00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:05:07 I read a lot of interviews in my articles
00:00:07:11 before we did this and like, everybody talks about Toronto,
00:00:09:13 like the Toronto era of Jon Rae as being like this like dark,
00:00:15:06 you know, this is like the drug period,
00:00:17:06 the fucking like, are your memories of the Toronto era
00:00:20:18 like, they kind of see him a little bit conflicted.
00:00:23:18 They were crazy time or whatever;
00:00:25:28 it was only like probably the last year.
00:00:28:18 The rest of it was pretty like rosy cheek, like innocent.
00:00:31:12 So I don't know,
00:00:32:18 it was just the last year I was here and it got pretty dark.
00:00:35:08 Yeah. I was here for like four years.
00:00:37:13 -Yeah. -Yeah.
00:00:39:18 They are three awesome years too.
00:00:40:28 When you decided to go back and like break up the band,
00:00:43:28 what was like the catalyst for that basically?
00:00:47:02 I can say one thing.
00:00:49:04 It was probably like a...
00:00:50:11 It was like two handfuls of things.
00:00:52:16 Yeah.
00:00:53:27 Yeah, I needed to get away for sure.
00:00:57:08 -Yeah. -Yeah.
00:00:58:14 Say as much as little as you want obviously,
00:01:00:12 National Post was quite intrusive I found.
00:01:04:02 As far as like how much got out there about like;
00:01:07:04 your divorce and like Constantines/Ladyhawk Tour,
00:01:09:23 -Right -Yeah.
00:01:11:06 And just like...
00:01:12:15 that's when like it seemed like
00:01:14:03 The River was kind of starting to...
00:01:15:28 I guess like Peter out, is it fair to say.
00:01:18:28 And now that you are back,
00:01:20:08 it's like the media has all kind of turned to this like,
00:01:23:01 The Return of Jon Rae,
00:01:24:20 like everybody seems really kind of behind this.
00:01:27:00 It's cool but it's all in reference to this like degrading
00:01:31:04 year of my life, I could say that.
00:01:34:22 People want to have a story, you need a story,
00:01:36:27 and it's a story I guess.
00:01:38:20 So, whatever.
00:01:40:01 The new record, you have written some murder ballads,
00:01:42:12 what was your influence for doing that?
00:01:44:14 Musically I wouldn't say there was a single influence.
00:01:48:05 As far as the idea of writing from
00:01:51:04 the perspective of a murder,
00:01:52:17 it was something that came to me a couple of years ago.
00:01:57:23 I found this way of writing songs
00:01:59:28 where you write from a perspective,
00:02:01:28 not necessarily your own.
00:02:03:22 And you just start to make it up,
00:02:05:08 which I found really easy to do,
00:02:07:28 which was pretty much all of those what you need.
00:02:10:12 It was all written from like this perspective of, alright,
00:02:13:08 these are soul songs about intimacy, or this is a soul song
00:02:20:07 about drinking and partying.
00:02:22:06 Instead of like, I am going to look at what I feel right now
00:02:25:12 and write a song about it.
00:02:26:22 So that's sort of where I came from.
00:02:28:08 I was like, I need a direction to write songs,
00:02:31:06 because I needed to force myself to write songs,
00:02:33:09 and I just came up with this idea that it would be
00:02:36:00 interesting and difficult to write songs
00:02:37:08 from the perspective of a serial killer,
00:02:40:02 [laughter]
00:02:42:18 which is where the Oh, Maria came from.
00:02:45:00 Yeah, how do you feel about Oh, Maria?
00:02:46:08 It was songs I was never intending to release.
00:02:49:09 So, because there is like a really personal element to it
00:02:53:29 that's hidden through subtly,
00:02:57:08 and hidden in the lyrics like a puzzle,
00:03:00:14 but it kind of comes out really strongly
00:03:05:13 when you know the story. Sure.
00:03:06:28 So, it's...
00:03:08:13 I am not sure if I am too into it, being out there.
00:03:11:22 Yeah. But I love it.
00:03:13:13 I love the album, I am so happy with how it turned out.
00:03:16:08 I had no idea how it would sound when I asked Darcy,
00:03:19:15 and Catherine and Deward and play on it.
00:03:21:18 But it turned out like better than I could have imagined.
00:03:24:25 And it was all done relatively like,
00:03:27:18 was it live off the floor or?
00:03:29:03 Everything was live off the floor,
00:03:30:13 we sort of sat in a circle and we did two takes.
00:03:34:13 It doesn't sound so live off the floor.
00:03:36:02 Not going live.
00:03:37:08 It sounds very tight for a Live Off The Floor Record,
00:03:39:15 which is pretty cool.
00:03:40:24 And Collin did such an amazing job of mixing it.
00:03:43:24 I listen to that album up against some other ones,
00:03:48:24 and it sounds incredible,
00:03:51:04 it sounds really good.
00:03:52:10 I am really happy with the album.
00:03:54:07 Yeah, mixing is like one of those things like yeah,
00:03:56:14 I get in front of the board
00:03:58:06 and I am just like I go cross eyed,
00:03:59:28 staring out like a Japanese magazine or something.
00:04:03:12 totally... no idea what's happened.
00:04:04:20 And then he will throw in something like,
00:04:05:28 what sounds better, this or this?
00:04:07:08 And it's like, both?
00:04:09:11 Yeah, exactly. How will you pick?
00:04:11:26 We are definitely recording with the guy
00:04:13:13 who has like perfect pitch.
00:04:16:00 So, like he can hear two things that are like fraction off,
00:04:18:21 right? Yeah.
00:04:19:28 And he'll just be like no, that's off, and I'll just
00:04:21:27 be like, I can't even hear what you are talking about.
00:04:23:18 And you are just like, can I do it?
00:04:24:29 He is probably just just fucking with us
00:04:26:18 [Music ]
00:04:29:03 This is STRANGE NOTES, you are welcome!