A walk through Renmin Park: A new interview with Michael Timmins

By Douglas Heselgrave

I’ve been enjoying listening to the Cowboy Junkies’ latest CD, Renmin Park for the last month or two, but as there have already been a few fine reviews of the album posted on No Depression, rather than duplicating the efforts of other writers, I decided to contact Michael Timmins and ask him some questions about what he’s been up to since the release of ‘At the End of Paths Taken” in 2007. What follows is an email exchange that Michael undertook during a sixteen hour bus ride to begin the latest leg of the Renmin Park tour.

DH: Tell me more about the Nomad series. What inspired it? What kind of criteria do you use to decide if a particular piece of music fits in?

MT: The decision to release four albums was a gradual decision. We weren’t sure how we wanted to proceed with our next album (we had too many directions that we wanted to head in) and we eventually decided to not compromise and to challenge ourselves. The criteria for what songs are included on what album is determined by the concept for each album. Volume 1 revolves around my China experience so all of the songs were inspired by or are related to it. Volume 2 is all Vic Chesnutt songs so that one is pretty straight forward…the remaining two volumes are still being figured out and fought over.

DH: What is some of the back story to Renmin Park? I read that you adopted some of your children from China. I recently spent three years in Southern China and would be interested in hearing how the experience/culture has influenced your music or writing.

MT: Two of our three children were adopted from China and we have always wanted to return with them, when the time was right, to try and give them a sense of where they came from. My wife was offered a three month teaching job at a school in Jingjiang (about two hours up the Yangtze from Shanghai) so we jumped at the chance. We used our apartment in Jingjiang as a home base and did a lot of travelling around the country. It’s hard to define exactly how the experience influenced my music and writing. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience and I knew that it would somehow, eventually, be expressed through our music….Renmin Park is of course the end result of it all.

DH: Please tell me a little about your decision to translate some contemporary Chinese songs for the new disc. Why these songs? Were they playing in the park?

MT: While in Jingjiang, I had the great good fortune of running into a true music fanatic (Eric Chen) who lived only a few blocks from us. Not only was Eric a music fan, but he also spoke excellent English. I expressed an interest in learning about the contemporary Chinese music scene and the next thing I knew he arrived at my door with a stereo and about twenty discs of Chinese music stretching back to the mid 80’s which is considered the beginning of the rock scene in China. I listened to it all and spent many hours at Eric’s apartment where he played me videos of famous Chinese rock concerts. I was really taken by the intensity of the music, especially the vocals. It reminded me of the late 70’s when I first started to explore the music coming out of the punk scenes in NY, London (UK and Ontario) and Toronto. When it came time to choose a couple of songs to cover it was difficult. But I chose Xu Wei’s’ My Fall’ because I love the melody and Zuoxiao Zuzhou ‘I Cannot Sit Sadly By Your Sid’e because I was completely engaged by all of his work and wanted to represent him somehow. The music that I heard in the parks was generally folk and traditional music: this music is represented by some of the “field recordings” that you hear in the background of some of the songs on Renmin Park.

DH: Do you consider yourself a political person? You recently did an anti war CD of mostly cover songs, so I’m guessing your work does have a political dimension at times. Given that, what’s your take on modern China? Your new CD gives a nice kind of cultural portrait (at least a peripheral one) that’s very human and seems to avoid politics. Was this intentional?

MT: I think I am a political person, but I always come at issues from a personal point of view otherwise politics becomes a game: it is only relevant in how it affects the individual. So I avoid grand political statements in my writing but I think I make many political points. The most overt political statement we ever made was putting the child’s painting of the peace symbol on the cover of Early 21st Century Blues and we also hung that image behind us as we toured that album through the USA. I’m not sure if I agree that Renmin Parks avoids politics. Most of the songs are from an individual’s point of view but many of them deal with very political issues that are simmering undercurrents of modern China. “A Few Bags Of Grain” deals with the complete disregard for human rights (especially female rights); “Sir Francis Bacon At The Net” looks at the Chinese historical predilection for mass violence (“a land that loves its villains”) and their mass amnesia (they still haven’t properly come to terms with what Mao wrought on the country..”tangled bones of their crimes bleaching / their golden frames hang gleaming”); Cicadas is from the point of view of one of the pro-democracy students killed in Tiananmen Square (No trees here to hide behind/those big red wheels they slowly grind…Once again the simple truth / is crushed beneath the leather boot”). There are others that I could reference (including Zuoxiao Zuzhou’s lyrics for A Walk In The Park. But I still think it is important to keep these `statements` personal, because it allows the listener to enter the song.

DH: I thought your last CD, ‘At the Ends of Paths Taken’ was the most fully realized set of work you’ve ever recorded. In my opinion, it represents a maturity or fruition of the CJ’s artistic vision . Can you talk a little about how the band has changed over the years and how your interests have changed and developed.

MT: Thanks for your assessment of ATEOPT…we are very proud of that album. I think the word maturity is key when describing where we are at the moment. We have a very strong sense of who and what we are as a band and I think that comes through in our music both on stage and in the studio. We have had our own recording space for quite a few years now, but it has only been in the past few years that we have been able to figure out how to use it to the best of our advantage. I think the biggest change over the years stems from that maturity; we approach all that we do with a sense of confidence and really feel that we have little to prove to anyone but ourselves. That gives us a more relaxed approach to our music, which, I think, is a good thing.

DH: Your plans for the future of the CJ’s sound so ambitious. Can you please discuss how this new vision/career trajectory came into being. Within this question, I’m very interested in how being free of a label and releasing your music yourself has contributed to your independence.

MT: We have never lacked a work ethic in this band, but sometimes being under contract limits what you can do because of the needs and demands of your contracted partners. We have made a point over the past few years, as certain contracts come to term, to not re-up with anyone or sign anything with anyone that would place long term limits on us. We realize that the music biz landscape is currently in a state of flux and we want the freedom to be able to respond to any changes and opportunities that arise. This freedom has allowed us to think as big or as small as we want.

DH: You’ve done more production in recent years. Is this a result of having your own studio to work in, or is it a logical progression as an artist?

MT: I really enjoy working with other artists. I find that every time I work with someone else in a producer/engineer role I learn something new that I can bring to the Junkies work. Having our own studio is key to this work. I like to be able to create a space in which the artist feels comfortable and unpressured.

DH: Please tell me a little about working with Mary Gauthier. The Foundling is a very personal album, yet you created a soundscape and environment for the songs that is just perfect and supports her songs so well. How did you approach working with the material?

MT: I was very aware of making sure that the story was front and center. But at the same time I felt that we needed a musical base from which the songs could be launched. I also wanted to capture the immediacy and intensity of Mary’s live performance. Mary had Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger album as a touchstone. So we recorded all of the bedtracks with her singing and playing live with bass and drums (Josh Finlayson and Ray Ferrugia) and that became the spine. We hardly touched these performances. We then built up the sound and again tried to keep the instrumentation and musicians consistent so that we wouldn’t lose that live feel.

DH: The last time I saw the CJs in concert was at the Vancouver Jazz festival. Perhaps it was because a new updated version of Trinity Sessions had been released, but I was surprised by how much old material the CJ’s played. Is it a challenge to get listeners who only know ‘Sweet Jane’ or “Misguided Angel’ to take in your new (better) music? Maybe you could talk a little about the challenges of playing live 20 years in here, and what it’s like to be a middle aged family person (as we all seem to have become) on the road. Do you still have fun playing live?

MT: Yes, that run of Jazz Festival dates was to promote Trinity Revisited so we had quite a bit of Trinity material in the set. Generally our live sets change from night to night, with about a third of the songs dedicated to our latest release, another third to more familiar catalogue and the last third to material that we are currently working on and obscure covers and catalogue items. Playing live is still the most fun that we have as a band and there are even elements of being on the road that are even more enjoyable now than they were when it was a new experience. We all have so many responsibilities when we are home (we are all married and we all have children and all the day-to-day headaches that everyone else has), so being on the road is a bit of a respite (which we all pay for when we return home).

This posting also appears at www.restlessandreal.blogspot.com
Sign up for free updates