Folk-punker explores new ground with latest album
“Let’s go for it!” Eamon Mcgrath’s words tumble out of his mouth like a pack of starving wild dogs chasing their prey. Frantic yet focused, the Edmonton expat verges on breathless as he talks about his third folk-punk album, Young Canadians, for Toronto’s White Whale Records.
“When you listen to a record that I made, it’s like being plugged into my brain,” says Mcgrath, via a friend’s cellphone, on the streets of Toronto. “Except for drums, I play everything on it and do all of the overdubs. The record is literally my mind.”
What’s on this young Canadian’s mind? Booze, the pain of love, “what makes Canadian music what it is,” and how songs and sporting events can link fans from coast to coast. For starters.
“Teardrop on the Sun”, a lonely acoustic number, was written while Mcgrath “was drunk as hell in Amsterdam’s Red Light district.” “Signals,” a shuddery rocker, is a Canadian version of The Replacements’ ode to radio, “Left of the Dial”, while the equally anthemic title track was inspired by the men’s gold-medal hockey win at the Vancouver Olympics.
“I was wasted at 11 a.m. and Sidney Crosby scored, and BANG! I felt like a part of something that was bigger than myself,” he says. “I picked up a guitar and wrote the song.”
Size matters to Mcgrath — in philosophical terms and the scope of his albums. He feels his latest, recorded in 16 days over two years with Vancouver producers Dave Carswell and John Collins, covers much more sonic and lyrical ground than his previous two efforts.
“13 Songs of Whiskey and Light was like a book of poems, a selection of my Edmonton years, when I would get drunk and record in my basement,” says Mcgrath, who moved east in 2010. “Peace Maker was more like a novella, a short story, half an hour, one guitar tone, one concept, punk rock and country music, bridging the gap between Blue Rodeo and Black Flag. For Young Canadians, the idea was to treat it like a novel, a long book with different themes, styles and chapters.”
Mcgrath is adding more chapters to Young Canadians as he tours across the country. He’s using three different bands to back him — one for Ontario, one for the Prairies, one for Vancouver — partly because of financial realities, but mostly because he hungers for variety.
“The whole point is to keep the music fresh,” he says. “When you’re playing with different musicians and you leave as much up to chance, you’re literally discovering the song at the same time as the audience is. It’s refreshing and exciting — the music exists outside of you in an organic way. It exists in the room, outside of the band, and you’re totally channelling something that happens outside of your physical body.”
Even if Mcgrath makes it to the big leagues, he doesn’t think he’ll hire a full-time band. He’d rather be a wild dog, starving not sated.
“I love playing with people where you have one rehearsal and you play the shows,” he says. “Every single night, it’s like this Rubik’s Cube, where the music gets better and better, and by the end of the leg of the tour, you have this amazing, tightknit band and that’s it. You never play with them again. I love that.”