00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:04:28 When I think about like the writing process in my band,
00:00:08:18 it's just like everything is so like scrutinized
00:00:11:14 and it's like a song changes ten times before it's ever like...
00:00:14:12 but yeah just... -We do that as well.
00:00:16:24 -Yeah, yeah. We're trying to capture the spontaneity of
00:00:20:27 spontaneous composition and then work with that.
00:00:24:08 So we still keep the character of that,
00:00:27:09 that it doesn't feel like it's well thought of for days.
00:00:31:09 Do some kind of charm and lightness to it
00:00:33:13 and then we used our skills to kind of support this.
00:00:36:08 A string of consciousness can be very liberating & lot of things
00:00:40:14 can open up and come out of that channel that is opened up.
00:00:43:28 I find some of the best ideas come to... when you are like...
00:00:46:28 when you just wake up in the morning
00:00:50:04 and like you are kind of in that place in between like
00:00:52:12 when your mind is almost the freest
00:00:54:14 when you are like sleepy kind of like...
00:00:56:08 extreme consciousness is very important.
00:00:58:08 Oh yeah, that's how I've started having naps
00:01:00:08 in the afternoon for about an hour or two
00:01:02:08 just to have that experience twice in a day.
00:01:04:05 Yeah.
00:01:06:08 There is a famous poet who dreamed all of his
00:01:09:04 greatest poetry of course while he was sleeping,
00:01:13:03 and so he decided to keep a pencil and
00:01:15:18 pad of paper next to his bed and day after day,
00:01:18:25 nothing would be written on when he woke up,
00:01:21:04 until finally one day he opened his eyes
00:01:23:28 and he saw there was something
00:01:25:08 scribbled on the piece of paper.
00:01:27:11 So he put on his glasses, and it said higamous, hogamous
00:01:30:27 men are monogamous, hogamous, higamous women are polygamous.
00:01:38:15 So it doesn't always work.
00:01:39:28 Yeah, I know. I can imagine.
00:01:42:12 So what's next on the horizon for Major Maker.
00:01:46:06 Well, we are going to write a new record this year,
00:01:49:04 and put her out.
00:01:50:28 Are you guys just going to do it here or you are going to...?
00:01:54:01 We consult with friends and family,
00:01:57:00 but we are just fortunate
00:01:58:08 that some of our friends are established pretty well.
00:02:00:28 So we kind of get the benefit of that.
00:02:02:28 John O'Mahoney, you had privilege of working with him?
00:02:06:09 Yes, I am very fortunate to work with him.
00:02:08:27 [inaudible] introduced him to us, and he has been just
00:02:13:18 a miracle for us.
00:02:15:05 To be able to have such a world class engineer
00:02:18:21 work on our stuff, it's a blessing.
00:02:20:29 He was nominated for Grammy Really?
00:02:23:08 -For what? -For Coldplay?
00:02:25:06 -Yeah. -That's awesome, it's amazing.
00:02:27:08 He has worked with like prince and...
00:02:28:28 All kinds of people and it's fantastic to have [inaudible]
00:02:31:24 and it's great, because he often... if we have challenges
00:02:35:10 with certain songs, we will share that with him and
00:02:38:06 he will just do something really awesome
00:02:40:03 that totally solves the problem.
00:02:42:16 So I ask for current recordings since then.
00:02:44:27 We have just released a little EP called Funky Lady.
00:02:49:05 The song is written by Gunnar Thordarson.
00:02:52:03 He is probably like The Beatles and the ABBA,
00:02:55:28 and Rolling Stones of Iceland,
00:02:57:28 and he recorded this solo record back in 1975
00:03:01:11 that didn't see the later day outside of Iceland,
00:03:04:07 and most people actually haven't heard it in Iceland today.
00:03:08:08 And so, I have heard the song ever since I was a kid and
00:03:11:28 we decided... once I played it for Toddor,
00:03:15:14 so we got to cover this song and it was really into it,
00:03:18:08 and so we got to work and
00:03:21:20 Toddor spent countless hours on the production and just...
00:03:24:25 it turned out so well.
00:03:26:10 Was that really important to you
00:03:27:16 to like do something from Iceland?
00:03:29:00 This guy Gunnar Thordarson was in a band called Rio Trio
00:03:31:26 and they were on tour back in the 1970s
00:03:34:08 and they were playing in colleges,
00:03:38:12 and they stopped in Minneapolis and then they had a
00:03:42:25 week off and they decided to drive up to Winnipeg where they
00:03:45:11 heard there were a lots of Icelanders which there are.
00:03:47:26 And they just drove up there, and grabbed the first
00:03:51:13 telephone book that they found
00:03:53:15 and opened it up and started looking for
00:03:55:03 Icelandic names and they found...
00:03:58:03 my mother is a singing teacher.
00:04:00:03 Gave them my parents phone number and say,
00:04:02:08 just come on over, and you can stay with us,
00:04:05:16 and so they came and they all piled out of the school bus
00:04:09:16 and stayed for a week
00:04:10:24 and they were babysitting me during the day
00:04:12:14 when my parents were at work or went out.
00:04:15:19 So he was playing guitar all afternoon
00:04:17:20 and I was with my crib in the backyard jumping
00:04:20:28 up and down to the beat and
00:04:22:28 after a several hours of this, when my parents got home,
00:04:28:16 Gunnar went to them, very emotional went to them,
00:04:33:03 "One day he is going to be a musician"
00:04:38:03 and he was so sure of it, and I got to see him in August,
00:04:42:25 and I told him the story again.
00:04:44:08 He was so happy to hear it.
00:04:45:17 What are your feelings about Winnipeg?
00:04:47:13 I mean you are obviously living in Toronto now,
00:04:50:23 are there fine memories of Winnipeg or is it like?
00:04:53:07 -I love Winnipeg. -Yeah.
00:04:55:12 Winnipeg is a beautiful wonderful place and there are
00:04:58:13 so many great musicians that come out of Winnipeg.
00:05:02:08 It's unbelievable.
00:05:03:16 I think it's a real underdog of a city being from Hamilton,
00:05:06:16 I know like underdog, kind of cities kind of thing.
00:05:10:04 So I always feel this really like great kinship with that,
00:05:13:08 with Winnipeg.
00:05:14:16 They are quite similar in a lot of ways.
00:05:16:17 -Yeah, yeah. -I would agree.
00:05:18:12 A radio had covered recently as well?
00:05:21:08 -It's a remix. -Remix?
00:05:22:17 Oh, okay. Its was one of those when they first put out the stands for
00:05:25:25 their song and people did all kinds of different remixes.
00:05:30:14 It was one of those.
00:05:31:23 But, because of its nature,
00:05:33:08 it was just string quartet arrangement in the song,
00:05:35:29 and I just did everything else,
00:05:37:12 just left the vocals in double strings.
00:05:39:06 I think it was one of the very few to have,
00:05:41:18 that's sort of approach that we did well.
00:05:43:13 So up in the 1930s I think...
00:05:45:04 -Oh! cool. -Canadians did great.
00:05:47:00 I mean Holy Fuck was up there for a while,
00:05:49:17 a couple of other great remixes by Canadian bands.
00:05:52:14 It was awesome.
00:05:53:20 It was great to see that, we do live in such a great place.
00:05:56:16 As far as like cultural importance like
00:05:57:28 I feel very lucky that I am around right now.
00:06:00:03 There is such a cool sea of music happening right now
00:06:02:13 and just like great musicians and,
00:06:04:24 I don't know... it's easy to kind of
00:06:07:00 feel like I missed out on like a lot of
00:06:08:10 great stuff that was happening in the 1970s
00:06:09:28 but like I don't know...
00:06:11:08 Actually it's great time to be...
00:06:13:18 Yeah, yeah agreed.
00:06:15:22 Alright boys, well...
00:06:16:19 and there you go, thanks a lot.
00:06:17:28 Thank you.
00:06:20:16 [Music]