The Steven Pages - Blog

Garage Sale

13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Hi everyone - hope your winter is treating you well. I’m writing you with a few announcements, the first being that I will be stepping down as Pope effective February 28th. Apparently the Vatican just found out that I’m Jewish.

Second of all, I wanted you to know that I have indeed been busy doing shows and working on new music for you to hear. I have a bunch of new songs in various stages of completion and am in the midst of organizing which songs go with which. Stylistically, they’re all over the map (what’s new?) and after agonizing over the ongoing “Is The Album A Dead Artform?” arguments, I’ve decided I should, for now at least, release music in smaller doses on a more regular basis, and then these can be compiled at a later date onto a long-form album release for those who still cling to such things (as I sometimes do). So, that being said, watch for a new EP this Spring, with more to come shortly thereafter. I’m aiming to release the short-form releases digitally and on vinyl, and then trot out the old CD burner for the full-length one when it comes along.

I’ve also been busy getting our garden ready for spring. Neither my wife nor I are fans of the traditional North American lawn, both for environmental and aesthetic reasons, and we’ve decided to turn most of ours into a flower and vegetable garden. The flowers and meadow will be Christine’s domain, and the vegetables are mine. We had a smaller vegetable garden last year that was basically a disaster, but this time I’m SERIOUS. We tilled most of it up last fall and she planted bulbs and wildflowers, and I’m getting ready to start a bunch of my vegetable seeds indoors. Which leads me to my next point:

In order to make room for my seedstarting, we’ve been cleaning out the boxes and boxes of stuff I have in the basement and have decided to have an impromptu ONLINE GARAGE SALE on eBay. Between the two of us, we had a lot of duplicate items, and, being something of a hoarder myself, I had even more duplicates of things. Rather than just leaving them at the local Salvation Army store, I thought perhaps some of you would be interested in some of these pieces from my collection. They include a wide selection of laminates (backstage passes) spanning the last 20 years, t-shirts, hockey jerseys (you know me: Mister Hockey), and other bits and pieces. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Real Diaper Association (http://www.realdiaperassociation.org), a non-profit that promotes the use of reusable cloth diapers.

The link for the eBay auction is: http://bit.ly/YY3hxW and the auctions will only be up for 5 days. If you win an auction and want it signed, please let me know when you pay for it. Hope you find something you like, and thank you for helping with the basement. Next time I see you, I will give you a radish.

Did you guys see my brief appearance on How I Met Your Mother last week? I had a couple of lines in their “Everyone from Canada Talks About Robin Sparkles” episode. It was a fun shoot, but no, I didn’t get to meet the cast. I sat in a room in New York City in front of a green screen and talked to the producers, writers and directors via Skype while I did it. I was totally flattered that they asked me to be a part of the show, and the fact that it’s one of my kids’ favourites gave me a couple of extra Cool Dad Points, which is probably the best part.

If you missed it, here’s a link to the CBS site - I’m not sure if this works outside of the US, but if it doesn’t, I bet our old friends at Google can help you. http://bit.ly/11XSeEV

Speaking of video, please feel free to take video if you’re at any of my shows - sometimes I get home from doing a bunch of shows that I’ve been really happy with and want to show my family and then realize that people were being polite and hadn’t posted stuff. I think YouTube is a pretty cool resource for archiving shows, and you can be a part of that. Basically what I’m saying is that if they announce on a ticket or onstage that no photos or video is allowed, it’s not coming from me!

We’re also going to start posting some of my favourite live moments from YouTube on my site, www.stevenpage.com, so you can go there to watch them, already curated (or with the embarrassing flubs edited out).

One thing I am seeing more and more of, which I think is super cool is people uploading videos of themselves singing songs I’ve written. This is totally flattering and humbling. There are some really great performances out thereWe’re also going to start linking to many of these on the videos page of my site. If you want to try your hand at singing one of my numbers, go ahead, and tag them with my name and we’ll start linking to your video on my page.

Either way, you should check on the videos on the “media” section of my site - we recently uploaded a fun documentary on the Page One tour of 2010 that was made by our violinist, Karen Graves. It’s also on YouTube if you’d like to look there. http://bit.ly/X5RXAW

I’ll leave you with a list of shows I have upcoming - I’ve been doing shows in many configurations lately: solo acoustic; as a duo with Craig Northey from the Odds; as a duo with Kevin Fox on cello; or with my full band, featuring Bryden Baird on Keyboards and Trumpet, Jay Baird on Bass, Sax and Clarinet; Jesse Baird on Drums; Kevin Fox on Cello and guitar, and Karen Graves on violin (although Karen is currently on the road with Sarah Slean and Miranda Mulholland has been doing an awesome job filling in).

March 1^st

Pass the Music On: A Night of Music Benefitting Kids in Camp (Club Revival,Toronto, ON) – band show

March 18^th

WXOU 47^th Annual Birthday Bash (Rochester, MI) FREE EVENT ON OAKLAND UNIVERSITY CAMPUS – band show

March 23^rd

Mecca Music presents: Steven Page (Leduc, AB) – solo show

April 6^th

Verrado Founder’s Day Celebration (Saturday Night Block Party) Buckeye, AZ– band show

April 25^th

Duo show with Craig Northey (St. John’s, NL)

April 26^th

Duo show with Craig Northey (Clarenville, NL)

April 27^th

Duo show with Craig Northey (Marystown, NL)

July 13^th

Osprey’s 10^th Anniversary (Shelburne, NS)

But keep checking stevenpage.com for more shows to come, and for more details about these ones. They’re also up on my facebook page, facebook.com/stevenpage which I urge you to “Like,” because I don’t use any of those facebook-fan-buying schemes like some other musicians do. Unless you consider my bribe of a free radish. I’m also on Twitter, @stevenpage if you are a tweeting type.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’re feeling a little more caught up now. Now back to gardening and music!

Steven

Jack Layton: A Tribute

22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

This week, I lost a friend, a teacher, and a hero. On holiday yesterday in England, I
reluctantly checked my email, Facebook, Twitter, dreading the flood of bills and
business correspondence IÊ¼d ignored for the past week. Instead, I was greeted with the
news of the death of Jack Layton. Blindsided, I simply closed my laptop and hugged my
wife. We have all lost something great. One of the best, in fact.

Although I knew Jack as a dynamic, passionate and sometimes controversial city
councillor, I first got to know Jack Layton well when I began working with The White
Ribbon Campaign to counter violence against women in the 1990s. At the musical
events I was a part of, Jack would stir up the crowd and unite them in their desire to
improve themselves and the world around them. At the posher gala events, he was a
tireless fundraiser, as an auctioneer heÊ¼d coax the patrons with the deepest pockets to
empty them for the cause.

After watching Jack in action, I would whisper to him and to Olivia that he needed to run
for the NDP leadership. When he decided to throw his hat into the ring in 2002, he
invited me to come to their house for the media announcement. We rode around the
block on his and OliviaÊ¼s tandem bike for a photo op, fitting, as he had been an early
crusader for bike lanes in Toronto. He made sure I wore a helmet.
I continued with Jack to Ottawa for his formal announcement. Both solo and with
Barenaked Ladies, I played concerts for him and the NDP to bring young voters into the
political sphere. None of this was cynical - JackÊ¼s idealism was real and heartfelt. He
believed that we as Torontonians, and we as Canadians had an opportunity and a
responsibility to work together to make our world a better one for all of us.

Jack was not just ours - he cared deeply about the world, and the tributes pouring in
from all corners attest that the world cared back. He was deeply respected
Jack loved music, and wasnÊ¼t afraid to sing out loud and wasnÊ¼t afraid to dance in front
of a crowd. In fact, he wasnÊ¼t afraid of much. He loved to ride his bicycle with Olivia all
over this country he so loved, and he was a proud and close parent of Mike and Sarah.
My thoughts are with them now.

Jack taught me that idealism is not naïveté, that it is about finding a common set of
values with others, and a path toward realizing their fruition in society.

In the darkest of times, Jack could always find the possibilities of the future and lessons
we could learn from His respect for the true values and history of Canada - the link
between families of all stripes and labour, agriculture and industry, along with his tireless
crusade against poverty, showed us who Jack was, and acted as a mirror for all of us.

At last yearÊ¼s Riverdale Share concert, a neighbourhood holiday fundraiser (Jack was
also my MP in Riverdale-Danforth), I proudly watched as he engaged my fourteen year
old son in a nearly hour-long conversation. He loved people, and nurtured relationships
with them, introducing them to each other. He would then stand back and watch new
networks and alliances grow from the seed he planted.

In my sadness, I want to say Jack is irreplaceable. As a man, he is. As a leader, his
vision cannot simply die with him. He took Canada and the NDP to new heights and
made us all better for it. It is right to feel such sorrow right now, but we cannot despair;
we are a nation schooled by Jack, and we can battle the anger and bitterness and
exclusion that is growing around us with the kindness, love and inclusiveness that Jack
exuded from every pore. Although IÊ¼d like to say we will not know his like again, I know
that we all must ensure that we do, in fact, know his like again. And soon.

Our sadness is justified, but the tribute that Jack would really want, and truly deserves,
is the growth of what he started in Canada.

Fall Canadian Tour Cancellation

18 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Hey folks - sorry for the last-minute cancellation. It wasn't for health or family reasons, but because of a tour opportunity I got offered for February. Which we can't announce until Monday. Stay tuned and thanks for the good wishes.

Actual News About What's Going On With Me

25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Blog? Oh how I’ve neglected you. I’m sorry. I’ve missed you; a little, at least. But I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing, you know. I’ve been busy – making records, rehearsing with my new band, doing occasional solo gigs, renovating my house, and then re-renovating after it flooded. I’ll post descriptions of all of these things in the near future as I begin to gear up for the release of my new album. Yes, my new album – that’s what I’m here to tell you about today.

First things first, the first single is called “Indecision,” and it will be available for download from the iTunes Music Store THIS TUESDAY, the 27^th of July, in the US and Canada. It will also be available for download from the store at stevenpage.com for everyone around the world. Well, everyone with an internet connection.

“Indecision” was written by me and Stephen Duffy, with whom I wrote most of 2005’s Vanity Project album, as well as BNL songs like “Jane,” “Call and Answer,” and “Powder Blue.” Most of the instruments are played by me and my co-producer John Fields, with drums by Elvis Costello’s long-time drummer Pete Thomas, and backup vocals by Esthero. The track is a melding of Jobim-style Brazilian pop and classic Steven Page power-pop. I’m excited about finally getting this music out to you, and I hope you like it.

The single has already been played by MIX 104.1 in Boston, for whom I’m playing a short solo set at their Mixfest 2010 on August 2^nd, and if you like the song, it would help me a huge amount if you were to call, email or tweet at your favourite station and ask them to play it. The more they play it, the better chance I have of coming to your town and playing live. Speaking of playing live, my next blog post will be about the new band and our first show last week. I promise to post this soon, not months from now, as has been my habit of late.

But, perhaps more importantly, I can finally give you some album details. My first real solo album is being released in Canada by Anthem/Universal and in the US on Zoe/Rounder on October 19^th and it’s called Page One. I produced it with John Fields, and it features guest appearances from the aforementioned folks as well as Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Hornheads (they were Prince’s NPG horn section), and the late Will Owsley, as well as members of my touring band.

Musically, the album is all over the map, as so many of my favourite records are – from the grand orchestration of “A New Shore,” to the folky “Clifton Springs,” to the big band jazz of “Leave Her Alone,” and the straight-up rock of “Marry Me” and the electronic pop of “Entourage” and “Queen of America,” Page One is a genre-hopping tribute to the music I love, and the music I grew up with. I wrote a couple of the songs with my pal Craig Northey (Odds), a bunch more with Stephen Duffy, and the rest I wrote on my own. The recording process was insanely fun, creative, and shockingly stress-free. I’m super-proud of this album, and I can’t wait for you to hear it all. Hope you enjoy it even half as much as I did making it.

Track Listing:

A New Shore
Indecision
Clifton Springs
Entourage
Marry Me
All The Young Monogamists
She’s Trying To Save Me
Over Joy
If You Love Me
Leave Her Alone
Queen Of America
The Chorus Girl

Guardian of Beauty

22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of progress. A carousel of progress, like the free and quaintly outdated ride at Disney World. Except not free and only barely outdated.

First of all, A Singer Must Die was released last week. Most reviewers liked it; some did not. Some took the opportunity to take potshots, and others listened and got it. It’s not for everyone, I’ll admit, but that’s the way to make music. As Leonard Cohen said in the title track, “I thank you for doing your duty, you keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty.” They’re just doing their jobs, and frankly, I’d rather confuse people than be ordinary. I have to make it for myself, and have faith that some others will like it or feel it too. I don’t expect everyone to like everything I do. In fact, there are some projects I enjoy more than others. This one, with the Art of Time Ensemble, has been really rewarding, challenging and fun. Pick up a copy at your local purveyor of music, if you live in Canada (as we’ve not yet secured a record deal for this record internationally yet. Strange – is there really such a small market for avant-garde jazz/pop? Rhetorical question). Otherwise, head on over to my new WEBSITE.

Yes, that’s right, stevenpage.com is no longer just a placeholder on blogger. It’s a real, live, breathing website with REGULARLY UPDATED INFORMATION! Astonishing, no? If you’re reading this on the site, then welcome. If not, then get thine ass over there now. I want to thank Olly Moss for doing such a great design for me, as well as the fine folks at Chimpanzee for turning it into something clickable, and most of all to the Queen of all things stevenpage.com, Morgan, for coordinating the whole thing. You guys rule.

The Art of Time tour starts Wednesday, and tickets are still available. I highly recommend checking out these shows if you can. I will be at all of them. We’re only tooling around Ontario for this run, but when my own album comes out later this year, I’ll be travelling all over. But don’t let that stop you from coming out now! They will be completely different kinds of shows; the only thing in common they will have is pure awesomeness.

And speaking of which, I spent last week up at my farm rehearsing and recording with my new band (still searching for a band name: Steven Page and the Brokenhearted Many? Steven Page and the Openhearted Few?). We recorded some acoustic versions of stuff that will be on the new album (bonus tracks? Who knows), plus the final two album tracks, which means THE ALBUM IS DONE!

Show with Kevin Fox, this Friday at Casino Nova Scotia

25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Hey folks, great seats are still available for the show I'm doing with Kevin Fox this Friday. We'll be playing The Schooner Room at Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax, NS. Click here for tickets!

A Singer Must Diet

24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

I'm getting ready for the Art of Time tour, and I'm back on the diet bandwagon, seeing the nutritionist again. As John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats said, I'm going to get myself in fighting trim, etc. Speaking of whom, I saw them on Jimmy Fallon the other night (yes, I know it's Hulu, which sucks for Canadians, etc, but if you can't view it, look for Tuesday Jan 19th. It's worth it), and damn Darnielle is all skinny again. They looked and sounded awesome. What a great band. And they sounded even better as a four-piece. The song, Genesis 3:23 sounded more exciting and intense than on the album, with John's voice going up the octave for the choruses. Although the dancing, clapping audience around them was a little embarrassing (and reminiscent of one of the BNL summer tours, although that wasn't embarrasing, that was fun), the band rocked out around them, propelled by Jon Wurster's always-exciting drumming. Yes, I know the song covers familiar territory to one of my older songs, but that just makes me feel even closer to Darnielle, one of my absolute heroes. And as Northrop Frye said (or was it Knowlton Nash), everything in western lit is based on the book of Genesis anyway. Or something like that. It's been a long time since I pretended to pay attention in University.

I had sausages and waffles with maple syrup for breakfast today. Off to a great start!

Pre-Order Info

23 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

John Sakamoto gave us a great writeup in the Toronto Star today. So nice to see some positive reaction to a project I'm really proud of. I'm really looking forward to the tour next month. In the meantime, I've put pre-order info up on my webshop, where you can also hear samples of each song on A Singer Must Die. All pre-orders before February 5 will come autographed. Buy soon! Buy often!

Art of Time CD cover and Track Listing

17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Songs originally performed by:

1. LION’S TEETH / THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

2. I WANT YOU / ELVIS COSTELLO

3. FOOLISH LOVE / RUFUS WAINRIGHT

4. RUNNING OUT OF INK / BARENAKED LADIES

5. A SINGER MUST DIE / LEONARD COHEN

6. THE TAXI RIDE / JANE SIBERRY

7. TONIGHT WE FLY / THE DIVINE COMEDY

8. VIRTUTE THE CAT EXPLAINS HER DEPARTURE / THE WEAKERTHANS

9. FOR WE ARE THE KING OF THE BOUDOIR / THE MAGNETIC FIELDS

10. PARANOID ANDROID / RADIOHEAD

coming Feb 16th on Pheromone Recordings.

Bio I wrote for A Singer Must Die by Art of Time Ensemble with Steven Page

15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

“Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess?
Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is Yes.
Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine,
I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline.
And all the ladies go moist, and the judge has no choice,
A singer must die for the lie in his voice.”
Leonard Cohen, “A Singer Must Die”

When Andrew Burashko called me in the spring of 2008 and asked if I would perform with the Art of Time Ensemble at their upcoming Songbook concert in Toronto, I was flattered. And honoured. And scared, a little bit. Here was this group of some of Canada’s most accomplished and creative musicians from the Classical and Jazz communities, and they’re asking me to choose some songs to sing. Each song would then be arranged by some of the finest contemporary arrangers out there. I knew right away this was something special, and I knew I had to choose my songs wisely. Here was an opportunity to sing the songs that had kept me awake at night. The songs that had made me wonder how their composers could peek into the hidden corners of my soul and see my greatest fears, my greatest desires, my take on myself and on the world around me.

I instantly thought of Elvis Costello’s masterpiece, “I Want You.” I remember lying in bed the first time I heard it, late at night with the radio on. I was fifteen. How could this song of desperate jealousy have pinned me to my mattress in awe? Because that was the kind of teenager I was. Some things change little. The song still leaves me breathless with embarrassment, shame and envy, but the chance to sing it was too good to pass up. It became an opportunity for a song that had long been a part of me to come out. And when we stood onstage together in front of that first audience, it howled out of my throat like the blast of warm air that heaves out of us when there are no tears left to cry.

In other words, these songs gave me the chance to use my Big Voice. As a child, I used to terrorize my younger brother by singing at him as loudly as I could. Then I joined a choir, and I learned about blending with other voices. As a desperately shy child, singing gave me a chance to come out of my shell, but also a place to blend in. Then I joined a band: Some material was about blending, some about raw emotion, but the real goal was always about Entertainment. Here, with Art of Time, the focus was on Art, a word that had always embarrassed me. In Barenaked Ladies, we were always conscious of making music that had real emotional and aesthetic honesty, but for me it was sometimes easiest to hide behind a cloak of pop music and showbiz pizzazz. We saw ourselves as the Charlie Chaplins of popular music. Over time, we grew and evolved, as all good bands do, and eventually grew apart, as many good ones also do. Liberated from the self-imposed image of Canada’s Good Time Band, I was able to explore other styles of music, and other modes of expression. Andrew Burashko opened that door for me.

It’s been well publicized that I’ve had a pretty rough few years recently, and as a songwriter, I feel compelled to explore it. But as a singer, I understood also that many of my favourite writers had done much of that exploration for me, and that singing their songs became a sort of catharsis. From the alienation and isolation of Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” to the wistful, romantic hope of The Divine Comedy’s “Tonight We Fly,” from the rage and regret of The Mountain Goats’ “Lion’s Teeth,” or the feelings of loss and forgetting in The Weakerthans’ “Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure,” to the quiet desperation of Jane Siberry’s “The Taxi Ride,” I could explore a wide range of emotions and a wide range of musical styles. The arrangers, including Gavin Bryars, Robert Carli and Cameron Wilson brought us music that touches on Jazz, Pop, Avant Garde, Rock, and on the rethink of Barenaked Ladies’ own “Running Out of Ink,” a winking take on Mozart.

The Art of Time Ensemble featured on this recording, made up of piano, bass, guitar, saxophone, violin and cello (and no drums!), create the perfect setting for these songs and for my voice. I am indebted to Andrew and his group for this opportunity. I think he’s had fun with it, too. When we planned this concert, it was intended as a one-off, but we were both so energized by the whole experience that we decided to make a studio recording of the program, and then a concert tour. Is this a full-time venture for either of us? Nope. Art of Time have their own incredible concert series, featuring collaborations with all kinds of other great artists, including last year’s collaboration with Sarah Slean, “Black Flowers.” Me? I’m still a Pop fanatic at heart. My upcoming solo record, to be released later this year, is a collection of new original songs, firmly rooted in the pop and rock traditions. But will we work together again? You can count on it.