JOEL PLASKETT at Massey Hall (178 Victoria), Saturday (May 23). $29.50-$39.50. 416-872-4255, 416-870-8000.
Joel Plaskett is nervous about his Toronto gig. The one and only time he took in a show at Massey Hall was to see Gillian Welch open for Bright Eyes on May 22, 2007. Almost exactly two years later, the Nova Scotia folk rocker plays the stage himself, backed by his guitar-wielding dad, two female singers and his Emergency band.
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“I’m super-thrilled,” Plaskett says, over the phone from a tour stop in Kelowna. “I’m anticipating it. Feeling edgy, you know? I’m amazed that the room’s big but pretty intimate.”
Thirty-four-year-old Plaskett, whose career started as a teen in the Halifax indie rock band Thrush Hermit, has lots to be thrilled about, most notably the rave reviews garnered by his brand-new triple album, Three (Maple).
The album draws from Plaskett’s experiences of near constant touring in support of 2007’s Juno- and Polaris-nominated Ashtray Rock. It charts three phases of travelling: departure (disc one’s fancy-free rock ‘n’ roll), separation (disc two’s introspective folk) and return (disc three’s levity-filled mix of both).
“It wasn’t a conscious thing where I thought, ‘I’m going to make a triple record.’ I stumbled upon it and realized, ‘Oh, I’m making a triple record. This is interesting and exciting.’ I figured if I could translate that excitement onto a piece of tape and into the packaging, then people would go, ‘Wow, Joel was obviously really excited when he made this. Cool, it’s exciting to listen to.'”
Plaskett’s tried a variety of recording approaches over the years, including driving to Arizona to let a fan give it a shot on 2005’s La De Da. For Three, he assembled his own Dartmouth studio, Scotland Yard, where he recorded and produced the album himself, an experience he calls both liberating and exhausting.
“If I wrote a song, I could go down the next day and cut it. My space is simply set up, so I could record a guitar solo 10 seconds after cutting a bass track. I’ve been in studios where you spend hours twiddling about for sounds.
“I recorded a lot of stuff as scrap bass or guitar to get me through the track. But then I’d finish the song and go, ‘Ah, that’s fine.’ I don’t hear the mistakes any more.
“Who knows if on, say, Like A Rolling Stone, there would have been better takes if [Bob Dylan and his band] had stayed an extra five minutes? It doesn’t matter, though, because you connect with the song, you love the song. The performance does the song justice, and vice versa, so it’s just, like, ‘Done.'”
Interview Clips
On keeping his live show fresh with rhymes:
On the motive behind creating New Scotland Records, his imprint and home to Emergency bandmate Dave Marsh’s solo record:
On how his multi-tasking activities like producing Two Hours Traffic, running a label, touring constantly, collaborating with artists like Classified etc. help him survive as an indie artist in Canada:
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