The Tragically Hip

The interview with the Tragically Hip was done for one reason: to gain free access to the Page and Plant show at the Delta Center. As is more often the case than otherwise, the guest list at the Delta Center was missing a few names. The next time there is a show at the Delta Center backed by United Concerts, hang around the will-call window before taking your seat. You will see some very angry people. JC has a virtual monopoly and he decides whose name will be on the list, not the band or their record label. The interview was supposed to be combined with a review of the show, but due to United Concerts’ policies or, less likely, story telling from a band member, a live review was impossible. Paul Langlois spoke to SLUG over the phone lines. Here is a portion of the conversation. 

SLUG: Are you touring now? 

TH: No, we’re off the road right now. We’ve been off for a few weeks. We leave this coming Tuesday. To go for a month with Page and Plant again. That’s what I guess we’re swinging through there. 

SLUG: How did you manage to hook up with that tour? 

TH: Well, we’ve heard a few different versions. We’d like to think that Robert Plant was interested in our music and liked what we recorded so far and asked if we could join the tour. But I think that’s, you know… that would be ideal. So that’s how we like to think it happened. But probably through a combination of agents and managers and many other people. It just seemed to work out. We got the tour in May and we were happy to do it. Obviously we’re big Led Zeppelin fans and big fans of the fact that they seem willing and able to stretch themselves out where they could sort of just rehash everything. They’re certainly going in new and exciting directions. We were pleased about that and we toured with them for a month in May down in the states and they asked us back for October. So we’re quite flattered and pleased, and it was actually a really good tour. We saw 15 of their shows and they are really musically diverse and exciting shows and we managed to play pretty well ourselves. 

SLUG: You managed to play pretty well yourselves? 

TH: Yeah, it’s a half hour set so it’s a bit difficult. 

SLUG: That’s all you get—a half hour? 

TH: Yeah, well that’s going to be moved up. It looks like we’ll be playing about 40 minutes now. But for the first May tour it was a half hour. That was a little difficult, but it was an experience we hadn’t had before opening for a band. We’d done it once with Eric Johnson, three years ago on a Florida tour. Besides that we’d never done it. You know it’s as difficult as a gig as they say it is. You know people are getting to their seats and you have a really short set so it’s hard to sink your teeth into it, let alone [let] the audience hav[e] an opportunity. But we felt like we got better as the tour went along and we got better at getting our vibes across quicker. So, we’re actually quite excited about this tour because we were sort of pretty nervous for the last one and felt like it was really going well near the end of it and then it ended. So we were quite glad to be asked back.

SLUG: Okay this next question, I’m sure you’ve answered it who knows how many times, but how did you get your name, Tragically Hip? 

TH: You’re right, I have answered that many times. 

SLUG: I’m sorry to ask it, but I’m curious. 

TH: We actually took it or stole it from a Michael Nesmith video compilation called Elephant Parts. He being the guy with the Monkees who had since gone into film and this was one of his first works; In it there’s the foundation for the tragically hip and basically rich kids asking for money so they could maintain their cushy lifestyles. We sort of thought it was funny and so we picked the name because we had a gig coming up—our first one—and we had to pick a name and it just sort of stuck. We’ve always sort of thought it was a bit of a funny name. 

SLUG: Are Tragically Hip songs a collaborative effort? 

TH: Yeah, most definitely. 

SLUG: Does someone write the words and someone else write the music? 

TH: Yeah, generally at the same time. Gord, our singer, writes the lyrics and has done [so] for the past few records. Generally, we do it in a circle and he writes them at the same time the band’s playing. We’ve just found that our strongest songs and by far the most satisfying and productive process is to play [with] all five of us plugged in a circle and just sort of run through ideas. Everyone has ideas that they can put forth and everyone feels like they’re contributing and it really creates a nice balance. I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re such a strong unit, from the inside at least—everyone’s pretty happy with their input and everyone respects each other’s input and everyone respects each other’s creativity. So you know, it’s very easy for Gord to have musical ideas and anyone else in the band to have lyric ideas. We just sort of in general stick to what we’re doing and discuss what everyone else is doing. It really seems to work, so we’re lucky that way. 

SLUG: Day for Night was recorded over a year ago I guess. What have you been doing since then? Any new songs? 

TH: Well, yeah, yeah, quite a few. After this tour we’ll be done. That’s basically November 1 and then we’re going to spend November, December and January recording at our own house that we bought. We bought a house, a band house, out at Kingston, where we’re from. We’ve gradually been buying recording equipment over the last year or two. We feel like we’re pretty studio-ready, gear wise. We feel that it’s about time we tried it on our own with our own sound man who’s been involved in the last couple of records as an engineer. So we’re going to try it, the six of us, and we’re all going into it with a lot of confidence. [We’re] hoping that we can come out in February with something that we’re happy with, done at our own place and if, perchance, we’re not happy, then we’d go somewhere else quickly in February and fix and tweak for a couple of weeks. But we hope t[o] sort of ideally put something out anywhere between early spring and mid summer of next year and we’re all pretty excited to be doing it at our own place and basically spending the winter working on new songs. So we have been writing all the way along. 

SLUG: Okay, I have one more thing and I’ll let you go. Angelica Cobb, the publicist at Atlantic, told me you love live reviews of your shows. 

TH: Oh, yeah. 

SLUG: That’s what she told me. Can you get me in? 

TH: Oh, definitely yeah, yeah no problem. 

SLUG: So I can write a live review. 

TH: Yeah, no problem at all. Is this a Page and Plant show that we’re doing in Salt Lake City? 

SLUG: Yeah, Page and Plant. 

TH: Okay no problem, cause I have your name, so I’ll just put you down plus one. Right!

Read more from the SLUG archives here:
The Stiff Sheet … November 1995
Local Band: Nine Spine Stickleback