Interview: Gordon Downie & Johnny Fay, The Tragically Hip

Gordon Downie

FATAL ATTRACTION

The TRAGICALLY HIP have been trying to make in-roads on the world music buying public since they put out their first album Up To Here, which to date has sold around 200,000 in their native Canada, closely followed by album number two Road Apples.

Comprised of Gordon Downie on vox and some sort of head trip while performing live, Paul Langlois (guitars and vocals), Bobby Baker (guitar), Johnny Fay (drums), and Gord Sinclair (bass/ vocals), they began in Kingston, Ontario, in 1983. Since then it has been a steady climb but a lot of lengthy tours. But this has all paid dividends for them in that they've been awarded Canada's equivalent of the Grammys, the Juno Award, for "most promising group," as well as the public's own award (distributed via national newspapers0, called the Casby, for best album (Up To Here), best vocalist, and best song of 1990 ("New Orleans is Sinking").



They never headed for the coveted prizes of superstardom and record deals.

"We were just happy playing around town. And then it came to the point where a couple had finished University and we could go either way, go back to university or continue playing. We thought we had something and we wanted to continue with it," says Johnny.

They've just recently completed a British tour, which gave me the chance to meet up with them at the Columbia Hotel in West London. As hit after hit intrudes on our conversation from the barman's portable radio, whilst we sup lukewarm coffee in the lounge, we turn to the subject of their stage show, which runs more on spontaneity than planning.

"I think we are way more excited about getting up there and then seeing what happens," explains Gordon.

It's kind of refreshing to watch that.

"Real refreshing to play it that way too," adds Johnny.

Do you find that the more you play live, the more things you discover about yourselves musically, as in if someone came up with something different while you're on stage, would you follow it up?

"Yeah," replies Johnny. "Well, Gordon will say to Robbie, 'I really like that part you played in this song.' or I'll say to somebody else 'I liked that.' And then we'll maybe go in that direction. That's part of the way we write songs. We'll try and road test them as much as we can."

Gordon:

"We are lucky in the sense that when we are on stage and some guy does have a different view for a direction, we don't necessarily have to wait until after the show. Because it's not so scripted and rehearsed, we can explore that on stage and take an old song that maybe would get boring played night after night, and turn it into something a little bit new."

Last time the band played the Marquee way back in April/ May time, Gordon came out with the line "I don't have to do this for a living, I can fit pipes you know," a quote that he doesn't remember at all, but finds pretty amusing.

Johnny:

"Nothing's worse than seeing a band get up there and take themselves seriously."

Johnny Fay

Gordon:

"It's interesting when you see a band and they come out and they're in the opening refrain of their song; 'this song's about...'," he says looking mystically into the air. "We kinda use a cushion, 'cos if you're not taking yourself seriously you can make mistakes."

Johnny suddenly hoiks his right thumb in the direction of the bar as PAUL YOUNG's cover of CROWDED HOUSE's "Don't Dream It's Over" comes on, causing a slight digression on to the subject of bands recording covers. A consideration that hasn't found any favour with them.

"We had a hard enough time deciding what of our own songs to put on the last two records..." Gordon's voice deteriorates in volume as if his train of thought has gone to a better place.

Johnny's perky voice takes hold of the wheel:

"To me, that's always the single the record company would go for. That would always be the leadoff track."

Gordon:

"Even if it was ultra obscure t0o. It would be like, that's a story, that's a hook that we can hang something on. I'm not slagging the record companies, that's just the way it goes. But ultimately it shows a bit of a lack of faith in the band."

What about the attitude of bands who choose to rebel against the system, of which they are now a part?

Gordon:

"Ultimately it's a tad suicidal. I said in a BBC interview today, that we want to sell some records, unfortunately that's the bottom line. And I thought about it afterwards and it's true, unfortunately, that is the bottom line and you can say whatever you want, but I mean you are assigned to a deal, to go into business with someone."

Four days after the interview took place, they arrived back in London to play the penultimate date of the tour at the Town and Country Club. Read about it here.

Peter Grant
Riff Raff
January 1992

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