends, no one would hear my stuff. It was still difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea of normal people hearing my songs after I signed a major label deal. To celebrate the release of Square, I played an in-store in a record shop in downtown Halifax. I remember that the store was packed and that I played five or six songs. One of the songs I played was the Stella song. After the set, I almost had a heart attack when I was approached by a young woman who introduced herself a relative of Stella Kuen (niece, maybe). She thanked me for the song and said something about it being meaningful to her whole family, including Stella herself. I never imagined in a million years that Stella Kuen would have heard that song. Rather than being proud, I felt embarrassed and scared shitless. I mean, it’s nice. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad the Kuens liked the song. But the realization that I was beginning to emerge from the underground and into the view of the world scared me to the core. I was never comfortable with that. And with the work I’m doing now - as you can probably tell - I’m trying to avoid it. From what I can see, my audience now is smaller than it was in the Vertex days and I prefer it that way.
Speaking of the current work, I mentioned a few weeks ago that I did a little feature on AWOL ONE’s new album, Scribbleface. The album is out now! Get yours here. I’m featured on the song “Micro Chips”. Check it out:
In other news, Robert Christgau - the man known as “the Dean of American rock critics”; arguably the most influential music journalist ever - chose King Of Drums for his 2022 “Dean’s List”, which is an annual list of his picks of the best albums of the year. Very flattering. Nice surprise. If you search Wikipedia for almost any classic album that’s been released since the end of the sixties, Mr. Christgau’s take on it is included in the ‘reception’ section. I just tested the notion by searching for Destroyer by KISS and - sure enough - there’s Christgau (he didn’t like it - said it was their least interesting album).
Much progress has been made on my next album. All the beats are structured and almost completely detailed. This one will be at least as dense as King Of Drums, if not more. There are a LOT of ideas at work in each of the songs. A full map of the album is almost complete - I know how most of the songs will interconnect now. I still haven’t chosen a title but I’ve compiled a list of candidates.
What else can I tell you? When I was choosing which beats I’d use for the album and which I’d cut, it wasn’t about picking my favorites. There are no favorites. Before I started working, I made a list of rules. Rule #4 is “LOVE EVERY BEAT”. That means that I give every beat an equal amount of attention and care. That’s what made the cuts so difficult. My main consideration was to have a good mix of vibes and tempos. The slowest song on the album is 75 bpm. I really love rapping on those slow tempos. But I think variety is very important. So there are plenty of fast songs too. Six songs are over 100 bpm and three of those are over 115. I’m pretty sure the first song on the album is going to be the fastest one (122 bpm! - that’s faster than “Set It Off” by Big Daddy Kane!).
So now it’s pretty much time for me to start writing lyrics. That’s always the hardest plunge to take. I don’t feel ready but I’m close. I’ll have to meditate for a few days before I pick up the pen. I’ve already begun preparing by taking extra measures to get good night’s sleeps and by eating well. I figure that if I’m feeling healthy, I’ll have better focus. I feel great right now.
Another quick note - the passing of Tom Verlaine on Saturday has brought back memories of one of the highlights of my career. Back in 2004, I was lucky enough to play right after Television on the same stage at the Glastonbury festival. That meant being in close proximity to the band for most of the day. Me and my band ate lunch with those guys and we watched their set (which was one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen) from the side of the stage. I was a fan of Television and two of the guys in my band worshipped them. So it was a giant thrill. I was especially excited for my right-hand-man, Charles. I think he was beside himself. Over lunch, we chatted with Tom Verlaine and asked him questions and stuff. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life - maybe THE coolest. I mean, who’s cooler than Television? Geez.
Okay, so that’s it for today. For the next post, I think I’ll write about “Secret Splendor” - the angel song from the Man Overboard album and I’ll tell you about its connection to Drake.