MOTHER’S DEATH INSPIRED SON HOWLER TRIBUTE SONG
Hear It Live is a closer look at a song and its writer/performer. Hear Honest Eyes when Matt Meehan performs Saturday in Regina.
THE ARTIST
Matt Meehan is the guitar-playing singer-songwriter behind Son Howler, a blues-rock trio from Regina.
Meehan started playing in punk-rock bands as a teenager, although he’d been hooked on blues music thanks to Finkleman’s 45s on CBC radio. (The name Son Howler is a quasihybrid of Son House and Howlin’ Wolf.)
When Meehan was finishing his biology degree in Vancouver, he wanted to focus more on writing songs and playing solo. But there was one problem: “I didn’t sing at the time.”
He overcame that hurdle by forcing himself to perform at open mic nights — every night — for months.
“I’m not the most outgoing or extroverted person, so I really love music but I kind of hate the attention that comes with it,” Meehan said.
“I figured immersion therapy in a sense of just kind of doing it to the point of numbness is sort of a good way to get over that.”
Meehan said he taught himself to sing by playing a note and practising hitting the pitch.
THE SONG
Honest Eyes is mellower than some of Meehan’s other music, which verges on Black Keys-style grit.
In this song, his voice — reminiscent of City and Colour’s Dallas Green’s — is accompanied by slow-paced guitar strumming and picking.
THE WORDS
It’s a song of few words. Largely, it repeats the question, “Who am I through your eyes?”
Meehan wrote the song a little over four years ago, while his mother, Deborah Behm, was dying of cancer.
“It’s not always quick; it’s kind of a long process, and personalities in a sense kind of change over that period of time,” Meehan said.
“That song sort of came about as really feeling the sense of loss that she wasn’t going to see further development in me, because I really wanted to do right by her … (and) hoping that she could be going in peace, feeling happy with what she accomplished and also through her children, myself and my sister.”
Meehan’s songwriting process is largely unconscious.
“I usually try to just get into a really calm mental state … and then I’ll just start playing something and one thing will lead to another,” Meehan said.
“And then once I feel like a song is coming on, I’ll do the typical thing of start recording on a voice memo and I’ll just try to get out of the way of it.”
This results in hundreds of songs, not all of them keepers.
“My last phone had I think 3,500 voice recordings on it, and there was maybe 20 songs on that, maybe 10 of them were worthwhile,” he said.
“So there’s definitely a process of elimination, I guess sort of like a sculptor in a way, that you kind of have to start rough and tease it out.”
LISTEN NOW
Meehan recorded six songs live off the floor at CBC Studio 1 before it closed, Honest Eyes among them. They’re at sonhowler.bandcamp.com.
Those recordings include Andrea Hedlund on violin and Meehan’s Son Howler bandmates, drummer Daegan Harper and bassist/keyboardist/guitarist Ethan Reoch.
HEAR IT LIVE
A solo Meehan kicks off a Saturday afternoon Regina Mid-winter Blues Festival showcase, Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the Lancaster Taphouse.
It’s a busy day for blues music in Regina, as Bushwakker and Chop Steakhouse are also hosting free-admission afternoon concerts. Check our Know Shows listings for more blues festival information.
Last weekend, Meehan was part of the Sask Sampler concert, co-hosted by Gateway, Regina Folk and Ness Creek music festivals. He’s hoping he’ll have some festival dates to announce soon.