DOUG PAISLEY plays in the Glenn Gould Studio (250 Front West), Saturday ( October 29), 8 pm. $29.50. RTH. See listing.
Toronto alt-country musician Doug Paisley and his small American label, No Quarter, want to downplay the contributions of Garth Hudson and Leslie Feist on Paisley’s acclaimed sophomore album, Constant Companion. This is because, as Paisley says, their involvement “was a creative process, not an opportunistic thing.”
But Hudson’s impromptu arrival in Toronto had a profound effect on the record, pushing the date ahead a number of months and leaving Paisley with just two days to coordinate recording.
“It was hell,” he says. “I had to get a studio. I literally had to sit down in the morning and finish some of the songs.”
Of course, it was worth it.
“It’s as if we turned on a filter in the studio that made everything sound better. Just his presence – aside from everything he did – had an influence on the bass player, the engineer and the drummer.”
Constant Companion has received love from Mojo, Rolling Stone and the New Yorker and made the Polaris Prize long list, praised for its philosophical and comfortingly lonesome songs. Now Paisley’s nurturing material for his next album.
“Tiny ideas are so fragile,” he says. “When you’ve got finished songs that people have responded to, it’s really important to find a way not to pit those things against each other.”