East Coast Kitchen Party at Folk on the Rocks
Joel Plaskett brings his band The Emergency to Yellowknife for the first time
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Saturday, July 2, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Joel Plaskett isn't quite sure how to describe what he does on stage. Between his penchant for sweater vests, vinyl obsession and his attention to the poetry of his lyrics while still having a danceable beat, his guess is as good as anyone's.
East Coast rocker Joel Plaskett hits Yellowknife for the first time at Folk on the Rocks. - photo courtesy of Ingram Barss
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"It's lyrical and it's rock and roll and there's a bit of folk. I mean, I get called a singer-songwriter, but I've also got a wicked rock band, you know?" he said. "The genres get pulled around a little bit here and there, but to be honest I'd let somebody else tell me how I've changed. I'm just growing up and trying to make music that sounds like where my heads at."
He's been making music since he was 13, and touring since he graduated high school, first as part of Thrush Hermit and later solo or with his band The Emergency, earning 17 East Coast Music Awards, 11 Music Nova Scotia Awards, four Polaris Music Prize nominations and a Juno. Folk on the Rock. will be his first visit to Yellowknife.
"I've never been to Yellowknife or the Northwest Territories, so I'm excited," he said. "This is kind of like the last big check mark, until we start getting to, like, Alert or something!"
Based in Dartmouth, his music is seriously Canadian. Songs like Nowhere with You, True Patriot Love, and Love this Town reference specific Canadian themes and experiences, from the Musquodoboit Harbour to playing at iconic Halifax music spots like The Khyber or The Marquee Club. His most recent album, released last March, Park Avenue Sobriety Test, is a reference to the guardrail on a specific corner in Dartmouth, that has a habit of thwarting unwary drivers.
Overall, Plaskett says what he cares about are the words.
"When people say that they hear the East Coast in my songs, I take that as a compliment because it means that I'm being myself. I write about what I know, and most of my experiences are taking place in Canada, and I like the geography of the place. There's some good names too you know?" he said. "I like specifics. I've always liked when Joni Mitchell gets specific, a lot of the writers that I like, they go into detail. My favourite U2 is when they're distinctly Irish, you know? When their music is like massively sweeping and the scope is like the world, all the power to them, but it's not really what I do. I tend to dive into the personal and into the details and I leave the big broad stroke stuff to other people who do it better, you know? Maybe I get bogged down in details, maybe not everybody can relate to it, but that's where my voice resides."
One of the continuing threads from album to album is this sense of leaving home and coming back, something many Canadians who relocate can relate to.
"There's usually motion in my music. There's always a sense of home and a longing for that sometimes and that shows up," said Plaskett.
His most recent album sounds like an East Coast kitchen party transported to an iPod, complete with audience-participation sing-a-long bits.
"We didn't record it in the kitchen, we recorded in my studio, but I had a lot of old friends on deck for the record, so when we all got together, it's fun, there were some laughs being had! I like music that has a little bit of that tumble, where there's a mistake and it's by no means perfectly played, if it was, I wouldn't be that interested in it. I like getting people in a room and seeing what happens!" he said.
And it was all recorded on analogue technology.
"Every one of my records has been done on tape. I like analogue technology, I like the way it sounds, I like the fact there's a limitation, I think it's easier to work with limitations," said Plaskett. "With digital you don't always know what is real and what isn't, as far as a performance goes."
It's the live performances that keep him going. And every time it's different.
"We don't play the songs exactly as they're performed on the record, we kind of interpret them and push and pull things a little bit here and there, because we're often making stuff up and just mucking around," he said. "We're not like playing with monitors in our ears and running down the exact same set list every night. It changes and it morphs and it's very conversational. It's kind of reactionary to the audience, it's live, there's no doubt about that, warts and all! I mean we take a lot of pride in what we do, but we're not precious about it."
His set list includes old favourites as well as new material.
"Some of what I do is pretty goofy, and other things can get kind of heavy or heartfelt or whatever. I like writing about whatever is on my mind, and my mind goes to all those places. I like that balance. I try to put on an entertaining live show, that's really at the core of what I do, and as a result some of the heavier material gets left aside," he said. "On a gorgeous summer night outdoors it's hard to channel too much anger!"
