[Tthip]

http://www.facebook.com/GordDownie/posts...9273966747
GordDownie on Twitter says: Hi all, I'm doing some filming on...with Gord and the Country of Miracles and I thought that it would be cool to get some questions from folks to ask while I am there. Post your questions here ...and I'll take them with me and get some answers on video for you.
MAv.

Gord Downie: Questions and Answers #1

So, we're turning this into a bit of an ongoing thing.. . . We'll be getting answers to you in different formats. Some via email, I'll be recording phone calls and video. So keep questions coming in here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://bit.ly/deREZp">http://bit.ly/deREZp</a><!-- m -->

Q1. If you weren't the incredible writer/performer that you are, what other career path would you have taken?

A: I think I would be trying to be a credible writer/performer. I guess I would be trying, just as I am now. I got into my first band when I was 16. They already had something going. I just wanted in. Nothing was going to stop me. Up until that time, I don't remember ever having had that ...singularity of purpose. I was going to be in that band. I wanted to sing. Even if I couldn't.

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Q2. "In your career, what is the piece of work you are most proud of? The one (or more) song(s) you've written and you look back and say "Yeah. That one is exactly right."

A: It might sound trite, but I am most proud of this latest thing i am doing. I'm not too aware of my 'career'. i don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Strangely, it doesn't keep me warm. But to be game, I'll say that i've always liked 'Springtime In Vienna'. It's not a complicated song, but to me, it's just right. I like 'Family Band'. I like 'As I Wind Down The Pines'. 'Grace, Too', 'Now The Struggle Has A Name', 'The Dance And Its Disappearance'....

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Q3. Are you still a Bruins fan, and if so, what are your thoughts on the Bruins' playoff run this year?

A: I am still a Bruins fan, but mostly because it helps keep me and my brothers connected. I'm mostly interested in their moves - the Bruins and my Brothers. Milan Lucic is a gift to Bruins fans from heaven. Still waiting for Peter Chiarelli's legacy deal.

For a lot of reasons, though, I have trouble with the NHL game as it stands today. I do.

A few unsolicited suggestions: I think the mesh on the nets should be looser so that every goal is an event, so that when a goal is scored the net 'explodes' and everyone in the building, and at home, knows it.

I think all the players should wear cages. It would virtually eliminate all high-sticking infractions (and their confusing interpretations) and might actually positively affect the way guys hit each other.

Of course, cages would eliminate fighting, but this should happen anyway. The sport doesn't need it like the Owners think. No other sport on the planet allows the clock to be stopped for a fight without mandatory ejection of the players involved. Fighting is holding NHL hockey back. Fighting is the old parity. Now, officiating is. Make the game simpler, loose mesh, cages and no fighting.

The Bruins Playoff run this year perfectly typifed their season, one of the weirdest I can remember. You didn't know which team would show up from game to game to game. The better team won.

I don't care. It doesn't matter.
It's the defeats that make the obsession.

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Q4. What the hell is with the leafs?

A: ...it's the defeats that make the obsession....

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Q5. did kerouac's big sur novel destroy you?

A: Kerouac's paragraph-long description of a guy dancing outside a club, working into a fervour, in On The Road destroyed me, though its very hazy in my memory. I read it a long time ago. I'm not sure i have it right. I just remember thinking it was just the perfect description of freedom.

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Q6. I look at Gord as an amazing poet, not just a lyricist. Has he studied poetry over the years and if so, who are his favorite poets?

A: I love reading poetry and try to avoid the 'error of catalogue and list', but, to name a few favourites; William Wordsworth; Czeslaw Milosz; A.R Ammons; Bruno Schulz; Raymond Carver; Ted Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop; Anne Carson, Al Purdy, Ken Babstock, Karen Solie....

[hotmetal401]

Milan Lucic is a gift to Bruins fans from heaven.

This may be the greatest Gord Downie quote ever.

Cheers,

Pat

[rob68]

So great to hear that Gord is proud of As I Wind Down The Pines.

One of my most favorite songs EVER.

[Tthip]

Questions from fans. Answers from Gord. #2

Q. I think it's awesome that even on your latest album there are still ties to Mike Clattenburg! That said, I was wondering if you could share an interesting story or two about your time spend with Mike, and the cast and crew of the Trailer Park Boys?

A. I have had many great and hilarious times with those guys - they are as funny, genuine and sweet as they seem on TV - and Mike and I are in touch pretty much every week.

There are many stories, but one jumps to mind;

For the filming of The Big Dirty, Mike built an extensive set, he built his own Trailer Park. It is where he and a lot of the cast and crew lived for the duration of that shoot. On any given day, the whispering would begin on set; "Big Dirty tonight?".....'big dirty tonight?'. When Alex Lifeson and I arrived in Dartmouth for the scene we were going to be shooting the next night, the whispering began. We didn't know what it meant, perhaps we feared some brutal and humiliating hazing or initiation ritual.

It turned out, 'The Big Dirty' meant that we were all meant to gather on the Trailer Park set, after hours and perpetrate an all-night jam/shaker; complete with beer on ice; barbeques a-sizzle; amps and drums and guitars and keys and noise and laughter... all night. So we did.

I played some drums, made up some rhymes but mostly enjoyed watching and listening, awestruck, to Alex burning the place to the ground with his guitar playing.

Next night, Me and Alex arrived for our scene , sleepless, hurt but ready to act



Q. Beatles or Stones?

A. Neil Young and Crazy Horse



Q. What do you think about the role of the artist in this country/ world...and is there still a place for us?

A. That's a big one. I'll do what I generally do when faced with a question like this; I go to the literature.

I'll let a collection of things Robert Walser wrote in 'The Tanners', stand in for my answer;

'...he wished I would pursue my art with more seriousness of purpose, and I replied that In the practice of art all that was required to accomplish something were diligence, a joyful zeal, and the observation of nature, and I drew his attention to the harm that could and must come about when one approached a matter with exaggerated holy solemnity'

'So many things in this world pass. All you can do is work, make things, create, that's what we're here for, not for inspiring pity.'

'....I always see you, and along with you I feel a sort of pain which tells me there is never an end to art. I understand art so well - the urgency human beings feel for its sake, that longing to vie for for Nature's love and good graces in this way.' *

(*he was generally referring to painters, but I don't mind transposing helpful things into useful keys...)



Q. How do you determine the song order on an album. Is it random, the order you record them or what?

A. Determining the song order or sequence of an album can be easy or difficult, hotly debated or readily approved. It really is a 'feel' thing.

For the Grand Bounce, when I heard the mix for The East Wind, I thought that it would make a good album opener, for its spirit, for its lines.

When we were out in Portland, finishing the mixes, Chris and I discussed the sequence, made a few comments and Chris scribbled a running order.

It was meant only as a rough order for Mastering, but it prevailed, it worked and is the one you see and hear today.

I couldn't hear it in any other order.



Q. Who inspires you the most? And why?

A. My family. I'm trying to express my best thoughts perfectly. I'm trying to be ample and grateful to those nearest my heart. I'm trying to be a good family member. I'm trying to help.

I'm trying to do all these things. That is what you're hearing, the trying.



Q. Do you read in bed? If so, what's on your beside table 'in progress' right now?

A. How To Stay Alive In The Woods - Bradford Angier
The Infinities - John Banville
Brilliant Orange (The Neurotic Genius Of Dutch Football) - David Winner
Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes
The Tanners - Robert Walser
Last Shop Standing - Graham Jones
Absence Of Mind - Marilynne Robinson

[let_me_out]

Q. Beatles or Stones?

A. Neil Young and Crazy Horse

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