Second time’s a charm
Jim Barber
QMI Agency
Like the two characters in the 1975 Bernard Slade play Same Time, Net Year, the main partners in the band Strippers Union find a rare degree of depth and connection from their rare get-togethers.
In the play, a man and a woman (both married) have an affair, and then meet at the same hotel over the next quarter century for a weekend. Because of the scarcity of the time together, they make the most of it, and eventually develop a degree of intensity that couples who live 24/7 together rarely achieve.
In a similar vein, the two musicians: Kingston's Rob Baker and Vancouver resident Craig Northey may see each other once or twice a year, but when they do, the musical magic they create is astounding.
Formed in 2006, Baker — of course best known as a member of The Tragically Hip — and Northey — known for his 1990s band, The Odds have known each other since the early 1990s, but hardly ever see each other.
Their long-distance friendship blossomed over the years, and finally in 2005, when both had a bit of a break, they decide to hunker down and create some music together.
The result was the Strippers Union Local 518 album, later that year.
When both artists found themselves with a little time on their hands a few years later, they began work on what became the album The Deuce, which was released last week, and distributed by Universal Music Canada.
Deuce is a little more up-tempo and little more focused than Local 518, but is still full of unique rock tunes that have echoes of Baker and Northey's former bands, but also a unique, sometimes even quirky vibe, which sets tunes like Making Strange and Burn the Bridge Down apart from standard radio rock fare.
Baker said they wanted the songs to sound like something that wouldn't be out of place on albums such as The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers, or The Band's debut Music from Big Pink — leaning a little more towards the "Mick and Keef" vibe, than the latter.
"I think the record is a little more gregarious and extroverted than the first one was," Baker said. "There are a couple of mid-tempo or down-tempo songs, but I wanted to make it more of an up-tempo record. I also think there are some lyrical themes going on that pretty much run through the record," he said, adding that he and Northey decided they wanted to put out a full album, as opposed to the trendy method of releasing singles every few weeks.
"I listen to albums, and maybe that makes me a product of a different time," Baker said. "But that's the way I grew up and I still think that way. I still think in terms of sequencing songs for vinyl. And we're putting out vinyl on this album, and I am so delighted, because I like to listen to vinyl, and I like the way the songs are delivered in sort of five-song groups, like for one side of an album.
"And I feel like a lot of bands are chasing the hit single, and I understand why, because that's generally how the game is played. But there are formulaic approaches as to how to have a hit single, and I don't buy into that. We just try and write songs that turn us on, that we think are good songs, where there's an idea that is compelling to us, and usually something that we find funny in it."
As has already been stated, The Deuce came together in a couple of very short, but very intense creative spurts over the past couple of years.
One day, the day after the last federal election, Northey and his band happened to be playing in Smith Falls, and Baker said he hopped in his pick-up truck to do some writing with his pal.
"He was in his motel room, just waiting for the evening show, so I popped in the truck that morning and drove up to Smith Falls with a guitar and a tape recorder and we plugged away at a few songs, and came away with the song Nala, which is on the record, and two other songs, neither of which made the final cut," Baker said.
"That was the first step, about two years ago. And the thing is, I amass ideas at home, and Craig, as a lyricist, is always scribbling ideas down in his various workbooks. So when we do get together, things just kind of fall out very quickly. I will have an idea that is pretty worked up; I may have a verse-bridge-chorus idea, maybe something for a solo and a couple of riffs to go with, and I will play it and he might say, 'yeah, I've got something that works with that.' "
Strippers Union is rounded out by Northey's bandmates in The New Odds, bassist Doug Elliott and drummer Pat Steward, adding a tight, cohesive rhythm section to the band.
Another songwriting session took place over a very compressed week in Vancouver in April, before the three westerners, Northey, Steward and Elliott, came to record their parts with Baker at the Hip's Bathouse Recording Studio.
Baker said the quartet has become very close friends, and the chance to make music together is as important as just hanging out and enjoying one another's company.
"Craig is not one of my oldest friends, but one of my dearest friends," Baker said. "I would love to just get together and hang with Craig for days on end. We'd laugh and have a great time, and I feel the same way about Doug and Pat. The fact that we're all musicians, it just seems natural that we would play together when we have that time ... when we make music, it feels like going off to camp. We laugh, we have a few drinks, we swim, whatever. I think it's therapeutic for us, and I really think we get a lot of good work done in a very short period of time," Baker said.
"I have never thought of being in a band or playing music with people who are just professional musicians, who are highly skilled with their instrument and that's all you want to be with. I would much rather get together with a buddy who knows three chords, and we will hammer something out and have a good time. And if we're having fun, other people are having fun."
Being a member of the Hip means being part of a large music-making machine, with many unique demands.
Baker enjoys that, enjoys the touring, and playing with his bandmates Gord Downie, Gord Sinclair, Paul Langlois and Johnny Fay, and the recording process.
But with Strippers Union, Baker said its a chance for him to stretch as a songwriter, and to have all the levers of artistic control in his hands.
"I feel more in control from the inception of the song, through its writing, through its recording, down to even how it's marketed," Baker said. "So when the thing falls on its face, I can blame myself. But I am okay with that. I do it primarily for satisfaction. I really enjoy making the music, and I enjoy the company and I enjoy the process. I am really happy with this record. I think it's a nice little musical statement," Baker said, adding that a Strippers Union tour will depend on how well the record sells and does at radio.
As for the Hip, Baker said the band has been methodically cobbling together material for a new studio album for a few months.
"We've brought some songs to completion and then put them on the shelf and moved on to the next batch of songs," he said. "We try to get together for sort of a 24-hour period once a week, and work intensively and then go our separate ways. In the intervening six days, if Johnny has something he wants to work on on the drums, he might come in and do that, and once he is satisfied with is part on a song, Gord Sinclair, or Paul or I will go in and work on guitar parts, and then Gord Downie might come in and do some vocals. We just sort of pick away at it," he explained, adding there is no timeline and no pressure to put the album out at a certain date.
"In the past, we've always tried to make the best record we could within the constraints of a time deadline and this time the idea is just to make the best record we can make, and forget about the timetable. If we get it out before Christmas, that's great. If it takes until the following Christmas, but we're all thrilled with the results, then that's great too."
"We're forced to bed, but we're free to dream"
Dana
