WET SECRETS FRONTMAN BELL FINDS SONGWRITING INSPIRATION AT GRAMMYS
Edmonton riff-rock wizard Lyle Bell went to the Grammys in Los Angeles Sunday and walked away impressed, grinning and motivated.
Bell, lead singer of The Wet Secrets and Whitey Houston (also in Shout Out Out Out Out) had lately been co-writing in California for Girl on a Horse, the publishing branch of Six Shooter Records.
Six Shooter is the Toronto label that throws Interstellar Rodeo in Hawrelak Park every year, having brought St. Vincent, Gord Downie + the Sadies and Courtney Barnett into our embrace in the past.
While Bell was too far up in the nosebleeds to read Drake’s precise reaction when the Grammys rudely cut off his speech, the Edmontonian was floored by the overall intricate machine behind the live broadcast at Staples Center, the other NHL arena with a Gretzky statue outside.
“We were up above, and it was kind of cool because we could see all of the crew and how fast they have to go to put all those sets together. At one point in J-Lo’s medley, the rest of the dancers go out in front, do this big fan thing and dance into the camera.
“There was a guy dressed completely in black hiding under the piano, and as soon as the dancers moved up, he whipped out — there were three of them — and it’s almost like a pit stop, changing the tires. Outfit change in, like, under five seconds. She was in a diamond onesie, and the next time you see here she’s in a full fur thing when she walked out into the crowd.
“It’s a miracle that it all goes that well,” said Bell on the phone from L.A. “This is why they’re world-class performers — they can sing and dance and do all this s--t. You get one try at it and it goes off without a hitch.”
Despite the chaos, the thinks the performances were legit.
“Definitely there were moments when I was like, how can this possibly be them actually singing? But it was clearly live. This is the true pro-level of performer.”
For example, “Sean Mendes starts the performance in a piano that’s in the middle of the arena, he grabs a guitar, runs up the aisle without missing a beat, does a big jump right as they launch into it on the one.
“It was a spectacle.”
Bell’s highlight?
“I knew Diana Ross was going to be there, but I’ve never seen Dolly Parton, and Dolly sang. Man.”
As a songwriter trying to get his songs played at the highest level, the buffet of international superstars was something of a one-night master class, extremely instructional.
“It is to me. I’m going to do this strictly from a songwriter’s perspective, to get cuts and to try and do this as a career.”
He notes, “It’s not about me being an artist, it’s trying to write the best songs. A Wet Secrets song doesn’t necessarily speak to a 13-year-old girl, you know what I mean?” he says with a laugh.
“Listening to those songs (at the Grammys) and going to the songwriters’ party afterwards was maybe even more telling, because when you see the songs performed by the star onstage with a huge production it’s overwhelming. But you see the same song on a relatively small stage played by a singer that wrote it, playing a guitar — they’re still banger songs, and you can hear it. You can actually feel it.
“This is the trick, it’s a puzzle to put all these things together, but I’m kind of confident I can make my mark doing this. But I’m right at the beginning of this process, so I don’t want to oversell any of this,” he says with another laugh.
“Talk to me in a year.”
SCREEN AWARDS
Did the Canadian Screen Awards notice Edmontonian Niobe Thompson’s CBC/PBS doc about our friend the horse? Of course!
And how, actually: the threepart Equus: Story of the Horse is up for eight CSAs. This groundbreaking team deserves credit, so listed, the nominations are:
Rob Stewart Award for Best Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series: CBC (Caroline Underwood), Handful of Films (Niobe Thompson)
Best Direction, Documentary or Factual Series: Niobe Thompson
Best Original Music, Non-Fiction: Darren Fung
Best Photography, Documentary or Factual: Daron Donahue, aAron Munson
Best Picture Editing, Documentary: (Chasing the Wind episode), Brenda Terning, Krystal Moss
Best Picture Editing: (First Riders episode), Scott Parker
Best Sound, Non-Fiction: Johnny Blerot, Iain Pattison
Best Writing, Documentary: Niobe Thompson.
Edmonton’s Caution: May Contain Nuts (whoo hoo!) is also up for a couple CSAs:
Best Sketch Comedy Show and best Writing, Variety or Sketch Comedy: Matt Alden, Sheldon Eltro, Howie Miller, Joleen Ballendine.
Calgary production Wynonna Earp — a supernatural modern western — also roped in eight nods.
From out east, Anne with an E and Schitt’s Creek tied with 15 Canadian Screen Award nominations apiece. With 135 categories, the Canadian Screen Awards airs from Toronto on CBC and the CBC Gem streaming service on March 31.
Hoofs crossed for our local productions.
SCI-FI QUADRANT
It’s terrific Star Trek: Discovery seems to have found its legs this season, and without any spoilers I’d like to quickly discuss two characters I’m gushing over.
The first is Capt. Christopher Pike, who for the first time since the original series sits a good-natured old-school sci-fi swashbuckler in the captain’s seat — basically as close to Kirk as we’ve come with a thoughtfulyet-unafraid-to-swing-his-fistsand-photon-torpedoes leader.
People who don’t really understand Star Trek mock Kirk for being too punch-first, ask questions later — but Star Trek’s peak captain constantly outthought and outmanoeuvred the near-constant stream of gods and immortals the Enterprise kept banging into, and Pike has that vibe, with a really likable loyalty added to the mix. He’s a great leader, often telling his staff how much he values them.
But even more than Pike, Jet Reno is my favourite character on the new series, period — I haven’t liked anyone as much as her on Trek since Enterprise’s flawed and wonderful Trip Tucker, who often caused great problems trying to do the right thing, and basically created the need for the Prime Directive.
Comedian Tig Notaro is the secret to Reno’s charm, who in her back-and-forth with Stamets in the last episode noted she’s “uninsultable.” From her line, “I’m just a gearhead, not a farmer,” the battle is on, killer banter not seen since Bones and Spock as she talks about the Spore Drive as being run on mushrooms “I pick off my pizza.”
What she and Pike have in common is exactly what was too often missing from Discovery’s first season: they’re completely FUN. Every moment they’re on screen is a joy, so here’s hoping they keep her.
Also: notice we haven’t met the chief engineer on Discovery yet. I keep wondering if he’ll have a Scottish brogue …