Joel Plaskett makes triple album a fun and ambitious family affair
Before sadly shutting their saloon-style doors last year (to be curiously replaced by the Milk Tiger Lounge) long-running local watering hole A Bar Named Sue played host to one of Calgary’s best open mike nights. For the Tuesday regulars perhaps the most memorable evening of all was in 2007 when Joel Plaskett popped in for a few tipsy renditions of Bruce Springsteen.
“I have to watch my voice but sometimes after we play I like to have a few drinks hit up an open mike night and keep singing and partying” Plaskett says with a laugh. “When we were in Calgary the next time for the Junos we went to A Bar Named Sue again and it was closed. I was bummed!”
Anecdotes like these make it clear that the Haligonian has no trace of a rock star ego but he has joined the ranks of Kiss The Clash and George Harrison with his latest release the triple album Three . 27 songs spread across three records might sound like a lot to digest but Plaskett has skilfully sewn the project together with a trio of themes under the umbrella of travel — departure separation and return.
“When I stumbled on the idea of making a triple it was through the process of looking at a handful of songs that had a repetition of three words in their titles so I knew that was a theme I was riffing on” Plaskett says. “I wanted to write songs about being on the road have a folk element to some of them and bring in some new collaborators. With so many ideas in my head I knew I had to do a couple of albums so why not just release them together?”
Playing off his age at the time of recording (33 1/3 also the typical revolutions per minute of a 12-inch vinyl) Plaskett was further inspired to embark on the sprawling endeavour simply to test out the capabilities of his brand new Scotland Yard studio.
“I saw it as an opportunity to produce something on my own and to learn more about recording miking and arranging” he says. “I also felt freed up to document something whenever I felt inspired to sing it or play it; to create cool sounding recordings but also avoid being super precious in the studio.”
Inspired by the freewheelin’ approaches of Neil Young and Bob Dylan (while conversely considering the meticulous arrangements of Tom Petty) Plaskett let his spontaneous and sometimes goofy flag fly during recording. On top of toying with the genres of rock pop and traditional Maritime folk he also freestyled the lyrics of several songs on the fly such as the seven-minute stand out “Wishful Thinking.”
“I’ll often make stuff up live and get kind of goofy but it’s always been a really hard thing to capture on tape” Plaskett says. “You’re in a studio so you have to loosen up a bit to get there. I always wonder how to make things definitive but maybe the best way to go about it is to not give a fuck. Make things in the moment let them be what they may be and then they’ll transform into something else entirely. There are a few songs here where I really crossed the t’s but a lot of them ended up pretty ragged.”
Alongside the ear-pleasing backing vocals of Rose Cousins and Ana Egers perhaps the most charming aspect of Three is that Plaskett invited his father Bill into Scotland Yard as well to lay down a few lines on his four-string tenor guitar. As a former member of the band Starboard Side in the ‘60s Plaskett senior served as an important musical inspiration for his son first inviting Joel to perform with him at the age of 14.
“He’s always been a really social musician because that’s what folk music is” Plaskett says. “At kitchen parties on the East Coast guitars always come out. He’s also from England originally so he loves artists like Fairport Convention Bert Jansch and John Martyn. I’ve inherited a love of the same music through his record collection and through hearing him play it so I just wanted to capture and document some of it. It’s mostly just been a great way for us to spend time together.”
