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David
: The first thing that strikes me when looking at
the track listing for the new CD "Horse Soldier,
Horse Soldier" is that the CD is book ended by Track
1 which is "I Wanna Be In The Calvary" and
closes with "Taps" but before that there is
a reprise of the first track. Right off the bat that
tells me this may be some kind of concept album of
sorts, or at least a consistent theme running throughout the album... tell us about that ?
Corb
: Not all of it, but there is some military theme there
for sure. It kind of follows the arch of a million war
movies where the guy goes to war and it sucks but not
all the songs are like that... but some of them are.
David
: Your love of horses is well known but how did you
become interested in the Calvary ?
Corb
: I’m
a history buff and love reading about stuff like that
and some of my old favourites like Johnny Horton and
Marty Robbins with stuff like “Sink The Bismarck”
and “Battle of New Orleans” tell some of the same
stories, the historical stuff. I get bored writing
about normal stuff,
as you know I don’t write a lot of love
songs, to be honest I just write about what ever
interests me whether it be my motorcycle, a book I’m
reading or a woman you know ?
David
: Well it would have been hard coming back with this
album singing about whiskey and stuff like that again.
Corb
: Yeah,
I mean I’m already writing songs for the next album
and so far it’s sounding like a country party album
but like we were talking earlier, “Horse Soldier”
sounds a lot like my older albums - a little darker, a
little more quirky - not so straight ahead.
David
: Another thing I noticed straight away is that you
have re-visited 2 older tracks from your past. One is
the great "Lament For Lester Cousins" which
appeared on your first release "Modern Pain".
And of course the second being a classic from The
Smalls catalogue "My Saddle Horse Has Died"
which appeared on "My Dear Little Angle".
Why re-visit those now ? And if I remember correctly,
wasn't "My Saddle Horse Has Died" based on a
true story from your life ?
Corb
: Yeah...
it’s
about my saddle horse dying (laughing). I wrote that
one with The Smalls guy’s years ago and I’ve
always meant to cover it. And with this album - with the
theme, it just made total sense. Have you heard it?
David
: Yeah
Corb
: My
take on it is, it’s kind of like Buena Vista Social
Club kind of with Ring of Fire horns.
David
: It came out really good.
Corb
: Yeah
it’s interesting, it’s a cool tune on it’s own.
But for The Smalls fans who know the original, they
might find it interesting. With “Lester Cousins”,
there are a lot of people in the world who think we
only have 2 albums and as you know we have two earlier
albums (Modern Pain & Unforgiving Mistress) and we
play that stuff live and people really like it and
most people have never heard it, and that’s a sure
sign that it’s going to work.
There’s a handful of songs on the first two
records that I think are cool and fun and most people
won't get to hear them unless I play them live.
David
: You’re in an enviable position now where you are
coming off a break through album of sorts which has
brought you great success. But with that comes the not
so enviable position of having expectations put on
you. Did you feel pressure to get this album out, to
strike while the fire was hot ? Or did the album come
organically and kind of find a life of its own ?
Corb
: You
know I always put pressure on myself. I didn’t want
to be 3 years between albums again and with this one
it’s been 2 years and that’s probably about right.
I did feel some pressure. When we tour so much, a year
goes by like that ! Very quickly ! You go to England
every 8 months so they don’t forget you. Then you
go to Australia every 8 months so they don’t forget
you there. And all of a sudden a year has gone by and
snuck up on you.
David
: Speaking of which, how the heck do you keep up with
your touring schedule ? I hate to leave my house most
days and you’re touring for 2 years straight.
Corb
: Yeah,
I don’t know how. It kind of drives you crazy...
David
: Do you feel it’s necessary or is it something that
you might want to do less as you become more popular ?
Corb
: I
mean... I like to tour. I got into this because I
like to tour. But ideally I would like to be able to
pick my spots. It’s kind of like any success I’ve
ever had in any area started with touring. I mean
I’ve never had a record company come up to me and
say “Hey you’re great and we are going to sink
lots of money and pump the shit out of you”.
That’s never happened.
It’s always been tour, tour, tour until you
build up such an audience that the record label
can’t help but put you out to make money.
David
: With success of course comes the danger of being
sucked into the big time music industry machine.
This
is something I always perceived you had resisted in
your previous band. A "quality above all
else" mentality. With success comes a lot of
grabbing hands. Have you been able to handle this to
your satisfaction ?
Corb
: Yeah,
I mean as you know I’ve been doing this for 15 years
and it didn’t happen over night and I’m 22 and
don’t know how to handle it. I’ve been able to get
used to it in an incremental way. I think by now I
have a clear vision of what I want to do. I honestly
don’t get any pressure from my people to write a
certain way or write a certain type of song. I get
zero of that. I mean I’m fortunate.
There are a lot
of the straight country people on tour that are
totally trapped because even if they want to do
something else, they can't because they have to get
that radio play. And on the other hand there are lots
of great indie bands who don’t have the means or
great fortune to be exposed to a wider audience.
So I
feel lucky because I get the best of both
worlds. I
don’t know how long the love affair will last but at
the moment I have a pretty wide audience who expect me
to do kind of whacky stuff. We are all interested to
see if this new album loses us any country fans
because there are 2 or 3 straight ahead country songs
but the rest is kind of dark.
David
: You've recorded in Nashville again. Nashville to me
always kind of reeked of an old boy's club where
professionals write songs for you and doing things
outside the norm are shunned upon. How did you manage
to record there and escape that ?
Corb
: The
thing is, I never had any aspirations to go
there... like you it kind of creeped me out, but my
producer Harry Stinson lives there and actually what I
have learned is that there is a very cool underbelly down
there. So yes, there is that vanilla flavoured crap
that comes out of there, but there is a cool songwriter
underground there too. Our producer is a native of
Nashville which is rare because everyone is from
somewhere else. And he’s played with Marty Stuart’s
bluegrass band
and Lyle Lovett and people like that. And he’s
really tuned into what I do, and is a huge part of the
development of our sound. So he lives there and we
record there out of convenience really. And actually
parts of both the last 2 albums were recorded in
Alberta. The thing about Nashville is if you ever need
a killer piano player, well they are just around the
corner.
David
: You've never been one to play it safe
musically. Your previous band having been known to dabble with
banjo and trumpet among other instruments, and now in
your solo career you seem to play outside the norm of
country music while retaining that fan-base. Is it a
goal of yours to blur the lines of what "country
music" is or what pre-conceived notions people
have of country music?
Corb
: Well
it’s not a goal. I don’t have a mandate or
anything like that. It’s like rock music... there is
such a wide range of stuff. In country only the
bland shit gets played on the radio - same as rock.
So
really all the good stuff comes from blending stuff
together.
David
: While the album has more of a darker feel to it
overall, you've managed to turn out a stomper in the
first single "I Wanna Be In The Calvary".
It's very reminiscent of a maritime "fire in the
kitchen" type song - a Celtic type stomp to
it. What were your influences or thoughts while writing
that song ?
The
video turned out quite good too.
Corb
: Yeah,
it’s turned out good. When you make a period piece
sometimes it can look cheesy but I think they did a
nice job there.
David
: The shots of the horse really turned out nice I
thought in the video.
Corb
: Yeah,
he’s really the star of the show. I never ever, ever
thought I would have any Celtic music in me thank you
very much (laughing). But for me it’s the Pogues
meets Johnny Horton and yeah it’s kind of stompy, but
it’s a dark song because the guy dies.
But it is a raucous, jangley type of song.
David
: Was the point of releasing that song first as a
single - not to scare people away with some of the
darker material ?
Corb
: No,
not really. When we sequence an album we kind of play
with it and... I guess because I have the downer,
dirge version of it at the end it kind of fits as the
book end. And I like the mood of it and it sets the
tone of the album.
David
: What is your current take on the state of Country
Music and is there anything out there new that's
interested you at all ?
Corb
: Neko
Case is always good. Tim Hus from Alberta is really good.
Ridley Bent, who I’ve toured with is a really good
songwriter. Actually now that I think of it... I wanted
to mention that this summer we will be having a
festival called the “Corb Lund Cabin Fever Music
Festival” and the theme of it is... I’m finding
that mainstream country music fans given the chance to
hear different stuff, really like it. And my goal is to
have this festival and have these artists play on it.
David
: Speaking of which, have you had any pressure to tour
with any mainstream artists ?
Corb
: No,
not at all. But I wouldn’t be opposed to it.
I think
it would be a chance to play to a wider audience who
might buy my music. Australia is a lot like Canada
where they have a cool underground scene but they also
have you know, like in Canada we have this whole crop
of bands that try to sound like Nashville bands - kind
of like a B rate version of something that sucked in
the first place. So it’s not much a pressure thing,
whatever comes up you know...
What
I would like to do is open for the old guys. We were
supposed to open for Willie Nelson in Australia but he
got sick or something.
David
: Touring is nothing new to you, having been on the
road for more than a decade. Over the past few tours
have you had a chance to meet anyone who you really
looked up to and respected ?
Corb
: No
(laughing) Well Ian Tyson. But he’s more of a buddy
now. Meeting Marty Stuart and I guess Kenny Vaughn is
kind of a legend who plays with him. I met the first
lady of Canada, Loraine Harper is a fan. She came to
our show in Calgary with CSIS. It was funny because
she said she wanted to come and she told me this at
some Canada Day thing in Ottawa. And it turns out
she’s from Turner Valley, Alberta. And she had to
have secret service come in the afternoon and sweep
the place before hand. And she had this woman
undercover cop who was totally packing heat the whole
time. She's cool actually. She’s an Alberta girl who
rides dirt bikes and stuff like that.
David
: You're very good at painting a picture with your
lyrics. Do you visualize the song while you’re
writing it ? And what’s your process like when you
write ?
Corb
: I
don’t know, I can’t really put my finger on it as
far as the writing process goes. It’s kind of like a
sub-conscious thing.
David
: Do you think one day you will ever get the urge to
plug in and rock out again ?
Corb
: Yeah
for sure ! The thing is, even with this record…
I’m
looking at people like Neil Young and Willie as role
models. Maybe not musically, but how they do things.
Like Steve Earle - if they want to make a bluegrass
album, they do that. If they want to make a rock
album, then they do that. And they get to a point where
their audience trusts them as writers, that they can
transcend whatever genre they are working in. The
point being that I don’t want to be trapped in any
kind of box.
Another thing
too... coming back to the new record is, it’s not a huge departure but it might
challenge some of the country fans and that’s fine
because I’d rather establish the fact now that I
will do what I’m going to do, which is better than
making 5 records that all sound the same then shocking
them by putting something out that’s totally
different.
David
: How have you managed to stay in Alberta, to maintain
this as your home base ?
Corb
: Well
I come from 4 generations of Albertans so I’m pretty
grounded here. But I think the big thing is we tour so
much that it really doesn’t matter. My guitar player
lives in Winnipeg... and when you start out I guess
it’s important to be from one place. I mean we did
our stint in Vancouver with The Smalls and spent some
time in Montreal too. But when you’re established it
doesn’t matter where you base yourself out of - when
you tour 8 to 9 months a year.
David
: The Smalls were so big in Western Canada and
that’s how most people knew you back in the
day. Was
there any resistance from people to accept what you
were doing in your solo career around the time
“Modern Pain” came out ?
Corb
: No
not really. And there’s a couple reasons for that.
One reason is The Smalls went from 1989-2001 and this
band started in 1994 so I had it around for a long
time for people to get used to it. And also being from
Western Canada we all know that no matter what kind of
person you are - a punk kid or goth kid, or whatever -
that usually we have that country music upbringing
with our parents and then we age and mellow out and
remember that country music past, and have fun with it.
And I know there are a ton of Smalls fans that have
aged right along with me.
David
: Thanks a lot for your time Corb, and best of luck
with Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!
Corb
: Actually before we wrap up I wanted to say I am a
big fan of independent music stores like yourselves,
and independent radio and bands. And it seems that as
every day goes by that it becomes more and more
important to have that around because everything is so
corporate nowadays. And it’s so important to
maintain regional culture. I mean that’s where most
of the good stuff comes from - the underground.
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