One of my very favourite albums of the last few years has to be The Commoners ‘Find a Better Way’ released back in 2022. This year the band is back with a new, arguably even better follow up in ‘Restless’. If you love the Southern Harmonies of bands like The Allmans and The Black Crowes, or just great songs with lyrics that take you to places and songs that move you, then you have to listen to this. The Commoners might just be my favourite Canadian band and Chris is one of the most engaging interviewees I’ve spoken to. Sadly a computer crash meant that this interview is a couple of months late – but it’s finally here!
Mark: Hey good morning!
Chris: How you doing?
Mark: I’m great thank you hope you’re well. I have to say I’ve not stopped listening to the album since we got it a month ago.
Chris: Thanks man.
Mark: It’s a fitting title too ‘Restless’ it has that great energy to it and once it starts you can’t put it down. We got onboard for the last record, and I think this one is even better. Can you fill in the gaps for us and give us a brief catch up – what’s been happening for you between the last album and this new one?
Chris: So, since we put out that first album we did our first tour in Europe which was about 28 shows in like a six week period, so that was full on. Then we went back to the UK after releasing the album that spring with Troy Redfern opening up, so that opened up the UK market for us right. Gettig to do that co-headlining show with Troy was a great experience because we really got to share our crowds and I think the music worked together really well together, plus it was great fun hanging out with all of them. And it was cool because we started getting a lot of airplay at that time on Planet Rock who have done a lot over in the UK for us. Then we went back, and at that point we had started writing for this record – we wrote the whole thig in probably a two-week period in this room here. Then we were back in the UK in the fall opening up for Sam Fish and Jesse Drayton which was an amazing experience, they’re such good artists. We got to play some really cool venues to some big crowds it was awesome. Then we came back, and we basically just went all out up until December recording and finishing up the album.
Mark: It’s fantastic to fit all that in and you never seem to stop, you’re back to the UK again in a matter of days?
Chris: Yeah, we leave tomorrow evening at 11.30 p.m.
Mark: You’re playing some of my favourite Festivals this trip: Rockstock, Steelhouse, Made of Stone, a new one that’s supposed to be really cool.
Chris: Yeah, we basically land and we go and play that festival so it’s going to be wild!
Mark: You mentioned Sam Fish and Jesse Drayton who have just been down to see us, so hopefully that means that we’ll get you guys down here soon as well!
Chris: Oh Mark I’d love to.
Mark: We’ve been around 15 years now and one of the first bands we got invited to see was Jeff Martin of the Tea Party was was having a birthday bash and he brought over a band called The Trews and we got to hang out with Colin and Co – lovely guys and man can they play!
Chris: Oh man.
Mark: There are two things that I love to read in a bio when I get sent them – one of them is The Black Crowes – one of my all time favourite bands, and I also love a bot of Motown and Soul – I love the fact that you namecheck Sam Cooke and Otis Redding in there. A voice is something that draws me into a band and you have that warmth and soulfulness that fits the music so well.
Chris: Thanks man.
Mark: Take us all the way back – where did it all begin for you? Did you discover you could sing or pick up that guitar first?
Chris: No, I mean like most anything that I do in life at first I was pretty shot at it! (Laughs) I started playing guitar when I was 1 and when I began to be able to read chord diagrams and go through song books I started dabbling with singing and playing guitar. I think the first show that I ever played was at a small little beach town in Ontario. I was probably about 15 and from then I just started playing shows as a singer-songwriter up until we formed this group now that I play with. So, I was a solo artist for a long time and I spent a lot of time figuring out who I was as a musician, and there’s definitely been a lot of years and time put into it. And vocally Sam Cooke and Otis Redding are probably my favourite two vocalists of all time: it doesn’t get better than that.
Mark: Absolutely, you have to start with the best. You mentioned that you started writing the album in the room whilst on a break from the road. Do you jam songs out, how does it work for you? How do the songs come together?
Chris: So it’s a little bit of two different things. I myself as well as others in the band will write fully formed songs and present them to the group. And then there are times when we work as a group – maybe Ross has a guitar line, or for instance off the new record the song body and soul was written off of a bassline that Ben was playing. And then we will write in a very, very starting from the beginning stage as a group effort. But the constant is, whether it’s a partial idea or a more fully formed idea once it comes into the group it’s sort of anything goes, and it can get taken in a lot of different directions. There are a lot of songs on this record that I wrote as more fully formed ideas that completely transformed once they were put into the space with the whole band.
Mark: It’s working – it’s not often these days that I get to listen to an album where every singe track is a winner, starting off with ‘Devil Teasin’ Me’ is perfect – do you open with a song like that?
Chris: I believe on this setlist it will be the third song on the upcoming UK Tour. We have like an intro jam that we work on with some ‘guitarmonies’ we have a few different transitionary jam things to give a more unique live experience. But we have opened with it in the past, I believe when we were touring the first time with Troy Redfern in the UK we opened with that song on that tour. But we’ve been doing a few different things, and we’ve had some short run tours and one-off shows in the last few months where we’ve really got to take all of the songs off the record now that it’s complete and start putting them into a live set and that’s definitely going to change things quite a bit.
Mark: So how many of them are going to get an airing? You have some great songs behind you already, but it would be great to hear all of these live!
Chris: Depending on the length of the set times I guess. We have played a set recently where we played almost if not all of the new album, and we’re playing a very large portion of it on this upcoming tour as well.
Mark: I love it when a band does that backing the new music. So, after the summer in the UK any hometown shows planned when you return to Canada?
Chris: It’s funny when we get back we’re going to be home for a week and then we play a beach festival show that’s going to be in that same small hometown place that I played my first show at the age of 15: a place called Sauble Beach in Ontario – very close to my heart and it’s going to be a really good time.
Mark: The closing track on the album does what all great final songs should – something different. It had a great impact on e the first time I heard it – It’s a wonderfully contemplative song that really gets you thinking. Where did that song come from? The lyrics are fantastic.
Chris: You know in the last few years I’ve dealt with a decent amount of loss, as well as people around me have dealt with a decent amount of loss. And it really gets you thinking about this whole thing that we’re doing here on this floating rock, you know. And there’s a little existential in there too, but I like to think it’s peppered with enough optimism as well as acceptance. You know – this is how it is, this is what we know and it sort of makes you reevaluate the things that are important.
Mark: A great title ‘All We Have’ and a wonderful, wonderful song. But some really great songs on there: great rockers, cool ballads and when ‘The Way I Am’ came on I thought I was listening to the Black Crowes – and that’s one of the biggest compliments I can give anyone. It just sounds like something that would fit right on that wonderful second record they did and here it is on your second record.
Chris: That’s a fun song to play.
Mark: It sure sounds like it would be. You mentioned your start in music and the band has such chemistry on record and from what friend tell me even more so live. Where did the other guys come from? Have you known them for a long time, or did you just meet along the way?
Chris: So, our guitar player Ross is also the band’s producer, and he owns a recording studio and he’s quite an accomplished producer – a very talented guy in that department. When I was about 16, I won a performance competition that gave me free time in the studio with him in the early days of his studio. And we sort of hit it off from there and did a couple of tracks and stayed in touch. And when I was in my early 20’s we reconnected and started to seriously talk about starting a project and getting something going. And Ben our bass player at the time was actually working with Ross and he’s a very talented musician. In the very, very early days of the band before we even played our first show Ben was playing keys and he’s on bass now. And over the years different people from just being in that circle, being in the music scene in Toronto and Ross meeting a lot of different musicians doing recordings things came together. We gradually found everybody that sort of completed the puzzle that is this band.
Mark: It fits together wonderfully.
Chris: (Nods)
Mark: You started off playing and singing guitar in cafes but was there a defining moment for you when you knew that music would be your life?
Chris: Yeah, I think it was genuinely that first show. I went up and I played for quite some time, I knew a lot of songs at that time, and I played and really enjoyed it. I got a good reception, and I met a few musicians that are still good friends with me to this day. And that just started that, it was probably the moment because before that I hadn’t really consciously decided that this is what I’m doing. It was kind of like “Oh I’m gonna do this again.”
Mark: Fantastic, one thing I love when I listen to an album like this is that I can hear a lot of bands that I love intertwined in the music. How did you get to sound like this? What were the bands that you were listening to? What were you taking in? I guess there are some obvious ones: you mention Derek Trucks in the bio and I’ve been lucky enough to see him play a few times over the years.
Chris: Amazing guitar player
Mark: He is fantastic, so I get that, and I get The Allmans, and I get The Black Crowes, who of course themselves had their own earlier influences. And I get Same Cooke and Otis Redding, and that’s already a wonderful mixture, but what else was inspiring you when you started out on this journey?
Chris: So, I listened to, and so does everyone in the band really, we all listen to a really eclectic mix, a real wide variety and range of genres, which gives us ideas about different approaches to doing things. Like I listened to The Beatles a lot growing up. When I think about harmonies, and I think about medleys, and I think about the flow of a vinyl record and how the ‘A’ Side and the ‘B’ Side can be just this thing all on its own. Then I think of The Beatles. I listen a lot to Jim Croce when I think about lyricism and storytelling, and John Denver and James Taylor, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin. And I listen to a lot of new stuff as well – I love bands like The Fleet Foxes, recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Tyler Childers who is a really, really good Country artist. And other Canadian bands like The Sheepdogs, The Trews like you mentioned earlier, and amazing band. I’m a huge Marcus King fan – his singing and guitar playing is just off the charts. We all listen to a really diverse musical collection and then when we approach things as a band, we are very much doing it as a conscious effort to still keep everything cohesive. We want people to hear all those influences, and we want to take all those influences and incorporate the in our music. But we still want it to sound like a record – we still and there to be a vibe and a sound that is a cohesive and a coherent listening experience front to back for people. So that it doesn’t sound like a random collection of songs.
Mark: think the Tracklisting on this is perfect, it takes you on a journey like all good records should do – there’s not a song out of place. I love when you bring in the calm and take it down – like with the title track, it’s all beautifully constructed.
Chris: Thank you.
Mark: If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album in the history of Rock and Roll, what would you have loved to have seen being made. Not necessarily your favourite album but one that has a certain magic – one that intrigues you, one that really resonates?
Chris: (pauses) I think I’m gonna say… Oh that’s such a hard question. I think I would say Radiohead – O.K. Computer. It’s a standout album for me, I’d love to see what went into the creative process, it’s such an interesting musical composition.
Mark: Undoubtedly a classic album but a choice that surprises me, I love the unexpected.
Chris: (Laughs)
Mark: And in line, I guess with the closing track of the album, anther easy question for you – what is the meaning of life?
Chris: (Smiles) You know it’s hard to say what the meaning of life is in an objective way, so I’ll say it intentionally subjective. I think what we’re all trying to live for is to be happy and that happiness isn’t a place we are going to arrive at, but that happiness is a collection of moments that you accumulate. So, I would say that the meaning of life is to try and create as many moments for yourself every day that bring you joy.
Mark: What a wonderfully articulated answer, I think that’s wonderful. Part of that for me is listening to music like this, so thank you Chris.
Chris: Absolutely.
Mark: Thank you so much for taking the time Chris it’s been wonderful talking to you. I’m going to be spreading the word as much as I can, have a wonderful tour and stay safe.
Chris: Thank you, it’s going to be so cool, we’re really looking forward to it. Take Care Mark, nice talking with you.
