We did this interview with Lee Aaron right at the end of June, well in time for the July 23rd release date of her latest album ‘Radio On’. Then that thing that never happens to you happened, the computer crashed, without back-up I thought it and several other great interviews would be lost forever. All hail the IT man for retrieving it from the still smoldering hard-drive! So here we are almost two months late we talk to Lee about the latest record – the rather fine ‘Radio On’ and cast our minds back to where it all began…
Lee: Hello Mark
Mark: Hi Lee, how are you?
Lee: I’m doing good.
Mark: It’s a very different time of the day Canada –first thing for you and last thing at night down here, so thank you for getting up so early.
Lee: I had to drag myself out of bed for this one! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) Well thank you so much for joining us I think last time we spoke it was the album before the Live DVD – ‘Diamond Baby’, but I definitely want to catch up and talk about the DVD. As someone who has followed your career for years I must admit I didn’t realise for ages that Lee Aaron was a ‘stage name’.
Lee: (laughs) Well it’s funny because my zoom still says Karen, I must change that! It’s funny though because when I was a young teenager and I joined my first band e were looking for a band name that was like Jethro Tull, or Pink Floyd, or Max Webster, just something that was a catchy name. So being the kids growing up in the late 70’s that we were, we just threw a bunch of names in a hat full of culture references from the times we grew up and we pulled the names out and we got Aaron Lee, or Lee Aaron and we thought Lee Aaron was really catchy. So we stuck with that, but when we hot picked up by our first manager when I was just graduated at 17 and he put us out on the road he put me out front of the band because at that time I played keyboards half the time and saxophone, and we did a bunch of Supertramp covers and other Proggy geeky stuff! But he said “No you’re the better singer” because the other guitar player sand so he put me out front and said that I should be the front person. And from that point forward people just started calling me Lee Aaron. I didn’t really think that much of it at the time, but as the years have gone on and I’ve had some interesting things goon during my career, including a number of stalkers, it’s much more convenient to have a stage name. I mean look at David Bowie, Elton John, Tina Turner – these are all stage names right?
Mark: Alice Cooper, Marc Bolan, it goes on. I wonder then, and this is what I really wanted to ask – how do you then differ from Lee Aaron?
Lee: That’s an interesting question and I’d love to know what Alice Cooper would say if you asked him because I know that Vince Furnier is a very religious man and he golfs a lot (laughs) but how am I different? I would definitely say that Lee Aaron is a part of my personality. It’s sort of like the uninhibited… I don’t know how to explain it. The part of me that isn’t afraid to get on stage and… It’s hard to explain it’s like this little transformation when I walk on stage and I step into that role. But it’s definitely a part of my personality. I do try to keep my private life pretty private so there’s a lot of things just about the day to day me that you don’t really talk about in interviews (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Lee: Everybody’s got an ordinary life. I think if you knew a lot re about your favourite Rock Stars you’d either find them conversely more interesting or not that interesting at all, because we all do normal things like normal people right?
Mark: It’s interesting it isn’t it to have that alter ego to step into when it calls for it, like a comic book hero where you see all the day to day bits!
Lee: (laughs)
Mark: One of the things that I find fascinating about your music, and this is coming from someone who grew up in the UK and so got to hear you before pretty much everyone is that I think I actually prefer your newer material, and you don’t often say that to people who were part the soundtrack of your youth. Normally everything seems less essential over time, but your last few albums especially have been great. Some of my favourites. That got me to thinking about how much control you had over you music back in the day when you were putting out records like “Metal Queen’ or ‘Some Girls Do’ which I think has a thirtieth anniversary this year. Now it seems like you must have control over pretty much everything and it’s sounding great.
Lee: I’ve spoken about this quite a bit recently in interviews, but thank you. I actually prefer the music I’m making now too. Back in the 80’s when the music industry was so different there was obviously a crap load of money that could be made by selling physical product. Those days sadly don’t exist anymore. But just a small aside here before I answer that question. I am very fortunate in that I’m sort of a legacy in a way in that my fans are mainly between 40 and 60 and they still like to buy CD’s and vinyl and so I’ve been very fortunate in that there’s always someone willing to step up and give me a distribution deal because they know that they will sell records with Lee Aaron because my demographic will still buy albums. But back in the 80’s the time you’re speaking of Record labels were like your investor. They were like “Hey we’re going to sign this act and over the course of the next five albums we’re going to sink a million dollars into you” right? That’s an incredible amount of pressure – when they spend 150 grand just on this producer and he’s getting three points off the record, and then they’re gonna spend $75,000 in the studio and then when it’s done there’s marketing – and $60,000 on each video. So when someone is spending that crazy insane amount of money into you – they’re going to have something to say about the final product. So I felt like back then, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticising anybody, I’m not dissing my former label. I was on Attic A&M in Canada, I was on major labels in the past, I was on Virgin in Europe. It was just the nature of the industry and the climate back then. But when they were putting that amount of money into you – they’re like “We see you wearing something like this” and “We like this photographer because she’s gonna make you look like this.” You know there was this really big agenda to market all of the female Rock Stars back in the 80’s like ‘sex kittens’ you know? There wasn’t a lot of difference between us and all of the models that were being marketed to make all of the male Rock Stars look more masculine, right?
Mark: Absolutely.
Lee: I’ve gotta tell you that was extremely frustrating because I felt like I was making compromises at every juncture of my career – the way I had to look, and even though I was a song writer many people didn’t know I was a song-writer because there were so many female artist bac then that were just Record Company products back then that were being handed songs that they (the label) owned the publishing for and being told to sing them. So I felt like on every front I was compromising to some degree – production-wise, music-wise, marketing-wise, wardrobe-wise. Back then I feel as though being a woman in the industry we were climbing an uphill feminist battle because by the time the 90’s came around and you had Alanis Morissette and Shirley Manson from Garbage, who by the way is a couple of years older than I am, because the musical climate was different all of a sudden you could be a an angry woman and pick up a guitar and write a bunch of angry songs and be respected. Whereas when I was putting out my albums in the 80’s it w different – ‘Metal Queen’ was like the ultimate #MeToo song – it was the ultimate female empowerment song, but it wasn’t perceived as such at the time because of the sexist nature of Hard Rock music back then. And all of that changed in a very short period of time – in a seven year period all of that changed. So nowadays I am the label –I started by own boutique label called ‘Big Sister Records’, I’ve had multiple labels since the mid-90’s and this is my latest incarnation. So when I make records I produce them myself, I finance them myself. Nobody is telling me what to wear and I feel I’m not compromising in the least. I hire the photographers, I approve all the photographs, so yeah, I like it much better this way.
Mark: It works really well and you’ve certainly got the songs. For me it’s all about the music and the latest album ‘Radio On’ is wonderful, the latest in a streak of really great albums since 2016.And you’re also putting out a lot more too so the consistency is great and then we just get these annoying things like Covid coming in to ruin all our live music.
Lee: Well it’s interesting you say that because, you know, I stated very young as you know. I got signed by my first manager at 17 and I was out and touring and by the time ‘Body Rock’ came out I was still in my 20’s and that was my biggest albumin Canada, and then Grunge happened and I was like “Wait a minute I’m barely thirty” and I felt like my career just got sidelined. If you were associated in the least with Corporate Rock; or I hesitate to say ‘Hair Metal’ – I hate that term because it sounds so demoralizing – it sort of suggests that there was no good music that came out of that era which is not true: there was a lot of crap but there was lot of great stuff as well, then your career was over by ‘93. Do you know what I mean?
Mark: I certainly do, it was like a whole generation of Rock fans were being ignored by the labels.
Lee: That was very frustrating to me, so throughout the 90’s I took some time off. Then I went back and I did some Jazz and Blues, I explored the history and the roots of Rock and Roll music and that was very, very rewarding for me. And then I got married and had my kids, I have two young teens now, and to dogs, which my golden retriever is just reminding me of now (laughs). So when I came back on the scene with another Rock album in 2016 I felt like “OK I took a little break and now I’m just getting going again.” So I don’t know, I’ve just been in this whole new creative phase.
Mark: We’ve obviously got to dig into the latest release and talk about the songs and found out where they came from but before we do I just wanted to ask you about a couple of things. One of them is, and I didn’t realise this, is that when you first came over to the UK, we’d seen you in Kerrang, we’d bought the first album, we’d yet to hear ‘Metal Queen’ (which only came the following year) you played a showcase at The Marquee. I didn’t realise that things were so tight that you couldn’t even bring your own band over? How on earth did you get in touch with ‘Sam Thunder’ who became your backing band?
Lee: (laughs)
Mark: Because in those days there was no internet, no file sharing, there was no online rehearsals. It seems incredible logistically? They must have had to get the album, learn the songs, it must have been very interesting and a bit daunting not knowing the band? Essentially stepping out on stage with a band of strangers to do what must have been a huge show?
Lee: It was. My first manager signed me when I was very young and he did some wonderful things and some not so wonderful things. One of the wonderful things he did zero in on was that he realised at that time if you could find just one writer who loved your music and would champion your act you had one foot in the door. So he found a guy called Paul Suter who wrote for Kerrang magazine and he sent Paul my stuff and Paul was just ‘gaga’ over it. He loved the pictures, he loved the music and so he got Paul to squeeze a feature into Kerrang Magazine which back the was like the centrefold – so we got the centrefold picture, the big article on us and a great review. And he said we had to get over there to showcase, but this was the very beginning of my career – the first album that I did was done for $7000on spec in a studio in Toronto until we were signed by Polydor and were able to pay them! So I think my parents lent me enough money to buy me an airplane ticket and I think they gave me another $200 to buy some stage clothes because I had next to nothing! I had been on the road at that point touring for about two years, but when I say ‘touring’ we didn’t have an album out at that time and we were still playing a lot of covers. Everyone in Canada cut their teeth on this horrible bar circuit – they were seedy little bars that were attached to tiny hotels in the most remote little backwards towns up north – we all did those bars and they were awful and the accommodations were awful! So I’d been playing venues lie that for a couple of years and getting my chops and learning my vocal technique. So I was getting a lot of experience playing live, I just hadn’t really done any good shows. So his idea was, at that point in time I couldn’t get arrested in Canada. In Canada the whole idea of being a woman and doing aggressive music was verboten – it was like “We don’t get this, we don’t respect this.” I was just too different – Canada was the land of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot! They didn’t understand me. So his idea was that we needed to get to Europe. He found Paul, got me in this magazine, we scraped together enough money for an airline flight and he said to Paul “You need to find a good bar band, give her album to them and get them to learn her material so she has a band when she gets there to play with.” So he did a little bit of travelling around and he stumbled on this band ‘Sam Thunder’ who I guess were doing the circuit at the time. He thought that they were competent enough to learn the record so he gave it to them they learned it and I flew over and we went into a rehearsal –and I basically learned all of the songs on my debut album plus a few covers and we went and did the showcase at the Marquee.
Mark: And then that led to one of the biggest stages at the time, certainly one of the biggest Festivals- Reading – which must have been pretty exciting after doing the bar circuit in Canada?
Lee: Oh, are you kidding! (laughs) That was literally the biggest stage that I had played on at the time. Our manager got us again over to Europe, again I don’t know where we borrowed the money from the get the band over because we were still broke. We all slept at Paul Suter’s little flat in London, literally in sleeping bags on the floor. But he got us there we played Reading Festival, we were an earlier act in the day, but I think the impact that made was fantastic. And he had it filmed. We got there and there was a film crew and he went up to them and said “Hey guys here’s $500 will you filmy cat?” and as a result we got video footage out of it and that became a stepping stone to better things for me.
Mark: Wonderful. I love those stories about those moments were things turn and start to happen. It also reminds me of how great things were in those days and how much effort went into making things happen. The great thing about today though is that we get to play albums like ‘Diamond Baby Blues’ and ‘Fire and Gasoline’ and now ‘Radio On’ which I think is probably my favourite of the three. It’s such fun, like it says in the press release it does make you think of turning on Rock radio back in the day. So before we get into the tracks on the album, what sort of music were you listening to on the radio back in the day?
Lee: Well when I was a kid, I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, and back then we had two big stations- we had CHUM and we had QN07. CHUM was more A.M. and QN07 was more album oriented rock. You know I was a young teen growing up in the late 70’s and the radio played a lot of stuff I loved like Bowie, I remember when I was like 11 years old I got a little yellow transistor radio for my birthday with the telescoping antenna and I would climb to the top of my big slide in the back garden because I got the best reception up there. I would sit at the top of my big slide and listen to it. I remember when ‘Hotel California’ came on the radio for the very first time going “Man, I don’t really like this song” I didn’t really like Country music, but my girlfriend loved it, I was waiting for ‘Fly By Night’ by Rush to come on! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Lee: I liked a lot of interesting stuff when I was a kid. When I joined my band when I was 15 we liked a lot of Prog and Frank Zappa and interesting stuff like that, but probably the biggest thing that was influential for me when I was a kid was that my father worked at Humber College in Toronto and at one point in time in like 1977 they decided they were going to get rid of their entire vinyl library and go to 8-Track!
Mark: 8-Track! Oh those crazy 70’s college principals!
Lee: (laughs) So he just walked down the hallway one day and there was a whole bunch of vinyl laying there and he said “What are you doing with it?” and they were like “Oh we’re just going to get rid of it.” Because they were switching to 8-track, that long-lived format pre-CD! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Lee: And so he just came home with this trunk of albums, and in that pile was Heart, The Runaways, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, The Strawbs, Steely Dan, and I was just like “Wow!” So all of a sudden I had all this vinyl to listen to which was amazing. And I have to say that the women that influenced me most to want to become a female rocker were Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart. I just saw women who were doing really cool music and not only is it really tough but it retains some feminine qualities too. And they weren’t trading on their sexuality to sell themselves. I thought that was fantastic.
Mark: It is and still a great band today. I just listened to Nancy’s latest solo the other day it’s really cool. And that all led to this album and I have to start with this track ‘21’ I think it’s one of my favourite ballads I’ve heard in years, it’s amazing.
Lee: Thank you.
Mark: I know the theme is something we can all relate to and I know in making the album you managed to get together with your band and they all brought a song – who brought that one? Was it one of yours?
Lee: Well I wrote it on piano initially, yes. I did that one and ‘Devi’s Gold’ I tend to write more on piano than I write on guitar because I’m a far better piano player than I am a guitarist. I’m a hack on guitar but my rhythm is good enough, but a definitely play enough to write a song. The reason I picked up guitar years ago was that the guys in my band were like “You should pick up a guitar because it would look cool” so I just said OK! (laughs) But ‘21’ was something I wrote on piano. My idea behind this album is something very magical happens when the band and I get in a room together, we just have this energy, and we work very well of each other. Everybody in my band has slightly different influences – my drummer John (Cody) he doesn’t like any Metal or Hair Metal music at all, he loves Folk Music – we were listening to some Richard Thompson and Fairpoint Convention last night. He likes stuff like that but also loves Zappa, some weird Prog and the Beach Boys! And because he loves all this different stuff he’s always able to point us in the direction of a reference, so we’ll be working and he’ll say something like “That reminds me of an old Mott the Hoople tune, you should listen to this part in this song” so then we’re able to pull a reference from that. Dave Reimer my bass player loves power pop like Cheap Trick and stuff like that. I tend to like a lot of 70’s Rock like The Who, Zeppelin, old Fleetwood Mac and I love some old Jazz and Blues like Nina Simone’s old edgier stuff. And then Sean (Kelly) he loves his 80’s hair Metal. So it’s a very eclectic mix when we get together to create music, but I think it just comes together as this magic melting pot of chemistry when we do. So ‘Diamond Baby’ and ‘Fire and Gasoline’ were created by sending a lot of files back and forth because we are a bi-coastal band, but this time I knew we had to get together. So we flew Sean out from Toronto and because we’re all family people and have busy lives he said “I have a weekend.” So I said “OK everyone bring your four best song ideas and I’ll bring mine.” And we just got in a room and Sean started out with the opening riff to ’Vamp’d’ (sings the riff) then I pick up my songbook because I’m constantly writing song ideas and chorus ideas and passages in my song-writing book. And it just all came together. But with ‘21’ I was just playing it and singing it as a piano ballad but then of course my band steps in and bring all these other wonderful elements to it.
Mark: It must have been exciting to hear all of those songs for the first time because there’s some great stuff on there. I love the opening ’Vamp’d’ of course and you’ve really got a killer Hard Rocking sound to ’Soul Breaker’ that has a real Pat Benatar feel to it.
Lee: Oh really? I’ll take that as a compliment as she’s great.
Mark: I also really love the feel-good ‘Come On’ so that sees the power pop influence coming in.
Lee: (laughs) Yes, that was an idea of Dave’s, he brought that in. It was just sort of this bass-line he was singing. The funnest part of music for me these days is not the expectation of what’s gonna happen with the product when it’s done, it’s the whole process of creting it. From taking that nugget at its initial inception and turning it into a body of work, that’s the inspiration for me. So when Dave brought in ‘Come On’ it was just a bassline, and he was humming that melody, and when he got to the chorus section, again as a bassline, again he was singing “It all comes down, it all comes down to you” and I thought “Yeah” I don’t know what that means to me, right, and that’s how songs come together. I didn’t really know what to write for that and then of course Sean came up with that refrain, so it’s almost like you’re this rock and roll orchestra contributing all these different parts and elements that make the whole song come together. So I took it away and I was woodshedding with it – working on the lyrics and refining the melody and coming up with the final product which ended up being the ‘Come On’ song which is about the initial feelings you have when you’re nervous – the “Do I tell this person I like them?” kind of thing, and to me that’s a very universal feeling – whether you’re 20 or 60 it’s the same. Thinking of taking those first steps to letting someone know you like them to enter into a relationship is just as nerve-wracking at 50 as it is at 20!
Mark: Maybe more so!
Lee: So for me the challenge is how do I write mature love songs? How do I write love songs that encapsulate feelings that are universal – for someone young and someone more mature, right?
Mark: Yeah, the interesting thing must be for you at the minute is that people like your new stuff. There’s not many artists with a back catalogue as good as your that can get away with playing a lot of new songs? I guess for me the three we’ve mentioned are the ones I’d immediately think of playing live, ‘Come On’; ‘Vamp’d’ and ‘Soul Breaker’ as well but in truth you could play anything on here – ‘21’ I love but you’d have to set up for piano, some of the others like ‘Devils Gold’ I love that for a lower number, and I think your vocal on that is the best on the album.
Lee: I wrote the chorus for that on piano and the lyric content. (Laughs) I actually wrote that one in my head on a beach in Mexico! It’s funny because my kids are at an age where when they go on vacation they want go to an all-inclusive place where they can eat all the great food and just lay around on the beach, but with those kind of vacations I get a little bored so I’m always taking writing and reading materials so I can do something while I’m on the beach. And one of the things that’s been on my mind a lot as a theme later in life, and I guess having children that are growing up in the internet and social media age – I hardly ever see either of y young teens without a phone in their hands right? And just how different that is, and it got me thinking not only about consumerism, because we live in a real age of real consumerism and waste, but the amount of distracted time I see people spending on these devices, and I’m guilty of it myself, I’ll flick on Instagram and then wonder where the last half hour of my life has gone! And have I accomplished one valuable thing? Of course not! “Devil’s Gold’ is about that – it’s about consumerism, it’s about distraction, it’s about how we go through life just seeking these shallow pleasures when they’re not enriching our souls at all.
Mark: I know what you mean, and I’s so rewarding when you can just step back and realise that. I picked up a book the other day and I thought how wonderful, taking the time to sit back and stop ding other stuff and just take it in rather than stare at a screen and look through all the noise. I thought wow, I’m back in time to the 80’s or the 70’s!
Lee: (laughs) Well I’m writing one at the moment you might like to read when it’s finished.
Mark: I think I would. How far have you got?
Lee: I’m on Chapter five, I’ve been plugging away at it since January and I was making a bit of headway plus writing some new songs but all of the promotion I’ve been doing for the new album has slowed things. Firstly the record company wanted three videos – so I had to shoot three videos and get those produced and then this week I’m looking at my calendar and I have interview Monday to Thursday back to back so I’ve been a little side-tracked. But that is on my agenda and I really hope I can get it all together for a 2022 release.
Mark: Now that will be some read.
Lee: I hope so, it’s about all the mistakes I’ve made in rowing up in the public eye as well as the stupid stuff I’ve done and the wonderful experiences I’ve had. For me the hardest part of the whole book has been writing about my childhood. When you start digging deep and uncovering things that are not as comfortable as you think they might be, it’s a little difficult. You know, to go there and be real honest, so that’s all I’m gonna tell ya! (laughs)
Mark: I shall wait for that. It’s always interesting to read about how things happened and tome the fascinating stuff are stories like coming over to the UK, and getting n the Reading Festival. There the sort of stories that make you smile. Add to that you’re making some of the best music of your career right now and that’s the icing on the cake. I evenlike the quirky songs on the new album like ‘Russian Doll’…
Lee: Thank you.
Mark: There’s just something different about that song.
Lee: That was a riff that Sean brought into rehearsal, it reminded me of Van Halen when he brought it in (Lee sings the riff) and I thought “Oh, I like that.” And I had written these lyrics for a song called ‘Russian Doll’ I’d written them on vacation, and I like songs that have double-meanings so I’d written them about a crazy woman or partner who has a multiple personality and is unstable and doing crazy stuff, but it also reminded me of the political climate in America at the time as well. Because every day was a new day for a new Twitter! (laughs) You know, it was like “What crazy thing will happen today?” So I tried to tie in the question “What does Russia mean to America these days? Are they in bed together? Are they not friends?” I don’t know. So it was really a melting pot of all those quirky ideas wrapped up in a song about dating somebody that’s unstable and the whole idea of Russian Dolls. When my daughter was really little one of her favourite gifts that we got her at Christmas was one of those stacking Russian Dolls. And so this whole idea to me of “Oh baby I’m your Russian Doll. Love me big, you’ve got to love me small. There’s way more woman underneath it all. Oh yeah I’m your Russian Doll.” This idea of multiple layers of personalities, I don’t know I thought it was a really cool idea. (laughs) But that all started with Sean’s really cool riff that he brought into rehearsal.
Mark: And you finish off with another one of my favourites: ‘Had me at Hello’ which is a smoking hot song – a great way to end the album. I want more when is the next one coming out?
Lee: The next album?
Mark: Yes.
Lee: Well it’s interesting because I just finished writing yesterday a song called ‘Highway Romeo’ (laughs) I just finished working on that and that’ll be seven songs put to bed for the new album already. So we are looking at recording in the fall. I know it’s crazy, but it’s Covid, so what else are we gonna do? We haven’t been able to tour all year so I’ve just been writing songs and writing my book. My idea for the next record though is to not labour over too many tracks, I want to really go back to that concept of like back in the1970’s where these great bands would do records that were literally nine or ten songs. With digital technology it seems like so many artist are thinking “I should put fifteen songs on the record because I can.” But there might be like eight great songs and then a bunch of crap. We don’t need fifteen songs, I’d rather do an album that has ten amazing tracks and leave it at that.
Mark: Then we get a vinyl as well! Another good reason!
Lee: Exactly. I plan to have ten tracks on the next record. I’m excited about that.
Mark: Sounds great. I just wanted to end on one topic that I’ve been asking people about during Covid. As you’ve found out, a lot of people have got a lot of time on their hands and what better than to listen to music, you could go into your vinyl vault I guess and pluck out any number of albums from the 70’s or 80’s. But what is it that makes a great song? What makes a song truly memorable for you?
Lee: What makes a song great? It’s not necessarily the chords, it’s not necessarily how long it is, because we kind of live in a culture now where if your song is more than three minutes and forty seconds long it’s not gonna make it on the radio. Some of my favourite songs like ‘No Quarter’ by Zeppelin – how long is that? Seven, eight minutes or something? (It’s 7.00 minutes exactly on ‘Houses of the Holy’) ‘21’ by the way is almost a six minutes song. To me a great song captures a feeling. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like capturing energy in a bottle. And it happens once, and it’s magical and it doesn’t happen again because when you get something that magical and then you go and you see a cover band perform it, you think “Nah, that’s no really working for me.” Because they can’t capture that magic and that energy that the band had in the initial sessions. And that’s why I like making records where you’re recording live off the floor with your band. And don’t get me wrong, we’ve done records both ways – our Christmas album that we did last year, which by the way is going to be released globally with Metalville this year with a couple of bonus tracks. We were forced to record that album with a ‘click track’ and Sean laying down guitar – then he would send it up to me and I recorded drums here with John at the house. And then John would do a guitar track. With Covid we were forced to do it that way, but that is never he way I would choose to do a studio album. I like to be in the same room, heads-up making eye contact where you can actually see the music being created – that’s when magic happens you know, when you can all read each other’s mail in the studio and create like that.
Mark: I think you’re right it’s about catching that magic. There really is no answer though in my mind and that’s the beauty of music. Well thank you for another great album, out 23rd of July delayed slightly because of pressing the vinyl. It would be great to hear it all live one day and I know it’s’ hard time to make plans – what’s it looking like for live music in your part of the world?
Lee: Well for us as a band all of our International shows have been pushed into 2022 and it looks as though it’s going to be Canadian bands in Canada a slow rollout in the fall. Things are just starting to get announced no and it looks like we may be going out to do some stuff in September and October.
Mark: That’s not too bad, not too far away. Thank you so much for your time, it’s been lovely to speak to you again, and good luck with the album! I hope we get to talk when the book comes out unless the next album beats it!
Lee: (laughs) Thank you Mark it was great speaking to you and let’s catch up again, maybe even for the Christmas album! (laughs) Thank for the support.