Photo credit: Heather Pollock
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
We’ve been on the road for 40 years so we’ve used everything from mini—vans to full size tour buses. It always depends on the circumstance and what makes the most sense from a comfort and financial pov. Lots of breakdowns over the years; hit by a drunk on a motorcycle late one night in the middle of Wyoming; stuck under an underpass in a bus late one night leaving Chicago; breakdown of a bus late one night on the plains of Kansas; breakdown of a bus at a festival in Germany late one night in Germany which left us only being able to travel at 40mph to get to a gig in the Netherlands the next day….lots of breakdowns and usually in the middle of the night.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Eating healthy on the road is very difficult. We are often fed by the venue/promoter on the night of a gig. Whenever that meal is above par we are very very grateful. There’s nothing better for a show that being treated well by the promoter….nothing worse than being treated badly or carelessly.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I very rarely break strings. I use a lot of different tunings so if I break a string its usually when I’m tuning. If that happens its usually a sign to change the whole set, which costs around $15.
Where do you rehearse?
Our rehearsal space is also our studio. Lots of instruments hanging from the walls and stuffed into corners. Lots of tube gear and microphones that we’ve gathered over the years. No crazy experiences except for making dozens of albums in there…pretty crazy.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I have no idea.
Describe your first gig.
It was a small club in downtown Toronto. Our friends owned it. There were about 25 people there and we knew all of them.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My last real job was working as a van courier in Toronto. My best job was working at the Record and Tape Exchange in London. I learnt more about different genres of music in those three years than I have during the rest of my life.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
It’s been pretty steady over the past 5 – 10 years, no real change. Who knows what it will look like in ten years, no idea.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Try and keep ownership of as much as you can for as long as you can.