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09 October 2010
“I’m not part of the music business, I’m not interested in it and I HATE IT!”’ The words of Fred Eaglesmith, a name that may not be familiar to you, but should be. He has just released his 14th album ‘Dusty’ and just completed a solo tour of Holland and the U.K. His songs have been covered by The Cowboy Junkies, Chris Knight, Dar Williams, Kasey Chambers etc. His music has a vitality and compassion that is rarely expressed. Martin Whittle caught up with him just before his gig at The Borderline in London to see what he had to say. Interview date: 22nd February 2005
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Where did it all start for you? John Prine was quite an influence wasn’t he? Don’t you generally tour out of a bus? You’re a prolific writer – How many songs have you written? Which song in entire back catalogue are you proudest of? What inspires a song for you? Fredheads? (Later whilst talking to Andy – A self confessed Fredhead, he tells me that there are another group called the Freddies who basically get very drunk and will tell anyone who will listen (Whilst grabbing you by the collar) that “Fred IS the greatest” and exactly how “He changed my life.” author) Your website (www.fredeaglesmith.com) has a fans’ digest do you read it? What would be your epitaph? If you could be someone else, who & why? You own your own record co ‘A Major Label’ – Why and what has lessons has it taught you? How have your records changed in their feel and tone or is there a path there? Dusty is your new and 14th album Talk us through it. You mean it’s the Michael Moore thing (of government suppressing the masses using fear through the media)? I have to say I don’t exactly get that! Fred returns to Europe in November.
I was brought with 8 brothers and sisters up on my fathers’ farm where, as a boy, I worked like a man. It all started to change for me when I was 11 or 12, I came in from working and had 10 minutes to warm myself by the fire before I went out to do my chores, and saw Elvis on TV. Right there and right then I knew what I wanted to be immediately! And that night started to write songs and I guess I just never stopped. At first I wrote pop songs without a guitar, then my father bought me my first guitar, it was a $12 Zellars guitar which is a brand name from Zellars, a department store in Canada.
I didn’t know that Elvis didn’t write his own songs so I just wrote pop songs like Elvis sang, but John Prine brought something else to the table. He didn’t write pop songs about love etc, he wrote about tangible things. For quite a while when I was a kid and doing gigs, I’d steal all of John’s licks and everything. You see back then when he was 20 or so, John Prine knew who he was, he had a strong sense of his own identity, it wasn’t till much later they (The record industry) messed around with him.
Yes it just feels better that way – part of the bonding of the band, taking the rough with the smooth, as well as giving us thousands of good stories. Like the time we shut down the entire US / Canada border. The border guards stopped us, strip-searched one of the band, called the bomb disposal experts – Over what turned out to be a box of firecrackers.
I’ve written about a thousand. I started to think I was slowing down a little but just before I left to do this tour I looked and realized I’d written 10 in January, I used to say I wrote about 60 / 100 a year, but I thought I was slowing down, so I guess I’m not slowing down at all, it’s just part of my life now.
Water in The Fuel, cause I was writing it for 10 years to write, and when I eventually finished it I sat back and thought ‘That’s it! That’s as good as I can do - as good as I get!’
It’s odd; it tends to be weird, everyday things, things that don’t inspire other artists, things that are close to boring, but not boring. The mundane, that’s what I find exciting, and extend them (the experiences) and that’s where people say ‘I never thought of that because it was so close reality!’
Fredheads are a bunch of fans that are real quiet and studious, they come along to lots of shows (Including English shows) and breathe in every note and listen to every word of every show; they are the best sort of fans. I don’t understand them; I don’t think I’m that interesting. (Fred says self defacingly) Hell I’m bored of myself after one night!
Generally I don’t get time to, but I have friends that point things out to me and they keep me in touch with the most interesting and relevant topics on there.
I knew this would happen!
(After some thought) You Know? I don’t think I want to be anybody else.
I’m not part of the music business, I’m not interested in it and I HATE it! In fact the more I do this the worse it gets I even hate the other people in the music business. Like today I was in a ‘Rock & Roll’ hotel and I hated the other bands in there ‘cause they are still suckin’ up. I was watching a documentary on the grunge scene in Seattle the other day, and there’s this band saying they hate their record company, and I just thought that’s so easy to do AFTER you’ve sold 10 million records. They all seem to do that don’t they! Well I did it before I sold 10 million. Selling my own records is like going back to being a farmer and selling my own corn, you know it’s the “I grow it, I want to sell it at my own place, and I don’t want to take it to town!” argument.
No, there’s not a path; what has happened is I’ve repeated myself. My first record was really well liked – it was even on the radio in Canada, then I made a Bluegrass record that every body hated, and nobody bought, then they liked my next bunch of records up until the ’50 Odd Dollars’ record which they hated. Generally what happens with me is that people are about 3 years behind, that is they like the record I made three years ago, This means that the ’50 odd dollars’ record (Released 1999) is getting more and more popular all the time, but when it came out there was a terrible silence, but I was behind it then and I am still behind, I think it’s a great record.
You know I can’t talk you through the tracks, It’s just, sort of a movie, it has its own momentum. Scott Merritt (The albums producer) felt very post 9 -11 when I brought the whole thing to him, it affected him a lot more than it affected me, and he just felt the tiredness of it, the tiredness of this threat that we are not even sure exists! I’ve noticed it especially in this country, your press keeps you constantly petrified, I can’t believe how afraid the English are!
No it’s not even that! It’s lock your car, it’s gonna get stole, everything is bad here! I can’t even check into a premier hotel here. I have to get buzzed in, I have to show my passport and tell them where I’m going! I just refuse to do it; they call the manager, but I do not have to do this! This is the worst I’ve seen it here, even the snow (We had had around 1cm of snow in London that day) it’s like the sky is falling. I like it here and I’m like, “C’mon you guys, don’t be so frightened!”
You’re used to it! I see it a lot in America too; it doesn’t have to be that way. In Canada we don’t lock our doors, right now my car is in the car park with £15,000 in it. Why? Because the numbers tell me that it isn’t going to be stolen. So to get back to the question, I just wanted to run the weariness through it, that and the fact that I had been listening to Dusty Springfield’s Memphis album and I wanted to make an album that sounded like it was from the era before The Beatles started to influence production, like an early Glen Campbell record. These days in the Americana / Alt country world everybody talks about cheese, and they have a box for their cheese, well I just wanted to take the cheese out of the box and say “No! This was going on too, and it’s legitimate.”