What it’s like to hear your hit record 30 years later
The Pursuit of Happiness is back in the spotlight this year, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album, Love Junk. Produced by Todd Rundgren, it came out after the Toronto-based band notched a hit with the catchy pop rocker, I’m An Adult Now. In this interview with Lynn Saxberg, band co-founder Moe Berg reflects on the Canadian music scene of the late ’80s, and what it’s like for a guy in his 50s to hear I’m An Adult Now. Berg and company play at Westfest in Ottawa this weekend.
Q Let’s talk about Love Junk. What was going on around you when you made that album?
A It was a pretty exciting time for us. We were a young band and we’d been able to generate a bit of success on our own because we did an independent release of I’m An Adult Now, and had a video that became very popular. People were coming into record stores asking for the Pursuit of Happiness record, and we didn’t have a record. All we had was the video. So we pressed a single, and then we sold out and then this company called the Record Peddler took it over and distributed it for us, and then Warner Brothers distributed it for us. So we sort of generated some success that spilled over to the U.S., and we got a manager and a publishing deal. And then we got a pretty good record deal so it was an exciting time. This is what you dream about when you’re a young musician.
Q Was it rare back then for an indie release to become popular?
A Yeah. It was an interesting time in music. It was rare but I think there was an openness on the part of radio stations, and MuchMusic especially, in trying to break bands. It was very different from, say, now. We had the good fortune that there was a willingness for people to accept an independent band. And at the same time, a whole bunch of bands, like the Cowboy Junkies, The Tragically Hip, The Grapes of Wrath, The Northern Pikes, Blue Rodeo, were doing their own thing, and in some ways, doing it outside what the music business was expecting. All of that converged at one time so, yeah, we were the beneficiaries of that but we were also the instigators. We were one of the bands showing indie bands that, yeah, you can go do this by yourself. You can create excitement for yourself.
Q What’s it like for you hearing the song, I’m An Adult Now, in your middle age?
A When I listen to some of the material I wrote back then, some of it seems like it was written by a young man, and had the ideas of a young man. But certain songs, like I’m An Adult or She’s So Young, sound like the older me was channelling music back to the younger me. In some ways, they have more relevance to me now than they did back when I first wrote them.
Q Does it surprise you that the song has had such staying power?
A Of course. I don’t think there’s any way to know that something will last. When I wrote the song, I thought it was good but I thought all the songs I wrote were good. I thought it was just another one of my songs that I liked. It was in some ways just blind luck that we decided to choose that song to do the video. I think it’s important to be surprised at success because it’s so rare.
Q The Canadian music scene in the ’80s sounds like it was a fertile time. Is that how you remember it?
A Yes. that’s my memory of it. Before that, there was an idea of Canadian music which was, ‘Let’s try to copy what’s successful in Europe or in America.’ A lot of bands had commercial ideas of music that would hopefully get them played on the radio. That wasn’t everybody but it was some people. Then we had our legendary stalwarts, the people who had become successful based on their own merit, like Gordon Lightfoot or Rush, and then there was this era when the punk rock/ new wave era happened. We had a cottage industry of bands — like DOA, the Diodes, Teenage Head — that were creating their own idea of the music business. Throwing their own shows, creating their own record labels. As that whole movement became commercialized, some of those bands got record deals. That was the very first wave of that.
Q So The Pursuit of Happiness was part of the next wave?
A The next wave was bands like ours and The Hip, Blue Rodeo, Grapes of Wrath, we were all just doing our thing. It wasn’t necessarily trying to be about other bands being successful at the time. We were just doing our thing. Then suddenly a lot of those bands got American record deals. It was like, ‘Here’s this unique thing that we don’t have’ instead of usually when they heard Canadian bands, it was like a halfway version of what they’re already doing. Once bands like ours and the others I mentioned became successful, that gave the impetus to a bunch of other Canadian bands to just be a band and sell their own music and influences and be successful, too. And then there was a whole other new wave of bands, like Sloan and the Barenaked Ladies, who followed.
Q Do you wonder how it would go if you were starting out today?
A It would be very different. To hire the producer and make the record that we made and do the big tours, and promote the songs, that money is not necessarily available anymore in the music industry. Almost all stations have restricted their playlists considerably. So the chances of getting played on the radio are a lot slimmer than they used to be. And no videos — that was another crucial part of the puzzle. There are other things now: You can promote yourself on social media and YouTube but I don’t know if that’s properly replaced what there used to be.
I’ve got the problems of an adult/ On my head and on my shoulders/ I’m an adult now. I’M AN ADULT NOW, The Pursuit of Happiness (1986)