SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to How's Your Stool? The show where we pull up the stool and find out how things are really going. Not just the gigs, not just the music, but what's happening when the amps and the lights get turned off. I'm your host, Dave Randall. Today I'm sitting down with Tom Simpson. Let's get a stool sound for Tommy Simpson.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Yes, sir, Davey Randall.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

How are you today?

SPEAKER_04 0:54

I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Good.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

It is indeed my pleasure. Thank you for having me. One of those. We didn't go over that. Yeah, well.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

It was in the uh production meeting. Yeah. But anyway, uh, it's really good that you're here. Uh for people who are tuning in. You might wonder, well, why the fuck didn't you record Tommy way back in the beginning? And the truth is, I did. And we did. We did. And he helped me figure out how to do this incredibly simple thing. That takes an inordinate amount of time to put in a can. But uh yeah, we had fun doing that. Uh I still don't know what I'm doing. Do you know what you're doing?

SPEAKER_04 1:40

Well, no. Clearly.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Some days.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

I know my eyes are open, I'm walking around. Generally speaking.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

You've got two legs from your hips to the ground.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Yeah. No, I uh things are going okay. And uh, yeah, musically speaking, things are going really well.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yep. Yep. Well, they didn't hear the first episode, so why don't you take us back? Let's go in the way back machine to Tommy Simpson as a five-year-old boy discovering music.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Oh, music, okay. Yeah, I guess uh I could say as a kid, my uh there was music around the house all the time. My father was um the studied piano as a kid and uh was involved in the he grew up in England and was involved in the church choir as a very young boy and uh took his studies and an interest uh in music uh here to Canada with his parents when he moved when he was ten. And uh his father was musical also uh as a singer in the choir, and I guess they kind of continued that in in St. John, New Brunswick. And so my father, the musical guy, my mom you know, appreciated music, loved, like music, but no passion for it.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

So yeah. Your parents met in England?

SPEAKER_04 3:05

No, I'm sorry. My father moved to Canada when he was 10. He moved. He moved to St. John. Met my mom when he came back. Well, he knew of my mom because St. John.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Oh, so she's from New Brunswick too.

SPEAKER_04 3:15

Yeah, my mom's from St. John as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

I didn't know that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Actually, my mom's originally from East St. John, New Brunswick. So uh the bad side of town? Uh the stinkly different side of town. Yeah. It's the it's this, it's not with all the more the big the big buildings of St. John. It's funny. I'd only it's not there's no big buildings.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

I don't even have driven through St. John, I know nothing about it.

SPEAKER_04 3:37

There's bigger buildings than the other buildings that are next to it, but there's no, it's not a big it's not it's not uh it's not a massive anyways. My folks grew up my folks raised uh excuse me, were raised in the St. John high school and stuff. They knew of each other. Uh my father went off to work, came home from the war when he was 24, I believe. Spent a little time solo, did a few things, and uh I guess started courting my mother somewhere shortly after that. And they got married, had my older sister in uh New Brunswick, uh moved to Montreal to my father had a job with beat British American Oil. Okay. And uh he brought uh their daughter at the time, and then had my other sister uh when they lived down in East uh um Park Extension, they lived when they first came to Montreal. And then they moved out to the West Island and in the early 60s, that's where I joined the family. And uh a little mistake happened about nine years later. But as my mother always said, You're a welcome mistake, Tommy. You know, it always worked out that way. Anyway, so I I remember as a little kid, my dad, you know, we I was I did the church thing as a kid, as many of us did. Tag along and figure it out as you grow up. Uh so I had some church experience as far as my father being involved in in the music thing, which he didn't do after a while. I guess it wasn't working the way he wanted, but he always tinkled on the piano at home. And he had a massive music collection with a broad range of interest, uh, mostly classical music and tons of uh bagpipes and pipes, pipes and drums and uh marching bands stuff. He was passionate about that. Uh dad music. Very much dad music. Oh my dad dragged me to the uh whenever the games. Yeah, the Cold Stream Guards, uh, whenever they played in the Molson Center, or the excuse back in the day, the uh the forum. Uh that was a great experience. So I really loved that. And uh remember before Expo 67, there was a massive event at the Autostad with tons of British military stuff and everything, and they had the it was a that was a good show. The Autostad, that's taking you back, eh? Jeez, remember the Swiss cheese walls?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

I don't remember that, but I I do remember going to the Autostad to see the Alouettes play. That was a long time ago.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Sonny Wade, Sonny Wade Moses Denson. Anyway, taking it back to that, I mean I'm getting off the traff, uh the track with all that, but uh yeah, Dad Tinker. So the piano was right next to the TV in the basement, and I guess I had an ear for it. I when I got bored, which was every five minutes, I'd get bored and find something new, but I did find that I sat at the piano for a long time. And uh I would listen carefully and I figured some stuff out on the piano, and it was like I always felt it was a little bit like solving a puzzle, you know, like a bit of an audio puzzle. Like, can I find that?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

And I figured out a few things on the piano that way, and I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't really care what I was doing, I was just having a nice time. And my father offered me to go take piano lessons as a kid, and so uh I expressed zero interest in that because it would uh creep into my hockey time, which was number one for many of us young kids in Canada, it's the case, but uh for me it was particularly so. I was super passionate about that as a kid, and right up to my late teens, I just loved playing hockey. But uh the the music thing grew from that point, it kind of grew slowly. Maybe I imagine playing in a band, and I imagine when in high school when the instruments went around, I did try the saxophone and music, but the entire music program was gone the next year. I can't remember if that was grade seven.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

At Lindsay?

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Yeah. Do you remember? Do you remember everything just kind of went away? When when we were graduating, I don't think there was if there wasn't a music program to get into.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I don't remember. I remember I was in band in grade seven. Yeah, me too. I played I played I played baritone, but I really wanted to play trumpet. Because I wanted to go to hockey games and go do do do. But you want to be the star. So grade eight. I don't know, something administrative happened, and I got my schedule and I was no longer in the music program. I'm like, and I went to the oh we're sorry, it's the computer, blah blah blah blah. Computers of 1972, come on. What computers are you using? But anyway, uh yeah. No, and they uh they just said, oh well, uh, you can just go to the class. And Mr. Hay was the music teacher at the time. And Mrs. Garrett. Uh there maybe another, but those are the two I had. And anyway, and I I went, but it was like already two weeks into school, and I was so far behind. I just I just stopped. I just didn't bailed.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Yeah. Anyway, I I there was a few things in that at that time that maybe if it was presented differently to me, I can't blame any of the timing was that as it was. Anyway, needless to say, uh, it was a few years later. My we uh um my dad got uh classical. He my my dad's brother that lived in New Brunswick still had a little music store. Well, actually, it was a it was uh a photo store, uh, which you remember in the day back, photo stores would have a bit of musical instruments and stuff also. They I don't know why, but they used to have that stuff in them. And yeah, and uh so he was closing up a shop and switching gears to uh open a print shop in a mall when those were coming up. And uh my dad picked up a few things in the store that he wanted, some camera stuff that he wanted. He bought he bought, I guess, uh at a rate from uh his brother, and he also got a guitar, and it was I thought cool guitar. I thought nothing more than that. Cool a guitar. And he had the guitar and he would sit in the evenings and strum the guitar because I think uh he wanted something that he could carry around, it would be easier to manage, and maybe he could take it to a party or two and strum a few tunes, and he loved stuff like Harry Belafonte and and a lot of calypso stuff he really liked, and some Disney tunes and stuff like that. Stuff you could hum and even some, believe it or not, Beatles in those days. I thought, dad, that's crazy. Anyway, he would uh excuse me, he would uh strum away and uh I think I learned a chunk of my swearing from listening to my dad fuss over the chords and and watch him fuss over the chords, and it was kind of funny, but I I remember going to the cupboard. Oh, I it was I was going through the book, one of his books, and I came across the tune Bare Necessities.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

And I remember it was in, I think it was an F. And I was trying to play it, and I thought, this is hard. Because I mean he's starting with an F. That's impossible. I was trying to get my little finger. Yeah, I mean it's like no, I saw I I I did, I gave it a shot and I threw everything back on the cover. I thought, this is stupid, forget it. And then I was with a friend of mine, Jim. You knew Jim, Simington, and we were he was so into like he was the first guy just introduced me to stuff like Rush and stuff like that. But I someone else introduced me to KISS, but Jim was without question, I think to this day remains the biggest KISS fan I know. And or Ace Freely fan. He was a huge Ace Freely fan, and and which is totally cool. I mean at the time I thought it's cool. I and you know, Macho Kiss music. What is this? You know, it it rocked. I was a kid, and and uh so I Jim had a Kiss book, and I I think he had yeah, like like the live album or something, and they were you know with the chords mapped out, and I remember looking at them and memorizing a couple of them and going home and trying those, and it was like an A and a D with Doctor of Love or something. I can't know it was before that, but whatever. I'm looking at your rock and roll over album, and uh um it it was so he it was so it was suddenly it was magical because this I was making the sounds that I I heard, and it seemed to be pretty easy that until it got back to that F chord. But any anyway, that's how I got my thing and my involvement in music. The second time I picked it up, it that was it. I had the bug and it was head down, and I've learned in my life uh my you know neurodivergent brain. When I get onto something like that, and it becomes the food of choice for me, it fires every aspect up, and the thing the the thing I love the most about music is the thing that's remained consistent from day one till today is that I s I love puzzles. I I I love you know just picture puzzles, I love number puzzle, Sunuku, and I love uh that kind of stuff. I'm not a big crossword guy or anything, but there's something about that kind of a r you know working on things, and I just find that playing the guitar is like a puzzle, you know, it's like uh these sound events happening over time, and then you throw your muscle memory into the whole thing and the rhythm and the and I just think that there's if you're listening carefully and you're trying to learn that part or you're creating a part and you're trying to make it fit perfectly, the effort it takes and all that work is is like developing the mem muscle memory and you're expanding yourself, but it's solving puzzles as you go each time, yeah. A little further into it and further, and it's an endless puzzle. So there's no end to it, which is is cool, but there's stages where you've you feel like you've accomplished something great. You know, you you've had that feeling when you've something that you imagined six months ago, you just listen to it, you thought, how do you play that?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Well, it does make me think when uh when I started playing guitar, I was doing it on my own using a consumers distributing uh classical guitar that I'd replaced the nylon strings with steel strings. Right on. Because that's what you do. Oh yeah. And um I I think my parents had had uh offered for me to take guitar lessons, but it just didn't work. I felt like I was like way behind the class, and anyway, it got stuck in a bag in the back of my closet, and then one day coming home from school, nothing's going on. I'm at home alone, just you know. It was amazing before the internet, right? The things we would do to occupy ourselves, it's just crazy. So putting the needle back. There was this guitar in the closet. I took it out, and there was a little booklet that came with the guitar. It's like maybe six pages. I remember it was pink, and uh, I opened it and it fucking guitar was not tuned for one thing, but anyway, I made the guitar shapes and then and I did just what you said, just going from the D to the A to the G to the A to the D to the A to the D. And I'm sure I drove my parents crazy with it, but uh before you knew it, I was singing um uh She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain. I continued on, I never really like dove into it headfirst, but uh the guitar was a fun thing. And then so when I am getting back to your point there about when something like you where did that come from? So when I started getting together with you and Bruce and and Pete and it just turned out we were all kind of learning guitar at the same time. And I remember we used to get together in my parents' basement, and we just somebody had an electric guitar. Holy crap, an electric guitar. And we all took turns like wanging on it. Was that Pete's Northern? I don't know, it was before that. It was a it was a truly piece of shit guitar, but it was electric and it had strings and it had an amplifier. Anyway, I just remember sitting there, and this is even be I don't think we even drank back then. We're still like 17, 16, 17. Anyway, I just remember it was my turn on the on that electric, and I was learning bar chords, and I just found a bar chord and I went d and then just out of nowhere, I just went down, and I went, What the fuck is I figured that out. And yeah, so those are monumentally inspirational moments when you you know You make that sound. You make that sound and you discovered it. Yeah, you didn't go to YouTube and look it up like I do now.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Well, it's a fast route there, but I you know, you gotta make sure that whatever you're you're learning is I shouldn't say that. If it's good for you, who cares? I get caught up in that. I get I'm a detail guy. I like that. I always start simple and then but I like I like to know even if you're gonna do your own arrangement of a cover tune, you know, knowing the cover tune, how it goes, and the guitar parts multiply, or piano parts and whatever the parts are, understanding the song is is has become really important. But that's something you kind of get to, I I guess.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

I can't really say there was a specific certainly in relation to starting guitar, but like a musical style or a band or anything. I I I knew the Beatles were I was I I had access to my older sister's record collection, which was like a lot of monkeys stuff, but I love the monkeys. Uh so I don't remember you know falling in love with the Rolling Stones or the Beatles for that matter. It was just like music was was just around. So was there some music uh either as a result of learning guitar or just your own mature maturation that you said, oh I really I really like that sound, I like that band. What uh what inspired you?

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Oh, that's funny. Uh yeah, I think first of all, right out of the gates, it was that sort of uh testosterone connection with slamming out a loud court on a on an electric guitar or imagining it's electric guitar when it's your classical. Yes. But that that's the that's the kind of inspiration you get. So I was really into like that's like I think KISS filled that spot and they just were loud and and pretty straightforward, not too complicated, and easy to Donald Trump of rock and roll. Yeah, easier to access, I guess, at that at that skill level for me at that that time. And I still see myself as a hack. I'm not a I don't see myself as a super accomplished guitar player. I I I I support well, I can support myself singing, and uh I'm not a great lead player, but I love to surround myself with like those guys. I I started out ambitiously as to become a lead player, and I think I was okay uh when I was throwing my entire musical effort at figuring out solos and all that stuff. Oh god, yeah. Yeah. No, but I mean we started out playing with when I was playing with uh at 18 with Kevin and Rhonda. Um, we were playing in that we called ourselves Ashley SDS. I think we did two shows.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

I don't even remember that name.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

Yeah, it was last minute because we had a gig.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Was this the Pierre Fong Comprehensive?

SPEAKER_04 19:24

No, that was with uh that band was called Stinger. Stinger.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

The high school Stinger.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

But no, no, I remember you doing a rush show there. Did they do that? Yeah, yeah, that was That was with Stinger, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

No, that wasn't with Stinger. That was with Kevin and Ronda. Wevin and Rhonda. And we did we did tons of rush. We did Hendricks, we did Zeppelin, we did that. We had I had written a couple of songs that we were playing, and I can't remember that thing we did at Mac that went so well. The only thing I felt so bad, you know when we've all seen this when you're playing like a gym gig like that or a gymnasium. There was a nice stage there, and Kevin was set up with no carpet, and his bass drum was tracking out towards the middle of the stage stage. And I remember going back with my heel trying to stop and push it because he was doing the splits trying to play, and we're playing stuff like I think we did free will and we did, they were busy, you know. Yeah, and the poor guy.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

I remember that it was like dropping your stick on a power play or breaking your stick on a power play or on a breakaway, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Winding up yeah, yeah, and so anyways, the that was uh that was sort of I started out with that in mind, and I that's what I wanted to be was a guitar player. I just I really saw myself as that, but I I after that time I I uh auditioned for um uh do you remember Ran Randy's Randy Bowen's band, Lyrock? Oh, actually it was Larry Hughes's band, Lyrock.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

Well, there were there was I guess there was a spot open. I heard about it, or Randy called me and I went over to his place. I think I went twice and played, and he called me. He said, Listen, uh, we uh you really enjoyed playing with me. He said, We've we filled the spot, but I just want you to know it's like you're perfect, blah blah blah, or whatever it was. I can't remember you're perfect, whatever it was. It was it to the effect was very positive. He said, but you need to learn how to sing back ups, sing backups, and get a little bit more experience with some some of the the rhythm parts and stuff. He says, Learn some stones. So I literally did. I went home and I I wood shed it on a bunch of stone songs, and I I tried I started learning how to sing some songs and listening for harmonies. Not something I did. I was aware of them, and we had a few little harmonies here and there, but I wasn't really conscious of the the detail in there. And um I guess I made it a decent impression on Randy because he called me to join his new band that he was forming. at the time I I think it was 81 82 81 82 and that the band was called Ener Germ and it was the predecessor to Randy's uh Randy and Chris's C Spot run. Yeah and uh that was a that was a excellent experience uh our the agency that took care of us was music music market and I had not worked with an agency before to sort of see how they they manage you and what kind of tours you know they put you out on the tours and all that stuff. And I think I did that for a little over a year or so and I I could see that the direction for me I wasn't really it wasn't maybe it was changed. I had I you know and I was new on the road and I was there was all kinds of things playing into it. So uh I did not I I left that band and the band uh they disassembled and uh Randy and Paul Moore went on with uh with Chris and I I formed a band here with uh uh Kevin Kevin Don and uh James Collins and Ron Woo and we were called uh panic oh yeah yeah and we went back and we went on the road with that band too and we did some work on the road and stuff and uh that was a good experience. Um uh lots of uh the road's a real test. I think what what I learned was um maybe I take on when I I don't delegate well because I'm an idiot. I think I'm the it has to be done my way. Which I I I'm conscious of it. Like raising and lowering a mic standard yes yeah yeah yeah we're all alike anyway I I don't know if that was exact but anyway I came home and the other thing too is my parents were really decent they really supported me nicely they knew even though I know that they were of the mind that you know you'll never you know it's such a long shot music you know but I learned in the process there's two types of love for music and they're both great. One of them is I don't care how much money I make I'm doing this forever because I love it. And it just and Randy basically Randy Bowen he he told me that in a conversation and at the time when he told me that I didn't know what I thought. And it made me think about that. And for a long time I still wonder my my connection to music is because I would love it if for some reason I knew I had I'd and that's ridiculous too because you know apply yourself harder. What's why aren't you doing it? But the bottom line is I I split it I split it up I came home and I I got myself a real job and frankly I was real most musicians get tired of uh craft dinner and tuna after a while it's brutal but it's quite a deal well when you're living on an extremely fixed income and budget you but my my my folks made they just basically said when you're home there's a roof and there's a meal and there's a ro bedroom for you whenever for the you know and we'll take care of that. Don't worry about it. You don't have any expenses yeah it was super nice at the time and and uh it l they let me go they were they said two years and they let me go a little bit beyond the two years. I I I said look guys I'd I'd like to just see this through and I made an honest decision with that. And they were fair with me which I really appreciate because a lot of parents would just say flat it not while you're living under this roof. You know they just say that. Yeah so they kind of supported my my dream at the time and it was really nice. But the the best thing of it was I kind of found how I fit into it and I enjoyed working. I enjoyed it I enjoy my career. I enjoy I enjoy working it's like it's like uh everything has been uh interesting there's been some challenges that have been extreme in my career but uh but it's been it's been great and it's been nice to parallel for up until late mid-90s um we played with the stuff which is what he after I finished playing that band kind of evolved I played in a couple of bands through uh when I switched gears in the mid-80s and I I was working uh full time in computer operations and learning the field there and playing in the band uh Johnny Everywhere for a while. Oh yeah I remember that was a fun band god we had a great time in that band uh you know I'm a bar band guy right but you know it's uh it's just the best thing that comes of it is the friends it's just like hockey for that like the connections you make with the guys you're sitting around all the time especially especially if you go on the road I mean it's crazy yeah you know you become you know stupid as you you develop this kind of like off offset dialogue that no one can possibly understand and you understand you can see other bands do it and other hockey teams do it and other groups of you just get your own little culture going and it's super fun. It's a great bonding experience.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah well when you're when you're under the boot heel of bar owners and your travel schedule and everything you kind of have to rely on each other for to stay sane like they're they're they're your family in that in that period of time and for better or worse. Absolutely you can pick your friends you can pick your band you can't pick your family oh so we were talking about you were you had panic and you toured with that and then you went to the stuff yeah uh after we did the panic tour we had changed drummers we had Jerry Callahan join the band before we went on tour and then when we came home from that the band I left the band and I think they continue playing I think they played with Johnny uh John Van Dies.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

John Van Dies the singer I can't remember I I I never saw them play. I didn't see them play. I don't know if there were hard feelings with the guys or not but I don't think so because James was still there and I went an audition with another band and I decided that I'm gonna lay off for a while and then I I don't remember how I was introduced to the guys for Johnny Everywhere but that's where I met uh Glenn and Ian Glenn Hamilton on bass and Ian Spencer on keyboards who remain awesome friends and they're both terrific musicians. Yeah and uh uh and there's James of course who he was with the stuff right from the get-go he and I kind of put that together James rest in peace at Collins who passed away uh a few years ago and um and Jerry was on drums and am I missing anyone my little face was on the vocals oh yeah yeah the old album cover oh it's not the full band on that one no I I you know I it we went through a little bit of a whirlwind trying to get things moving a little bit back then and uh with the help of our good friend uh Dwayne Evans he he took an interest and tried to get us moving in uh a direction and help produce this uh this uh six song cassette of cassette can you believe it cassette which is a bummer because I don't have any masters and I would love to get a really good quality digital copy of all this stuff but yeah if you get the original multi-track recording that'd be awesome to yeah the recording that you we've got here is uh is you know ripped from a cassette to a computer well let's not fool ourselves most people will be listening to this on an iPhone so we're gonna line up a song here from uh from the stuff uh from their 1980 when did you put this out uh well we 89 89 1989 so long ago man i have the I have a got a lot of live recordings since then 27 years ago but yeah anyway we recorded this particular song uh Fred Grindley studio Fred Grindley at the time was in a band called 10 p.m Paris in town here okay you you uh you remember that mate sure yeah with Noreen and yeah so they uh we did that at Fred's place in Point Clair he had a nice studio in the basement this song is called League of Fools and we've got Glenn Hamilton on bass we've got Jerry Callahan on drums Glenn I sorry um Ian Spencer on keyboards and James Collins on guitar you guys work on this song together or was this something how did how did the writing in in the stuff go? The writing process at that time was uh probably most of the writing for the electronics I I usually what I do is I come up with my idea um separately at home and I'll put down either a couple of tracks or just the chords with my voice just to present the idea if I have as much of it as I have. If I've got uh a verse in a chorus or a verse in a chord the whole song done I know it doesn't matter. I I'll bring it to the guys and play it sometimes I'm stuck I mean and and first we start does this sound interesting you guys want to work on this you know does this catch any no yes no yes yes yes yes we got votes we go and then we start to pick it apart and then we throw ideas around and I'm the way that I typically I've gone through phases of writing on the guitar, on a piano I'm not a piano player but I understand the piano enough that I can tinkle around enough and what I find is nice is it forces different voicings and stuff and and maybe triggers different melodies in my head which I like that about the same thing when I start on a bass. It's it's just creating a different canvas to to work from or sometimes the melody is already there and the company with but it's all different. This one I I I had come to the guys with the song on a four-track recording I got the thumb at the set and then I had balance a few things moving there was a bass line that I had done on a fretless I was borrowing at the time drum machine giving some rhythm some rhythm watch drum that was Dave nails and then uh I had bored it for that and then oh no it's peats it was peats anyways so I would record those tunes that way hand them to the guys and this is exactly the the type of thing so everyone contributed with ideas and things the structure I had laid out typically but you know someone might come up with a change with something and it and I was always you know green and growing ears open ears wide open like what's your idea were you working on one song at a time or did you have several songs going at a time or how how did you approach that?

SPEAKER_00 36:44

And how long did it collaboratively how long did it take you to get from conception to final track?

SPEAKER_04 36:51

This one we had been playing live for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

So we had sort of weeded things out there was just a few a little arrangement things and like we always did in the stuff we overindulged on solos and stuff like that. And you know uh in the maturing as a songwriter I would trim that song back by about 90 seconds easily. That's just my my feeling I like what it is it in terms of the the song but that's where I listen to the song I think oh yeah that's my new view on it. You know but we went into the studio that's what we wanted to do. That's because that's how we played live. Right not every song has had a so you know big solos but you know there's a trade off between uh between Ian and James Ian's got the the nice sort of jazz feel going on there and it I always love that Ian's playing he brings that out so nicely.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah yeah he's very good at that it's uh it's a good sound all around you had a good uh a good crew working with you on that uh yeah uh I mean I Jerry I I can't say anything bad about any of the players uh well you but but you know yeah rip on me baby but but yeah Jerry was a great drummer Glenn undoubtedly one of the better bass players I've ever heard and uh James was a very talented guitar player I liked his style he he he was good but he wasn't uh insanely like uh he wasn't like a death metal guitar player or anything he knew how to make a a a melodic uh lead piece yeah he was conscious of telling stories yeah I liked I liked that about the sound all the tracks on on that um thing and uh you I did you say it's it's on your SoundCloud or something yeah all my tracks are on my SoundCloud account which uh if you maybe you could post it with the uh sure with the video um I I should know my SoundCloud account off the top of my head but uh if you go to SoundCloud and look up I think if you search for Tommy Simpson and the stuff I put it there as that whatever whatever I don't even know it's so that part of my musical I I I want to put my stuff up there because if someone says well you write something I point to it obviously.

SPEAKER_04 39:18

But I think there's been so many transitions and so many changes from from back then. I'm very proud of everything we've done. Everything and it's it's it's all great but I'm so happy to be happy to be moving on now like with with new stuff with you know working with Sean and and uh well yeah so you were you were saying that you left um the stuff and you got out of music in almost entirely at that time. Yeah I don't know if any other I'm certain other musicians have had this feeling because I was doing the uh music musician working full time career guy musician musician career guy uh at the time I I realized I'd been married for uh six years or so um our goals were ramping up to start a family uh it was 19 I don't know ninety six ninety seven around there uh yeah Mitchell was born in ninety eight so it was around that time we're gonna buy a house we're gonna do all those things and I was really kind of tired of the whole scene and it was out in front of deja vu downtown we had finished and tearing down and everything on a Sunday morning and Glenn was parked in front of me and we were parked right in front because we were parked unloading our gear or loading our gear into the vehicles and I closed the trunk on my then Nisa and Sandra closed the hatchback I looked over at Glenn and I said that's it I just knew I I just had enough of the this at 4 a.m and my Sundays at that point in my life were Sundays. I had to go be Tom with a family I wasn't a dad yet but I had to go be be Tom with the family and show up and be uh you know and I just it was tiring trying to do a lot of stuff and I thought I'm just gonna lay back and I let it slide to the point where I played every day almost um mostly acoustic guitar it's always been by my in my office in the house and endlessly strumming and playing so I never really stopped playing but you I the chops when call them chops whatever they were at that whole show went rusty and I my vocals might have maybe improved a bit through that time because I was finding myself inspired by different stuff. Stuff I never really cared for before. I I shouldn't say that I definitely cared for I always cared for it but I never was inspired to sing it. And I got in I found some you know I found I like to sing some Eagle stuff it f it was in my range and and I started working on that and I realized if I settle down a little bit I've got this different voice than I'd been play playing with before like using my higher register more and now it's I thought this is neat and so it was very helpful. And then I I got the bug maybe about four years ago I got a bug to sort of maybe do something acoustically um and have some commitments musically just so I'd work on it more and get get back into it. Because I was I was having trouble connecting with like literally anything. I was like I I don't know what what happens but kinda I just kind of lost interest in everything. It was crazy. And uh I threw the music back on the table and I thought let's see if we can fire things up and it it really it really was great for me. I mean I it was the weirdest damn thing too because I was I was I've always been in this frame of mind like you know thinking about you know what I can do and who I'd sing with because I definitely wanted to do a duo and I wanted somebody with uh uh uh a a vocal range that was similar to me and a little lower and I could be similar to them and a little higher and and I came across this YouTube video of um Sean Donnelly who was in the pinups back in the late 70s 1980 time frame circa and uh Sean was singing um uh by uh harmonium and he did a lovely job of it I thought wow I thought maybe he'd be interested and I got in contact with him and I was only barely ac an acquaintance. I had met him once years ago and whatever but so I reached out to him and we were chatting and I said look I I've had this idea in mind and no kidding nothing in stone. Uh you wanna jam this week or play some tunes or do you have a list of songs we wouldn't He goes, Oh, that'd be great. I'd be like to do that. That'd be great. And he said, When can when can you come over? And 'cause and he was I he was in the town over, he's in Senneville. And he's when can you come over? I I don't know, this week, something can you come tonight? And it was great. I went over I went over on that whatever it was, Tuesday night, whatever it was, and we uh sat and chatted a lot and played a few tunes together and agreed we'd get together again, and we've been getting together for once twice a week now, since then, and that's a year and a half ago.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

So it's good to have a solid project to focus on.

SPEAKER_04 44:38

Yeah, we both agreed on a bunch of things, and and I know a lot of musicians uh uh kind of when they're making their cover list, they they want to do stuff that's fresh and different. Uh and I found what was interesting about this particular opportunity with Sean was keeping it fresh and different. We had I had this new because we both sing and we both have different, slightly different ranges and styles. Absolutely. I'm a little bit more RB-ish and that side of things, and and Sean, like old school RB. And Sean is rock and roll. So I guess I'm Marie. He's Donnie.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

Yeah, that's exactly how I see you guys.

SPEAKER_04 45:24

Bottom line is when Sean and I get together, we have a ball. We we I mean, we just it's just so much fun playing, and we have that is the glue. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

And your act is with Sean and Tom.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

Yeah, exactly. Because we want to be clear about that.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

That you are with Sean and Tom.

SPEAKER_04 45:48

Whatever happens, we're here. So that's anything. Put it in front of that, and you're doing it with us. Drinking with Tom and Sean.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

So you stick to the music, you're not doing any burlesque or uh whizzing in the can with Tom and Sean. Sean and Tom Swords. For you, those of you into ASMR. Rousing a blonde. Nice flow. Sorry. Getting a little off track there. Uh, did you were you still writing when you were taking your hiatus, as it were?

SPEAKER_04 46:34

Uh I wrote one song. One song. A friend of mine asked me to write a song for a given situation. That was um a friend of mine lost some family members, and it was very dramatic. And uh he asked me to do something, and I did it. Too heavy. That was very heavy, I know. It was heavy, but it was an interesting exercise. It was like it's like not I didn't feel like I was at gunpoint by any means, but you know, if somebody says write a song, it it what nobody said that to me. I did it because I wanted to do it. It was all there, but when you make that kind of commitment, yeah. But anyway, I got it out of the system and I did it, and I thought it was it's a nice, it's a it's a sensitive song given the subject and and stuff, and I was very pleased with that.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

I don't think you've ever played that for me.

SPEAKER_04 47:30

You'll have to it's uh I'll have to play it. It's a video, and my friend that uh I did it for, I was going to produce it properly. Um when I say produce it properly, I was just gonna add a little bit more to it and record it differently. But he said, no, no, no, I like it this way. So he went I'm just strumming the guitar and singing into the little zoom mic.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

That's it. Like Bruce Springsteen, that uh Nebraska album. He recorded it all on a little shitty little four-track recorder in a hotel room. Unbelievable, it blows me away. Bruce. I only know one Bruce. It's not Bruce. However, I must say, not that he's ever gonna listen to this, because it's just a little too technical. I wouldn't be a musician today. Two people, really. My younger sister Heather. She's always inspired me. But Bruce, the Bruce we're talking about. Holy crap. If some of you knew my friend Bruce, uh, you would look at him and go, don't really expect to hear sensitive, soul-searching tones coming out of this guy, but we used to go hang out. We were kids together, so hang out at his house, and then one day he pulls out a guitar and starts playing and singing. He liked the mellow acousticky stuff, you know, some bread and you know, some mellower hits. And I was like, I was absolutely blown away. And this is before I even started playing, I was like, how do you do that? How do you sing a song like that with so much feeling and play guitar? And he I don't hear him play guitar much anymore, but he still plays, I think. You uh well he he noodles, I think, but you know, he used to sing songs, bring his guitar out to the park and stuff. I wish he did that more.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

That was uh You know, it's it's pretty interesting if that you you bring that up. You wonder how many like I you and I and all how we connect to this musical little fabric that we live in here on the west end of the island of Montreal and the island of Montreal. You know, we all come from the same situation, you know. There's always this there's guys that strum just for self-like I always saw uh Bruce is an example of those guys that strum quietly for their own pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

And he's always kind of professed that. Yeah, but to your point, he's not I don't think he's aware of how nicely nice he sounds.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

Yes, absolutely. He I I I tried many times to invite him to come along and could just come up and sing a song. Oh my god, no, he's so shy. I don't see him, I just don't see him two words you don't associate Bruce and shy. But he was he's painfully shy when it comes to yeah getting in front of people, but God help you if you know them because the gloves come off.

SPEAKER_04 50:36

Yeah, there's no such thing as shy. Yeah. And that's a great thing. I I love that. It's funny like and he's got a great sense of humor. But anyway, I I what I say about that is that it's it's interesting that all these different characters and how they love music and play their music like that. And you know, I bet you a lot of guys or a lot of musicians, gals, and guys, have uh people that they've heard sing in the car or something. It's like you should sing.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Well, I mean, yes, there's there's you can often sit down across from somebody and they'll start singing, oh wow, you have a lovely voice. But I mean, there's a difference between having a lovely voice and being a professional singer. I mean, you know it, I know it. It's like, yeah, night after night after night, you've got no voice left. Um, that's that's when it really becomes that's quite the experience. Do you have the talent to do that kind of thing? So there is a there is a fuck a precipice between just doing it for shits and giggles and and and doing it for real. Um you're doing what you want to do now? In terms like I mean doing your duo acoustic act, doing you know, some great old songs. I uh I've heard you guys, and and you do uh pick out a quite a an eclectic uh pick of songs. Yeah. That was our goal. Is to have some interesting songs. And and to do the the local bar scene, you know, plan touring Newfoundland or anything like that.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

Although I'm gonna tell you everybody would say the same thing. I the stories are insane, but and that's true. But you would have to go a long way to find people with that are as warm, welcoming, and kind as Maritimers, and maybe the cream of the cake would be the Newfoundlanders. They're such a wonderful group of people. Yeah, I particularly like Alex Newhook.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

Yes, yes, Alex. You go. Because goddamn, we need show up tonight. We need some points. Yeah, we need some points so we can get a W here. Yeah, we do. It's crunch time.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

Guess we're going to Vegas after this, right?

SPEAKER_04 53:09

Well, that's the plan I won't be going, but who knows, eh? We'll drive down from uh San Diego. I mean from down from San Diego. We'll drive down from Santa Clara.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

Yeah. Why would we drive from Santa Clara?

SPEAKER_04 53:27

We could okay, we'll drive from Anaheim.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Where that big toxic chemical tank is about to explode?

SPEAKER_04 53:36

The closer we get to that, the better. Fuck me.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

Free drugs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:41

Hey, listen. I think we should jam right now.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

We can do that. But we're gonna have to turn the microphones off first because uh the copyright popo don't like to hear no other.

SPEAKER_04 53:58

Yeah, I know what a hassle, eh?

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Uh yes, uh, yeah, uh it's a hassle. But anyway, um, we are running down on the clock here. Yep. And I have enjoyed this immensely. Uh, you know, we'll we'll do it again if you're uh open to it. Have you back. We'll tell some more stories. Uh I love Newfoundland stories, I love road stories. Um and uh I never went to Newfoundland ever for any reason. I'd love to go to Newfoundland.

SPEAKER_04 54:32

Um and put it on the list because it's uh I mean it's breathtaking and surprising, you know. If you've seen pictures of stuff, if you drive across Newfoundland, um it's beautiful. Like the middle of Newfoundland is not what you would expect it to see. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous. It's uh Yeah. I know we did it in a band, and you kind of, if you're doing it, you know, it's not just us truck drivers, many of them, uh, driving those, some of those roads, watching the sun rise. Yeah. And it's breathtaking. It's it's just it's just gorgeous. And it's definitely something well worth seeing. And St. John's Newfoundland is really pretty, and that harbor is it's a remarkably unique piece of geography. I mean, that it's like somebody said, No, we need a harbor here, dig a hole, keep it like this, and open the sides, keep it protected from the wind, which is it's amazing. It's just this massive, perfect harbor.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

Well, over hundreds and hundreds of years, I guess they figured out how anyway. Um that's great. Uh I love road stories. Uh I don't have a lot to talk about. I never really spent any extensive time on the road, but um, you know, back in the 80s, we did lots of gigs and shit happens and it's fun. And uh I I though I I I I can't say that that was uh that was that entity was for me, but fuck I had a lot of good times. Yes, a lot of good laughs, you know, and uh the the rest of it was just whatever. Um, but yeah, friends hanging out, uh doing silly things.

SPEAKER_04 56:18

Yeah, well, I I've um I've learned that uh that these last little while getting back into the scene here, there's a lot of dudes out there that are working really hard as full-time musicians, um, particularly a couple of guys on the on the the local scene here that um I've been watching them, what they're doing and how they're working, and I am super impressed with how hard these guys work. You know, I'm coming into this as a you know, I talk about a musician and I've been out of it for a long time, just getting back into it, thrilled to be doing it, but I'm super impressed with what's going on in uh in the scene, and there seems to be a lot of action now, it seems to be picking up slowly. It's not a big thing the way it was when we were younger, but it's it's nice. And I'm gonna tell you one of the most amazing things about this point in my life as a musician. Some of the gigs are over at 10.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

That's true. Yes, indeed. Jesus, a hockey game starts at 8 tonight. I and the last time when it's overtime, I was like passing out. Yeah, absolutely. Can you imagine starting at 10, gigging at 10? No. I I had been doing that, and uh, it came to the point where you know I'm supposed to play Friday night somewhere, and the first set's at 10, and here it is Thursday night, it's nine o'clock, and I'm like nodding off. How the hell am I gonna get to that? So that is that is wonderful. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's a great thing.

SPEAKER_04 57:54

That's a it's a sad statement though, eh? What time do I go to bed?

SPEAKER_00 58:01

Well, let's uh let's put a uh uh a pin in it there for now. We'll come back on another day and uh talk about more stuff. Thanks very much. I had a blast. Thank you. But uh yeah, just casual conversation with buddies. All right. Cheers, man. Cheers, bud. And uh you take care. And uh I will see you later on the menu days. Safe day. All right, that's a wrap. Huge thanks to Tom Simpson for pulling up a stool and hanging out. If you like what you heard, go check him out. Support local music, go to a show, buy some burp, make some noise. Before we go, one last check-in. How's your school? I'm Dave Randall. This is How's Your School, and we'll catch you next time. This has been a blended monterey production.